Death and Transfiguration

Chapter 13

"Are you out of your mind?" I said to Léa.

"At this rate, it's probably the only way we'll ever find out what happened to Johann Bergmann."

"I'm not going along with this. It's illegal, and it's downright insane, and besides, I still have to watch Jean-Luc and Sophie."

"It won't take too long."

"What if Sylvestre comes home early? He'll be concerned if I'm not here. I could even get fired."

"It would be totally worth it," Léa said, but I wasn't so sure. "Come on, Mattie," she said. "Aren't you even a little bit curious about what could possibly be in there?"

As a matter of fact, I was. I had idolized Johann Bergmann for most of my life, and I wanted nothing more than to see where he had lived in the last days of his life, to search for clues, to find out who had murdered him and why. If there was undiscovered evidence anywhere in the city, it was probably there, and I desperately wanted to be the one to find it.

"It's not worth the trouble, Léa," I finally said. "What if someone catches us?"

"Nobody's going to catch us," Léa said.

"How do you know?"

"As long as we're careful, we'll be fine."

"I still don't know about this."

"Well, I'm going to go check it out regardless. You can come if you want."

Léa walked away, and I almost sprinted after her, but instead, I turned to Jean-Luc and asked, "Can you handle yourself for a few minutes?"

"Of course," Jean-Luc said, already leafing through my copy of Le Petit Journal.

"I'll be back soon," I told him. "If your father comes back, tell him that I've left to run some errands."

Jean-Luc nodded, and I ran after Léa. A part of me knew that this was wrong, that breaking into Bergmann's hotel room would never end well, but at the same time, my curiosity would never be satiated until I followed Léa inside and found out exactly what was in there.

When I finally caught up to her, a few blocks down Boulevard de Magenta, she smiled and said, "Glad you finally decided to join me."

"How could I not?" I said. "As you said, how else are we going to find out what happened to Bergmann?"

"I suppose we'll know soon enough," Léa said. "How was your day, by the way?"

"It was fine," I said. "Jean-Luc came home early - apparently, he's going through a rough patch with one of his friends."

"That can be hard," Léa said. "I remember getting into a fight with one of my friends around Jean-Luc's age, although actually, he was more of an on-again, off-again boyfriend than a friend...anyways, things like that happen all the time, and sometimes, it's best to move on."

I nodded, but my mind drifted to Moreau. I remembered how he had shown me kindness when I had first arrived in Paris, how he had helped me reach out to Sylvestre and brought me to my first Order of the Nightingales meeting, and even though our friendship had gone cold, the last thing I wanted was to move on from him. I thought of what I had told Jean-Luc, how I had suggested that he talk to Antoine, and I decided that it would be best to follow my own advice. As soon as I got home, I promised myself that I would make amends with Moreau.

"I still can't believe that de Villiers is making us rehearse again tonight," Léa said. "It's a waste of everyone's time, in my opinion. We're all professionals - can't he trust us?"