The man dressed, all the while glaring at the three officers. His blush betrayed his humiliation and his facial scar stood out in stark contrast. Once he was shackled to the table again they left as did the watchers with Chanel. One of the ladies stopped and looked back at the detective. “I hope it isn’t him. Sending such a beautiful man to prison for life would be such a waste.” she said and ignored Chanel’s glare as she left.
Minutes later she watched the door open on the interrogation room again. Detective Felix Mannus entered the room with a file in his hand. Mannus looked like he’d just stepped off a catwalk. Crisp, tailored suit, perfectly mussed hair, chiseled features, the man used his looks as a weapon against those he interrogated. He seemed to be able to get people to open up to him faster. People wanted to trust the pretty man. Babineaux snorted. She’d been told she could do the same thing but she found the idea distasteful.
Mannus sat and opened the file.
“Mr…” He looked at the file. “Shepherd it says here.” he said in French.
“I’m sorry I don’t speak French. Only English.” the man said.
Felix looked at him. “I said the file reads that your documents indicate your name is Ben Shepherd.”
“That’s right.”
“Ben Shepherd. Benjamin?” the detective asked.
“No, just Ben.”
“Why did you attack the man in the customs queue, Benjamin?”
“Ben. I- I don’t remember attacking anyone.”
“Really? You don’t remember? You are actually going to tell me that.” Mannus said with a sigh. He pulled a tablet from under the file and queued up the clip. He turned it to the man and played it.
Chanel watched the expression on the man’s face. She saw his jaw lock and his eyes go cold. Definitely a killer she thought. It’s him! She was convinced.
“He hit the girl.” the man said with a voice gone cold.
Mannus seemed to be looking carefully at the man across the table from him. “You struck the man very violently. He lost teeth.” he said quietly.
“He hit the girl.” was the only reply. Again, the smooth, calm voice sent a chill up Chanel’s spine.
“Did you know this man or the woman he was with?” the detective asked.
“No.” he said and began to blink. His eyes began to show confusion. “I need to let my friends know where I am. Tina especially.”
“Your friends? You were traveling alone.” Mannus said looking at the file.
“I was traveling with eight other people but we got separated at customs. Listen, Tina has… an anxiety disorder. She’s probably in a bad state. I need to let her and the others know where I am.”
Chanel frowned. This was a different ploy. Crafty bastard.
“Then perhaps you should answer my questions quickly so we can finish up here.” Mannus said reasonably. The man frowned but nodded.
“What is the purpose of your visit to Paris?” he asked.
“We’re on vacation. Sightseeing.” the man replied but looked towards the door.
“How long will you be here, Benjamin?” the detective continued.
“Ben. Two weeks but we’ll only be in Paris for five days. We’re visiting several places as we head south and will finish up in Cannes and fly home from Nice.”
“Your passport is new.”
“Yes, I got it renewed before the trip.” the man replied.
“You filled the other one? You travel a lot? Amsterdam? London? Warsaw? Johannesburg? Frankfurt? Rome?” Mannus said and Chanel recognized the list of cities where Rapava had left his mark.
“No, I’ve never traveled before. My neighbor Gabriella who organized this trip asked me to renew my old passport even though it still had a little under a year left on it. I hadn’t used the old one.”
“So you are claiming you’ve never been to the cities I mentioned.” Mannus pushed.
“That’s right. Paris is the first place I’ve ever traveled to and I’m starting to wish I hadn’t.” the man grumbled.
“That’s odd because we have people claiming to have seen you in those cities.” the detective pushed again.
“Then they’d be wrong because I’ve never traveled outside of the United States before.” the man insisted.
“Their description of you was very specific.” The moment Mannus said it Babineaux wanted to scream.
The man froze. He looked at the detective. “Is that what all this is about? I look like someone you are looking for? Is there a photo of this person I’m supposed to be?”
Chanel cursed. Felix had fucked up. She knew Rapava was done talking. She stormed out of the observation room. She had to contact her snitch to see if she could get more information on Rapava’s actual reason for coming to Paris. She had to get it before he weaseled his way free of this. They still had his attack on the punk in the custom’s queue. So they could hold him on that.
As she made her way through the halls she saw a cluster of officers and a medical team with a stretcher. There was a body under the sheet on it.
“Who’s this?” she asked.
“Just some stupid punk who thought he could smuggle heroin inside his body and get into a fight. He attacked these guys and they put him down. But one of the bags in his intestines must have ruptured. He died of an overdose pretty quickly after that.” the medic said.
Chanel pulled the sheet down and cursed. It was the guy from the queue. Their reason for keeping Rapava. FUCK! She thought quickly. There was still the girlfriend. She’d still be in holding. Chanel set off to find her.
Gabriella, Catherine, and Tina sat in a conference room waiting on the Chief Inspector. Megan had returned to them directly after speaking with a young woman who had witnessed the police taking Ben away. She’d filled them in on Ben’s situation and everyone gave her hugs for her amazing detective work. The three women had immediately set off for the Security office and demanded to speak with whoever was in charge.
Gabriella looked over at Tina and saw she was looking a little better. Now that they knew Ben was in a room nearby the uncertainty was greatly reduced. They were taking action. But they still had to extract Ben from this mess.
A large burly man in a dark grey suit entered the conference room and introduced himself in French as Chief Inspector Antoine Boucher and that he understood they had asked to speak with him. Gabriella greeted him in French and asked if they could speak in English for Tina’s sake. He smiled and graciously agreed.
“So I am to understand you know something of the man we currently have in custody?” he began.
“Yes, his name is Ben Shepherd and he is a very good friend and neighbor of ours. We’ve been neighbors for years and this is his first time traveling outside of the States. Ben is traveling with our group but we got separated in that mess at customs.” Gabriella explained.
“Then you are unaware that he was involved in a violent altercation with another passenger.” Boucher asserted.
“We understand that Ben came to the assistance of a young woman named Lucy who was being physically assaulted.” Gabriella said.
“Ben does that. He is a good man!” Tina blurted and Catherine took her hand with a smile.
The Chief Inspector’s face showed his surprise that they were aware of the young woman.
“Ben can’t turn a blind eye when a woman is being abused. Did the passenger attempt to attack Ben when he stopped him from hurting the woman?” Gabriella asked.
This explanation spoke to Antoine’s niggling doubts but he wasn’t ready to hand over their suspect on the word of these three women. They were not citizens of France.
Gabriella read his unease and spoke up again. “I’m here on vacation this time but I’m in Paris frequently for my business. I import Parisian fashion from designers here for distributors in the States. I have several business contacts here that will vouch for me.” Gabriella suggested. Boucher looked pleased and nodded. She brought up the contact details on her phone. She showed them to him and he made a note on his tablet.
When he saw the third contact he froze. “Is this a direct line to Madame Clarisse Leferre?”
Gabriella’s face held a warm smile. “Yes. Clarisse is a dear friend as well as a colleague and she is aware of Ben. I’ve shown her a picture of Ben as well. She can vouch for me and for how long I’ve known him.
She pulled up a photo she had on her phone of her and Ben in the park in the center court during a block party. She turned the phone to Boucher. It was an older picture taken in the summer and Gabriella was showing a little more cleavage than she normally felt comfortable displaying. She’d done it to catch Ben’s eye and she recalled it had certainly worked.
“If you would be so kind to forward this image to my account we will add it to the file… as proof of your previous knowledge.” Boucher said with a slight blush.
“Certainly,” she replied as she entered the email address he showed her on the tablet. The picture was sent and she watched him smile as it appeared on his tablet. Men were such slaves to their penises, she thought, but kept her smile to herself.
He looked closer at Ben’s face in the image and noticed no scar. “When was this image taken? He is missing some characteristics his face now has.”
She looked at Catherine. “When was our last block party? The big one we had in the park.”
Catherine frowned. “I believe that was four years ago.”
Gabriella nodded. “Ben now has a scar across his face.”
Boucher perked up. “When did he get this scar?”
“Close to three months ago Ben was attacked by a man with a knife. He was stabbed in the chest multiple times and his face was slashed. He’s healed very well but the scars remain.” Gabriella replied.