Under the Carib Sun: An Adel Destin Crime Novel

PART 1: Chapters 15 - 21

● 15 ●

Daphnée got home and kicked off her shoes, then went straight for the bottle of Stoli in her freezer. She got a glass from the drying rack by the sink, then moved on to the living room to put some music on. She turned off all the lights inside and went out on the front porch, sat down in one of the two chairs there. Darkness breathed in front of her, throbbing with invisible life. Insects, frogs, nocturnal birds, their calls and cries coming and going like swelling ocean waves. Daphnée poured some syrupy vodka in her glass and tilted it to her lips, swallowing a couple of ice-cold sips, reflecting on how strange tonight had turned out to be.

She hadn’t recognized Charnier without his uniform. Not until he’d cornered her as she came out of the bathroom, when she’d also realized he was the drunk who’d been rubbing against her on the dance-floor.

A lot of time had passed since those weeks when she’d tailed him everywhere he went, trying to figure out if he was involved or not. She never could.

But that other cop definitely was.

Daphnée took another sip of vodka.

‘I know you, don’t I?’

She didn’t know what Charnier had meant by that, but she was glad Adel had showed up when he did. It was the way he’d dealt with the off-duty gendarme that’d prompted her to invite him over. He already liked her, that was obvious, and would even more once she was through with him in the morning.

Having someone like him around might come in handy.

Daphnée gulped the rest of the vodka in her glass, her thoughts now drifting back to how completely fucked up her life had become in the past twenty-four hours.

Again.

She took her head in her hands, grabbing at her hair as the movie began playing in her mind again, that steadicam shot of the scooter’s taillight winking in and out of sight with the curves of the darkened road to Lurin, her car gaining on it.

You killed a man.

She felt her stomach heave and scrambled to her feet, hurrying to the porch’s balustrade and leaning over it. She retched but this time managed to keep it in, tears stinging her eyes.

Good girl.

She went inside to the kitchen sink and ducked her entire head under the running water. She straightened up, slicking her wet hair back, then went to get her cigarettes and lighter out of her purse. She returned to the porch where she took a frozen swig of Stoli straight out of the bottle, wishing she had some coke in the house. She hadn’t touched the shit in three years until tonight but knew it would help her cope. It always had. Blow numbed her, made her wild and uninhibited. Fearless.

She managed a faint smile in the dark.

Super Daphnée.

She lit a cigarette and sighed her smoke out into the night.

● 16 ●

(Saturday, October 26th)

Charnier shook his head as she looked up at him from the kitchen floor, dabbing at her cut lip, unadulterated hatred in her eyes. Fear, too—a first.

But then he’d never hit her before.

He could hear the kids crying in the other room, terrified by the shouting and cursing, the breaking of dishes.

“What’s next, huh?” she asked, getting up. “You’re gonna get your gun and shoot me?”

“Shut up, Marie,” Charnier covered his eyes with his hand. “Just shut the fuck up.”