Chapter Text
This heat was killing him. Richard Poole reached for the water bottle on his desk, only to realise that it was empty again. He sighed, got up and went to the fridge to retrieve a new one. His steps were a bit wobbly. He frowned and tried to focus. Ah, there was the fridge handle – something to hold on to!
He opened the door and was surprised to see that there only was one more bottle inside – when he had entered the station in the morning, there had been eight full bottles in the fridge, each of them holding an entire litre.
Surely, he hadn’t drunk them all by himself? No, obviously not – he saw a water bottle on each of his subordinates’ desk. That made three already. He glanced into the bin beside his desk and counted four empty bottles, all neatly crushed to a fraction of their original size so they wouldn’t fill up the bin… He couldn’t remember if he had drunk all of them. He knew he had had at least two litres of water already, plus a litre of tea during his lunch break, plus a mug of tea and a glass of fruit juice in the morning before work… Good grief. What was wrong with him that he was so thirsty?
Fidel, the young sergeant, noticed Richard’s puzzled face and said “Er… Chief… Camille and Dwayne have already set off to buy more water. They should be back soon, so feel free to take that bottle!”
Richard had some trouble processing Fidel’s words. He had noticed all day long that he was a bit slow today – he was tired, and he had woken up with a raging headache that had got only slightly better during the day, so maybe that was the reason. He took out the last bottle of water from the fridge and turned around, opening his mouth and trying to make a reply.
But whatever he had wanted to say, it never came out. In slow motion, he dropped the bottle, then – much to Fidel’s horror – he toppled over and fell flat on the floor.
****************
Camille and Dwayne were sitting on a bench in front of the little supermarket just at the edge of Honoré, each of them enjoying a dish of icecream. Camille had gone for chocolate, and Dwayne had chosen rum-raisins, and they were chatting away in between licking.
“This icecream is lovely! Just what I needed… Oh, I’m so glad we could slip away from the station,” Camille sighed. “Is it only me, or is the Chief particularly prickly and annoying today?” she asked. Dwayne sniggered, sucked a raisin from his icecream and said “No, it’s not only you. He’s been irritable for a few days already, but today he’s just plain maddening. He’s hard to please at the best of times, but today it’s beyond belief. What a fusspot he is…”
Camille licked on her icecream and said thoughtfully “I thought he had become better after his return from London a few weeks ago. For a while he wasn’t as uptight and nitpicky as he used to be, but it seems he has fallen back into the same old behaviour patterns.”
She sighed again and added “And I had thought he’d come to his senses and abandon his suits after his luggage had got lost and the Commissioner had recommended a few stores where he could get lightweight clothing… remember how good he looked with those dark slacks and the sage green shirt he wore one day? And short sleeves – blimey. I thought he’d love that airy and loose feeling, but no… as soon as his suitcase was back, he went back to those awful woollen suits…”
Dwayne shot her a sideways glance and pretended not to notice the hint of wistfulness in her voice. He knew that Camille had a ‘thing’ for the Chief, but as far as he could see it, she made one prominent mistake – she wanted him to change for her. Well, that wouldn’t happen. She’d either have to take him the way he was, or she’d have to let him go. People didn’t change fundamentally – neither for others, nor in general - and the Chief was a particularly tough nut to crack – even small changes were a big deal for him.
Dwayne couldn’t quite see why Camille would want to be with someone who was a crotchety control freak. The Chief was nice enough, but he was a stickler and an awkward loner, somewhat suspicious of people, and Camille was sociable and gregarious…
But perhaps the fact that he was such a tough nut to crack just made him all the more interesting for Camille. She wasn’t used to men resisting her charms, and Richard’s demonstrative lack of interest clearly challenged her. She was attractive, and men flocked around her, trying to win her affection, but she just wasn’t interested. She would go out with them for an evening, have a drink, have a dance, maybe have a harmless flirt, but nobody ever got beyond that point with her.
She hadn’t had a serious boyfriend since she had joined the team over two years ago. Her mother had tried to set her up with men she found suitable, but given up on it eventually after Camille had declared she was not going to let anybody else run her life, and that included her mother.
Catherine hadn’t been happy, and Dwayne knew that she and Camille had been cross with each other for a while, but Camille had not given in. After the Erzulie festival earlier this year, she had straight out refused to have more blind dates. She had said she was tired of riding the merry-go-round, and if she wanted to become a spinster, it was her business, and hers alone… Shortly after that, she had bought a house, got it renovated and eventually moved out of her mother’s place where she had been staying ever since she had started working on Saint Marie.
In an attempt to distract her, he asked “So, Camille, what’s going to happen this weekend?” It was Thursday already, so it was realistic to make plans for the forthcoming days and evenings.
“Oh, I’m not sure,” Camille responded lazily. “You know that I’ll be on call, but with some luck, it will be a quiet weekend. I might have to help Maman in the bar, but I hope I can go out and see a friend. I’ve been a bit tired lately, so I won’t go too wild this weekend. Not that I had planned anything like that… Might go to the beach for a swim some time or maybe for a run. And of course, there’ll be the usual chores – but I guess that was not what you wanted to know. When do you ever do your laundry, Dwayne? You always seem to be on the go, and yet you never run out of clean shirts…”
Dwayne chuckled and replied “Oh, I have lots of them, you know. I just wear one after another, and when I see I only have ten more left, I load the washer and get it all done in a weekend.”
“Including the ironing?” Camille asked incredulously, thinking of Dwayne’s fashionable and colourful cotton shirts.
Dwayne laughed and said with a twinkle in his eyes “Usually, I’m lucky, and someone else does the ironing for me…” Camille rolled her eyes – but she couldn’t help laughing. “Really, Dwayne.. Are you telling me that the ladies are queuing up so they can iron your shirts? How do you do that?”
“Well, it’s not like they don’t get anything for their efforts,” he defended himself with a smirk. Camille shook her head, amused and a little appalled at the same time.
Before she could ask what precisely Dwayne had planned for the weekend, her phone buzzed. She pulled it out of the pocket of her very short denim shorts and raised her eyebrows. “It’s Fidel,” she said, surprise in her voice. Dwayne sighed and asked “You can’t ignore it?” “Nah,” said Camille, “it might be something urgent after all, and we’re still on duty…”
She picked up the phone. “Yes, Fidel?”
Dwayne idly sucked at another raisin – hmmm, this icecream was delicious. Suddenly he startled as Camille moved abruptly to sit bolted upright and spat out “What?!?! Is he hurt? Did you call Dr Paulette already? Oh… I see. Where? Give me her number again…“ – she handed Dwayne her icecream, pulled out her notepad and jotted down a series of figures. “Right. We’ll pick her up. No problem. Thank you, Fidel. And don’t let him leave before we’re back - I know you can do it… Oh… too weak, you say? Goodness… Well, thanks, and see you then…”
She finished the call, took the icecream that Dwayne held out to her and gobbled up the rest of it. The older officer hat jumped up, sensing that something serious had happened. “The Chief has fainted,” she said grimly.
Dwayne sighed and said “Oh, again… he really shouldn’t wear those suits…” “Well, right – he shouldn’t. But this time it’s not only the heat that’s done him in,” Camille continued as she got up. “Fidel says he’s feverish, and he’s talking nonsense… Yeah, I know… it’s not his usual kind of nonsense, but more gibberish, as if he’s hallucinating… Apparently, it’s almost as bad as it was when you had that case with the diver, you know… when I was in Paris for IT training. So, he’s seriously ill. And I guess that explains why he has been so crabby today – he has been feeling poorly and didn’t want to admit it. Mulish dunderhead.”
They rushed to the Rover and got in. Camille started the car, stepped on the accelerator, reversed the vehicle and zoomed off. “Wait, Camille… this isn’t the way to the station…”
“Oh, I know. We’re going to the Chief’s shack first. I still have the spare key – you know how I fed his lizard when he was in London. I kept the key for emergencies – I mean, you never know. Always wanted to put it into the jar that we keep at the station, but well… it’s still here on my keyring. We’ll pack up a few necessities and then we’ll call Dr Paulette – she’s in the surgery, Dr Steve has taken the car to visit a patient on the other side of the island. It would take him over an hour to get back, and Dr Paulette said she was just about to close down the surgery when Fidel’s call reached her…”
Dwayne asked “So you think he’ll have to go to hospital?”
“No.” Camille turned right to go down to the beach where Richard’s shack was located. “It’s an infection, and while it’s cumbersome and annoying, it’s not life-threatening – they don’t have any space or time for people like that in hospital. You know as well as I do that they basically rely on families to take care of their sick people if it’s a fever or some other infection. I mean, as long as it’s not Dengue or Chikungunya – and that’s not very likely in his case. No, he’s not going to hospital, not if I can prevent it. Just think of the unfortunate nurses and doctors – he’d drive them crazy. No, that’s not going to happen…”
“Then why pack up his stuff?” Dwayne scratched his head now.
Camille said determinedly “He can’t stay by himself if he’s ill like that. When he had that fever nearly two years ago, he was left to his own devices, all alone in his shack, and I don’t want this to happen again. The shack is fine as long as you’re fit and healthy, but if you’re ill and need help, this is a nightmare.”
They arrived at the bungalow, and Camille was about to get off the car when Dwayne frowned and said “But Camille… that was what he had wanted… And I’m sure he’ll want to be left in peace and stay home this time, too… I mean, you can’t force him to go anywhere, can you…” Dwayne felt very uncomfortable at the idea of meddling with the Chief and his independence.
Camille turned to him and said between gritted teeth “He won’t get ‘forced’. He’ll just get no other option… I’ll persuade him, if necessary.” Dwayne raised his eybrows.
She went on “I know I can do that. Just wait and see.” She paused for a moment before she continued “You know, initially, I was only annoyed when I came back from Paris and heard from Maman that he had offended her by insulting her chicken soup, but once I had heard the rest of the story from her and the things you and Fidel said, I was aghast, and I felt incredibly guilty for not being around and doing my share. I should have been here, looking after him and helping you to solve the case instead of having fun in Paris. Just imagine the things that could have happened if he had fallen out of his bed or fainted on the way to the loo! He could have broken bones or killed himself. I’m not going to take any chances this time. And now come on.”
They entered the shack, and Camille retrieved a big folded nylon sac from her handbag, pulling out several drawers from a dresser and scanning the contents. “Here, Dwayne, take two - or better yet… three sets of underpants, socks and T-shirts, all his pyjamas, at least two short sleeved shirts, a pair of trousers and whatever else you think is necessary for a week… He might not need everything, but it’s better to be prepared. I’ll go and pick up his toothbrush, the shaver and all that…”
Dwayne did as she said and asked casually over his shoulder “So where are you going to bring him? Your mother's?” Camille snorted and shouted from the bathroom “I doubt she’d want to look after him. I might be able to convince her to sit with him for half an hour every once in a while, but after the chicken soup disaster, I don’t see her doing anything beyond that.” She stuck her head out of the bathroom door and added “And it wouldn’t be practical, anyway. Too noisy, and she won’t have time to take care of him. No, he’ll stay in my house.”
She met Dwayne’s stunned expression with a determined gaze and said “Yes, I know. Maman won’t like that, either. And it will probably start some chin-wagging in the neighbourhood. But it’s all going to be decent and respectable, and it’s all about how you present it. I’ll convince Maman to make a big song and dance about how ill he is, how he has no family around here, and how kind-hearted it is of me to take him in like this – and then everyone will sing the same song. And really, everybody knows that I have a guest room, and it’s not like anything improper could happen, anyway. He’s ill, for heaven’s sake. The only alternative would be staying here in his shack with him, and I’d rather be shot than do that under the given circumstances. There’s no bed or sofa here where I could sleep, it’s just one room, no air condition, no real kitchen and no other amenities… I’m ready and willing to look after him, but I’m not a saint, and as he has to get transported, anyway, we might as well bring him to my house where it’ll be much more comfortable for both of us.”
Dwayne looked around and said a little taken aback “Well, now that you put it like that… you’ve got a point. I had kind of forgotten about it… When Charlie Hulme lived here, it really was a run-down hovel, but the Chief has tidied it up and turned it into a home, so it’s sort of escaped my mind how primitive it really is.”
Camille nodded and said “I know what you mean. Charlie Hulme might have had his good sides, but he surely wasn’t a very tidy person. The Chief, on the other hand, might be a pain in the neck sometimes, but you can’t say he’s disorganised. Everything is tidy, prim and proper.”
On the way back to town, Dwayne called Dr Paulette, and they picked her up at her surgery.
Dwayne let her have the passenger seat in the front so she and Camille could talk – he retreated to the back seat and listened quietly.
Dr Paulette filled them in on what precisely Fidel had said and heaved a big sigh when she was finished. “I just hope he’ll have someone to look after him this time,” she said. “It didn’t feel right to leave him in his beach house like that back then. I was glad that your mother agreed to look after him everyday – but it still wasn’t as good as having someone around all the time. Or at least most of the time. At the same time, I don’t think it’s a good idea to take him to hospital…”
Camille explained her plan, and Dr Paulette exclaimed “That’s a brilliant idea, Camille – and no worries, if he tries to decline your ‘offer’, I’ll give him a piece of my mind. Provided he’ll be fit enough to object… I have my doubts that he’ll be able to say much for the first two days, anyway – and after that, it’ll be too late – and he’ll just have to stay put. You’ll only have to convince your mother that it’s a good idea… maybe you’ll bring up the Commissioner and how grateful he’ll be for you taking care of the Inspector?”
The two women in the front exchanged a conspiratorial glance, and Dwayne grinned silently on his box seat in the back. He was curious to see where this all would end… as far as he was concerned, he didn’t dare betting on anything here.