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Now she could see that the street performers were starting to understand the seriousness of the situation.
"He might be hiding among you, pretending to be one of you. Are you going to protect a person like this, who's placing everyone's livelihood at risk?" Lucien asked.
“What if he kills your sister? Your daughter?” Juliette asked.
Wyatt was holding onto Charl Dupont's arm, firmly but without aggression, quietly restraining him while Juliette and Lucien spoke to the unhappy street performers.
Juliette was surprised. For the very first time it felt as if the three of them were working together. She didn't know how it had happened. Perhaps, in the past few hours, they'd been able to put their differences and resentment aside and find common ground in their pursuit of this killer. She hoped so. Because she knew, for a fact, it would take every one of them to catch this man who'd evaded the top level FBI teams in New York.
The street performers listened, and one by one they nodded, understanding that this was important and that they had a responsibility to help.
"Please, help us find this man. If he's hiding among you, you need to expose him, because he's putting all of your livelihoods at stake."
The acrobat in a shimmering blue outfit, her hair drawn back in a braid, spoke first.
"I understand how serious this is, and I will volunteer to help. I have friends in many different areas. I will put the word out and ask them to keep alert and look for strangers."
"I will do the same," another one agreed. "But I want you to promise you will not take us off the street. This is a fine Friday in spring. To have to stay home tonight will affect us badly, especially seeing that tomorrow it is supposed to rain."
Juliette nodded.
"Please, everyone, I know this is a difficult situation for you. We won't remove you from the streets, but we need you to be our eyes and ears. The sooner we can catch this man, the sooner we can all get back to normal. We need to do this for everyone's safety. We understand that this is not an easy situation, but if you can help us by providing information, then we can all get back to our lives, sooner rather than later."
The performers nodded, clearly understanding the gravity of the situation. Juliette felt relief wash over her. It seemed like the street performers were really on board with helping them.
“There will be more police around, but I don’t want you to feel threatened. They are going to be in this area to support us and look for the killer,” Lucien explained. “We are deploying all the police we have available in this search. If you see anything, then call the emergency hotline, or else grab the nearest police officer and tell him what you have noticed.”
"We understand," one of the women said, firmly. "We will help however we can."
Juliette wondered if this might mean a big break for the case. With street performers all over Paris as their lookouts, and extra police deployed to all the major tourist hotspots and patrolling the outlying areas, they might just get the break they needed. This could be the teamwork that would catch the killer.
Lucien read out the emergency hotline number for the police department. And then, the performers dispersed around the square, some begrudgingly, others with a newfound respect and understanding.
Juliette and Lucien watched as the crowd slowly disappeared.
"Well, I think that had a good result," Juliette said.
Lucien nodded.
"Yes. It did. I think we found a way to get the street performers to cooperate, and that could be very helpful in our investigation. If they are on our side, we might just be able to find Goldenface before he strikes again."
Wyatt’s phone rang, and quickly, he answered it. Then he turned to Charl, letting him go.
"Charl Dupont, we've checked your alibi and it's all good. Thank you for cooperating."
Still looking grumpy, and rubbing his arms, Charl turned and walked away.
Juliette sighed. She felt as if they had made a lot of progress, but she was still worried that they were missing something. That there was an aspect of this case that she wasn't seeing, and if she didn't work out what it was, it would come back to bite her. A little voice in the back of her mind was whispering a warning, and she’d learned to trust that voice over the years.
"Is something bothering you?" Lucien asked.
Grimacing, Juliette nodded.
"We've got all the street performers on board, we are going to patrol these areas, we're going to keep a lookout for him. But, when we were talking to the performers about areas, about the different parts of Paris, it was like a light flickered on in my brain, but it wasn’t there for long enough to let me see it. I don't know what it is that I'm missing, but I need to figure it out."
Lucien looked at her, his gaze assessing.
"You have good instincts," he said, the compliment causing her to blink in surprise.
