The little French restaurant with its checkered tablecloths and flowerpots in the windows was a real gem, tucked away down the alleyway just off Pine Creek’s main square. As the two detectives weaved their way through the Saturday crowd, the air filled with the sad melodies of a faraway country of cheeses, bright lights and red wine filled nights. Kate tried to shut her mind down, but was too late. The image of Matt walking down the Champs-Élysées, holding her hand filled her head. It’s been such a long time ago. She didn’t miss him anymore. But she missed the feeling of belonging. She cast a side way glance at Ben who was still on the phone. Aren’t you lonely sometimes?

Ben smiled as he got off the phone. “It’s nice to work with people who know what they are doing and just get things done. I told Officer Briggs about Anthony, she’s already on it. If he shows up, they will invite him for a friendly chat at the station.”

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he’s gone missing,” Kate said, shaking her head like she was trying to get rid of the idea. “Maybe his sister doesn’t think so, but he might still have held a grudge against poor Alice.”

Ben gave her a noncommittal shrug and opened the restaurant’s door for her. The music grew louder, and the warmth wrapped them into an inviting hug. They picked a table near a window, a flickering candle casting dancing reflections on the view.

“Daisy gave us the girlfriend’s address as well. Should we pay her a visit later?” Kate said while scanning through the menu. She did not recognize half the words.

“It’s not like we have anything else to do,” Ben said, his voice strained.

A shadow fell across them as a waiter approached their table. With his white shirt and red scarf he looked exactly as a French person should look like according to the stereotypes.

“Bonjour! I am Pierre, your waiter. ‘Ow can I ‘elp? May I suggest you the ‘ouse speshals, Madam?” he said, grinning. His French accent sounded as genuine as the laughing audience in sitcoms. When Kate cast an inquisitive look at him, he turned the colour of beetroot, but kept on grinning like a mad man.

“You aren’t really French, are you?” Kate asked, somewhat amused and watched the grin wither off the waiter’s face. Ben stifled a laugh.

The waiter started stammering, but then his eyes fell on Kate’s weapon she wore on her belt. His eyes grew a size bigger.

“You are a detective?” He switched from nearly whispering to a high pitched squeak. “This is so cool! Then you must be here about the murder in the forest!” He clutched his notepad harder, stepping from one foot to another.

“Somebody died,” Kate grunted. “There’s nothing ‘cool’ about it.” She made little quotation marks when she said that.

Ben cleared his throat. “We just want to have a nice lunch and be on our way.”

The waiter made a little bow. “Sir, of course, Sir! I’m at your service. I’m Peter, by the way, this whole Pierre bull–… ahem… thing is just for the atmosphere.”

“Who would have thought?” Kate muttered.

The waiter leaned a bit closer and lowered his voice to once again. “Have you got any leads? Do you know who did it?”

“We are not at liberty to discuss an ongoing case, I’m afraid, and would appreciate if you would refrain from doing so as well,” Kate said as she held up her palm to silence Pierre-Peter.

“I’m just saying,” the waiter continued, “I meet a lot of people, get to know them. Maybe I could even help you, if you kept me updated on your suspects… For instance I can tell you that the old man from –”

Not wanting to get sucked in the local gossip mongering, they quickly interrupted Pierre’s musings, and settled on fresh baguettes with butter, Navarin D’Agneau, tarte tatin, and to Peter’s dismay, a glass of water each.

“No house wine, Monsieur?” he asked, shaking his head in disbelief.

The food was amazing, and Kate was reminded once more how much she enjoyed Paris. Trying to distract herself, she steered the conversation back to work.

“Shouldn’t we talk to the old lady? The one who found the body.”

Ben shrugged. “We can see her later. But according to Sadie she hasn’t actually seen anything. Her dog found Alice and she was too shocked to stick around.”

“Sadie?” Kate asked with a cheeky grin.

“I mean Office Briggs.”

“She’s cute.” Kate winked at Ben.

Ben made a hmpf sound, and to Kate’s amusement, polished off his remaining tarte tatin without further comments.

*

They had some difficulties finding the address Daisy gave them, but eventually arrived on a quiet cul-de-sac in Aurora, the nearest town east of Pine Creek. The house seemed quiet when they walked up the stairs and knocked on the door a few times. Kate and Ben were about to leave when someone called from behind.

“Who are you?”

A girl stood at the end of the garden path, her red hair piled high on top of her head. Her freckled face displayed suspicion as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“I’m Detective Petersen,” said Ben, then pointed at Kate, “and this is my colleague, Detective Robbins. We are looking for Anthony Langdale.”

“Ha, you are not the only one,” the girl said with a bitter laugh and took a step closer.

“Are you Ruby?” Ben said after consulting his notebook.

The girl nodded but did not move.

“Well, Ruby, this conversation would be much more comfortable if we could come inside.”

“I suppose,” she replied, but still did not move.

“Listen,” Kate said, losing her patience, “this is a murder investigation and we need to speak to Anthony. If he’s not here, we need to speak to you.”

“Murder?” The girl got paler under the freckles, but the icy look from Kate gave her some incentive to move. A few minutes later they were settled in a stylish living room, with Ruby perched on the end of a light armchair.

“Who died?” Ruby asked, as she chewed on her fingernails. “And what does it have to do with Anthony?”

“We are investigating the death of an Alice Draper. Sounds familiar? Your boyfriend knew her.”

At the sound of the name Ruby’s eyes nearly popped out of her head, but she just shook her head.

“According to his sister, Anthony was with you since yesterday afternoon,” Ben said.

The girl took a shuddering breath and twisted the buttons on her cardigan. “Well… kind of…,” she said eventually.

“What do you mean?” Ben asked and looked at the girl like a kind uncle. Kate wanted to jump out of her seat, grab her shoulders and shake her.

“We were meant to spend the weekend together,” Ruby said with a big sigh. “But we had a fight not long after he arrived… Then he stormed out and I haven’t seen him since.”

Her lips trembled and her eyes sparkled with tears. She continued. “I tried to call him. But it kept going to voice mail.”

Clever, Kate thought. If his phone is off they can’t even trace him.

“A fight about what, Ruby?” Kate asked, trying to keep her voice even.

Ruby shrugged. “Just, you know, stuff…”

Before Kate could open her mouth Ben interjected. “Ruby, I’m afraid you will need to be a bit more specific. It would really help us a great deal.”

The girl wiped a single tear from her eye. “He was behaving weird, okay? I asked him if he was hanging out with his loser friends again.” She must have noticed the look on Kate’s face because she continued with an explanation. “He was hanging out with some punks. I think they were doing drugs… like not real drugs… smoking pot mostly. I didn’t like it, and told him he should stop. They would just get him into trouble. One of them I think even spent time in juvie. But he said it wasn’t about them and I should leave him alone.” Ruby’s voice became whiny as she continued. “Why is he even with me if he just wants me to leave him alone? But he told me it has nothing to do with me or with those guys. He was just upset because some old friend did or said something to him or something like that.”

Ruby stared at them, sniffling, but went quiet.

“What old friend?” Ben prompted.

Ruby shrugged.

“A girl?” Kate asked.

“Maybe,” Ruby said. It was not much more than a whisper.

“Alice?” Kate said and couldn’t help the sharp edge of her voiced.

But Ruby just slumped back in the chair and buried her face in the sleeves of her cardigan.

Kate repeated the question. “He was talking about Alice, wasn’t he? She was coming over and –”

Another whine escaped Ruby’s mouth. She muttered something but Kate did not understand a single word. She was about to ask again when she was interrupted a scraping noise and someone clearing their throat.

“What on earth is going on here, may I ask?” A man in a smart suit said as he placed his briefcase next to the sofa, shooting withering looks at Kate and Ben.

Ben rose with his hand stretched forward. “I’m Detective Petersen, and this is –”

But he couldn’t finish. “I don’t care who you are,” the man said flatly. “You are clearly hectoring my daughter. I don’t know what this is about, but if you have any questions to Ruby, we can arrange a meeting with her attorney present. That, if you haven’t figured out by now, is me. Now good day to you!” he said and waved a hand towards the entrance.

Kate wanted to retort but one look at Ben’s face was enough to change her mind. They left in silence and soon the house was swallowed up behind them in a flurry of snowflakes.