„Never trust people that hadn’t been ever your friends”

  „Are you leaving somewhere, Mrs. Fabeau?” Keen asked Lorenne in a cheerful voice, seeing her coming out of Mrs. Bircham’s house and heading in a hurry toward the backyard where Simon was waiting for her with the carriage ready to go.

  Seeing the detective in front of her, grinning from ear to ear, Lorenne grimaced and, after turning her head to the right, looking for Simon to demand him at least by a glance to bring the carriage closer and thus to escape, she whispered: „who the hell brought this one here?” but she saw herself forced to get out from under that unpleasant moment of surprise and, smiling tensely, she offered her hand to Keen, trying to look surprised to see him there.

  „Oh, detective Keen, what a surprise to see you here!”

  Keen instead only stared at her: „I also think that it was a surprise to you!” he mumbled, but anyway he also offered his hand, shaking hers. However, he didn’t do that just to greet her, but he also tried to play into her hands only to buy some time to find the perfect manner to pump the secrets out of her. „I must accept that I've been the surprised one because I never expected to see you here! I thought you were still in Brighton!” he teased her.

  „Damn jerk!” Lorenne thought while staring at him. „In Brighton? Why so? From what I remember, I think I’ve told you that I’ll come to London for … business,” she said with a hypocritical, innocent voice.

  Keen sniggered: „businesses?! Interesting businesses you actually have here, Mrs. Fabeau. Especially finding out that you are here and, related to „I told you that I’ll leave Brighton,” - I still think that you never mentioned this.”

  „Really?! I didn’t say that?! Probably I forgot this. It wasn’t done with any mean or hidden intention, anyway. I just … was in a rush and…”

  „I also think that you’ve been in a rush. Especially realizing the fact that I never believed your whackers about Albert Shin’s death,” Keen spoke in his beard.

  Yet, he had decided that playing that cat and the mouse's game wasn't something proper for him and he decided to attack, how he used always to act with someone he considered damn suspicious. „Is Miss Davis by chance also here?”

  Lorenne swallowed hard while staring at Keen. „Emily? Here? On what occasion?” she asked, pretending to be surprised.

  „How should I know that?! I just thought that passing through such difficult times, she backtracked. Or maybe… she thought that turning back to London she’ll find Miss Stonebridge and she’ll accomplish her plan.”

  Mrs. Fabeau instead disliked the detective’s half-word and right away, she pierced him with her glance: „detective, you are playing a damn dangerous and foul play,” Lorenne hissed through the teeth. „Just as you are trying to reformulate my words and to make me look like an idiot. But… it won’t work for you.”

  „Why? From what I remember, I didn’t say anything wrong.”

  „Do you think so? What I think is totally the opposite of it. More the fact that you started to talk about Eva. I don’t think that child deserves to be backbitten and more by the same detective hired to find her, who eventually didn’t fulfill his commitment, but he tried to reach his own peddling purposes,” Lorenne told him, this time in a serious voice, preferring to chase away the fake smile off her face and talking to Keen to their level because she passed through a lot of harsh times during her life to be forced now too to face a bounder as she considered Vincent Keen to be.

  Keen instead changed his tactics and instead of a large smile on his face he sniggered, only moving a little bit the corner of his lips to the right, a fact that was revealing his intention to look out for what she was really trying to do by talking to him this way. „She knows why I came to Brighton. The last time we saw each other she had no idea or at least she was only suspecting why. However, it’s something known to her now because someone told her about my plans. But… who? Emily? Christine Bircham or the puppeteer?” Keen thought.

  „You won’t even try to account for it. This means that what I said is true and it probably is also true everything that I know about you.”

  „Everything you know about me?! It’s possible, but … if you prefer this way, I can answer you with yes or no to what you think that it’s true or false. Probably: the one who told you about me doesn’t know all the details of my „peddling purposes,” that I’ve tried or I try to reach now, still being around Miss Stonebridge.”

  „I’ll better say „pass" to this!” Lorenne told him dryly. „It’s enough for me what I know for the moment. Especially the fact that you are playing on two fronts.”

„Like?”

  „Sophie Anderson Bell and… Brian Beneath. It’s a well-known fact that while you pretended to look for Mrs. Anderson Bell’s rival, you also managed to be paid very well by her husband to look for his mistress. This is what I consider a real virtuosoship in winning good money while solving one single case.”

  „Wouldn’t you have done the same?”

  „I? I don’t think so. At least, I wouldn’t have played on two fronts as you’ve done. I prefer to be honest.”

  „Honest?!” Keen murmured with irony. „You’ve been so honest that right after Miss Davis’missing you came to her sworn enemy’s house. But what I want to know is why you did that: support? Because you were looking for someone to watch your back or maybe… you were just trying to change the worldly order?!”

  „The worldly order? What do you mean by …?”

  Keen took a step in front, menacingly approaching Lorenne who continued to stay in the same place, only one stone’s throw from the main door. But … even if the detective’s approach made her feel uncomfortable, she held her ground and she stayed put, looking straight into his eyes when Keen slowly bent toward her, ironically smiling at her, while he was also staring into her eyes. „Do you know why the fox always tries to cut the grass under the bear’s feet, Mrs. Fabeau?”

  „Because of the slyness?”

   „No. Because she’s stupid: she thinks she’s so smart and thus she tries to push everybody out of her way to get to an imaginary throne and be called Queen. But... you know: it isn’t that easy to get rid of everybody because even if you manage to do that you’ll be eventually alone - alone and abandoned.”

  „I don’t see the point to all this as I don’t understand why should I listen to your stupid words, detective.”

  „Maybe you don’t see the point of my words because you compare yourself with the fox from my story, but those words describe you so well: first of all because you did almost everything to make Eva vanish from your house, then you managed somehow to make Miss Davis stand against the only trustful man that was by her side and who was always ready to kill for her or maybe he already killed someone in these years to defend her honor and she eventually killed him, and the third point of my theory and the most important in my opinion: you left Brighton and you are here now, inside of Mrs. Bircham’s house, who’s nobody else than the well-known leader of the „Red Ants.”

  „The „Red Ants?” Lorenne stared at him with a pretended wonder. „May I know what are you talking about?”

  „I think you know this already and very well actually. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have been here now. At least, not at only two weeks distance after leaving Brighton. Your main purpose was namely to come here when you left Brighton and you came straight here and not by-passing.”

  That „by-passing” was said with such ardor, emphasizing each syllable, a fact that made Lorenne nervously move while squeezing the gloves she had in her right hand. But … after only a few moments of looking aside, she stretched her back and she again stared at the detective and this made Keen be sure that what was only a suspicion of his at first, became now something real.

  „As I’ve already said: I don't have the slightest idea what are you talking about and, to be honest, I don’t have any desire to still be here and listening to your aberrations. That’s why I’ll go because … I have better things to do than to listen to the insults of someone like you.”

  Keen had a good laugh after listening to her while looking around at that silence that seemed so suspect just as nature itself was planning something to queer their pitch. But… when he looked again at Lorenne, he spotted from the corner of his eyes how the curtains moved as if someone had lurked on them by then, and when the detective spotted the „intruder,” being afraid not to be seen, he preferred to leave free the curtains and to hide in their shadow: „the curiosity has always been the worst enemy of the cat,” Keen murmured while smiling and he suddenly moved away from Lorenne’s way, allowing her to pass, a fact that amazed her. „You are free to go, Mrs. Fabeau if you want!” he said, showing her with his hand to the left to pass by him and he did that movement right in time because not that far from them was heard the clatter of the carriage’s wheels approaching them. „You have my permission to go because those like me can find out by themselves what they want to know and without forcing someone to tell them what they are hiding from others.”

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  „If you say so,” Lorenne told him with irony and headed toward the carriage that was stopped only a few meters from them. However, she stopped after only a few steps, and, while putting on the gloves, Lorenne told Keen who continued to watch her, analyzing each of her movements: „I don’t know what you intend to do, detective, but … it’ll be in time to stop right now. Not for nothing, but … it will be only wasted time because I have nothing to hide just as I don’t plan anything else than to quietly live my life. About your shrewd „accusations” that I got rid of all those that surrounded me … they are only your aberrations: I never tried to get rid of anybody as I took a lot in both with Eva and Emily, and I would have liked to be with them forever. But … you see, they chose to go onto another path, and I intend to respect their decision. And … I hope you’ll respect my decision too, detective because I don’t like to feel your breath down my neck each time, I see you around me. Have a nice day!” and she slowly bowed, but reluctantly - only trying to chase away the detective’s suspicions by acting like this: as if it was her usual behavior. Then, she got inside the carriage, Simon pulled the reins, spurring the horses, and they rushed to leave the property.

  Keen took a few steps in front, but it wasn’t his intention to follow them, but only to find a better place to see them leaving. Then, with his hands stuck in his pockets, he started to slowly whistle while thinking: „and yet… that puppeteer did a very well job with this woman: she’s damn loyal to him if she betrayed the one who once saved her life.”

  But he suddenly winced, hearing Christine’s voice behind him, even if he didn’t hear when the door was opened: „interesting woman, isn’t it?” Mrs. Bircham told him.

  Keen rotated only a little bit on his heels to watch her and, seeing her staring at him, grinning, he stopped whistling eventually and turned to her with his whole body, kissing her hand when she offered it to him. „Mrs. Bircham, such a pleasure to meet you!” He murmured, but he had only forced himself to look as if he was enthusiastic when he was in fact disgusted to see her after all he found out about her.

  „Let’s talk inside, detective Keen! I think we have a lot to discuss… and many common things to talk about,” she said, sure on herself and she’d been the first to enter the house, leaving the door half-open behind her.

  This amazed Keen a lot: he had gotten more than he had expected when he had decided a night ago to come to this house because namely the last night, he realized the fact that not Emily Davis tried to kill him, but the puppeteer and because of this he wanted to talk to Mrs. Bircham, even if he wasn’t sure that she’ll accept to see him. „And yet, there are still a lot of surprises in this world,” he said, cunningly smiling, and he finally got inside the house.

***

  „How well do you know Lorenne Fabeau, Mrs. Bircham?” Keen asked while sitting on a chair in front of her, in her small office where she used to receive her important guests while she was sitting at her desk even if her first intention was to sit down on an armchair and Keen on the sofa. But yet, she had decided that it’ll be better to discuss businesses while sitting at the desk.

  „I know her? Lorenne Fabeau? I don’t know her at all: I only met her for the first last night time and I think that you’ve been already informed about this.”

  „Informed?” Keen asked in amazement.

  Christine sniggered: „Of course! I hope that you don’t think that I didn’t notice your men sneaking around my house?! If so, you are really naive, detective Keen.”

  It was Keen’s turn to snigger. „Damn woman!” he thought. „She has good eyes if she saw Lenny,” who was called „ghost” due to his exceptional abilities to sipe in different groups or crowds without being spotted if he was trailing someone and in those two years since he was working for Keen, nobody ever noticed him, and this meant that Mrs. Bircham wasn’t a simple lady, despite the things known by Keen about her and that she was the leader of the „Red Ants.”

  „Interesting,” the detective murmured.

  „What exactly?”

  „That you saw my man. He’s very discreet, usually. It seems that he made a mistake now if you spotted him.”

  „Actually, your man is very good, detective. Let’s say that he hasn’t yet the necessary experience to pass unnoticed by a woman like me.”

  „May I know why?”

  „Let’s not pretend, detective. I’m more than sure that you know what I’m talking about: the „Red Ants” and that I’m their leader for many years already.”

  Keen moved in his chair, looking for a better position to sit. Then, he took a photo of Helen Walker out of his jacket’s pocket and put it in front of Christine, on the desk. However, Mrs. Bircham didn’t even blink seeing that photo just as she didn’t look impressed by what she saw as if she knew that person well. „Do you know her?”

  „Of course. Helen Walker. Who doesn’t actually know the younger of Lyre Walker’s daughters? The one who abandoned home and good name, trampling under feet the family honor, refusing to get married to a Beneath and choosing love next to a man as Alfred Stonebridge was. More, Baron Beneath was part of my family and I know very well his love story with Miss Stonebridge.”

  „He was part of your family… Aaa, yes, mister Beneath mentioned already that you are maternal cousins. I forgot this.”

  „Just as I’m sure that he already told you that our family had been never in good relationships.”

  „But he never mentioned the reason.”

  „Money, what else?! Let’s say that we, the Bircham family, always wanted what Beneath has.”

  „And yet, you are so freely talking about this.”

  „Why not do that?! Even if others consider this as being something shameful or that you should hide, I think differently: I always preferred to freely fight for what I wanted and Brian did the same. Let’s not forget that he got eventually what he wanted: to get revenge in front of Alfred Stonebridge whom he buried eventually while his daughter entered my cousin’s bed and became his mistress.”

  „Maybe it had been this way only at the beginning, but … I think you aren’t aware of the recent events,” he cunningly murmured.

  Christine stared in amazement at him, listening to his words because even if she practically hid inside of her house for months already, she still had someone who was telling her about what happened in the town, but she had no idea what Keen was talking about and what news can be related to Brian. „Events? Which exactly?”

  „Mister Beneath is a free man now and from what I know he intends to marry Miss Stonebridge. For their child.”

  „What?” Christine suddenly shouted, making Keen wince because he hadn't expected such a reaction from her while he thought she was a damn calculated and a phlegm woman. „Does Eva expect a child with my cousin? And… Brian is free now?”

  „That’s right. And… those aren’t recent news. It has been two weeks already since the church gave him the divorce, even if for others it can be considered recently.”

  „But… how’s this possible? As I know Sophie Anderson Bell, she wouldn’t have accepted ever the divorce or at least she wouldn’t have left alive her rival, allowing her to become Brian’s wife in her place.”

  „Let’s say that she had no choice. Mister Beneath’s decision to form a complete and normal family with Miss Stonebridge was something pronounced, and he had trustful allies to get that divorce.”

  „I also think so,” Christine murmured unhappily, knowing that Brian approached John and Beatrice Evans lately and they helped him to convince the pope to give him the divorce.

  „And yet, even so, I don’t understand why did you show me Helen Walker’s photo. I don’t think that it was just a way to talk to me about Brian’s divorce and Eva’s pregnancy.”

  „And you are absolutely right. What I’m trying to find out are the twenty-years-ago events: details about what happened to Miss Walker and if there was anyone else knowing about this: I mean - Emily Davis or Lorenne Fabeau.”

  „Well… to be honest, I don’t know all the details about that case, but… let’s say I have some ideas about that. Not for nothing, but Helen practically abandoned my uncle in front of the altar, and, to find out more about her I had to investigate. However, even if she was a cheerful person, she didn’t tell much to others about herself. She was known in the past only due to her father, with whom actually I have some common businesses.”

  „Businesses? May I know what kind of businesses?”

  „Of course not, and if you are interested in this, you can go to the old Lyre Walker’s house and ask him directly. Of course, if he accepts to talk to you. But … that goes with Emily and Lorenne Fabeau, I have no idea if they knew or didn’t know about this.”

  „Why? Did you never talk to Miss Davis about such things? From what I know she was already your right hand at that time.”

  „It’s true, but… when Helen and Alfred Stonebridge escaped, Emily wasn’t in England. I sent her to France to recover after a big loss that made her suffer a lot and it was absolutely necessary for her not to be here to forget it. And… as it was related to her baby’s memory… she had to leave London at that time.”

  It was Keen’s turn to stare like an idiot at Christine: „What? Did Miss Davis lose a child?”

  „Yes, even if that child never got to be born,” Christine said with contentment, reminding very well of the moment Christine fell on the theater’s stairs after she’d been pushed, and eventually she lost the baby. „An unfortunate accident on the theater’s stairs that eventually led to a tragedy. And… it was a tragedy for all of us, actually: for me, for Luis, and for Emily because … I couldn’t have children while Luis wanted one a lot, and when Emily got pregnant… oh, you can’t even imagine what big joy we all felt,” Christine lied.

  But… even if she thought that the cunning blink from her eyes hadn't been seen by Keen, he understood very well that Christine was actually hiding a lot of things, especially related to that child’s death and to Emily’s accident. But he decided not to talk about this: at least for the moment.

  „And yet, turning back to Mrs. Fabeau and Miss Davis… there’s something strange in their relationship.”

  „Strange? In which way?”

  „As for example, Miss Davis’ missing.”

  „Missing? What do you mean? From what I know, Emily is dead,” Christine said, taking Keen by surprise because Lorenne never mentioned to her that others think that Emily was missing.

  „What? Is Miss Davis dead? What are you…?”

  „…talking about?! Well, from what Mrs. Fabeau told me: Emily and her teamster died the same day, in the same room, and in the same bed, but … I didn’t ask for details about what happened there. I only know that… the cyanide killed them both.”

  Keen stared into Christine’s eyes, but he saw that she told him the truth because even if she and Emily hated each other, it wasn’t considered that big deal by both of them to kill the other one. At least it was what Keen thought at that moment. „And… may I know where Miss Davis is buried? We only found her teamster Albert: at the edge of a forest and unburied.”

  „You’ll have to ask Mrs. Fabeau if you want to know this because I wasn’t interested and I didn’t ask. Let’s say that … it was enough for me to find out that Emily is dead.”

  Both kept silent eventually, staring at each other, and waiting for the other one to make a bad move after which he will have the chance to take advantage of the other one because neither Keen came there only to talk to Christine about Helen Walker nor Christine told him about Emily’s death only to inform him, as a good deed of her, or that she mentioned Lyre Walker only to mention him: she wanted Keen as her ally and to help her to get rid of all the parasites that rounded her lately, and the first one she wanted to get rid of - it was Lorenne Fabeau.