Chapter 19: Home

"What the hell did he do?!" Blanc shouted as he rushed over.

"He just burned it!" Helen screeched.

Julia ran over with the others, drooping her head when she saw the look on Blanc's face. "Burned what?" Miles asked as he walked away. "I didn't see anything."

"You burned it!" Helen accused.

"Is someone making toast?" Miles asked jokingly.

Julia glared at the man. "This will not stand!" Blanc marched over towards the man.

"Uh huh. Well, did you see this proof, this smoking napkin, Blanc?" As Blanc stated silent, Miles continued. "No. Did anybody?"

Julia looked around at people, who all had cowardly and defeated looks in their faces. "Seriously?" she asked in a high pitched voice.

"Okay, then wow!" Miles emphasized loudly. "Wow! We got some big accusations flying around here. Except, everybody seems to have a very foggy recollection of what they actually saw, and there's nothing but totally circumspective evidence."

"That's not a word!" Julia yelled.

"So!" Miles shouted. "If this was just us playing my murder mystery game, which we should have been doing all weekend, then Blanc wins an iPad Pro this time. But this is the real world. And in the real world, you need more than a near, little detective story. You need evidence. And you've got...nothin'. Do you?"

Helen and Julia walked up to Blanc, desperate for a solution. But Blanc looked at them, a sad and disappointed look on his face. "He's right," he said. "The contents of that envelope and his possession of it were our only physical evidence."

"Right," Miles said, flicking his lighter again. "You wanna take that to the cops? You wanna take it to the courts? Look, you pick your poison. Anywhere you go, it's going to be your word against mine."

As Miles continued on, Julia walked after Blanc. "Detective, there's gotta be something we can-"

"Julia, go to our room, grab our things and get out," he whispered, the look on his face almost menacing. "I've got a plan. If you see Derol, tell him to vacate the premises post haste."

Julia blinked, keeping her voice down. "What are-"

"Don't argue, just go."

Julia hurried out immediately. She didn't know what Blanc was up to but from the sound of things, something big was going to happen. She got to the Indigo Room and quickly packed up both hers Blanc's belongings. Luckily, they both traveled light.

"Whatcha doing?" Derol asked as Julia was rushing out across the lawn from the patio door.

"Oh good, you're here. Um, not sure what's about to happen but we need to get out of here. Now," she rushed by quickly as she spoke. "Come along!"

"Okay," the man shrugged and followed. "I've got chairs down there anyway. Miles told me to act like I'm not here but honestly, fuck that guy."

"No shit!" Julia laughed a little drunkenly. Right after that, Blanc met up with the two of them with a smirk. "Do you have lawn chairs, by chance?" He asked Derol.

"Yeah, why?" Derol asked, his eyes going from side to side as he grinned.

The three found lawn chairs and since Derol had a cooler full of alcohol and joints, Julia was happy to just sit and relax. "What's going on?" Julia asked as they settled in.

The man pulled out his cigar just as an explosion erupted from the house, the Glass Onion bursting into flames, almost like fireworks. Julia gaped at the display as the other rooms shot out flames. Blanc literally his cigar as the smokeless garden alarms went off. He handed Derol a lighter and chuckled. "Disruption," he said plainly.

Derol lit his joint with a high grin. "Fuckin' A!" he laughed, causing Julia to bark with laughter.

The three watched the building burn and Julia bit her lip as she stared at Benoit lovingly. "It was the Klear crystal Miles gave you, wasn't it? You must've given a good speech about how you couldn't do a damn thing, along with your condolences, then slipped it into her hand when no one was looking. Am I right?"

Benoit cackled loudly before leaning over and kissing her softly. "You know me so well, chickapen," he purred gently.

"Well, we should wait for the police to arrive on the beach, right?" Julia asked.

"I'm up for it!" Derol said before getting up and grabbing stuff.

The three moved down to the beach and sat in proper lawn chairs this time, drinking and smoking a bit. Blanc filled Julia in on how Duke's death occurred and what he'd told Helen before giving her the hydrogen fuel cell.

"I see," Julia sighed before groaning. "Man, I can't wait to put this adventure into one of my stories. Well, not all of it, but some of it."

Blanc chuckled a little. "Wouldn't that be somethin'?" he asked softly. "Julia, may I ask you something before I lose my nerve?"

"Sure," Julia replied, looking at him with a grin.

"Would it be presumptuous of me to assume that...well...that is to say...". Just then, Helen came walking up to them all as police boats appeared on the horizon. "Did you get the son of a bitch?" Blanc asked Helen.

"Yeah," Helen replied calmly.

"You ready to go home?"

Julia took another sip of her drink. "Fuck yes," she giggled.

Blanc chuckled as he reached for her hand, grasping hers in his before kissing her knuckles. The boats landed, interrupting the moment. Blanc, Helen and Julia informed the police if the situation and after hours of interrogations from everybody, Miles was arrested. Eventually they were all transferred to the main land where, once again, they all had to make statements. Afterwards, Helen said goodbye to Julia and Blanc, thanking them for helping her catch Miles.

Her and Blanc eventually got a flight home together to Boston. The first thing they did was rush from the airport to her house. Julia didn't even bother to park in the garage. Benoit already had her pinned against the front door, kissing her madly as she fumbled with the keys in her hand.

"Benoit!" she laughed. "Let me get the door open first, then we can go upstairs!"

"We won't even make it up the stairs, chickapen," Benoit growled lowly.

In fact, Benoit was already removing some of his clothes as Julia finally got the key in and unlocked the door.