None of the guests were allowed to leave. Inspector Cyril St. Clair and his team started interrogating everyone.
Cyril headed straight for Clémence, who was in a corner next to the empty dessert table. She was staring off into space, contemplating what could’ve possibly happened tonight that caused Cesar to end up dead.
“For once,” he said to her, “I would like to go a week without a Damour-related murder.”
“You and me both,” said Clémence.
“Dubois.” Inspector nodded at him before turning back to Clémence. “So what is it, this time? Ransom? Blackmail? Why is that man dead?”
“I don’t know,” Clémence said sharply. “But I demand you keep your voice down. The victim is the brother of two of my guests. Please be sensitive.”
“All right, fine.” He lowered his voice. “But I still want to know, who is this guy, and what exactly happened here?”
It wasn’t a total surprise that Cyril would question her first instead of the person who found the body, or the guests who knew Cesar better. Clémence had been inadvertently helping Cyril solve murder cases ever since she returned to Paris in the spring.
“The publishing company? Yes.”
“Well, Cesar’s the head of the magazine department now, and he was being primed to take over the whole empire.”
“How do you know him?” Cyril asked.
“His youngest brother, Henri, is going out with a friend of mine, Madeleine Seydoux. You remember her?”
“Yes, of course.” Cyril furrowed his brows in thought. “Hold on, I know these Laberg brothers. They’re always on Paris Social’s ‘Most Eligible Bachelors’ list.”
Clémence gave him an odd but amused look. “You read that gossip site?”
Clémence snorted. “Sure. Well, I don’t know much about the Labergs. I suppose you can question Henri or Charles Laberg.”
They looked back at the brothers. Charles was on the phone, probably speaking with his parents, and Henri was being comforted by Madeleine in a tight embrace.
“Who found Cesar’s body?” Cyril asked.
“Maya Diallo,” she replied. “She’s the date of one of my bakers.”
Maya was on the opposite side of the room. Sebastien had his arms around her. She looked terrified. Clémence understood how shocking it could be to find a dead body. She’d stumbled across a few in the past few months.
“And what do you know about her?” Cyril asked. “This Maya Diallo?”
“Do you suspect her?” Clémence asked.
“I suspect everyone. Even you, too.”
“We all know how well your suspicions have served you in the past,” Clémence said sarcastically.
Arthur squeezed Clémence’s shoulder. “Let’s all calm down. We don’t know what happened. We don’t even know if Cesar was murdered.”
Cyril waved him away. “How did Maya find the body?”
“She was going to the restroom,” Clémence said, “and she had a little too much to drink, so she went into the men’s room by mistake and found the body slumped around the toilet.”
“Uh huh.” Cyril scribbled this down in his little notepad. “How well do you know her?”
“This is the first time I’ve met her,” Clémence said. “Like I said, she’s Sebastien’s girlfriend.”
“So you don’t know her well, then,” Cyril said.
“No.” Clémence was losing patience. “But I seriously doubt she had anything to do with this. She was screaming when she found him.”
“Likely story,” Cyril muttered. “Let’s go see the body.”
“We don’t know. No indication of foul play. We have to do an autopsy.”
“Cause of death unknown,” Cyril muttered. “What was he doing before he went into the restroom?” He turned to Clémence. “You have cameras here, right?”
“Yes,” Clémence replied. “Hidden in the two chandeliers, if you recall.”
“After I interrogate some of these witnesses, I want to see those tapes.”
“I’ll call my guy,” said Clémence.
She had Ralph Lemoine on speed dial. Ralph worked at the surveillance company Damour used. Watching the store tapes had helped them with cases in the past. It was past midnight, but it was a Saturday, so there was a chance that Ralph was up.
On the third ring, Ralph picked up. “Clémence Damour?” he answered in a groggy but flirtatious voice.
“Wait, you’re saying somebody died at your birthday party?” He sounded more awake this time.
“Yes,” she replied. “We don’t know if he’d been murdered, but we’d like to see what happened to him leading up to his death, if possible, on surveillance.”
“I’m up now, and I live close to work, so you can come by. I’ll meet you there. What exactly happened?”
“I’ll fill you in when we get there. Unfortunately, that annoying inspector is going to come. Hope you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind him.”
“That makes one of us.”
Ralph chuckled. “I’ll start getting the footage ready for you, then.”
Clémence hung up and saw Cyril St. Clair interrogating Henri Laberg.
“My brother doesn’t have any health issues that I know of,” Henri was saying. “He had seasonal allergies, but nothing that would kill him.”
“Are you sure there’s nothing else?” Cyril asked.
“Well, he was a little allergic to cats.”
“Excuse me,” Clémence cut in. “Sorry to interrupt, Henri. Cyril?” She pulled him aside. “I’m heading over to the surveillance place with Arthur first. Then you can join me once you’ve finished.”
“Seriously, Damour? You get a head start on questioning the witnesses and now you get to go through the videos first?”
“It’s not a competition,” Clémence exclaimed. “Although, for the last case, I still haven’t received my letter as part of my win.”
Clémence and Cyril had made a deal that if Clémence solved the last murder case, Cyril would write her a letter of defeat for her to frame, expressing how she was superior to him in every way. So far, he’d yet to write it.
“It’s lost in the mail,” said Cyril.
“A deal’s a deal.” Clémence crossed her arms.
Cyril sighed. “Fine. Yes, okay. I haven’t had the time. I’ve been busy. So busy that I can’t even get any decent sleep on the weekends. Some Saturday this is turning out to be.”
“Yes. It’s not as if I want to be investigating another murder during my birthday celebration either, Cyril.”
And yet, she was.
