French Kiss

Chapter 41

It is Ballard who enlightens K. Burke.

“You wonder why we embrace, mademoiselle?”

“Not really,” says K. Burke. “I know about you and the detective. I know that you received a lesser sentence because of him, and I know that he received some valuable information because of you.”

Ballard smiles. I look away from the two of them.

“Detective Moncrief, you have not told your colleague the entire story of our relationship?” Ballard asks, his eyes almost comically wide.

For a reason I can’t explain, I am becoming angry. With a snappish tone I respond, “No. I didn’t think it was necessary. I thought it was between the two of us.”

“But many others know,” Ballard responds. “May I tell her?”

“Do whatever you like,” I say. The bleakness of the prison, the memory of the Longchamp arrests, and the indelible pain of Maria and Dalia’s deaths all close in on me. I am sinking into a depression. There is no reason why I should be angry that Burke will be hearing the story of Ballard and me. Still, he hesitates.

I try to restore a lighter tone to the conversation. “No, really. If you want to tell her, go right ahead.”

After a pause, Ballard tells her, “When I was arrested I was the father of an infant, and I was also the father of three other children, all of them under the age of five years.”

He pauses, and with a smile says, “Yes, we are a very Catholic family. Four children in five years.” Burke does not smile back.

Then he continues. “Life would have been desperate for my wife, Marlene, without me. The children would have starved. When I was sentenced to the two decades in the prison, I worried and prayed, and my prayers were answered.

“In my second month inside this hell, Marlene writes to me with news. She is receiving a monthly stipend, a generous stipend, from Monsieur Moncrief.”

He pauses, then adds, “I was overwhelmed with gratitude for his extreme generosity.”

Burke nods at Ballard. Then she turns to me and says, “Good man, Detective.”

I do not care to slosh around in sentimentality. I gruffly announce, “Look, Ballard. I am here for a reason. An important reason. You may be able to pay me back for that ‘extreme generosity.’”