We’re alone in my house. It’s quiet, too quiet, without Gina. She’s been living with her family for a month now, and honestly, I’m not sure if we’ll ever live together again. Things are… well, not looking great. But I kind of prefer it this way. I’m learning to enjoy the quiet.
And then there’s Eloïse Hawtrey-Moore.
One moment, she was here. The next, she had vanished. Just like that.
No one knows where she is. The Dubois are in preventive detention until the trial, and Antonia Hawtrey-Moore is under house arrest.
Here’s the thing—I know Gina better than I know myself. And I can tell she’s not nearly as shaken by everything as she should be. Like, someone just put our entire lease—both mine and hers—up for the next six months. Then, a locksmith showed up a few days ago to install a new security system. I didn’t call him.
Look, if my friend is in a secret relationship with a fugitive from the law, I don’t want to know.
I close the report on Antonia’s case and focus on André.
“What do you want me to do with this?”
“I’d like you to read it,” André tells me.
“Why?”
Instead of giving me an answer, he rummages through his folder and, as if he were pulling a rabbit out of a magic hat, he pulls out a document and holds it up.
“Just do it,” he says, still smiling.
I take it. It’s two sheets of paper stapled together and has the seal of the national police at the top of the first page. Below, I read:
EXCERPT FROM LAURENT DUBOIS JUNIOR’S STATEMENT.
NON-ORIGINAL DOCUMENT.
LOANABLE.
“What…?” I begin to say.
“You’ll be surprised.”
Excerpt from the statement of Enzo Woods
Taken on November 23
Police station number 313. Cutnam. November 23. 8:40 in the morning.
(Enzo Woods, alias of Laurent Dubois Junior, part of the criminal gang known as the Counterfeiter, testifies on the occasion of the preliminary hearing on January 16, when the trial will take place for the crimes committed in relation to illegal documentation provided by the Counterfeiter.)
EW: Vera Rodríguez sought the help of the Counterfeiter to get the Chance scholarship, yes.
JA: We have her testimony and the defence of her lawyer. Could you corroborate the facts?
EW: I doubt it.
JA: What do you mean?
EW: I say that I doubt that you can corroborate them,officer, if what Vera and her lawyer have told you is not the truth.
JA: What is the truth, Mr. Dubois?
(Enzo Woods taps his fingers on the table. Another agent enters the room and sits at the back.)
EW: The truth is… Vera has never been a client of the Counterfeiter.
