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When I arrived in Paris all confused, disoriented, and with hardly any money in my pocket a girl that worked at the hotel named Juliet was kind enough to offer me room and boarding. She even helped get a job as a waitress at a restaurant. By having me stay with her without knowing me at all was the nicest thing a complete stranger did for me. After a time, Juliet and I became best of friends.
Inconveniently though our friendship got tested when detective Gautier whom happened to be Juliet's uncle found out that we were best of friends. Yes, you heard that right, detective Gautier my worst annoying enemy of the whole wide world was Juliet's uncle! Several months ago when I was accused of being an American spy I no longer was allowed to stay at her place. He even prohibited her from seeing me. When Mr. Edwards found out about what happened, he not only told detective Gautier how absurd the story of me being an American spy was. But that instead of accusing and intimidating me he knew better to go to directly to Mr. Edwards who happened to be my representative and guardian.
The minute that Juliet recognized her uncle's voice in the shop she immediately scooped down and started polishing the floor. Some of my customers that knew me, didn't like that he was constantly pestering me and invading my space. But, he didn't care! I never seen a more persistent, consistent, insistent individual in my life! He was really becoming so intolerable to me that I couldn't even hear his name anymore without feeling extremely anxious!
"Leave the poor girl alone."
"She, is not guilty of anything."
"What do you want from her? "Juliet asked, while still polishing the dining room floor. My heart melted every time my friends defended me. There it was I had a bunch of friends that knew my true character and that would defend me no matter what. Detective Gautier looked around to see who was defending me. That is when I noticed the detective's black eye.
Mr. Edwards got up from his table and respectively asked detective Gautier to step out so that they could talk. Some of my customers peeked through the window to see what was going on outside with these two men. A few minutes later Mr. Edwards came back inside the shop. We both went to the back of the café so that we can talk freely without a curious audience .
"Miss Jones I have two bad news. And one so so good news."
"Please tell me the first the bad news," I said as I covered slightly both of my ears.
"They now know that the device is yours?"
"Oh no!" I covered my mouth. "I was afraid of that! Did they figure out my password?"
"Nope."
"So what happened?"
"While the detective was maneuvering the device it fell in the bowl. And your selfie happened to come up. And now he really has a case against you."
"That's not good."
"Although he may still suspect you as being an American spy. There are no real evidence that connect you with the Madame's disappearance."
"O.K."
"Now. I have to explain the second bad news. You may find this piece of news a little daunting."
"Mr. Edwards, I'm scared. What are talking about?"
He encouraged to sit down.
"You know the people that came after Madame Charlton."
"Yes."
"They might be coming after you."
"How do you that?"
"Ten minutes later after your phone was turned on, some people showed up at the detectives place. They asked about you. But the detective made believed that he didn't know who they were talking about. They asked him where the device was. But he refused to tell them where it was. He knew that he couldn't give up evidence. As they were looking around for your phone he could an altercation with them. And that is how he got that black eye."
"Were they able to find my phone?"
"No. they didn't. Thank goodness your phone was hidden from plane site. Unfortunately because of what happened to your phone it is no longer serviceable. But that's o.k. Because of that they can't trace you."
"Did my phone fell on a bowl of hot soup or something."
"I wished it was that or something else. But it didn't. Miss Jones your phone fell on a bowl full of caca."
"You mean my phone fell on poop?"
"That is correct."
"Eww, that is the most disgusting thing that I have ever heard! Oh that was why you said bowl. He owes me a $800 phone."
"Mr. Edwards what am I going to do? The minute that they get a hold of my phone, I am dead meat."
"I have your phone here. The detective felt that it was too unsafe for it to be as his house or anywhere near him or his family."
Mr. Edwards hands me a brown paper bag with the phone inside.
"What should I do? My life is all here in this phone. I feel that this the only thing that connects me to my life back in New York where my family and friends are."
"I will leave the decision for you to make. You wanted to be a grownup right?"
"Yes, but this is a hard decision to make." I frowned.
"Well, that is what most grownups have to do. They have to make hard decisions all of the time."
"This is hard for me to do. But I have to destroy this thing. I don't want any of us to get hurt or get in trouble." I took the meat beater and heard it break into many pieces. While I did that my tears were falling down my face. It was a strange thing not having any connection to my past.
"Miss Jones I'm proud of you. I know how hard this was for you. Soon you will see your family again. But for now. Let's keep you safe. You might have to go on hiding for a while until we get to the bottom of this."
"Sure, o.k."
As I was throwing the remains of the phone in the garbage. Mr. Edwards saw that I needed some cheering up.
"I could imagine how upset detective Gautier must have been when his phone landed on his own excrement."
"Yeah." I giggled.
"I could just see it on the front page: Famous detective contaminates the evidence with his own excrement!
"Mr. Edwards! That is so funny!"What about this one: Detective gave up evidence since he finds out that it was a load of crap."
We both started laughing hysterically.
"I have another on: "Evidence against Victoria Lee Jones flushed down the toilet."
"That was a good one Mr. Edwards. I didn't know how fun it was to tell poop jokes."
"Aren't they the best?"
After we had a wonderful cathartic laugh Mr. Edwards went outside to convince the detective that they were no evidence to suspect me of anything. That I too was a victim of the same circumstances. That instead of wasting his time on a young innocent girl, that such a famous, intelligent, and wise detective should go after the real perpetrators, whom he himself has already encountered. Mr. Edwards may have stricken detective Gautier's ego more than he wanted to, but it worked! The detective walked away with his head held high and promised to find those men. 👢
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Picture: Getty Images
