The Ben Hope Collection: 6 BOOK SET by Scott Mariani

look. ‘So where’s it gone to? The bathroom? Maybe we’ll find it sitting on the toilet reading
Le Monde
?’
    ‘I wish I knew,’ she replied helplessly. ‘But he
was
there…I didn’t imagine it.’
    ‘Search the place,’ Simon ordered his officers. ‘Talk to the neighbours, find out if they heard anything.’ The men went off to comb through the apartment, one or two of them casting irritable glances at Roberta. Simon turned to her again. ‘You say he was a big, powerful man? That he attacked you with a knife?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘But you’re not injured?’
    She tutted with annoyance. ‘No.’
    ‘How do you expect me to believe that a woman of your size–about one metre sixty-five?–could kill a large armed attacker with her bare hands, and not have a mark on her?’
    ‘Hold on–I never said I killed him. He
fell
on the knife.’
    ‘What was he doing here?’
    ‘What does a criminal normally do inside somebody’s apartment? He was burgling the place. Turned my lab upside down.’
    ‘Your lab?’
    ‘Sure, the whole place has been ransacked. See for yourself.’
    She pointed to the lab door, and he pushed it open. Peering in past his shoulder she saw with a shock that the room had been tidied up–everything neatly inits proper place, files neatly ordered, drawers shut. Was she going crazy?
    ‘Tidy burglar,’ Simon commented. ‘Wish they were all like that.’
    One of the agents looked in the door. ‘Sir, the neighbours across the landing were in all afternoon. They say they heard nothing.’
    ‘Huh,’ Simon snorted. He looked around the lab, snatched up a piece of paper from her desk. ‘What’s this?
The Biological Science of Alchemy
?’ His eyes flashed up from the page and bored into her.
    ‘I told you, I-I’m a scientist,’ she stammered.
    ‘Alchemy is a science now? You can turn lead into gold?’
    ‘Give me a break.’
    ‘Maybe you’ve invented a way of making things…disappear?’ he said with an expansive gesture. He tossed the paper down on the desk and strode purposefully across the room. ‘And what’s in here?’
    Before she could stop him he’d opened the doors to the fly tanks.
‘Putain!
This is disgusting.’
    ‘It’s part of my research.’
    ‘This is a serious health and safety matter, madame. These things carry disease.’ The police doctor was standing behind Roberta in the doorway, nodding in agreement and rolling his eyes. The other officers were returning from their search of the small apartment, shaking their heads. She could feel hostile looks coming at her from all directions.
    ‘Your coffee, sir.’
    Ah, thank Christ.’ Simon grabbed the paper cupand took a deep gulp. Coffee was the only thing that took away these stress headaches. He needed to rest more. He hadn’t slept at all last night.
    ‘I know this looks weird,’ Roberta protested. She was gesticulating too much, on the defensive. She didn’t like the way her voice was going high. ‘But I’m telling you–’
    ‘Are you married? Have you a boyfriend?’ Simon asked sharply.
    ‘No–I did have a boyfriend–but not any more…but what does that have to do with anything?’
    ‘You’re emotionally upset that he has left you,’ suggested Simon. ‘Perhaps the stress…’
That’s ironic
, he was thinking, remembering last night’s performance with Hélène.
    ‘Oh, so you think I’m having a nervous breakdown? The little woman can’t cope without a man?’
    He shrugged.
    ‘What the hell are these questions? Who’s your superior officer?’
    ‘You should be careful, madame. Remember you’ve committed a serious offence.’
    ‘Please, listen to me. I think they’re planning to kill somebody else. An English guy.’
    ‘Oh really? Who’s planning this?’
    ‘I don’t know
who.
The same people who tried to kill me.’
    ‘Then I’d suggest that our English friend is in no great danger.’ Simon regarded her with an obvious look of contempt. And do we know who this Englishman is?