Chapter 12: An English rose, a missing corpse and a Camille with her nails more than sharpened...
Summary:
Another case, other complications and emotions running high, not always good. Thanks a lot, Sweepeaspatch!
Chapter Text
Richard, in what little spare time he has left as Camille demands his attentions with some frequency, has found a puzzle belonging to poor DI Hulme.
He has taken it to the Station because he knows its the only place where he can focus on it without problems. Lately his shack doesnt enjoy the solitude that he misses, though not too much, and that he needs for such a task.
While he is rearranging the pieces, Camille keeps playing with the magnifying glass, bringing it close to his face.
Richard, who is starting to get fed up with keeping his love story with Camille hidden and is thinking about how to make it "official", gets nervous because its not yet so and Dwayne and Fidel are hanging around the Station.
And the truth is that Camille is feeling very playful. And she loves discovering new sides to her boyfriend. And she won't leave him alone.
And Richard gets more and more nervous.
Then, of course, while Fidel and Dwayne are talking about the night watch, a woman with a head injury walks in. She is obviously a tourist in trouble. She even seems to be in shock.
"Can someone help me?"
Camille, seeing the state of the strange woman, sets out to help her without delay.
And the blonde woman answers:
"It's my husband. He's dead. I shot him."
Camille and Richard look at each other with complicity and seriousness. And they forget the whole previous situation and set out to discover what has happened.
Dwayne, Camille and Richard head, together with the woman and the Jeep, to the place where the scene of the crime and... they find nothing.
Camille knows, because she feels it, that the woman is not faking. This is clear. But she doesn't like the way Richard has to help her to get out of the vehicle, to get to the beach.
Isn't the woman old enough to know how to walk like an adult?
The poor woman can't even help hyperventilating when she finds herself near where her husband's body is supposed to be. Richard, of course, calms her down, takes her by the hand and asks Dwayne to fetch a bottle of water.
Camille is getting more and more heated by the minute, although she lets it go for the moment. Richard is like that, he's a gentleman and Camille has to accept that. But... she'll talk to him later.
Of course, when Camille sees how this woman in tears holds his hands...
Something breaks inside her, something that perhaps she hadn't taken into account, something that neither the Loas nor she had counted on.
The woman doesn't take her eyes off Richard, she seems to have discovered something that she already knows he has. Camille doesn't like that! But what's more, he doesn't seem to mind all this attention from this woman.
As there is no dead body anywhere, except perhaps the one in Camilles imagination at the moment, no blood or anything like it, they send Mrs Talbot to the Jeep so that she and Richard can deliberate the whole thing.
Camille is very serious and, looking away as Dwayne heads for the Jeep, asks Richard:
"You've been very considerate of Mrs Talbot, Richard. Is there something I should know, perhaps soft hands you miss holding back home?"
Richard can barely believe her words before he answers in a very low voice.
"Of course not, Camille, that woman is injured and is involved in a possible manslaughter for the moment! It was she who held my hands!"
He has been able to interpret the looks she has been giving him perfectly. That is always a good thing.
"Besides..." she tries to continue, but Richard won't let her. This is insane, he didn't cause Mrs Talbots attentions or want it and they must get on with the case, if there is a case to get on with.
For once it was really a pity they didn't find the body!
"Camille. You have to trust me. There is absolutely nothing for you to worry about. Nothing."
As they make their way up the small dune leading to the vehicle, Camille can't help but say:
"Since when is a delicate, soft, blonde English rose not the ideal type of a good Englishman?"
She can't help but feel really bad.
All Richard can do is look at her trying to convince her of his faithfullness at least with that gesture.
At the Police Station (more attentions from Richard as he puts his hand on Mrs Talbot's back!) the witness signs her statement, Camille is the one who has to remind her to leave her passport (more embarrassment for Richard!) and, always with Mrs Talbot's predatory gaze solely and exclusively on the object of her interest which is DI Poole, they all head for the house where the Talbot couple were staying.
There they are met by the Knight couple and, after a series of questions, Camille and Richard leave while Mrs Talbot stays.
"Camille, didn't it seem to you that Mrs. Talbot didn't want to stay with them?"
"It's possible. But I'm sure that damsel in distress could have told us if she hadn't wanted it that way."
They are already seated in the Jeep and Richard decides not to answer. He knows he will have to wait for Camille to understand that she is still everything to him.
"Come in, car one."
It's the radio that's blared.
"Come in, Dwayne" now it's Richard who is answering as Camille is driving.
"We've found the body."
Richard and Camille look at each other and rush over to where Fidel and Dwayne are.
Which leads Richard to arrest Megan Talbot for the murder of Lucas Talbot.
But that doesn't mean that the Saint Marie team will now stop the investigations. This is when Richard is in his element.
In this case, as in the puzzle he is working on, there are too many pieces missing and he wont stop until he manages to fit them all together.
When at last Richard, excited by the machinery of a new murder case, manages to sleep, for once he doesnt find in those dreams so dear to him all the escape he seeks in Camille's arms.
Even if she is with him at the time.
The two of them are sitting on the steps of the veranda of Richard's shack. Its getting dark, but the sea is very dark and agotated, like Camille, who barely speaks to him.
Until:
"Richard, I didn't realise until now that my island is not your island. That you are not from here. I feel like the Loas have kidnapped you."
Richard looks at her in astonishment.
"Why are you telling me all this, Camille?"
She continues to stare at him with a cool calm.
"Because it's clear that Megan Talbot, if not another woman like her, is a better match for your culture, for your tastes, for... what you look for in women in general. Besides, you may have been robbed of the chance to live another life in the UK."
"Leave it, please!. That's not true. I want you, with all my soul, with all my being..."
He freezes, that sounds a lot like one of the UK's formulas for celebrating a marriage.
Camille takes it for what it isn't...
"I understand. Ill go, Richard." And she stands up ready to set him free to do what he really wants to do.
He stands up too and, taking her by the shoulders and looking into her eyes, tells her what he has been wanting to say to her for hours:
"During the enquiry you asked me since when is a delicate, soft, blonde English rose not the ideal type of a good Englishman. Well, I'll answer you, I'm not a good Englishman! I was a sad and bitter Englishman. And I don't want that kind of woman since I have my ebony goddess and a real woman like you by my side. Everything I ever wanted or needed is you! The angel who sought me out when I needed her most without me knowing it, without even calling her."
Camille is silent, unable to speak. She is too emotional. She can't even look him in the eye.
Richard keeps talking:
"I used to have a comfortable routine, yes, but it probably would have driven me to suicide. Now I'm happy and... Miracle!, I'm not alone anymore. Plus..."
He pauses for a second, he desperately needs to relieve the emotion they both feel now.
"I don't trust a woman who is already flirting with a man when her husband's body has not yet been found! I love you, Camille. Always."
"What I feel is how I've made a fool of myself when a woman like that has showered me with so much attention. I simply don't know how to behave in such cases. I'm not used to it. It won't happen again. I don't want to lose you over a stupid misunderstanding."
At that moment, Richard makes a decision, he decides to make his situation with Camille public in the very near future. He will talk to the Commissioner then he will try to approach Catherine, he is afraid of her but it must be done. And, as compensation for Camille, he wants to declare himself in the presence of Mrs. Talbot.
It would be a tremendous surprise!
Of course ... maybe he should tell Camille about it first.
Given his sentimental experience with women, it's better to consult Camille first. That's the kind of romantic gesture that can go very right or go very wrong.
And with him, DI Richard Poole, you can bet it could go very wrong.
Either way, he wants to go public. Live as a normal couple... with extraordinary encounters in another dimension.
They both end their dream embraced in their special hut watching the waves of the sea. Now the weather has changed. Its more serene, the night is dark but special. Both have overcome one of their first hurdles.
"Richard..."
"Yes, my love?" he mumbles.
"I feel sorry for that wrecked boat out there under the trees. Starting tomorrow I will talk to Fidel and Dwayne to see if we can bring it back to life."
Richard looks at the boat and decides that it is also a good joint project. Another one, and not the last.
They fall asleep, but both wake up in their own beds, much safer and calmer, and have a strange case to solve!
Notes: Some action changes from the episode because the Loas have already altered the lives of Richard and Camille and its possible that, as a side effect, the lives of the rest of the Saint Marie characters will also change.
Notes:
Some action changes from the episode because the Loas have already altered the lives of Richard and Camille and its possible that, as a side effect, the lives of the rest of the Saint Marie characters will also change