„My friend’s enemy is my enemy too”

A gentle knock on the door brought Christine into the living room, but she hesitated to open the door because since she and Luis broke up, she was afraid to show up in public, knowing very well all the crimes she’s done, but also the fact that she’s never been loved by anyone in the society, as she never loved someone - except her own person and maybe Luis, but only a little bit.

However, seeing that the knocks are heard louder and louder and understanding that the unwelcome guest won’t give up eventually, Christine summoned up her spirits and asked in a voice breaking with emotion: „who’s there?”

„A friend!” a woman’s voice that she didn’t know answered.

Eventually, Christine dared and opened the door, staring at the stranger whose face wasn’t seen well because of the outside darkness. However, the stranger took a step in front and showed up right in front of Christine and the blind flame of the candle illuminated her face. But even so, it couldn’t be seen well due to the black veil that was covering her face.

„Mrs. Christine Bircham?” the stranger asked.

„It’s me!” Christine answered confused because she knew a lot of people, but she was sure that she was seeing this woman for the first time because maybe she could forget faces, but she had never forgotten voices. „But… you didn’t tell me who you are,” Christine insisted.

„Lorenne Fabeau!” the stranger answered, finally revealing her face and Christine could see her very clear, but something was bothering her in that beautiful woman who, despite the not very young age, was looking extremely well: and what bothered Christine was the woman’s eyes who were staring at her as if trying to provoke her even if they met each other only a couple of minutes ago.

At least, Christine met her only just because the one who had called herself Lorenne Fabeau seemed to know her very well.

„Can we talk inside?” Lorenne asked in a lower voice because she wanted to do the less possible noise, knowing that she came to London to hide from Keen even if she also knew that he could have also turned back in town or maybe he was looking for her already at that moment. „Not the other, but… it’s been a long trip and… let’s say I would not like to be seen around.”

Christine smiled. „From what I see, you are looking for a place to hide,” she murmured. „But I don’t understand why should I help you when I don’t even know you.”

„Because… maybe you don’t know me personally, but … I’m sure you know very well the saying: my friend’s enemy is my enemy too, and I helped you to get rid of one not long ago.”

This made Christine attentive and she finally opened the door completely, watching her interlocutress from her usual bossy posture. „Enemy? May I know who are you talking about?”

„Emily Davis! And… Albert Shin! Both are dead and buried, and this means less headache for you and… I won’t deny this: for me too.”

„Dead you say?! Well, this sounds interesting, but even so, I don’t see a good reason to accept you in my house, more after finding out that you’ve been so close to Emily.”

„I won’t deny this either, but … I’m more than sure that you’ll need an ally in the near future.”

„Ally? And… what are you talking about this time?”

„About Eva! Eva Stonebridge is back in town, from what I could find out, and… she met Brian Beneath again.”

Christine looked at Lorenne thunderstruck, but even so, she could keep a level head and not show openly her amazement, and so pretty obvious. Then, recovering her inner calmness, she smiled again: „I don’t think that’ll be a problem for me. I didn’t hurt Eva, and my cousin knows this very well. But… let’s talk inside,” Christine murmured, spotting a man approaching them.

Lorenne looked back and saw Simon approaching them while carrying two bags. „Don’t worry, Mrs. Bircham: it’s only my teamster. I asked him to stop the carriage in a safe place while we’ll have a short conversation. Come closer, Simon,” Lorenne told her servant.

Christine looked both at the stranger’s face and at her servant’s. However, she didn’t find anything alarming, or that could have represented a threat to her. So, she stepped aside, allowing her two guests to enter the house.

Reaching the living room, Simon let the bags next to the door and bowed to withdraw. But he stopped, hearing Christine’s voice: „you’ll find the stable in the backyard. It’s free for the moment because after Albert’s departure I’ve preferred not to keep the horses. So, you can take it for the moment.”

„Ok, ma’am,” the old teamster mumbled, slightly bowing in front of the two women and after that, he exited.

Christine watched Lorenne then, who was standing in the middle of the living room, watching fascinated around because, despite the weak light of both candles that were seen on one of the tables, it was clearly seen the richness of the house, showing the good taste of the owner and the fact that she knew how life should be lived.

Yet, that place was a dungeon for Christine when it’s been her beloved castle before. That’s why she was so afraid of darkness and there were all the time two candles burning in the living room. „You have such a beautiful movable, Mrs. Bircham,” Lorenne said, smiling. „French. From what I see you have a very good taste.”

„It can be called this way too,” Christine said dryly while sitting down on her favorite armchair. „Take a seat,” she told Lorenne, showing the sofa.

Thus, Lorenne understood that Christine isn’t the kind of housewife that will talk for long with her guests, bragging about her Interieur, but it’s more a businesswoman that prefers to have productive talks and be as clear as possible.

While Lorenne took off the headgear and the mantle, Mrs. Bircham watched her in silence, analyzing each of her movements. But… she didn’t find anything unusual in her guest, except the fact that she was slowly moving and that she seemed to do everything extremely cautiously which could have been later a problem if the stranger planned to do something to her.

„Emily! How did she die?” Christine asked eventually in a serious tone because even if she hated Miss Davis for her betrayal, she was still feeling a certain sadness finding out that she’d ended this way after she’d been a big support for her in the past.

„Poisoned!” Lorenne said loudly and shortly after, she sat down.

„Poisoned? By whom?”

„I think she committed suicide. Actually, I didn’t see who killed whom, but the matter is I found them both dead, in Albert’s room, after … making love.”

„Emily and … the teamster?” Christine asked confused because even if she noticed Albert’s behavior of the past with Emily, she knew very well that her pupil couldn’t have fallen so down because of a man.

„It seems so, and … I’ve been as baffled as you are now when I found them in that room. But … I had to quickly react and to take action on this because I couldn't leave the things unsolved before leaving.”

„Before leaving? Why? From what I know you had an enviable position in Brighton. That’s why Emily asked you for help when she betrayed me and Luis and left the town along with Eva.”

„And I see that you know who I am,” Lorenne said in a cross voice, understanding that Christine had just pretended not to know her.

„I never said that I don’t know your name, only that I didn’t know you as we never met before face to face. But… you probably knew too that I’m not that kind of person that doesn’t know where and when my people meet someone. I prefer to do things this way to prevent betrayals.”

„But yet, you couldn’t prevent being betrayed by the man you loved, or at least you said you loved him,” Lorenne said in mockery.

„Emily! Was she who told you about Luis?”

„Of course, as I found out from her that you’ve been the one who dug your own whole when you pushed that young lady to enter your man’s bed, the same man you wanted to be only yours - for an entire life.”

Lorenne’s words made Christine nervously move in the armchair. Lorenne instead was sitting comfortably on the sofa, cross-legged and one hand over another on the knee while staring at Christine and enjoying a lot to see the slight shaking of her lower lip, something that was betraying the fact that she finally found a perfect way to make Christine dance as she was singing. „And yet… I’m not judging you.”

„It’s not this what I felt in your voice, Lorenne,” Christine reproached her. „Can I call you Lorenne, right?”

„It’s not a problem, of course, but before deciding how to call each other, I think we should discuss an urgent problem.”

„Such as?”

„Victor Keen! The nosy detective who recently chose to interfere in the „Red Ants” businesses and from what I understood, he won’t give up that easily.”

Christine winced: that woman knew more than she let to be known at first glance and, even if she’d been Emily’s friend it was too risky that Miss Davis has just mentioned to her about „Red Ants.” It meant only one thing: Lorenne Fabeau was part of the organization - a member that Christine didn’t know about. That’s why Mrs. Bircham hardly squeezed her fists, gnashed her teeth, deeply breathed in, and only then she told Lorenne: „listen, Lorenne - I don’t know how much do you know about this or if you are involved in this, but I want to make a thing clear - while you are in this house I forbid you to mention „Red Ants” without my permission because I’m the only accepted Master of this organization and the only one who can talk about a problem or find the solution for it.”

„If you say so, so be it,” Lorenne told her cheerfully, but her tone could have been also wrongly construed: as a slight mockery.

Christine instead, being too nervous about everything she heard or found out, didn’t feel the change in Lorenne’s voice tone, and neither did she think that Lorenne could play a dangerous game with her.

***

„Lorenne Fabeau gave Christine Bircham a hail?” Keen asked his helper Lenny in amazement, suddenly watching the young man, about 20, that was stopped next to the door.

„It seems so, mister Victor. I’ve seen with my own eyes a carriage entering Mrs. Bircham’s property and heading in great secret toward the stables,” Lenny said.

„So, my suspicions have been true,” Keen murmured, taking a few steps away from the window where he had stood for tens of minutes watching the darkness of the night while sipping a whisky. „Undoubtedly, Lorenne Fabeau has something to do with the „Red Ants.”

„I can’t answer this question, sir,” Lenny murmured confusedly.

„I neither asked for an answer, Lenny. Don’t worry! But… tell me, did someone remain there to watch over them?”

„Of course! While I came here, I asked John to keep one eye on the property. As soon as I’ll be again free, I’ll go to check again Mrs. Bircham’s property because…”

„No, no, Lenny. It’ll be risky this way. I mean, it’ll be risky for our plans because if what I suspect is true and Lorenne Fabeau came to London to ally with Christine Bircham, it means that Miss Davis didn’t vanish somewhere as I thought.”

„I make a pardon?!” Lenny asked, staring thunderstruck at the detective.

„Nothing important,” Keen hurried to answer. „For the moment, I’ll ask you only to tell John to keep an eye on the property and not to let those two go somewhere without him being aware of this. But it must be very discreet. I don’t want someone to be hurt because of a simple investigation. You are free to go now!”

„As you demand, detective Keen,” the young man murmured and quickly withdrew from the office because he spent all day long spying on Christine’s house, at Keen’s order, and he hadn't time yet to finish other investigations still in process and which were also very important: one of those investigations was to find out as much as possible about Charlotte Wilson at Brian’s request.

Left alone, Keen turned back in front of the window, staring for a long time at his reflection on the glossy glass of the window, on which was also seen the reflection of the dipped candle that was illuminating from Keen’s desk.

„Lorenne Fabeau switched sides eventually,” Keen murmured. „But… why? Did they both argue because of Albert’s death or… it was Eva's fault, though, because no matter where I go or what I’m investigating I always hear the same name, Stonebridge: Eva Stonebridge.”

But Keen quickly dismissed that thought when he remembered the fact that when he saw Albert’s body, he didn’t find any trace of brutal death and there was also how they found the teamster: unburied, even if he was nicely dressed and clean. More than that: on Albert’s clothes they found a woman’s long hair, the same color as Miss Davis’hair. „And yet… what the hell happened that night? Is it true what Lorenne Fabeau told me that Miss Davis simply disappeared and that she found Albert dead in his room by sheer accident? Or, was it another whacker as everything that they always told me?! After all: everything seems to lay on the colors too thickly and I don’t understand why.”

Eventually, Keen went and sat down on his chair, not until toss off his glass and poured more whisky into his cup from the half-emptied bottle seen on the chiffonier. Then, while sitting and staring at the flame of the candle that was dancing in front of his eyes and making him feel dizzy, Keen remembered the day Emily came into his hotel room in Brighton and threatened him, and subsequently, the same night, someone to try to kill him, even if that young man failed eventually.

„Wait a minute! If Emily Davis was who ordered my death, then, undoubtedly, she would have trusted only Albert Shin and she would have ordered him to accomplish this job. Thence, I doubt he would have asked someone else to finish what was ordered to him, and this means that there’s someone else who wants me dead. But… who?!”

This made Keen completely immerse in his thoughts because he understood, for the first time, that he has to do with a ghost enemy. That’s why, to focus better, Keen left the glass on the desk and clenched his both fists into one, slowly moving the fingers between them as he used to do each time, he had a difficult problem to solve, and his glance was so focused on the white wall in front of him that made him somehow absent as if he was living in a different world at that moment, due to the shaking shadows of the furniture also seen on the wall. „The puppeteer!” Keen eventually murmured. „He’s the only one who could have ordered my death so quickly, but … why did he use someone else and not Albert who was for sure a good fighter and killer and could have killed me without witnesses and problems?”

Suddenly, his hand jerked, hitting the glass that was on the right of the hand, throwing it off the desk and when the glass hit the floor it blew to pieces: „it was just a message they tried to send me!” Keen shouted, suddenly standing up. „That’s why he did this before Miss Davis decided something. But … was she aware of all this? Was she aware that she’d been left behind by the same man to whom she’d been faithful her entire life?! Well, we’ll find out it, eventually - somehow, and if Emily Davis doesn’t show up, then who’ll give me an answer to all the questions I have will be Lorenne Fabeau, whom I don’t intend to let escape, no matter what!”