Chapter 6: A great intuition

Summary:

Everyday, domestic and professional worries can become as insidious as those of dreams and vice versa. Richard and Camille have to learn how to deal with both dimensions.

Chapter Text

It's dawn, though that doesn't matter much. They know that time does not exist when they are in "their" shack.

Richard is silent. They both lie in bed, all around them is no trace of building work or moving. They are in their own world.

They are leaning against the headboard of the bed. Camille hugging Richard and Richard hugging Camille. They are both a bit paralyzed. From time to time he glances at her abdomen.

Camille, who notices everything, reacts and asks him:

"Do you think those children are already inside me, Richard? The truth is that I can't remember much about them except one of them had my eyes and the other child had yours. And they both had your smile. I couldn't tell if they were twins or if they were just a symbol of what may be our future. I don't know if those particular children will ever be real." Camille comments sadly.

As Richard still doesn't answer, she continues to talk to him.

"But what I do know is that you don't seem very happy." Her words ooze sadness.

Richard looks at her, realizing that he is once again displaying his everlasting slowness in the face of unforeseen changes, especially personal ones.

"Camille, look at me."

She looks at him trying not to reflect her disappointment.

"Since I met you, even before I met you, my life had been a continuous succession of extraordinary events. I'm just trying to digest what you have told me. But don't doubt that if I have managed to accept you, the Loas, and all this hurricane of emotions, I will manage to accept, love, and adore the children to come, whatever they may be."

"Because you have no choice." She comments despondently.

"Indeed I have no choice... if I want to remain as happy as I am now. And I have no choice but to accept whatever comes from you. I simply don't want any other options. I only want you."

Camille gets emotional and hugs him tightly.

Suddenly Richard asks:

"When our house is finished do you think this..." and he points with a slight gesture around him "...will change... or will we have to renovate in our dreams too?"

Camille laughs at his unexpected witticism.

"Richard, there really is no one like you!"

Unfortunately, the next day arrives and DI Poole is still in the same situation as the day before: he has not managed to solve the case.

He is up very early, it is not even half past five. When he looks up at the bed and sees her motionless figure still asleep, he smiles and decides to leave her a note and go to the police station to see if he can scratch out some more information.

The Commissioner is not known for his patience in the face of a major investigation and, if it is true that Camille is expecting a child or two, she should rest.

And, if not, he needs all his concentration to be able to dig up some clues to clarify what happened at the Jacaranda clinic.

As he has finished dressing, he carefully bends down to give Camille a barely perceptible kiss and, leaving her a note, waves goodbye to the lizard, saying:

"Take care of her."

And, in silence, he leaves the shack.

Thus Fidel and Dwayne find him obsessively looking at the photos and evidence of the case. He's still puzzling when Camille comes in. The three officers watch him think and wonder… How much more time will Richard need to solve the case?

Then a phone call is received from the Commissioner.

Time has run out.

With resignation the police return the passports and open the clinic for normal operation.

They all meet at La Kaz, where thanks to Camille's perceptive questions about Paul Vincent to Catherine, a man who incidentally can't speak French having been born in Saint Marie, and an occasional comment from Dwayne about the physical change brought about by cosmetic surgery, Richard manages to set about solving the case.

Of course, there are still a few more checks to be made.

When, checking a certain identity in the local cemetery, Dwayne arrives unexpectedly to alert the senior detectives that Vincent is trying to leave the island, Richard has no choice but to risk his life in the motorbike's sidecar to prevent a suspect from escaping.

And, as the officers rush to the harbour, Richard makes a promise to speak to the Commissioner to try to convince him to improve Honoré's police fleet.

Fortunately, thanks to the Inspector's unforeseen gymnastic skills, a thrown fishing buoy takes care of Paul Vincent… but only after Paul had flipped Dwayne into the water. A just reward for the man who likes to look cool on the bike.

It turns out that the Jacaranda clinic was used by Dr. Anna Jones to give new identities using the names of those who had died on Saint Marie many years before, in exchange for a large sum of money. Tipping, the head surgeon of the clinic, knew nothing about it.

Poor Mrs. Dupree was only an unfortunate witness to one of the meetings between Anna Jones and Paul Vincent when they were discussing the matter.

This murder, which Richard and his team have proved to be true, plus Tipping's blindness, is a serious blow to the Jacaranda Clinic, which was already in financial trouble.

Of course, Commissioner Patterson will have to come up with something to save one of Saint Marie's sources of income...

It is already late afternoon, and it is getting darker by the minute, at Richard and Camille's temporary shack. Their parents are also with them.

Alice and Arthur have brought a DVD of "Casablanca", one of Alice's favourite films. She wanted to share it with Camille, because she is convinced that her future daughter-in-law, like most of today's youth, doesn't know much about classic cinema.

Besides, Mrs. Poole never tires of watching it. Any excuse is a good one to watch Bogie in action.

Of course she is wrong. Camille knows the film, but she likes it too and doesn't want to disappoint Alice.

When the film ends with its famous final scene and the women shed a tear or two while the men pretend it doesn't affect them, Alice suddenly says.

"I've always thought that I wouldn't have left the love of my life." She says, looking at her husband.

Arthur can only smile uncomfortably, though with some pride. Especially after so many years together.

"I can accept fighting for my country, for the homeland, but I would find it extremely painful to give up my true love. I think it's better to be dead. Mrs. Poole continues.

Richard looks at his mother in astonishment.

"I thought you liked it because of the ending, Mum."

"Son, I like it because it's a great love story set against the backdrop of the Second World War. Our country should be proud of its contribution to Europe. It's a wonderful film. But I think I would have changed the ending of the story. "

"How would you do that, Alice?" asks her husband amused.

"With determination, courage and some magic. After all, it is fiction. And we all like happy endings. I've always thought that love is the most powerful magic."

And Alice looks at her son and, she hopes, her future daughter-in-law, the parents of her future grandchildren.

"If you think about it, Richard, something extraordinary must have happened in your life. I have a feeling that magic had something to do with it when you met Camille."

Camille laughs in amazement. Alice has amazing intuition.

"And in mine, Alice. Mine too. I think, Richard, I know where you got some of your amazing intelligence." Camille says.

"I certainly did." Richard has no choice but to agree.

And, clever as he is, he can't help thinking that perhaps his parents might have a say and a purpose to be on Saint Marie after all.