Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 78076 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78076 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“And the victim?”
“We took his fingerprints, as well as the girl’s. I’m waiting for the results.”
She nodded. I was about to get up, assuming the conversation was over, but Leah didn’t take it the same way.
“You’re sure you want to lead the investigation?” she asked.
“Excuse me?” I was quite surprised by this question. Everyone in Nice knew I’d been after Santoni for years.
“It was Leonard who was working the case. I know he’s doing you a favor by letting you have a look, but…”
“Go on, say what’s on your mind,” I said, crossing my arms.
“I’m worried about you, Finn. Catching Santoni has almost become an obsession of yours. I’ve seen completely sane guys go half mad over simpler cases than this. I wouldn’t want—”
“It won’t come to that,” I cut her off. “I’m going to put Santoni behind bars and that’s that.”
“When was the last time you took a vacation, Finn?”
There was no way I was going to answer that, so I ignored it. “I’m going to go see if the ID results have come back.”
She looked at me the same way my mother used to look at me when I told lies when I was younger… and even now, but I walked away.
A vacation was the last thing I wanted. I couldn’t even imagine myself relaxing in the sun when a scumbag like Santoni was on the loose.
I wasn’t an idiot. I knew I was a bit tense at the moment, but what I needed was some sugar, not a break.
I was always hungry because of my stupid diet, and I was sure the lack of fat was actually bad for my brain, but I’d also decided it was a necessary evil. I couldn’t be out of shape, not for my job, and I had promised myself this little bulge that had formed over my stomach would soon be gone.
I had only just left Leah’s office when Rhett pounced on me.
“Finn, we’ve got your results,” he said, brandishing a piece of paper like a journalist announcing the latest scoop in a newsroom.
At least in the movies from the nineties.
I joined him, snatched the papers from his hands, and started to read. He tried to read over my shoulder, something I hated more than anything, but I could have spent hours explaining it to him, and it probably wouldn’t have changed anything. My time was too precious to go through Rhett’s unbearable manners one by one.
Alerted by the noise our young colleague was making, Leah came out of her office and asked, “Well?”
“Well… who was in charge of this?” I asked, raising my voice so that my colleagues around me could hear.
“Me,” replied Agatha from her office. “Is there a problem?”
“You’re certain it’s not a mistake?”
She looked at me, surprised, as if wondering what I’d smoked this morning.
The truth was that I was sober. I hadn’t even had my caffeine fix. The swill they served at the station, especially without sugar, was downright irresponsible to drink. I said I’d rather go without than attempt to drink motor oil.
“No… I asked for the results of the fingerprints taken by the forensics team to be sent straight to us. Do you think they sent the wrong file?”
“Wrong one, maybe…”
“Tell us, Finn, what’s wrong?” asked Leah impatiently.
“The fingerprints found at the scene, the witness’s, have a match.”
Everyone was staring at me. They didn’t see what the problem was, so I explained. “Jenny Grandet.”
The room was silent. Apparently that name didn’t mean anything to them.
“Jenny Grandet, Eugenie Grandet? Don’t you know them?” I lost my patience.
“Is it an actress?” asked Rhett.
“No, it’s a novel by Honoré de Balzac,” I sighed. “Have you never been to a library?”
Leah glared at me. Okay, the kid was allowed to not be a fan of nineteenth-century literature, but in this case, he could have refrained from commenting.
“Just because it sounds like Elizabeth Grandet doesn’t mean it’s suspicious…”
“No one is called that,” I said.
“In fact, her parents may have thought it would be a funny reference to Jane Austen with that surname. They modernized Elizabeth to Jenny,” suggested Agatha. “I have a childhood friend who was called Mauro. Her parents gave her the first name Marie-Lynn…”
“Ah! I know her, she’s an actress,” exclaimed Rhett as if he had just won the final of Who Wants to be a Millionaire with that answer.
“Yes, Marilyn Monroe, not the girl in my class,” said Agatha.
The need to specify that wasn’t completely uncalled for, given that our colleague was devoid of any common sense. You only had to spend two minutes with Rhett to know that if he passed the entrance exam, it was thanks to his physical aptitude rather than his general knowledge.
Why were we blessed to have him with us? Well, I guess every workplace had its own village idiot, and in the grand lottery of idiots, we got Rhett.