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“Ah In French, we say plein de cran ‘Full of guts’”

“Oh, yes, gutsy Miranda is very gutsy”

“Do you trust her, this gutsy assistant?”

“Miranda? Completely I’d trust her with my life”

Descartes flipped back through his notes, twirling his pen between his fingers He had just looked up to ask another question when his cell phone rang Excusing hieway to take the call He was gone for several minutes When he returned, he sat, looked me square in the eyes, and said, “Your assistant — as her relationship with Monsieur Beauvoir?”

The question caught uard, and Descartes would have to have been blind not to notice “Fine, I think He asked her to coht well of her She caht well of him, too”

“Do you knohy they thought so well of one another? And for how long a tiht, not this

“I think they raduate student Miranda was on a dig in Guateanized”

He chewed absent me closely “Did you know that they were lovers?”

There, the shoe had dropped; I had known that question was co “It wasn’t any of my business if they had a personal relationship”

He shrugged “But did you know?”

“Yes She told ot here She felt aard about it”

“Aard about telling you? Or aard about being lovers with him?”

“Both, I guess But it was very brief, and it happened a long ti a word It was a quick fling at a field school It happens all the time”

“All the tihtly

I flushed at the innuendo “Not all the time, but it happens It doesn’t necessarily ht the French were very tolerant about casual love affairs”

“Sometimes Not when one of the lovers ends up crucified Tell ry with Monsieur Beauvoir? Resentful?”

“Resentful? About what?”

“About anything About what happened in Guatenon” Good God, did he actually think Miranda ht have nailed Stefan to that beam?

“Look, Inspector, Miranda and I have worked together for six years I never heard herhere If she were burning with rage for years — or longing for love — I think I’d have heard about it”

He shrugged again, and I found the gesture annoying; it ht also mean “What the hell do you know?” “Do you knohere Madeht?”

I returned the shrug “I assume she was in her hotel room”

“And do you knohere Monsieur Beauvoir was last night?”

I flung up ,” I said sarcastically, “which is all I can do, I’d guess that for the first part of the night, he was in his apartht, he was here in the chapel dying”