Free Harper Lin - Patisserie 07 - Madeleine Murder by Harper Lin

mischievous quality about him when he smiled.
    “Oh, not much, just starting to make a late lunch. You hungry?” 
    “I just ate, thanks.” He’d dragged in his linen laundry bag, and he started using the washing machine in the kitchen. 
    Clémence got along with Ben because they were both artists at heart. Ben hung out with a lot of artists, writers, and musicians in Paris, and he was always pushing her to finish her paintings so she could put on a show. 
    “I know what you’re going to ask,” Clémence said. “No, I haven’t finished my paintings yet.” 
    “Actually, I was going to ask how the murder case is going.” 
    “Oh, I guess Berenice told you about that?” 
    He nodded as he added detergent to the slot in the washing machine. “I’m a big fan of Nicole Blake. She kicked ass in Red Sniper.” 
    “I didn’t see that,” Clémence said. “I forgot that she was in an action film. She was quite versatile, wasn’t she?” 
    “She could play anything. Any leads on who killed her?” 
    “A few.” Clémence gave him the rundown, and then she showed him Nicole’s red agenda and explained how certain events were coded to protect her privacy. 
    “I didn’t know she was so private,” Ben said. “But I suppose she does have that aura of mystery about her that’s so captivating on screen. Did you break the code?” 
    “I was about to start working on it.” She continued to explain that she’d found out that Nicole had been in the baby store Bébébé. In the agenda, it had been coded as ILILIL. “As soon as I figure out how to decode it, I can decode the others.” 
    “I bet it’s a cipher,” Ben said. “I use ciphers in the mystery novel I’m working on. Wait here.” 
    He dashed upstairs. When he came back to the kitchen, he held out a round piece of paper.
    Clémence took it. “This is the cipher?” 
    “Yup. It’s easy to use.” 
    It was basically two sets of alphabets, one lining around the bigger wheel and the other around the smaller one. She could spin the smaller wheel around for the letters to line up. She lined the “I” from ILILIL up with the “B” from Bébébé. It worked. The “L” lined up with “E.” 
    She beamed at Ben. “This is it. This is the combination! Now I can crack OVUJOV. This is nerve-racking, because it could reveal the killer.”
    “This is so exciting.” Ben leaned in over her shoulder as she wrote down the letters as she decoded them. 
    “H-O-N-C-H-O.” Clémence frowned. “Honcho? Who or what could that be?” 
    “Maybe it’s a nickname for someone.” 
    “Another code?” Clémence sighed. “Honcho…it does sound male.” 
    “You have someone in mind, don’t you?”
    “I think it’s Zach Brant. There was something between him and Nicole. I couldn’t tell whether it was love or hate. Now I find out Nicole was pregnant when she died. Maybe it was his child, and he killed her.” 
    “I never liked Zach Brant,” Ben said. “Something about his face. He’s too good looking. And his acting is total crap. Was he going out with Nicole? I did hear they didn’t get along.” 
    “Apparently they didn’t, but they made a convincing couple on screen. Their scenes together were supposed to be electric. When I interrogated Zach, he said that Nicole tried to seduce him and he rejected her.”
    “Who doesn’t like Nicole Blake?” 
    “That’s what I said. But he hated her personality. He basically said she was manipulative and fake. Even Rachel said this was true about her.” 
    “So Nicole Blake’s not perfect. Even if she was pregnant with his child, would it be so bad for him? His star power would rise.” 
    “Zach is only twenty-five. I doubt he’d want to be a father at such a young age, especially when he’s got the world at his feet. Maybe he felt as if he was tricked into sleeping with her. Knowing her, she might’ve threatened him with going public, and he made a rash decision and killed her to