'MADAME ANTOINETTE'

 

Chapter 7

‘MADAME ANTOINETTE’

 

Briony had never liked fur coats, and Zoë’s made her feel sick, Grandfather put it away out of sight. Antoinette sounded rather exotic to Briony’s ears. Alden told her that the next day they would be leaving. Briony didn’t want to go, because she wanted to go back home to see her sons. Alden asked her if she wanted her sons to think that Jasper might be a murderer. Briony said that Nora had seen Jasper leave the hospital. Alden insisted that they go to the village where Donald and Zoë had lived, and where Jasper had had the accident. Grandfather told Briony he preferred her to go with Alden, because then he would take more care. Grandfather managed to create half an hour of good weather to allow them to leave more relaxed. Auntie Mati asked Grandfather to create a snowstorm and the old man, with shining eyes like a child’s, tapped out instructions on the keyboard until the first snowflakes began to fall. The snow fell right up to the town.

 

James and Michael woke up to a white and silent world. It was possible to count the number of people going to work. They had rung the college to see if there would be any classes and were informed that, no there wouldn’t be any. The snow didn’t stop falling all day. Grandfather’s experiment had worked.

 

Briony and Alden arrived and parked opposite the hospital. The food prepared by Auntie Mati was very welcome. Alden told her they were waiting, and neither of them took their eyes off the hospital. A beige coloured car stopped, and Nora got out. It was eight o’clock and she was exactly on time. Alden wrote Nora’s car number down.

 

Nora came out of the hospital and they drove behind her. She wasn’t difficult to follow as nobody was going to manage going fast in such weather conditions. She drove to a village which was completely unknown to Alden and Briony. Nora got out of her car and went into one of the houses.

The atmosphere in the village street was that of a horror film, the heavy snowflakes hit them both in their faces as they walked to Nora’s house. Alden rang the front doorbell and Nora answered and showed no surprised on seeing them. Alden asked her why there was no activity in the hospital Accident and Emergency department.

Nora said that she knew nothing about the work in hospitals as she had never worked in a hospital before. She said that she had owned a boutique with Doctor Quinn’s wife, Sandra, who had been killed in a car accident two years before. Briony told Nora that Jasper had also been in a road accident in that area. They asked her why she worked at the hospital, and she said Doctor Quinn had offered her the job after his wife had died. Nora added that Doctor Quinn was still in love with his wife. Alden wanted to know why the fast recovery hadn’t happened with Doctor Quinn’s wife, as it had done with Jasper. Nora told them that she was in town buying goods and merchandise for their boutique when the accident had happened, and by the time she had returned, her friend Sandra had been cremated. It turned out that Doctor Star was Quinn’s replacement; and when Star wasn’t available, it was Doctor Landers, who drove a white car.

 

So, who was the man in the maroon car?

 

The ski resort lived from the sport, and witness to that was the number of shops dedicated to selling all kind of things related to snow sports. Alden and Briony tried their luck at finding out about Nora and her friend Sandra. The assistant in the third shop they visited, told them, that the two women had had a business selling hand-knitted goods. Sandra had died in an accident, but she knew nothing about Nora’s whereabouts. Their boutique was the one now known as ‘Madame Antoinette’, that sold expensive second-hand clothes. The assistant also told them, that if they wanted to know more they should pay a visit to Ralph, who ran a car repair business, as he had once been an admirer of Sandra.

 

Ralph was a man of fifty years old. He told them how Nora had given up the business on Sandra’s death, and that now the shop called ‘Madame Antoinette’ sold expensive second-hand clothes. He and Sandra had been lovers, and that Doctor Quinn couldn’t have known, because he rarely went to the ski resort. Sandra was going to ask him for a divorce when she died in the accident. In spite of the sadness incurred, Ralph had eventually met a single lady. He also told them, there was nothing between Nora and Doctor Quinn. He didn’t have any clients with maroon coloured cars, but had often seen one outside the ‘Madame Antoinette’. Ralph asked not to mention his name to anyone, and certainly not to Nora or Doctor Quinn.

 

Ralph had been right, the maroon car was in the street outside the ‘Madame Antoinette’. Briony and Alden sat in his car eating, and keeping an eye on the shop. The door opened, and a man wearing a wide-brimmed hat came out and got into the maroon car and drove off.

They went into the shop and the woman remembered Alden, and asked what she could do for them. Briony told her she was looking for a fur coat. She tried on one fur coat after another, and like the majority of women put her hands in the pockets. Antoinette paid her no attention - her eyes were devouring Alden. It was in the third fur coat that Briony’s fingers found something strange. She tugged and pulled at the pocket lining, until she had freed a medal which she slipped into her sweater sleeve. Briony left soon afterwards without purchasing anything. They went to Magician’s Leap straight away.

 

Grandfather was sitting in his chair by the fireplace. Auntie Mati was cooking up something tasty. Briony gave the medal to Grandfather, who turned it over in his hands. There were initials on the back, a letter H over a Y, and a date 27:4:88. They saw that the image on the reverse side, was that of a saint who cured skin complaints, so the owner of the medal must have suffered from one of those illnesses. There should be a shrine dedicated to him, Grandfather told them.

Grandfather went to his room as soon as dinner was finished, and later on returned to tell them that the saint was from a village called Rivermount, they only had to find out who the owner of the medal was. Grandfather switched on the crystal ball, and Briony shivered at the sight of the cold nocturnal road. They all saw the figure of a man who moved very close to the fence, a bright light from a passing car shone on his face under a hat, and the intruder covered his face with a scarf, and got into a maroon coloured car, and was away.

 

The computer printer sent out a paper with the following information. The medal belonged to a woman called Hermione Yabra, who stayed at the Rivermount hotel. She lived at number 14, Tower Street - the same building that Jasper and Zoë were supposed to have rented a flat.

 

Briony felt very distressed. Her life had been normal, until the police had called, and she had been forced into a situation that was none of her making. All she wanted to do was to go back home, and be with her sons and her job. Auntie Mati said that the weatherman had just said that as conditions were dangerous on the roads, salt would be spread over the surface of the most important ones.

Alden told his grandfather that he was going too far with his weather tricks. Grandfather defended himself by saying that ever since he tried to ‘leap’ - and failed - he needed something to amuse himself.

 

It was still night, when Briony got up and rang her sons to let them know she was on her way back home. The boys said they wouldn’t leave the flat till she got there. Grandfather told Alden to be extra careful because of the road conditions. Not to go fast, and to maintain a healthy distance between his car and the others. It would be easy to cause an accident that day.

 

The road with its multiple curves and the tunnel was more like a funfair. Briony didn’t speak to Alden, she concentrated on the road. Sliding from one side to the other, they got to the motorway. There was salt all over the road surface and there were more vehicles. Alden was a bit more relaxed. The early morning light added to the coldness of the countryside that was surrealistic. No vehicles moved quickly and the slowness was agonising. Alden did what Grandfather had said, and did everything he could to avoid hitting another vehicle.

There had been a crash, and they saw a tow-truck and an ambulance blocking the road. The car was maroon coloured. Alden stopped, and told a policeman that Briony’s husband had a car of that colour, and gave his name. She was asked to take a look to see whether or not it was Jasper. Even though his face had been destroyed and it was difficult, but one thing she did know was, that it was the man with the wide brimmed hat. Their pursuer was dead. Alden wondered if it had been a real accident or premeditated.

They knew for sure their situation was even more vulnerable. Alden switched on the car radio that informed about the accident.

 

The dead man was - Doctor Star.