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Chapter 2: Something Unexpected

Chapter Text

Monday arrived, and it went not as Dwayne Myers would have hoped and expected. Not at all.

Wasn't the break-up serious enough for that unbreakable bond, that eternal love that Camille and Richard felt for each other... to be broken?

Just like that.

When Camille arrived at the police station, Richard was already at his desk with his back straight and concentrating hard on his work.

She was very dignified, smiling at Fidel and Dwayne and wished them good morning and sat down at their table with great ease.

Once seated at her table she greeted Richard with a:

'Good morning, sir.'

To which Richard replied with a laconic:

'Good morning, Sergeant Bordey.'

Fidel, warned and astonished (although he had heard all the rumours about the Chief and Camille), observed with his own eyes the coldness and professionalism with which his superior officers treated each other.

They did not even look at each other.

And so the day passed at the station. No big case came up for them to sink their teeth into. But both Richard and Camille were really engrossed in their reports.

When Dwayne called Fidel to patrol the market and the harbour, the first thing they both did when they got to the Defender was to exclaim in unison:

'Why aren't they arguing?'

To such a question, only Fidel, after only a second or two's thought, replied with:

'Because you know very well that if they start arguing as they did before, they would not be able to resist the temptation to reconcile. Passionately or not. Even if they wanted to, they are so stubborn that they would rather ignore each other than argue. They want to make it clear that they don't need each other, that they can live alone as they did before they got engaged.'

Dwayne looks at him in confusion.

'And what can we do if they don't...?'

Fidel shakes his head as if pondering.

'I still don't understand anything. I've been talking to the people walking around Richard's shack and that Elizabeth girl was only in the shack for one afternoon. And she didn't even stay more than five minutes! Suddenly Camille appeared, threw the woman, who by the way has left the island I suspect never to return, out with a bang, and that's when she told the Chief that this was the last time she would spend the night in his shack.

Dwayne ponders and says to Fidel.

'It seems even stranger to me that the Commissioner hasn't opened his mouth. Maybe he's waiting for the waters to subside...'

'Something that our superiors seem to be fighting to prevent from happening.' Fidel maintains.

'For now. I'll talk to Catherine in case she knows anything about this strange English woman.' Dwayne decides.

He feels terrible for feeling so confused.

He's always known all about relationships!

Fidel ponders what to say next:

'I'm going to try and find out what Camille and the Inspector were so focused on. He told me it was an old case, but I assure you that none of our records have been accessed.'

'Maybe he got the case from Commissioner Patterson before the Inspector and Camille broke up.' Dwayne suggests.

That doesn't matter so much to him. The Chief is always going over old cases. He doesn't understand what's so important about that.

Fidel shrugs and replies:

'You and I have learned from the master. Also from Camille, of course. In a case all information, however irrelevant it may seem, is important. We're sleuths now, my friend. And we've learned that from the best.'

Dwayne pats his friend's back and, with a big grin from ear to ear, says:

'I love it! That'll always be better than sitting around waiting to see what happens. Count me in.'

But when they arrive at the station, the atmosphere couldn't be colder.

Of course, Fidel and his friend look at each other with confidence - it's only the first day! And they are not going to give up easily.

It's five to five in the afternoon. Only five minutes left to call it a day. Obviously there will be no friendly meeting at La Kaz today.

That's unthinkable!

And Richard, back in his role of inflexible superior, asks Camille, who is almost out of her chair as she slings her handbag over her shoulder:

'Sergeant Bordey, I have reviewed your report and I have detected several inconsistencies that I don't understand. Do I have to remind you that I will never again admit to the lack of rigour in the reports you write as I have unfortunately done before? This time it will be different.

Fidel and Dwayne can see how Camille takes a slow breath and counts to ten as she hangs her bag back on the back of the chair.

The two friends know that the professionalism of their friend and colleague is out of the question. But they also know that, whatever happens to cause a rift between their superior officers, this is not the time to mediate between them.

For the moment they remain silent as they continue to clear their desks and leave the station to finish their work for the day.

Camille replies calmly and with professional respect to her ex-fiancé and ex-lover:

'It is possible, of course. Early tomorrow morning we can discuss the points in the report that you don't understand or don't agree with.'

It is already five o'clock in the afternoon.

Camille has veiled her insult to her immediate superior by telling him that he doesn't understand what's right under his nose!

Fidel and Dwayne decide to escape.

Everyone knows that collateral damage always hits the innocent first.

Richard, not losing his cool, but with a strange green gleam in his eye, decidedly out of anger, Dwayne opines as he takes one last look over his shoulder surrendered by curiosity, replies:

'I think the most appropriate time would be now, Sergeant. It can always happen that if we put it off until tomorrow, we could miss several very important points.'

Camille, after watching her friends and traitorous comrades leave (flee!), looks at Richard with one of her most lethal looks and comments:

'Could I comment on something out of order, sir? I beg you to accompany me to the cells. I suppose you don't want any witnesses. I don't want anyone to come right away *interrupting us*. It's something I want to clear up with you now so that there are no misunderstandings in the future. Afterwards, if you like, we'll amend that shoddy report.'

Richard rises calmly and parsimoniously. He remembers when Camille chastised him severely on the case of the murdered girlfriend, their first case together as police officers.

When they were not yet together. When they were tense and angry, like now.

Richard responds, confident that this time his authority will not be undermined, as he knows how to defend himself:

'I would beg you not to take too long, Sergeant. I want to take as little time as possible with these rectifications.'

Camille makes a frankly insubordinate gesture at Richard's back as they both head for the cells.

Stepping through the curtain that gives scant privacy to the rudimentary cells of the police station, Camille is startled when her right arm is gripped tightly by the strong hands of the Inspector, who, with the advantage of surprise, corners the Sergeant against the wall, kisses her with uncharacteristic passion and, when he breaks away from her mostly to catch his breath, asks her with all the love and passion he feels for her in his voice:

'Have you missed me, my love?'

Camille, who is still recovering from that passionate kiss from Richard, a kiss which, by the way, she has never made the slightest gesture of refusing, replies:

'What do you think, mon coeur?'

Then it is she who, with a smile of a tigress about to eat him, who corners him against the wall and kisses him again with the enthusiastic support of her poor, defenceless prey.'

Then there is a small noise in the station and the two of them part abruptly. They both peek stealthily through the curtain.

Fortunately it was only a clueless bird that has managed to find its way out of the street without any problems.

Richard hugs Camille tightly and comments:

'I've already spoken to Elizabeth. She says she loved being part of a secret police operation. She's always been a little crazy. But seriously, we have to be careful. You know what the Commissioner told us.'

Camille breaks away from him just enough to whisper:

'Need I remind you that it was you who almost put me through the wall by pinning me in your arms?'

Richard looks back at her with that green gleam in his eyes. What Dwayne had earlier mistaken for anger was nothing more than love and passion.

He replies:

'When you are absolutely right, I have to give it to you.' Then he rests his forehead on hers and continues:

'I missed you the very moment you walked out of the shack door. How long do you think it will take you to get...?'

Camille places her index finger gently on his lips.

'I've missed you a lot too. But this case is important. It's only just begun! I found a small shed in the jungle. It belonged to a great-uncle of Maman's. We can go there to compare notes on this case and... whatever else comes up.'

Richard kisses her sweetly again:

'Whatever comes up... of course.' Then he looks at her with great concern and says, no, he almost begs her:

'Be very careful. Although I've come up with something to keep you protected even though we're still officially 'separated'. Did you really think I was going to let you take unnecessary risks?'

Camille is acting as an undercover officer again and Richard is so concerned about her that it fills her with even more tenderness and love.

She hugs him:

'I am a police officer who knows very well that working as a team means accepting help from colleagues. I will be very careful, always. I don't want to lose you. And it amazes me that I am the one to tell you, a senior officer totally out of control because of your totally unprofessional feelings for me, that if we exchange information in that shed in the jungle, it will be on very rare occasions and pretty much only for that purpose. Even if I am occasionally weak and fall into your clutches, of course.'

Richard smiles and hugs her tightly. Suddenly he tenses, hears voices. With warning gestures, he looks at Camille, separates from her and, with his lips, indicates an emergency plan.

Camille understands what he means.

'No! If necessary I will go outside so that everyone can hear us, Richard. You are now only my superior. I repeat that I can live alone perfectly well. I've done it before and I can do it just fine right now.'

'I'll remind you, Sergeant, I'm way ahead of you in living alone. And I wasn't doing badly, to tell you the truth. My life wasn't a mess! I was just asking you to reassure me that I can still go to tea at La Kaz without any problems. What did you have in mind?'

At the same time as they 'argue', Camille has wiped the traces of lipstick off Richard's face and fixed his suit.

When they both emerge through the curtain separating the cells from the rest of the police room they are both the epitome of (angry) police professionalism.

Camille, carrying the papers that had been scattered on the floor of the cells now in his more or less organized hand, throws them into Richard's table in a rude manner.

When the two officers look around they see only a few absent-minded tourists who are quick to stammer out a plausible excuse to leave the way they came in.

Camille and Richard smile at each other one last time before she goes home to prepare for her 'date'.

Richard throws the papers in the bin and closes the station.

He calls it a day.