Lena looked objectively strange when they entered one of the planes and headed for their Christmas break in Paris. Robert didn’t want to dig too deep but she was deep in her thoughts and answered his questions with monosyllabic answers. When Robert showed her what a great present Anton gave him for Christmas (it was a collection of old editions of French classics, which included Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, The Three Musketeers, Queen Margot, and The Lady of the Camellias by Alexandre Dumas, all of which made Robert happy and grateful), she just nodded and ignored the subject for the rest of the day.
Lena, however, enjoyed Paris itself. She noticed that it was very different from Stockholm and she couldn’t help but appreciate the two cities, which exposed so different nature of its citizens. She noticed that French women were more elegantly and classically dressed than somewhat extravagant and modern Swedes and they were definitely slimmer than those she remembered from her stay in the UK. She liked Paris’s curved pavements, the shade of its old buildings, the cozy atmosphere of cafes. She wasn’t intimidated by the number of immigrants but had to admit that Poland seemed to be bleached from minorities and different religions, as it was inhabited mainly by Polish and Catholic citizens. She didn’t moan much when they were queuing to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower to see the view, she didn’t object when they were climbing Montmartre to admire one more panorama of Paris; only in the Louvre she gave up from time to time and announced that she couldn’t stand another exhibit, painting or work of art, which Robert received with disappointment. He could spend there the whole day and just walk from one accomplishment of culture and history to another. And his fascination reached further than Mona Lisa and the Venus of Milo.
But Robert took Lena to Paris not only to celebrate Christmas and New Year with her in the unassuming way they used to get along with each other. Beforehand, he contacted Alicia’s former coworker in Paris, Brigitte Caron, an extremely slim, short-haired woman, who smoked a lot of cigarettes and wore a white fluffy fur-coat that made her look a bit plumper, adding layers to her skin and bones.
Brigitte didn’t know Polish but she was quite fluent in English, and for the simple translation of her testimony from English to Polish Robert needed his dear Lena. Lena agreed and the first day of Christmas they spent at Brigitte’s apartment full of bookshelves filled with Vogue and other fashion magazines, collections of figurines and souvenirs from all over the world and walking closets packed with clothes from Gucci, Chanel, Burberry, Ives Saint-Laurent, Louis Vuitton, and other expensive and well-known brands.
Brigitte spoke with a strong French accent but Lena had no problems with translating it all to Robert.
‘We were working for many years together. She was a good employee. Her French was perfect, you wouldn’t tell that she came from Poland. You also have this culture of work. You’re very hardworking. People tend to laze about and you Poles are very focused and you usually accomplish a lot of tasks more quickly than others. She resigned from work over two years ago. She said that she needed something else in life. I believe that it had to do with divorce.’
The smoke of cigarettes filled the room and Robert and Lena started to be under the waking-up influence of tobacco.
‘Do you know anything about her relationships?’ Lena was forwarding Robert’s questions.
Brigitte laughed.
‘I do know quite a lot, but Alicia was very careful about revealing details of her personal life. She didn’t tell everything to everybody. She was quite discreet. She was married to this Polish businessman, whom she went to Paris with. She told me that there was no love, only practical reasons. They were good at working with each other and managing their little flat. But you know women, they get bored and they need a genuine feeling. So after some time at our company she had an affair?’
‘Affair?’
‘Oh, yes. With our financial director, Marc.’
Lena turned red when she translated the information to Robert.
‘The age difference wasn’t a problem. She was barely thirty, he was way over fifty. He was married, he had adult children. Alicia was without love and overworked, he was bored and charmed by her. She was beautiful back then. Like little Esmeralda. He seduced her. I think she had high expectations about him, she thought that he would get a divorce, leave his wife, start his life with her, make her divorce her Polish friend. But nothing of the kind happened. He was luring her, giving false promises, prolonging the romance with no step forward. When her Polish friend left her and found another girl, this time for love, I believe, Alicia was quite desperate. She was afraid to be left alone. After a year or two, she met Victor.’
‘And she married him instead?’
‘Yes. She and Adam divorced. Then she married Victor. I think one of her flaws was that she constantly needed a man in her life. She wasn’t independent. She was always looking for help and protection. She wouldn’t move here without Adam, she would have a hard time at work without Marc, and Victor was just the consequence of her previous choices. But this time she just had bad luck.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean it was the worst person in the world that she could marry. You notice things. Bruises. Dark shades under her eyes. Thick layers of make-up.’
‘So he hit her?’
‘I don’t know what else. You hear so much about domestic violence. Rapes. He hit her regularly. He held some power over her. She came from this humanistic world of languages, culture, fashion, and design, he had his own logistics company. He was fascinated with her but soon some things started bothering him and he was getting jealous over her every night out, new clothes or achievement at work. He felt insecure.’
‘Didn’t she ask for help?’
‘She never asked us for anything. But she divorced him. She’s had enough. I was happy to hear that. Sometime after the divorce, she quit her job and we lost touch. I was relieved that she was no longer with this man. I expected that it would get better for her.’
‘But since then, there has been no contact with her. No one knows anything about her and this is the problem. Adam is afraid that this Victor could do something to her, have a revenge. He hit her when they were married, he could do something to her afterward.’
Lena quickly translated Robert’s words.
‘You never know men. It could also be Adam or it could be Marc. Men used her for various reasons. I don’t think that any of them truly loved her. They saw benefits in her for themselves. Adam used her as a language teacher and then as a bridge to his career, Marc treated her as a break in his marriage and work routine, a consolation prize and occasional entertainment, and Victor, unfortunately, as a cherry on top of his money-making machine and a pillow to beat at home. That’s why you and me,’ she looked at Lena, ‘Should remain single.’
Brigitte laughed, but Lena went red in the face again. Robert didn’t know what was the joke, as Lena didn’t translate that last bit to him.
They left Brigitte’s flat and bought for themselves some sweet macaroons to consume in the evening, but when they entered the flat they noticed that the door was opened and everything was lying on the floor in a mess. Drawers were open, their clothes from the suitcases someone dragged on the floor.
‘Someone broke in. Did they steal anything?’, Lena was walking around with her mouth open.
Robert looked around, but nothing was missing. There was apparently nothing of value to steal.
‘They were looking for something. Probably something concerning Alicia. Fortunately, I keep all documents about her in Warsaw.’
‘Do you think it’s one of them? Marc or Victor? Or Adam?’
‘I doubt that Adam would break into his own flat. He hired me to find her.’
‘Look here!’, Lena called him from the bathroom.
There was a sign written with red lipstick on the mirror, looking exactly the same as the one left by the dissected rat some time ago.
Robert recognized it immediately and didn’t bother to check it in Google translator.
‘It says ‘Leave me alone.’’
‘No, Robert. It says ‘Leave her alone’,’ Lena was more accurate in translating the sign to her phone.
Now Robert got the message.
Between Christmas and New Year Robert and Lena consumed a lot of French delicacies which were very tasteful and mood-improving. But be it the number of different foods they ate, or the mix of bread, sweets, wines, French escargot, frogs and onion soup, they suffered from food poisoning.
Adrianne Dubois was positively surprised when for the second time in her life she saw that foreign handsome man, whose smile she remembered till this day. But this time he wasn’t alone. He came with an Asian girl and Adrianne felt a pang of jealousy.
The man smiled again, Adrianne reciprocated the smile. He took out his phone and wrote a message.
‘STOP DIARRHEA’
Adrianne nodded and gave him the drug. Then, she smiled at the man and looked in contempt at the girl, as if she wanted to punish her for stealing her man. She didn’t know that at that time this girl had for herself another sort of contempt.
