Blamed for Murder | finished

Ch. 14 Investigation

We entered the Hotel and Adrien went straight for the reception desk to talk to an employee. The tall but slender man with grey hair formally addressed Adrien. "Good evening Sir, what may I do for you? Oh, monsieur Agreste, it's you. Le Hotel Grand Paris is honoured to have you as a guest."

I noticed how nice people were if you're a celebrity. I'm glad Adrien still behaved like a normal and decent person. I was standing next to him as he cleared his throat. "Sir, I'm looking for Madame Bélanger. Is she here? I know it's nothing I would usually ask from you, but I need to talk to her."

The receptionist frowned, as he wasn't expecting this question. "Sir, I don't know why you are asking this, but she isn't here right now."

I expected Madame Bélanger to not be here if she really kidnapped Alya. Adrien asked for further information. "Can you please tell me where she lives? It's urgent and she isn't answering her phone."

The old man tried to be professional about this, but everyone could clearly see a little astonishment in his face. "I'm sure you have good reasons for asking me, but I'm not allowed to answer this question. Why do you want to know this anyway?"

Adrien gave me a look that said "trust me", I nodded as he replied to the receptionists' question. "This is my friend Marinette but she is a little shy. Bridge....I mean Madame Bélanger is her cousin and recently moved back to Paris. You see, her family is a little clumsy, so they lost her address. They had invited her for dinner but she didn't come and isn't answering her phone, so we are a little worried about her and wanted to check if everything is okay."

Wow, Adrien was lying without stammering, looking away from the guy or any other sign of not telling the truth. I was a little scared, but I guessed that's what you learn from being a model and having a cold and professional businessman as a father. The receptionist gave us a thoughtful look. I was sure he believed Adrien's little lie. "I understand your reasoning, but the law prohibits me from handing out personal data about any of our employees. I'm deeply sorry. I would really like to help you, but I can't."

Damn it! I believed him, but we couldn't just tell him that we are Ladybug and Chat Noir and trying to rescue our friend. My palms turned sweaty as I was getting nervous, but Adrien kept his cool. How was he doing that? The blonde boy pulled out his phone and opened Chloé's contact, his posture turning from neutral and open to aggressive and his face from his friendly smile to mad and dead-serious. "Sir, maybe you don't know, but my father is the mayor of Paris and I'm best friends with Chloé Bourgeois. I can completely understand if you don't want to give me the information I asked for, but then I would have to call her and explain who wasn't helping me." He looked at the receptionists' name tag. "So why don't you just tell me what I want to know, Monsieur Larue. I promise I won't tell anyone. Like I said, Madame Bélanger expects us to know her address anyway."

I never knew Adrien could be such a bad boy. Sure, he was a little more flirty and confronting as Chat Noir, but nothing I knew about him came close to this. I was shocked but couldn't deny I liked this side of him. The man behind the reception desk gulped and finally gave in to the pressure. "Okay Sir, I'm telling you but please don't tell anyone that I did, or I will probably lose my job. Her address is 22 Rue de Vanoya. It's an apartment as far as I know."

Adrien put his phone away and turned into his friendly self again. "Thank you very much Sir. I won't tell anybody, I promise. Have a nice evening." We left the building. I kissed this blonde cinnamon roll. "I never knew you were such a good liar." He blushed. "That what you get from always pretending to be the happy model. Also, Alya's life is on the line and we have a chance of catching the real killer and end this. I will do whatever it takes."

He was such a sweetheart. Our conversation got interrupted by multiple heavy armoured police trucks driving through the streets. I've only seen these trucks before in movies. We were standing on the sidewalk as they just passed by. Adrien looked at me. "I guess my father isn't going to play around. These guys mean trouble."