Evan and Elle - By Rhys Bowen Page 0,19

although she had seen him go up the stairs half an hour earlier. “Telephone for you—she says it’s an emergency.”

Evan reached for his dressing gown and ran down the stairs.

“Ees zat Constable Evans?” The voice was tight and breathless. “I am so sorry to disturb you but anozzer note has come . . . just a few minutes ago I see it. I am worried zat zee man ees still outside my ’ouse.”

“Keep the door locked and watch out for me,” Evan said. “I’ll be down there in a few minutes.”

He scrambled back into his clothes, grabbed his torch and drove as fast as he dared down the pass, his headlights cutting crazy curves through the darkness as he negotiated the bends. He parked and switched on the torch. It felt heavy in his hand and comforting in the absence of a weapon as he got out of the car.

He had just completed a tour of the outside of the building when he sensed someone standing behind him. He turned to see Madame Yvette standing at her door, wearing a white satin dressing gown with feathery trim at the neck and matching slippers.

“Oh, you ’ave come. Sank you so much. I am so afraid when I sink zis man might still be zere, watching me.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve checked all around the place. If anyone was here, he’s gone now.” He followed her into the restaurant. What had once been a chapel now contained six tables covered in red-and-white checked cloths. There were curtains at the windows and Impressionist prints on the walls. Evan nodded with approval.

“You say you just got the note?”

“I found it when I went to check zat zee doors were locked for zee night and I call you right away. It was not zere when zee restaurant was open or my customers would have seen it.”

Evan looked around at the tables laid with polished silver and white linen napkins, unsure where to sit. It was as if Madame Yvette read his mind.

“I start small,” she said. “Only six tables. That way 1 can do wizout ’elp until it gets going. And I live ’ere—upstairs, where zee old balcony used to be. It ees small but how you say”—she spread her hands in a very French gesture—“cozy enough for one person, non?”

She crossed the restaurant and pushed open a swing door into a kitchen. Gleaming pots and pans hung above a big stove. Strings of garlic, onions, and bunches of herbs hung over a central wooden table. “Zis way, please,” she said. She turned to her left. There was a back door on the far wall and beside it a wooden staircase climbed the side wall. She went up without turning around, her slippers flapping on the bare boards. Evan got a tantalizing glimpse of bare leg as she hitched up her robe.

The upstairs living area was one good-size room, like a loft, above the kitchen. There was a small sofa, armchair, and coffee table at the near end, with a TV on a cabinet in the corner. On the far wall was an unmade bed with various pieces of clothing, including a black lace bra, thrown across it.

“Please. Sit down. Anywhere you like.”

Evan perched hastily at the end of the sofa closest to the stairs, with his back to the black lace. “Now about the note, Madame,” he began.

“Would you like a glass of wine perhaps?” Madame Yvette crossed the room.

“Not while I’m on duty, thanks.”

“Not even a cognac?” She opened the corner cupboard beneath the TV. “I sink I will have one, if you don’t mind. To steady zee nerves.”

She poured amber liquid into a brandy glass and came to sit on the other arm of the sofa. She took a sip, sighed and put the glass down on the coffee table in front of her before reaching for a packet of Gauloises. “Cigarette?”

“No thanks, I don’t.”

“Very wise. Feelthy habit. I should quit, but I don’t seem to be able to.”

She lit the cigarette and inhaled deeply. Evan wasn’t sure, but he thought she deliberately blew the smoke in his direction.

“Show me the note you got,” Evan said. “Is it the same as the last one?”

She pulled it from her dressing gown pocket. “ ’ere it ees.”

Evan unfolded it. It was also written in bold letters in black marker. It just said, GO HOME OR ELSE.

“Short and to the point.” Evan looked up to see her watching him. “It will be interesting to see if the