‘I can’t say any more,’ insisted Elaine. ‘I shouldn’t even be saying anything. My mother would be very cross if she knew.’
‘I don’t understand,’ said Darcie.
‘We should leave,’ said Matt. He thanked Elaine and put his arm around Darcie’s shoulder.
Darcie paused and turned back to Elaine. ‘Odile is the only living person who can tell us what happened to Nathalie Leroux. If you feel you can share anything with us, can you call me please?’ She pulled her purse from her bag and took out a card, which she handed to Elaine. ‘That’s my business card. It has my phone number and email.’
‘Has something happened this morning to change Odile’s mind?’ asked Matt.
Elaine shook her head. ‘I can’t comment.’ Her gaze shot towards the visitors’ book before looking pointedly at Matt. ‘Now, please, I can’t say any more.’
With more reluctance than Darcie thought possible, she left the nursing home, leaving Matt to sign them straight back out of the visitors’ book.
‘I don’t understand what happened,’ said Darcie, when Matt joined her in the car park. She genuinely felt like crying. The words felt prickly in her throat and she swallowed hard to stop the tears from gathering in her eyes.
‘Odile had a visit from two men from a law firm based in Paris this morning,’ said Matt. ‘I saw it in the visitors’ book when I signed us out. Did you see the way Elaine glanced at it when she said she couldn’t comment? She was trying to tell us. My bet is Padgett sent them.’
Darcie stopped in her tracks. She turned to face Matt, looking from him to the care home and back to him again. ‘What?’ She closed her eyes momentarily and shook her head. ‘Padgett has sent his lawyers to see Odile? Why?’
‘Think about it, Darcie,’ said Matt, holding her shoulders and looking intently at her. ‘This week you’ve been to Padgett about a dress, which he says they’re not interested in. Then you get an email from Padgett, not Chanel, but Padgett on his private email, offering you a lot of money for the dress, which, by the way, you’re on a deadline to reply to. Then we speak to Odile who obviously knows something but found it too upsetting to say and anyhow was stopped by Paulette. Then Odile agrees to see us today. We get here and all bets are off. Suddenly, in a matter of less than two hours, she’s changed her mind and doesn’t want to speak to us.’
Darcie took a moment to process everything Matt was saying. ‘And you think it’s to do with the dress?’
‘What else can it be?’
‘That means the dress must be important. More important than Padgett wants to admit but not something he wants to go through the official Chanel channels.’ Darcie’s heart began to pick up speed. ‘He wants that dress and doesn’t want us finding out the truth.’
‘Exactly!’
‘Oh God. That must mean it really was the dress Coco Chanel was wearing.’
‘There’s definitely more to this than he’s letting on.’
‘I feel awful,’ she said. ‘I’ve no idea what those men said to Odile, but it was enough to make her not want to talk to us. What if they frightened her in some way? Threatened her? I hate the thought it was my fault.’
‘You can’t think like that,’ said Matt. ‘You’ve done nothing wrong. You’ve showed complete and utter respect for Odile.’
‘But I pursued this whole idea about the dress, I’ve dragged you into it and ruffled the oh-so-sleek designer feathers of Christophe Padgett.’
‘Don’t do that to yourself. You are not the bad guy here.’
‘I can’t help feeling guilty. I know my logical brain says it’s not me, but my conscience has a pretty loud voice.’
‘I’m going to try to find out what was said to Odile. I’m not one for using contacts but, in this case, I have no qualms. I’ll just have to swallow a bit of pride, that’s all.’
‘Well, you know what they say about swallowing your pride?’
‘What’s that?’
‘It won’t choke you.’
He kissed the top of her head. ‘There’s probably some saying about taking your own advice. I just can’t think of it right now.’
Chapter 29
Nathalie
I looked at the small capsule in the palm of my hand. The cyanide pill Marcel had given me. I knew today I was going to put it to use.
