Page 27

A cobbled pathway led us through a terrace of vines, and a large white house stood proud at the top of the hill. An ugly green fence guarded the bijou vineyard. Beyond the fence I saw a crowd of buildings and people walking along the pavement. Like me, the oasis of vines seemed a little uneasy in their surroundings, but the grapes soaked up the sunshine.

‘Where did you get the key for this vineyard?’ I asked.

‘The friend I’m staying with knows the owner.’ He removed a rucksack from his shoulders and took out a wooden chopping board, cheese knife and glasses. There was a broken baguette and some parcels wrapped in paper. ‘I bought provisions this morning and thought we could rest here. There are tours during October and only a limited amount of wine is produced. I’m planning guided tours and picnics here when possible. What do you think?’

I cut some of the Camembert cheese and spread it on a baguette. ‘I think it’s a great idea.’ I sat on a stone wall, ignoring the uneven surface. ‘I think visitors would appreciate this little haven. I love the Paris vibe, but the chaos is exhausting.’ Having eaten some cheese, I realised how hungry I was and stuffed a larger slice of the gooey cheese into my mouth.

Without speaking, Danny wiped the corner of my mouth with a napkin, showed me the offending blob of cheese and then winked. ‘Good to see you enjoying the food.’ Turning away from me, Danny watched people meander along the pavement outside the vineyard. He took a glass of red wine, but he did not put the glass to his lips.

‘You, OK?’ I asked, cutting some saucisson on the wooden board. I studied his small chin and noticed fair stubble emerging.

‘It’s Laura, she’s really pushing to get out of the business, and I haven’t even had time to borrow funds to buy her out. I was hoping the guy I am staying with here in Paris might help, but he’s broke. There’s a possibility someone is going to make her an offer for her half of the business within the next day. I’m worried about it, as it took time to build up, and I thought I could stop her from making rash decisions. I’m really sorry, this is distracting me from our time together.’ When he spoke the blue in his eyes seemed dull as if his worry had drained the colour from them.

Placing my arm around him, I said, ‘It’ll be OK, you’ll see. You’ll look back and it’ll all work out for the best.’ I pulled away and broke off a large piece of bread. The baguette stuck in my throat, so I coughed. He slammed me on the back so hard it hurt.

Danny laughed when he saw my arm poised. ‘You were going to slap me on the back then, weren’t you? Why did you stop?’

‘I don’t know.’ I studied my hands as if I had seen them for the first time.

He turned his back to me and said, ‘Be my guest. Hit me if you want.’

But I rested my back against his instead. ‘Great backrest. Cheers, Danny.’ I closed my eyes and let the sunshine warm my face. His back was solid and warm and strange signals were dashing through me, waiting to be turned into another kiss.

Moving his arm around me as we both faced towards the vines, Danny pointed to his shoulder. ‘It’s more comfortable here if you want to take a nap.’

Resting a little while, I closed my eyes.

‘Your hair smells great.’

‘Head and Shoulders shampoo,’ I said, shrugging off the compliment.

We both laughed.

I stretched and then stood up as I thought of what to say. ‘Shouldn’t we get going? I’d like to see more of the sights because the search is pretty useless.’

‘I’m perfectly happy with the sights I am seeing right now.’ Danny grinned, looking straight at me.

‘I thought Felix was meant to be the smoothie with corny lines.’

‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound like a smoothie. Don’t worry, my intentions are honourable.’

‘Glad to hear it.’ I laughed with gusto, so my hair covered my blushes. I wanted to say he wasn’t too bad himself but didn’t have the courage so saluted him.

He saluted me too and then stepped closer and closer until we kissed. The tenderness of the kiss knocked me off kilter and now the signals in my body were screaming at me. I waited for my ears to pop again, but this time it was like jumping into a jacuzzi with bubbles going everywhere. Finally, there was radio silence in my head.

‘Wow,’ exclaimed Danny.

Smiling, I turned my head to one side and tried to mimic Amelia’s confidence.

Danny responded with a huge hug, rather than mocking me, and I liked this. Instinctively, I kissed the side of his neck.

‘Wow,’ he repeated. ‘You just made me shiver everywhere.’

‘I do have that effect on men, I can’t lie.’

His phone rang. ‘Sorry, I need to take this call. What is it, Laura?’ His voice sounded gruff, and I felt smug.

My phone also rang, and I beamed when I noticed Grant was calling because I did not have to pretend to ignore another conversation.

Danny ended his call and started to chuck the picnic things back in his bag.

‘How is your little adventure? Have you found anyone yet and what’s all this about Danny turning up? He wants you.’ Thankfully, Grant’s voice was a whisper.

‘I haven’t seen any sign of Aunt Ada or Bella. It’s probably a wasted journey but nice to see Paris. We’re having lunch in a vineyard at the moment.’

Grant chuckled. ‘Romancing Miss Marple. Perfect for a new book. Be careful of the wine, you know you can’t take it and you’ll start to sob. Don’t put yourself down or run away if he gets close to you.’

‘I miss you, Grant. I’ll phone you later.’

‘Hey,’ shouted Danny, pointing at something. He ran to the top of the steps towards the fence.

Careful not to slip on the moss covering the step, I ran after him. ‘What is it? Are you OK? What’s Laura done?’

‘Look! Look!’ A woman in a fifties style polka-dot dress with a short black elegant pixie cut strolled down the hill. ‘I think we’ve found Bella.’

I snapped a photo with my mobile.

‘Come on,’ shouted Danny. ‘Let’s follow her.’ He grabbed hold of my hand and ran so fast that I struggled to keep up.

‘She’s almost out of sight,’ I complained, stopping to catch my breath. Laura would have leapt up the steps and run ahead of him.

He released my hand and patted it as if I was a pensioner. ‘You stay here.’ Danny climbed the fence and dropped himself over the other side. ‘I’ll follow her and stop her so you can ask questions.’

There was no sign of the woman now, but I watched him disappear down the road. Slamming the gate shut, I ran with Danny’s heavy rucksack on my back. The weight of the bag made the burning sensation in the top of my legs worse and there was a twinge of pain in my knee. A group of tourists stood in front of me, and Danny had disappeared. If the worst came to the worst, then I would simply return to the apartment with the help of Google Maps. After a brief pause, I pushed my way through a tour party. How did he manage to vanish so easily? If we had been on a date, this would definitely have caused me concern.

I followed the road down the hill and felt someone take hold of my elbow. I had read about pickpockets in this part of the city, so I snatched my arm away and turned around but there was no one there. My heart beat fast as I rushed along the pavement. With no sign of Danny, I decided to look around some of the shops, hoping he’d spot me. Stupidly, I patted the money in my trouser pocket to check it was there and realised I had probably alerted pickpockets to its location. I continued to stroll up the hill but there was resistance as now someone had got hold of Danny’s rucksack. ‘Ouch, no. Let me go.’ I managed to tread on the person behind me and got my elbows ready to dig in.

‘Maisie, stop. It’s OK. It’s me.’

‘Danny, thank goodness.’ Butterflies rampaged in my stomach as I wondered if he had found Bella.

He held out a fifties style polka-dot dress on a hanger as if he had won a prize.

‘But where is she?’ I asked, taking in the clothes boutique in front of me. ‘ Robes Vintage’ was painted on a red and gold sign that hung from the wall. Photos of classic French actresses were displayed in the window. ‘I want to find Bella and not buy a dress like hers.’ I regretted the bitterness in my tone of voice.

‘I know, I know. Look at the girl serving in the shop. She has to wear the dress to sell the clothes. They make copies of fifties dresses and sell them for thirty euros. They’re very cheap and popular with tourists. For an extra twenty euros, customers can choose their own fabric. It’s brilliant.’

‘Danny, I want to find Bella and Ada, and not buy a dress like Bella’s.’ And then it dawned on me: lots of people were probably wearing the fifties dresses from the shop so I may not have seen Bella after all. And to add insult to injury, Danny was probably humouring me.

‘Listen to me, Maisie. You’re too impatient.’

The shop assistant looked up from her manicured nails and seemed to point her entire body towards Danny before she dabbed her eyes with a polka dot handkerchief.

‘Claudette is an author and had a pen name that will interest you,’ explained Danny.

Claudette moved from behind the counter, and said, ‘ Regardez. ’ There was a photo of her on her phone. ‘ C’est moi! ’ She sat in the Place du Tertre on the bench where I had observed the apartment. ‘Wait.’ Wagging her finger in front of me, she swiped the screen several times, until there was a long shot of her standing in the square with ‘Lost Secrets’ written on the front.

‘Bella?’

She shrugged her shoulders. ‘ Oui . Nom de plume. But I have ze writer’s block because my agent wants me to write terrible book. I’ve been so sad and lonely. I’m so pleased my readers search for me. It give me hope.’ She placed her hand on her heart. ‘My heart - it breaks for my characters. It is time for people to know who I am so they can help me show my publishers I must write same kind of books.’

I understood: Bella was her pen name. Head spinning, I could not believe I had found Bella so easily. Danny was so pleased with himself, but this woman seemed dramatic and more like an actress than a writer. ‘Couldn’t you tell your agent that you want to end your contract with him?’

‘He very… How you say?’ She checked her phone for a translation. She held her hand above her head to show his height. Flexing her muscles, she said, ‘He strong. I worry he get upset. Once we were lovers so it very difficult relationship and we always...’ She knocked her fists together to show they clashed.

Ah, so that explained why they were arguing so much. I needed to give her the benefit of the doubt, but questions were whirling. ‘Did you leave an envelope at Place du Tertre yesterday?’

‘Yes, it is correct. I waited to meet nice woman who helped me with my story. I always see her there, but she not arrive again.’ Now she let out a large sigh. And then Claudette returned to her customer.

It did seem strange that a famous author worked in a shop, but I had heard that sometimes the royalties from books could be quite small. Still, the Bella Mysteries sold globally and there were also film versions of two of the novels. The heat of the day seemed trapped in the shop, and I sat down for a moment and scrolled through the blog posts. Waiting for Claudette to wrap up the customer’s purchase in tissue paper, I found the most recent photo of my aunt that I could.

Claudette moved her head to one side and grinned at Danny who was taking some photographs. She held up her hand for him to wait, retrieved a vintage Chanel bag from under the counter where she removed a gold compact and began to reapply her lipstick, smacking her lips together when she had finished.

Thoughts of the Chanel bag, compact mirror, knife and letter from the blog flicked in my mind. I opened a photo of Aunt Ada and held the phone in front of Bella.

She scrutinised the photo, enlarging my aunt’s face with her thumb and index finger. ‘This is woman I wait for who help me. My writing angel. She write about zis Chanel bag in her blog - so clever. It gave me idea for book. ’

Danny spoke with her in French again and his constant nodding annoyed me because I wanted to know what the hell was going on.

‘What’s happening?’ I shouted above the music. ‘She said Ada’s a lovely woman who listened to her when she was struggling to write. Ada’s her biggest fan and wrote some beautiful blogs about her. She used to sit on the bench and wait for her if she had a problem but has not seen her for ages - not since the day before the horrible boat accident.’

‘It is so typical of your aunt to help a struggling author with writer’s block. She was an editor, wasn’t she? I’m sorry we haven’t found your aunt, but this is a result, isn’t it?’ Danny stood in the shop doorway and then went outside.

As I made my way towards Danny, I heard his voice, and it was the same irritated tone he used earlier with Laura. Although his back was to me, his body language told me not to intrude so I moved away and examined some of the dresses on the rail outside, wondering how she knew Aunt Ada was last seen on a boat.

Bella stood in the doorway, handed me a dress and insisted I try it on for size because she wanted to give Aunt Ada’s niece a gift. She also told me she feared my aunt was on the tourist boat that had exploded because she had mentioned going on a trip, and she reported it to the boat company.

The changing room was located down a dusty corridor that reeked of damp and the carpet looked as if it had been there since the sixties. I passed a stairway that probably led into an apartment and then discovered two changing rooms with curtains made from the colourful fabric used in the dresses. I zipped up the dress and looked at the pictures on the wall of the Eiffel Tower and other landmarks. ‘No.’ I could have been a walking advertisement for Paris and the skirt stuck out too much. Maybe Amelia’s clothes had made me appreciate a good cut. Music pounded through the speaker on the wall of the changing room, so I was relieved when it stopped but then was sure I heard knocking on the ceiling, and it sounded like a familiar rhythm: de dum - de - de - de dum. Standing on the chair, I knocked on the same rhythm on the ceiling and heard de - de - de - de dum in response. What did that mean? There was something familiar about the rhythm of the knocking, but I could not put my finger on it. What was it? Another Doris Day track came out of the speaker again. ‘Too much wine,’ I said to myself. Having returned the dress to Bella with my thanks, I stepped outside again, but humid air made me feel dizzy. ‘Too much wine,’ I said to myself again, and remembered Grant’s warnings not to drink too much.

Danny stood in front of me. ‘Yes, Laura. I’m in Paris researching tours for the business. No. I’m staying at Pierre’s apartment.’ He sighed. ‘Oh, well I’m not there because I’m with my neighbour, Maisie. She’s investigating her aunt’s disappearance. I’m serious. No, she’s staying in Place du Tertre, opposite the bistro we visited many times. That’s right, it’s none of your business.’

When he turned towards me and moved his mouth upwards in a smile, his face was very red, and there was a mark where he had been rubbing his forehead in frustration.

‘Goodbye, Laura. We’ll talk later.’ He shoved the phone in his pocket. ‘Shall we go to your apartment for coffee? We can organise the blog post. Wonderful we found Bella. Laura has turned up at Pierre’s and wants to talk to me now about the business, so I’ll need to leave earlier than planned.’

I wanted to roll my eyes because bloomin’ Laura was ever present during the trip around Paris, but I knew it would not help me to appear irritated. ‘Danny, maybe you should go to her straight away,’ I said, observing the way his forehead was creased. ‘I’m sure I can work out how to blog.’

‘You’re incredible, Maisie Bloom - so sensitive to others but I want to help you. I’ve got time to go back to Robert’s apartment for a little while.’