Cinderella Six Feet Under Read Online Free PDF

returned to his newspaper.
    Ophelia dug into her breakfast of coffee, buttery rolls, pungent cheese, ham, and hothouse oranges. Prue had probably gone back to sleep.
    â€œI happened to notice a locksmith working on the carriageway gate this morning,” Ophelia said.
    Malbert slowly lowered his newspaper.
“Oui?”
    â€œMight I inquire why?”
    â€œMadame Brand, you are most curious,
non
? What is it that they say about the cat and curiosity?” He blinked twice and raised his newspaper again.
    Was that a threat?
    Inspector Foucher, from the office of the
commissaire
, arrived at half past eight. Ophelia and Malbert received him in a formal salon. Foucher was one of those fellows with twig legs and a barrel chest. Small brown eyes like chocolate drops peered out from a swollen face. He held a bowler hat.
    â€œMadame Brand,” he said in a weary tone, “I am a busy man. What is it?”
    â€œHas the murderer been arrested yet?”
    â€œNot yet.”
    â€œAh. Well, I have made a most fascinating realization that might aid in your investigation. Her feet, you may recall—or, at least, the one that I saw—were in a most pitiful condition.”
    â€œThe girl’s feet were injured,
oui
.”
    â€œBoth of them?”
    â€œ
Oui
, as the result of her body having been dragged to its place in the garden.”
    â€œI have a different theory. I propose that she was a dancer of the ballet.”
    Malbert shifted in his chair.
    â€œThe ballet!” Foucher chuckled.
    â€œI do not jest, Inspector. The feet of ballerinas are subject to the most grievous ill-treatment and injury as the result of supporting their entire weight upon the very tips of their toes.” Ophelia had seen it dozens of times, both in the circus and the theater. One dancer she’d known, Florrie, had had bunions like ripe crabapples.
    Inspector Foucher frowned. “How, may I inquire, does a respectable lady like you know what the feet of a ballerina look like?”
    â€œOh, well.” Ophelia smoothed her cuff. “In Boston, you see, I am a member of the Ladies’ League for the Betterment of Fallen Angels.”
    â€œHow charitable,” Malbert murmured.
    Ophelia leaned towards Foucher. “There are many
fallen angels
, you understand, employed in the theater.”
    â€œAh,
oui
.”
    â€œI urge you, Inspector, to consider searching for the deceased young lady’s identity within whatever ballet theaters Paris possesses.”
    â€œYou almost seem to know who the victim was.”
    â€œI do not. But it is worth investigating the ballet theaters, is it not?”
    â€œMadame, I do understand that you are discomfited by this event. However, I must request that you do not intrude in police investigations. Indeed, I do realize that the gentle sex is prone to fancy, to making correlations where there are none—”
    â€œApplesauce!”
    â€œâ€”but we officers of the police are trained to be
rationale
.”
    â€œWhat of the coincidence of the perished girl being placed in her own mother’s garden? And what, for that matter, are you doing in the way of locating the Marquise Henrietta? I must most emphatically suggest that the two concerns must be related, even, perhaps, interlocking.”
    â€œMadame, I bid you good morning.” Foucher made a stiff bow and dodged out.
    Ophelia stared after him. Then she looked at Malbert sitting lumpishly in his chair. “It is an outrage!” she said. “It is almost as though—yes, it is as though the police are deliberately averting their eyes from any evidence that does not fit their theory.
Rationale?
Horsefeathers! That Foucher is a buffoon, or lazy. Or both.”
    â€œMadame Brand, I beg you to calm yourself. Come. Join me for a stroll in the garden. I would be most interested to hear of your charitable work in Boston.”
    Ophelia stared at Malbert. Did the recent presence of a