Chapter 2: I'll see you wherever I go

Summary:

Dreams are already becoming a real and desired obsession... while everyday events go on.

Chapter Text

Richard has been lucky. Three days have passed and, it seems, "she" doesn't seem to keep insisting on the kind of help he feels unable to get for her. Its also true that he perceives her to be reserved.

It's years of practice in the police force, of course. He detects almost instantly when someone is lying to him or hiding something. And that bothers him. It takes him longer than it should to put the pieces of the puzzle together. But in most cases he knows it's only a matter of time. In the end he almost always figures them out.

Of course this time it's different, she's a figment of his imagination! The correct thing would be to call it his obsession, his blessed obsession. Paradoxically she seems to have problems in that respect too.

Hes assuming that hes suffering from some kind of strange, obsessive mental problem. It has to be that. Of course he likes her, more and more. At least he doesn't feel so lonely...

Richard stops in his tracks. Is that it? Does he feel so desperately lonely that he's simply "made her up"? That Caribbean goddess? Of course, the rest accompanies that wonderful dream. That beach just for them. He knows that private beaches exist, but he knows that it is impossible for him to ever own such a beach, let alone in the Caribbean.

At least it looks Caribbean to him.

Richard has decided to take a couple of days off. Detective Chief Inspector Halliwell owed them to him. And he never took them. He had nowhere to go, no one to go with him. Everything is less noticeable at work.

But by chance he has come into possession of information regarding an exhibition of Caribbean art "Life Between Isles". It is organised by Tate Britain.

"Another international exhibition" he thinks. And he can't help but feel a sense of anticipation. Of course an international art exhibition has never had that effect on him.

It's as if he expects to find something or... someone in this art gallery that he has been looking for at least a few weeks.

So he finds himself in the company of other curious people whose attention is drawn to all this art in its various forms: sculpture, painting, film, photography and fashion.

Several people try to engage him in conversation, but he is more than engrossed in the works of art, in the photos of the beaches...

One beach in particular makes him very nervous... Although he manages to calm down. Surely the beaches in the Caribbean are all the same! Until he hears a voice:

"I told you you couldn't hide from me, Richard. Still can't see me?"

It's her voice! When he turns around, almost terrified, to face her, there is no one there.

But there she is. She is a life-size ebony statue. It is as if she is looking at him. She is laughing. As if she's saying to him: "I told you so!"

She's so beautiful...

Camille is tossing and turning in the uncomfortable bed of the sleazy hotel where she is staying during her mission as an undercover agent. Maman's words are still stuck in her head:

"Camille. What is happening to you is very strange. I have to consult one of my friends. I know deep down you don't believe in what should be part of your spiritual heritage, my dear. I'm telling you this because you're not going to get rid of these dreams until you find out what they're trying to tell you...".

What Camille didn't dare tell her mother was that she already knew what she wanted. And that she was sure that they had very little in the way of dreams. She was afraid she was communicating with someone. Or so she hoped.

What if they are just dreams produced by some kind of madness?

This man is so strange, so different from all the men she's ever known. And yet she can't help thinking about him all the time. Those green eyes... they have her mesmerised.

And he seemed to fit so well on that beach. As the days go by, he seems to be more and more comfortable on that beach, more and more comfortable with her. They talk more and more about their life, their hopes, their problems...

Maybe that's why she asks for his help in her dreams. She wants to reach him.

"Richard, how did you like my visit, weren't you glad to see me?"

She is with him again. They are sitting on the same beach again, but closer to each other.

What would happen if they touched, if they kissed?

He looks at her a little sulkily. Although she laughs, she suspects that he is only pretending to be angry. She remembers all too well his fascination with her as he admired her, gazing up and down, up and down, up and down...

"I think I'm beginning to think I won't be able to get rid of you," he says.

But he doesn't sound resigned. Not at all.

She sighs and looks back at the sea in front of them. It has turned dark again.

"Of course you won't. And neither am I of you."

And when she smiles at him trying to continue the conversation with him, someone snatches her off the beach, off their beach...

They bang on the bedroom door with force. She has just been rudely awakened. It takes Camille a minute or two to remember where she is and what the purpose of her mission in Guadeloupe is.

Quickly she gets up, puts on a dressing gown and opens the door. A young brunette like herself, wearing a waitress's uniform, enters the room with a piece of paper in her hands.

"Camille, our man is packing his bags! He's contacted someone from Saint Marie and it seems they've come to some kind of agreement. You're going to have to leave Guadeloupe as soon as possible. Here you are: " And she hands her a ticket on the ferry in Camille's name, well, the name she's using as an undercover agent.

She looks at it and, forgetting all about the dream less than a minute ago, decides to set off.

She has a mission to accomplish.

That same day, a few hours later, around seven in the morning, shes on the ferry on her way to Saint Marie. She has already warned Maman. She must not recognise her under any circumstances. Shes not her daughter.

She sighs. She finds herself watching the waves of the sea as she sails away from Guadeloupe.

"Let's see if when we meet again they don't separate us so rudely."

That voice...

When she turns around, there is no one there. But she could not forget that voice.

Camille, at that moment, discovers that she is in a hurry to get to Saint Marie. And not only to see Maman ...

It's Monday night and Richard is already in bed thinking about what happened at the Tate Britain exhibition. And there's his trademark lopsided grin on his face. This woman really is a cheeky little minx. And she likes to play.

Before he goes to sleep he is eager to find out what clue she will leave him next, where he will hear her voice, where he will meet her and... in which psychiatric hospital he will be locked up.

"Richard, what did you think of my visit, weren't you glad to see me?"

He looks at her, of course he looks at her. But he doesn't want her to know that she already has him in her clutches - he's British and he has his dignity! He decides to be cold to her. But when he looks at her, he instantly realises that she doesn't buy the Richard Poole pose.

"I think I'm beginning to think I won't be able to get rid of you," he says.

And he can't help thinking:

What might happen if they were to touch? If they were to kiss?

She can hear his thoughts. He always forgets that. But this time she decides to show him that she cares about him as much as he cares about her. Instead Camille answers him:

"Of course not. And neither do I care about you."

But suddenly something goes wrong in the dream.

He swears she's going to keep talking to him, but he feels someone snatching her away from him.

He is sitting on his bed again and this time he is sure that she didnt want to leave him.

With a sigh he drinks some water from the glass on the bedside table, puts it down, lies down on his side and goes back to sleep.

Tomorrow he has to be at his nightmare office in Croydon...

As he walks through the door of Croydon Police Station, from the grey, dreary, dull, claustrophobic Croydon Police Station (funny how he was so unaware of that before) DI Richard Poole can't help but notice that they look at him with more attention than before.

Before, they always kept their heads down. Now they don't even bother.

If he'd been paying attention to the gossip going around the Station, though thank goodness he isn't, he would have noticed that people are beginning to think that Dick has definitely gone mad. That he's behaving strangely, that he seems to be somewhere else.

Fortunately that only happens when he is not involved in a case, otherwise he would have been sent to a psychiatrist a long time ago.

In any case he doesn't realise why they look at him more than ever.

Around mid-morning DI Poole receives a call from DCI Halliwell.

With alacrity Richard rushes to see his superior. He knows that the DCI doesn't have great confidence in him either, so he figures he'll be called in to do some thankless task that no one else has been willing to do.

Or for some case where the DI and their team are stuck and can't find any leads.

When he arrives at Halliwell's office, he informs him of the following:

"Poole, one of our DIs has been murdered in Saint Marie, DI Charles Hulme."

Richard looks at him quizzically.

"That's fine. As usual you send me all the information you've gathered and I'll study it. I'll have a report ready for you as soon as possible."

Halliwell looks at him with a slightly amused look and corrects him :

"No. Hulme was involved in a rather important case which he had not yet been able to brief us properly. In that case, you'd better pack your bags. One will be enough. If you solves it quickly, we'll soon have you back. You have to fly to Saint Marie in the British Caribbean. Commissioner Patterson will inform you of everything you need to know. "

DI Richard Poole is stunned.

Always the Caribbean!

Could this be another clue to the woman, the Venus, the dream?

Notes:

As always, thanks to Sweepeaspatch for his necessary and more than welcome corrections. The story would not be the same, that's for sure. Thank you! I've wanted to dare with a different and magical story and without your help it would have been impossible.

Richard and Camille's lives are moving towards their destiny... Although they may have to fight for it a little. Maybe because they are both quite stubborn.

The exhibition was real. Tate Britain has indeed organised the Caribbean exhibition "Life Between Isles" from 1 December 2021 to 3 April 2022. What I can assure you is that no sculpture reminiscent of Camille Bordey will be present... Well, sometimes fact beats fiction. You never know. In the film "One touch of Venus", Venus (Ava Gardner) is a statue that comes to life in an art exhibition complicating the life of the character played by Robert Walker.