Fantasy Whatever Gets You through the Night by TMaskedWriter

[Ramesh_Rocky]

Prefect LeGrasse and La Policia arrived to take charge of the scene. Others who arrived on the scene that, like Luc, were members of the 50% of humanity that can smell cyanide; confirmed the bitter almond scent. The crackling that Ramirez heard had been the glass capsule breaking as he went down. Ramirez apologized to the Prefect that he hadn't been able to bring Luc by headquarters to meet and that they were doing so for the first time now. Ramirez had mentioned Luc often enough that LeGrasse partially knew him. La Policia blocked off the crime scene while the three of them went upstairs to Jerry Scott's cubicle.

"As I expected." Luc said, opening the larger, bottom drawer of his desk and finding the remaining paper immediately. "There is more here." He sat at Scott's chair and looked at his surroundings. "He worked here for months; longer than Dietz could have hidden in San Finzione. Dietz is the sort of boss who could inspire enough fear into his underlings to take cyanide rather than be captured. It's more likely that he was another True Believer. He tried to make his last words 'Heil Hitler,' after all. I think the mole was already in place; which means his address is probably real."

"It was random chance that he walked out of his cubicle and saw us approach." Hernando told the Prefect. "He didn't have time to destroy or sabotage anything." He turned back to Luc. "If he worked here for months, then that address should be checked out."

"Oui. I may have been incorrect yesterday about it being a trap. If he'd had that long to prepare, Dietz wouldn't have done this sloppy a job. This man was already here. He may not have been a plant at all, simply a bigot who tried to keep it under wraps. So he did what bigots who can't express their hate freely do; take it out on those lower on the chain than himself. I imagine his home will be a lot more telling of his character."

Luc stuck his flash drive into Scott's computer and bypassed his login.

LeGrasse leaned over to Ramirez and spoke quietly.

"How does he do this?" He asked the Generalissimo.

"He's explained it to me twice and I still couldn't tell you." Hernando replied.

"His boss said that Scott's job was overseeing maintenance. Approving work orders, filing expense reports and such. We know what he did a few days ago, but he was genuinely spooked to see YOU, Hernando! I'm no one famous, but everyone in this country has seen you on television or in a newspaper. You could have been here for a number of reasons and you're not even in uniform today. They're making a WWII film; you may be consulting on it, sharing your knowledge of San Finzione's military history. You're handsome enough that they may want you for a cameo. The printer thing happened days ago; and he imagined he'd gotten away with it or why keep coming to work unless it's your real job. So, what business could the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces have had with Jerry Scott? Non, he did something TODAY that gave him reason to know his cover was blown the moment he saw you! Reason to take his cyanide rather then let us take him alive. And I want to see it!"

Luc found what he was looking for shortly before the Prefect's phone began to ring with a call from La Contessa, followed a moment later by the Generalissimo's phone chiming in with a call from Ortega. He looked at an order for a repair van that had been signed out early this morning with paperwork to perform maintenance on the vehicles at Castle Finzione that the studio was renting for the movie. It was dated for about half-an-hour ago.

Luc turned and saw both men had turned their backs to each other, taken a couple of steps away, and were now having very intense conversations. He was going to ask if there was any filming scheduled the day after the director's murder when he took note of the two conversations going on.

LeGrasse seemed to be discussing an urgent matter in the neighborhood around the castle. Ramirez seemed to be hearing a story about Snow White being chased by a tank. The Prefect's call ended before Ramirez's.

"Incident on La Collina!" He shouted to his men as he ran down the stairs toward his car. "I want every available..."

The closing of the fire door muted the rest of his conversation. Ramirez motioned for Luc to follow him to the elevator, then put Ortega on hold and ordered his driver to come pick them up. Ramirez told Luc what he knew about the situation at the castle and Lady Maria before returning to his call and entering the elevator.

On their way to the scene, Ramirez spoke to La Contessa and told his driver to take them to the castle instead.