Chapter 5: Glimpses
Summary:
It seems that the most intransigent loas are beginning to come to their senses. Some may even be toying with Richard and Camille to make them forget their encounters on "the beach" ...
Thank you, Sweepeaspatch for your wonderful help with this chapter!
Chapter Text
On the day that DI Richard Poole lands on Saint Marie, Camille finds herself in her small flat in Honoré remembering how her foray into Lavender's party went, before meeting that man in La Kaz who remarked that "Hey! Still no word on who did poor Charlie in". She tries to remember everything over and over again to see if she has missed any important detail.
Above all an important detail...
It was a typical Caribbean night and there was a cool breeze that eased the heat of the day.
Camille hopped over the fence of Lavender's estate. She was wearing a long, flowered dress with only a few strips of fabric around her neck. She had to pass unnoticed among the party guests. Her gaze was like that of an eagle, she was attentive to a thousand details at once. She took an apparently distracted drink from the tray of a waitress who was passing by her at that very moment.
At last she managed to enter the house surreptitiously, without attracting attention, but she had to leave quickly. Something was wrong. A shot rang out and an alarm sounded. She had no choice but to flee.
Was the perpetrator her suspect from Guadeloupe?
In any case she couldn't dawdle. She knew the police would come and ask everyone at the party to identify themselves.
"Tomorrow I'll know what happened and I can investigate Lavender's little pleasure yacht." She thought at the time. Her superior now in Saint Marie, the Commissioner Patterson, had informed her that Lavender had been making a lot of unexplained trips off the island lately.
But she recalled that she couldn't avoid being surrounded by guests. Her escape had to wait only a few more minutes. The police arrived, Sergeant Thompson was in charge and Fidel took the photos. Dwayne was in charge of combing the area. She knew them from her mother and from the report passed on by her superior.
When the guests were gathered to take the photo, and as Fidel is not particularly attentive to her presence, she turns away at the last minute so that she cannot be identified.
But it isnt enough. Camille knows she needs to get away from there as soon as possible.
She manages to sneak out to one of the entrances of Lavenders state, but her dress gets tangled in the plants and one of the guests hears her expression of disgust.
It is a man who, thinking that someone, whoever it is, is trying to escape because perhaps its connected to what happened in the house, will try to stop her.
But, just as Camille is about to see her accusers face, feeling trapped and frustrated, someone, another man, grabs the unwelcome witness by the arm. When the accuser turns around to rudely rebuke him, he finds no one there.
But Camille did see her rescuer, or rather his eyes, bright green eyes that, for a second, stared at her.
And, for a moment, she felt that he was talking to her.
"Don't worry, I'm here to cover your retreat, you're not alone, you still don't remember me?"
She can't stall any longer and runs away.
When the accuser turns around to look for the one who is running away, he sees no one there. He is slightly frustrated and... unnerved.
Returning to the present, Camille tries to hold on to that special moment.
She quickly picks up pencil and paper so as not to forget that memory, that second man. By now, she knows that if she doesn't, she will forget him as she is sure she has forgotten other precious moments about him.
That done, she prepares to meet with Commissioner Selwyn Patterson. She has an urgent meeting with him before he goes to pick up that new Met DI so, she is sure, stuffy at Saint Marie airport.
Maman is right. It's really unfair that they never think of her for the job - as if a snooty Englishman who's never been to the island knows the heart of Saint Marie!
She sighs and leaves to meet the Commissioner as soon as possible. And then she must search the shack of the late DI Charlie Hulme. She already knows that this will be the cottage for the, she hopes, temporary DI Richard Poole. How is it possible that no one has thought of sealing the shack for evidence?
Richard has landed in hell. He's sure of it, and they've lost his luggage! How is that possible? It's a tiny airport, how is it possible for a simple suitcase to disappear?
He takes a slow breath, holds it, and closes his eyes. He is English. He decides to go to the claims desk and fill out a form. Surely they will locate his suitcase without delay.
As he leaves the airport he meets Sergeant Lily Thompson and, above all, the imposing Commissioner Selwyn Patterson.
They take him to the decrepit Saint Marie police station, where the computers are from the last century and nothing works, apparently, as it should. Richard Poole sighs again.
He is introduced to police officer Dwayne Myers and his partner Fidel Best. Both seem competent. Perhaps Best seems the more official of the two. That's all the same to him now. Richard Poole doesn't expect to be on the island for long, so he doesn't have to bother fraternising particularly with either of them.
There he gets the reports of his predecessor's murder and Lily Thompson later arranges for him to be taken to his temporary home, so Richard hopes its temporary!.
When he sees the shack, his world collapses. When Lily, moreover, informs him that this was the "home" of the late DI Hulme, he doesn't want to believe it. Hasn't it occurred to anyone to seal the shack for evidence?
When Richard is left alone in the shack and sits down on the sagging bed and reviews the case documentation, he is petrified.
At that moment he is staring at the photo of the woman no one has managed to identify. It's not that he knows her, it's simply that his mind is filled with strange memories.
Of walks on an unfamiliar beach, yet familiar to him, with a woman in such a similar dress. With deep, dark eyes. But full of warmth and love.
The strange thing is that this time he doesn't forget and a smile comes to his face.
"I'm still here, Richard, please don't forget me."
Richard stands up startled, who has spoken?
He searches the shack but sees no one.
"Must be the heat," he thinks. And shrugs his shoulders. "Anyway, I like that dream."
A short time later Sergeant Thompson comes back for him to resume the investigation.
Camille picks up her motorbike and heads at a higher speed than usual to the shack which she must search without delay. The Commissioner has kept her too long and has informed her that, although DI Poole has already been there, the Sergeant has come back for him at once to resume the investigation.
But she knows she doesn't have much time. It's the new Inspectors first day and everyone knows that day is meant to be spent settling on the island, showering and preparing for the next day.
As she is going through Hulme's mess, although Camille recognises that some of the new mans objects amuse her, she hears engine noises from an off-roader pulling up next to the hut.
"Merde!"
Camille ducks hastily, but knows that in such a hovel there is nowhere to hide.
As Camille ducks, Richard is saying goodbye to the Sergeant and getting ready to go into his house. He hears strange noises and, knowing what happened to his predecessor, grabs a mop to defend himself against a possible intruder.
It's not very dignified, but he has nothing else to hand. What a day!
When he finds a woman who looks at him mainly with curiosity, he relaxes a little. But not too much. Those eyes...
Camille is also amazed. He has the same green eyes that she loves so much. But she has already thought of her alibi.
"The cleaning lady. Hummm," comments Richard. And, as he passes her the mop, he says, "Well, I wont get in your way. You got your work cut out."
Although Richard can't help thinking that this woman isn't exactly a cleaner, seeing the deplorable state of the shack.
When she, trying to pry information out of the new DI, sits crying "inconsolably" on the bed, now Richards bed, Richard is uncomfortable.
He finds it hard to believe that she knew nothing about the murder. Especially on such a small island.
She "calms down". She still tries to pry some more information out of him, but Richard is as suspicious as she is. Then she offers to clean up and ... maybe something more?
During those few seconds when they look especially at each other, they seem to know each other. As the old saying goes, an angel has passed.
All Richard needs to do is not choke. He refuses her "services" and accompanies Camille to her motorbike. Once she has left, he goes back into the shack and, as he reaches his briefcase to go through some more files, a piece of paper falls to the floor.
He bends down to pick it up and sees that it is the brochure of the last Caribbean exhibition he saw before leaving for Saint Marie. He still doesn't understand why he went to see it. He had never been to that kind of exhibition before.
Until he sees the picture of the ebony woman's statue, it is exactly the same as the cleaning lady!
He looks up and remembers "his" beach again. But this time the woman fits that beach and his dreams.
"I have to find out more about this woman. Why didn't I get her name? I hate this heat! It's melting my brain."
He's sure she has something to do with everything around him. He doesn't know if it's with the case or with his strange dreams. Dreams that he barely remembers. But that made him feel so good, so happy.
But a second later he feels more disappointed and lonely than ever.
A few metres from the shack, Camille brings her motorbike to a screeching halt. He looks so much like that shadow, that man who helped her at Lavender's party! As silly as it sounds, he looks like the man of her dreams. Technically he is, because he vaguely reminds her of some strange dreams she's desperately trying to remember.
Despite the confusion, she smiles. At least it's a nice memory. It's true that DI Richard Poole seems as stuffy as expected but she also thinks she detects a warmth in his eyes that is familiar and comforting.
She shakes her head vigorously.
"I have to look into this man especially. This is all so strange!"
And, starting the motorbike quickly, she leaves there without delay. She has work to do. She still has to search Lavender's boat.
"I think we now understand your commitment to the union."
The scenery has changed. If Richard and Camille were there now, they would recognise the beach so dear to them. But they are not there now. They can no longer return to it.
Its now a bright, sunny day. The sea is calm.
And now it is inhabited by powerful beings, invisible to humans. Though their presence is frankly noticeable.
"We need them. He needs her. She needs him. The island needs them both."
Anyone would say the other presences nod. Though you can only guess at that by their response.
"He is a protector."
Erzulie replies:
"Exactly. As is she. He and she have been destined to be together in Saint Marie since before they met. They, separately, seek justice. But the potential they both have will only come to light and shine brightly when they are together. And also when they stay on the island".
Some derision is detected in the reply of another loa, the more warlike one.
"As if you have done nothing to make sure it does."
Erzulie knows only love, from the greatest to the smallest. But she knows it is the most powerful force. Because it is eternal.
"Its possible. But I think you get my point now. He is special, like her."
"All right. This is how it will be done. Will they come to recognise each other? Will they remember again all they have lived together here, where we are?"
"If we set our minds to it, yes."