Read Online Murder in the Raw by C.S. Challinor - Free Book Online Page A

to Oyster Pond?”
    “No more than thirty minutes.”
    That would get the Irvings back to the resort at around 6:20, factoring in disembarkation, and yet, they had not joined the other guests at The Cockatoo at seven o’clock. “May I use your phone?” he asked the desk clerk.
    She showed him into a small office at the back of reception where he had made the call to the dive boat company the day before. He now phoned the ferry company at Oyster Pond to check that Dick and Penny Irving had been on the passenger list the previous Tuesday, and was told the catamaran had returned on time and the couple had been on it.
    “Monsieur Graves,” the clerk addressed him as he exited the office. “Lieutenant Latour from the Gendarmerie in Grand Case is on the phone for you.” She passed him the receiver.
    “Bonjour. Ici Rex Graves . ”
    “ Pierre Latour. Nous venons de recevoir des nouvelles .”
    “News? Regarding Sabine Durand?” Rex asked hopefully.
    “ Exactement . Ze rest of her pareo was picked up early zis morning by a fishing boat, near Ilet Pinel.”
    “Where is that?”
    “It is an island about ten miles north of you. Zey heard on ze news last week how ze actress disappeared from ze beach leaving a piece of her white pareo behind and zey called ze Gendarmerie. Monsieur Bijou, he offered a reward for information. So, you can imagine, we get a lot of crazy calls, but zis one, it is as zey say.”
    Bless Monsieur Bijou, Rex thought. “Is it a match?”
    “Match? Allumette? ”
    “No, not a matchstick. One moment, please.” Rex turned to the clerk. “What is the word for when something matches something else?”
    “ La même, pareille .”
    “Thank you.” Speaking into the phone again, he asked Latour, “Is the fragment from the pareo pareille to the one that was found?”
    “It appears so. We sent it to ze laboratoire . Ze pareo has a part missing which is almost identique in shape to ze torn item found on ze beach. It also has a label saying it was fabricated in Tahiti. One of ze guests at ze resort mentioned zis fact.”
    “It was in Pamela Farley’s statement. She remembered that detail because she asked Ms. Durand where she had acquired the pareo. Anything else?”
    “No other remains were found around Ilet Pinel. But with ze sharks, zis is to be expected.”
    “The police searched the area?”
    “ Ah, oui, monsieur . We sent out our Sea Rescue Services at dawn. Mais rien —nothing.”
    “I appreciate you taking the time to inform me of this latest development,” Rex told Latour. “ Bonne journée. ”
    Why were the gendarmes sticking to the shark theory? It could hardly do the tourist industry much good. But perhaps a shark attack was more acceptable than a murder. At least sharks were confined to the sea.
    He decided to waste no time in going to see the influential Monsieur Bijou. Of all the people he could think of, the developer had the most clout to reopen the investigation. Rex was all the more intrigued to meet him after what Sean O’Sullivan had said the night before, even though he doubted any of it was true. Fabulously wealthy men invariably had stories made up about them.
    Rex was finally able to track him down at his latest creation, the Marina del Mar, and arrange a meeting that same afternoon. The desk clerk provided him with a map and pointed to Anse Marcel where the exclusive marina was located. The bay, which was just around the coast from Ilet Pinel, looked like a bite taken out of the northernmost part of the island. It wasn’t far away and he would ask Paul to lend him the Jeep.
    Before setting out, he left a message for Thaddeus in London asking him to research Monsieur Bijou, alias Coenraad van Bij-hooven’s background, suggesting he look into possible past activities in Amsterdam. Thaddeus, whose services Rex had utilized in his last case, had roomed at Oxford with an undergraduate who now worked for Interpol. If there was any dirt to dig up, Thad would find it. In