“Blass Labs? Where’s that located?”
“It’s out in Sparks.”
“I don’t see why you needed me along, Lucy. I need to study a bit more because my class is tomorrow night.”
“Don’t pout, Cindy.” I kept a steady hand on the steering wheel as I glanced over at her. She was doing just that. “I promise this won’t take long and I have a favor to ask of you.”
“I told you I won’t go out with Skip, no matter what kind of deal you cooked up with him.”
I wanted to laugh. Traffic was light this evening and we’d brought Baskerville with us on this caper. He had his nose happily in the front vent breathing in cool air. I asked her to bring him so she wouldn’t be so pissy.
“I know. You mentioned that a few dozen times already so let’s put that business aside.”
“…We’ll put it away, thank you,” she snorted.
“Whatever.”
“So what’s the favor?”
“I need Alain’s diary translated.” For the next few minutes, I caught her up on meeting Tammy at the old house and my conversation with Louis Laparu. She was quiet afterwards for several minutes. That was another thing I appreciated about my friend: she was thoughtful and could think a situation through. I might get excited and head off all pistons firing, but Cindy would sit back to take a minute. Bouncing ideas off her was a good exercise.
“My French instructor might be able to do it. How many pages are we talking?”
“I’m not sure—maybe fifty.”
“Sure. I’ll ask him.”
“Anything else happen lately that I missed?” I made a left turn heading for my final destination. Since it was dark already, I checked that my lights were working and noted the address one more time.
“Tammy came by a few days ago.”
“What’d she want? She seems to be appearing more and more these days.”
“She’s got her hands full. She wanted to thank us for taking Napoleon and generally complained about all the work Eddie was loading on her about Vivienne’s house. It’s apparently going to take a cleaning crew to get it in shape.”
“I don’t envy her that.”
“And Mrs. Murphy mentioned yesterday that Eddie had quizzed her about Napoleon’s rantings over at her house.”
I looked at her sharply. “The ‘Nazi plunder’ comment?”
She nodded, turned the vent to shoot more air at Baskerville. His eyes closed, the picture of contentment.
“Huh.”
The road I needed was just up ahead. Which was seriously too bad. With no streetlights, the numbers on various businesses were hard to read. I went up the dark street and had to turn around because I’d missed the right address. Finally, I stopped the car in front of an old brick building that must have been built fifty years ago. On the fringes of town, the block only had a few buildings and none were well maintained. This one faced the street with an alley on the right side and a vacant lot on the other. I couldn’t imagine what kind of laboratory would want to be out in the middle of practically nowhere with zero foot traffic. Obviously, people working here didn’t want customers.
“You sure this is it?” Cindy leaned forward in her seat, pressing against Baskerville who barked. “Sorry, sweetie.” He was mollified when she kissed the top of his head.
“Well, it’s obviously closed.”
“It must be a Monday to Friday business.” She peered through the windshield. “What kind of business do you think it is?”
“I have no idea at all.” I parked the car and got out to take a look. Walking up to a window, I cupped my hands around my eyes to peer inside the darkened building. I came up flat.
“Nothing. Nada.” I turned back to Cindy. She’d gotten out to let Baskerville do his business by a withered tree on the sidewalk.
“The window shades are drawn and there’s nothing on the front except for the name Blass Labs in really small print.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah. Curious. Usually businesses are thrilled to have people check them out so they can sell more of their product.”
“This whole building screams go away, Sherlock.”
“I agree completely with you, Watson.”
“What’s the next step?”
I yawned, headed for the car. “Let’s wrap it up. Even the busiest detectives need to sleep occasionally.”
She smiled and gathered the dog in her arms. He licked her face, then hopped over to my side of the car to lick mine. Sweet dog. I stared out the windshield at the decrepit building for a few minutes, my mind churning through various possibilities. Nothing seemed to stick or come into focus so I started the car and headed for home. In the background, I heard Cindy chat about the latest celebrity she had to squire around and Baskerville barked occasionally in response. The activity in my brain went into sleep mode eventually and I tuned back in to my friends.
Contented yet stimulated, I drove home thinking that life was good. If you had your friends, you could make it through any dilemma. That thought helped get me through all the crap flung at me the next day.
* * *