Murder in Aix (The Maggie Newberry Mystery Series Book 5) Read Online Free PDF Page B

her attention back to Maggie from whatever private
world she was seeing in her mind’s eye. Jacques
as she had last seen him? Maggie wondered. “No. No, I can’t imagine. That
wouldn’t make sense. He wanted to reconcile, you know?”
    Maggie nodded.
“But,” she said, “if you told him no, maybe he was so distraught that he…”
    “No, Maggie. I
mean, yes , I told him no but he
didn’t seem a bit distraught. If anything, he seemed…energized by my rejection.
He was full-on for making me change my mind. He was up for the challenge. You
know?”
    Maggie didn’t
really, but she nodded. “When did he leave?”
    “Right after
dinner,” Julia said, indicating the dining table with a jerk of her head. It
was clear and tidy except for a glass bowl of nectarines. “He said he didn’t
feel well. I told you he was having problems?”
    “Money problems?”
    “Well, yes, that
too, I think, but I’m talking about his health. He didn’t feel good. I know he
wanted to stay, but he left early. He looked terrible. Like he was in pain.”
    “How did you find
out about…?”
    “His bitch of a
daughter called me,” Julia said. Her mouth was pressed in a firm, tight line.
“She called me screaming and…and…” Julia put her hands to her face and burst
into tears. “She was horrible. Just horrible.”
    Maggie reached
over and put her arms around her friend. “I am so, so sorry, Jules.” She rubbed
her back. Over Julia’s shoulder, Maggie could see the large birdcage with the
multi-colored lovebird in it. A friendly little thing normally, it seemed to be
eyeing Maggie now in an indicting fashion, as if she were responsible for the unhappy sounds emanating from his
mistress.
    “I shouldn’t
blame her,” Julia said, swallowing her sobs and trying to compose herself. “She
found him, you see.” She shook her head as if unable to clear the gruesome
picture from her brain.
    “At his
apartment?”
    “Yes. She was
supposed to meet him there or something. I didn’t get the whole story. And she
found him on the floor. He must have…it must have happened last night. He was
fully clothed. Oh, Maggie, I can’t believe he’s not in the world any more. I
can’t believe, it’s impossible to believe, he’ll never b-b-bother me again.” Julia
let her sobs break full force out of her and into her hands. Maggie held her
and patted her back.
    “I know,
sweetie,” she said. “I know.”
    The knock at the
door made both of them jump. Annoyed at the thought it might be Laurent,
impatient and coming to see what was taking so long, Maggie gave her friend a
brief squeeze and jumped up to wrench open the door. When she did, she gave a
gasp of bewilderment to find two uniformed police officers standing there
flanking none other than Detective Inspecteur Roger Bedard — looking way too
darkly handsome than any man had a right to.
    “Roger!” she
blurted out.
    “I should have
known,” he said, shaking his head when he saw her. Then his eyes travelled down
the front of her dress and his mouth fell open. “You’re pregnant,” he said,
stupidly.
    “And here I
thought you weren’t a good detective,” Maggie retorted, her cheeks burning with
embarrassment.  
    Quickly recovering
himself, Bedard snapped out an order to his men and then pushed past Maggie
into Julia’s apartment.
    “Hey, wait a
minute,” Maggie said. “You can’t come in here without a warrant or something.”
    Roger moved to
stand directly in front of Julia where she sat, stupefied, on the sofa. Without
looking behind him, he held out a hand for the handcuffs he expected to fill it
and spoke directly to Julia.
    “Madame Patrick, I
am placing you under arrest for the murder of Monsieur Jacques Tatois. Please
stand up.”
    “Roger, no!”
Maggie tried to reach where Roger and Julia were standing, but one of the
uniformed police held out an arm to prevent her.
    “Maggie, stay out
of this,” Roger said sternly. He spoke again to his men and the man who