“Why?”
“Because even with help, they managed to screw everything up. When we were kids, we learned to look after ourselves at a young age. My dad would be off working on a new opportunity and my mom would be in a new job that she was bound to lose within a month or two. By the time we were going to middle school, Adèle and I were the only ones in the house cooking meals. My mom was and still is a cleaner. The house was always spotless, even when things were falling apart. And when I say falling apart, I mean it literally.
“When we were fifteen and in high school, we realised that if we wanted a better life, we’d had to make it happen ourselves. We were talking about getting scholarships to study, but we soon realised that we wouldn’t get that. That’s when Adèle devised a new plan. It was one of the few times she didn’t share her ideas with me. Not until she had the plan already working. It took her a year and by that time, she’d made up her mind.”
“About what?” Daniel asked.
“That I was the one to go to university and she would make sure that we both had money to escape our parents’ lives. Once I graduated and was settled, she would start her studies. We argued about this for days.” She swallowed. “I was so angry. Adèle was the genius of the two of us. Sure, I did well at school, a bit higher than average, but she was way above that. She was the one who should’ve gone to university first. But she refused. When she told me about her plan, she’d already saved over five thousand euros.”
“Drug money?” Fabien asked.
She nodded. “She was smart. She registered a small business, selling perfumes online. At first, she was selling cheap knock-offs until she could afford the more expensive brands. She also started with small amounts of drugs, but she didn’t start with softer drugs. She started with heroin and that was her main trade.”
“Do you know how she operated her business?” Daniel asked.
“I figured it out and she reluctantly told me I was right. Her perfumes were a front for the drugs. She sold the high-end perfumes at prices five to ten times more than anywhere else on the internet. The buyers would buy a bottle online and she would ship the heroin to them, neatly packaged in the original perfume boxes. She’d found a way to empty the perfume bottles and fill them with heroin without damaging the bottles.”
This certainly explained the numerous empty perfume bottles Vinnie had found in the cupboard in Adèle’s basement.
“She used a courier?” Daniel waited until Claire nodded. “That’s how there was never any suspicion about the packages. Especially if she sold only in France.”
“She sold in other EU states as well, but most of her business was here.” Claire sighed. “She told me once that she felt conflicted. On the one hand she was proud that her business had built up such a good reputation for a superior-quality product. And on the other hand she was ashamed that she was proud about selling drugs.”
“You feel guilty.” I could see that emotion clearly on her face.
“Of course I do.” She waved her hand in the air. “Adèle did all of this so I could study and make a better life for myself. She was so stupidly selfless. You know, she never used any of that money to go on vacation or buy herself nice things. Everything she bought was for the business.” She paused, her eyes filling with fresh tears. “Now that I think about it, she never went on holiday.”
“Did Adèle deal only in drugs?” Daniel asked.
“Yes. Why?” She inhaled sharply. “Oh, God. Did you find something else? You must have. I wonder... You know, about six months ago, Adèle told me that she’d procured some valuable things for someone who was her ticket out. And of course, she refused to tell me what these valuable things were.
“I also don’t know if it were these valuables, but she said this was going to change everything. She was working on one huge deal and then she was getting out.” Her expression softened. “She was going to study music. She started taking piano lessons six years ago and was really good.
“Last month she told me she’d saved one and half million euros, so she never needed to work again. She just wanted to play the piano and this last big deal was going to double her savings. She was excited about it. I had graduated and was settling down and it was her turn. Now... now it’s all for nothing.”
Daniel waited while she wiped fresh tears with her tissue. He cleared his throat. “Did she say anything else about the huge deal? Names, places, anything?”
Claire thought about this for a moment, all the while slowly shaking her head. “Nothing concrete. I’m... I was always so worried and curious about her life and work that I grabbed every small detail she ever shared. All I remember is that she mentioned two men. Not their names, just that she co-operated with them. My impression was that these men didn’t know each other. I got the impression that she controlled only one relationship. I can’t remember what gave me that impression, but I was convinced she was scared of the other man.”
I leaned forward, closely watching every single micro-expression. Claire Pichet was telling the truth.
“Any idea when she’d met this man?” Daniel asked.
“The one she was scared of? No. The other one I think she’d known for a few years. She’d only recently started talking about the scary man. The other one... years?” She paused, her eyes going up and left—she was recalling memories. Then she nodded. “Yes, it’s been at least four years. He helped her getting the drugs into the country. She’d... wait! One day she said something about a warehouse.” She paused. “Does this help?”
“A lot.” Daniel had barely managed to hide his excitement. He’d most likely also come to the conclusion that the one man was probably Gilles. “This warehouse. Do you remember anything else?”
She took her time to think about this. Her shoulders dropped. “No. I’m sorry.”
“Please don’t be. This is truly helpful.” Daniel paused when Claire’s expression changed.
She frowned and blinked a few times, her fist pushed against her mouth—deep in thought. Her eyes widened and she turned her attention back to the camera. “Six months. I remember now. Six months ago, Adèle said she’d had a run-in with a scary man. By then, I’d learned not to react and tell her to be careful. When I did that, she just stopped sharing.”
“What happened six months ago?” Daniel asked.
“I lost a patient and was very sad. This is why I remember that day. I didn’t want to talk about my job or myself and focused on Adèle. She told me she’d made a mistake and thought this guy was on to her, but she’d managed to avoid being discovered. You know? Now that I think about this, I don’t think she’d ever met this man.
“The few times she talked about him was usually about making sure that he never found out where to find her. The very little she said about him led me to believe that he was her supplier. I never managed to figure out where she got the drugs from, but I was sure he was either the point of origin or the next step. I also never figured out exactly how the drug-dealing business worked.”
Her chin contracted and her voice grew shaky. “Adèle kept all that from me. She said she didn’t want that life and those people ever getting close to me. Especially the scary man. She was adamant that he would never find me.”
“She loved you.” Daniel waited until Claire regained control over her emotions. “Why is it that your parents didn’t tell you what happened to Adèle?”
Her sadness turned into anger and her husband rubbed her shoulders as he leaned a bit closer to the camera. “We broke contact with them three years ago. Those people are toxic.”