Paris Love Match - By Nigel Blackwell Page 0,19
identity, and Piers knew he had found her. She was running in an instant.
Sidney had spotted her, too, and was running for the steps at the far end of the platform. Piers took the steps closest to him. April wasn’t going to get off the balcony without passing one of them, but there were plenty of doorways adjoining the balcony, and April took one.
In a moment, she reappeared and took the next doorway. Piers ran hard, but it looked like Sidney would reach April first. Piers’ skin prickled. April was Auguste’s partner in crime. The man who had been shot in their taxi. The man with the gun. And if he had a gun …
“Sidney! Stop! Wait there!”
Sidney didn’t stop.
Piers ran harder, waving his hands. “Stop! Sidney!”
Sidney skidded to a halt by the doorway April had taken and stood very still. Shit, shit, shit. Had April drawn a gun? Piers was only paces away from the doorway. He stretched his arms out and barreled into Sidney, sweeping her up and away from the opening. She gave a scream, and he managed a couple of paces before he lost his grip and his footing. They went down in a jumble of arms and elbows on the hard floor. He rolled off her and up onto his haunches, bracing himself for the sight of a gun.
She lay on the floor. “What the hell was that for?”
“She has a gun.” Piers grabbed Sidney’s hand and started pulling her up.
Sidney wrestled out of his grip. “No, she bloody doesn’t”
Piers stopped mid-grab for Sidney’s arm. “She doesn’t?”
April was back on the balcony. He shoved Sidney aside and lunged for April. The woman stepped left, but Piers caught onto her big coat and manhandled her back into the doorway.
She twisted uselessly. “Get off me or I’ll scream.”
“We need to talk to you.”
“I don’t care. I’ve got a train to catch. Let me go!”
“We came to tell you why Auguste’s not here.”
April’s expression froze for an instant, a brief stutter in the film of her life. “I don’t know who you’re talking about. I’ve got to go.”
Piers relaxed his grip. “He’s dead.”
He felt a smack on the back of his head and Sidney pushed him aside. “For god’s sake, is that the best you can do?”
April put her arms up in front of her face. “I don’t know who you’re talking about. I have to go.”
Sidney touched her arm. “We really need to talk to you.”
The train gave a long blast of its horn and the passenger doors slammed shut.
“That’s my train. I should be on it.”
“We know. We’re sorry.”
The train’s engine roared and the floor trembled faintly as it pulled out of the station.
April didn’t move. “I should be on that train. It’s my train.”
Sidney put her arm around her. “We know, we know.”
“Auguste’s just late. He’s just late.”
Sidney gave a slight shake of her head.
April looked at her, her eyes imploring, “He’s never late. I know him. He’s dependable. Always. He must be stuck in traffic.”
Sidney shook her head again. “He jumped in my taxi a couple of hours ago.”
“No.”
“Yes. He was injured.”
“No … no … no, he wouldn’t have been in a taxi.”
“He was,” Piers said.
April kept shaking her head. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she sniffed.
“He’d been shot,” Sidney said.
April’s head shaking grew more forceful. “No. You’re wrong. It couldn’t be. Not Auguste.”
“Yes.”
“He was going to meet me here.”
“We know.”
“He couldn’t have been in a taxi.”
“He was. He was being shot at. They shot at us too.”
“No.”
“It was the police,” Sidney said.
“Might have been the police,” Piers said.
Sidney gave him an angry glance before giving April a squeeze. “We were there. He died in the taxi.”
April pawed at the collar on Sidney’s jacket. “But he wasn’t supposed to be in a taxi. That can’t be right. He’s just caught in traffic. He’ll be here.” She bit her lower lip. “Won’t he?”
Sidney and Piers shook their heads in unison.
Tears welled up and poured down April’s face. Her mouth was half open and her bottom lip stuck out, trembling. Sidney pulled her close while she wept. Piers patted her on the back as he looked up and down the platform. There was no one suspicious, no police, no Little, and no Large. Maybe they were ahead of the game.
He looked back at Sidney, only to find her glowering at him. “What?” he mouthed.
She rolled her eyes and patted April’s back.
“We need to keep a look out,” Piers said. Sidney gave him a disgusted