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"MEG, IT'S SO GOOD TO see you again. Your hotel La Beat is delightful! This bar looks like we're in an art gallery.”
Meg looked Spanish, and motherly, with a lovely round face and a somewhat plump body hardened from work. Her age would be the early forties, but in such a short time she had seen her share of tragedies. Meg was born and raised in Atlanta Georgia. Her missionary parents moved to Spain and were murdered during the Spanish uprising. After that, Meg became an undercover operative.
"Sorry, I wasn't here when you two checked in last night, Meg said, hugging Jane and turning to Sue Lee, you look beautiful, what a cute outfit, so much better than when you joined our nunnery!" Meg said laughing and holding her arms out to Sue Lee.
Meg and her partner Anna were in the resistance working with Alex and helped Sue Lee escape from Paris through Spain dressed as nuns.
"Tells us how you decided to settle in Paris, and purchase this darling hotel with all these paintings. Where did you acquire all this,” Jane said gesturing?
Every wall, including parts of the ceiling and floor, was adorned with artwork depicting scenes of Paris and beyond.
Meg blushed, "I reckon I've always had a soft spot for artists, can't draw a straight line myself."
"What about Anna, how is she doing?” Sue Lee said while examining the murals on the ceiling.
"Sister Anna now lives at the Abby in Toulouse."
Alex had told Sue Lee Anna had been raped and beaten by a fascist Mayor.
Sue Lee wonder if Anna's decision to be in the order was influenced by that horrible incident. She also knew Meg shot the Mayor through the head.
She kept those thoughts to herself and smiled and said. "I thought Anna was the one who hated the scratchy habits?"
"True, and I teased her about it, but even so, she's extremely happy!" Meg said turning her face away to wipe a tear from her eye with her apron.
Jane changed the subject and asked again how she acquired all the talent that covered her walls.
She told them the Paris art world was depressed during the occupation, and like a spring flower under the snow, it's exploding into the light.
Jane glanced at Sue Lee wondering when Meg became so poetic.
Meg continued on telling them that her hotel is known only by word-of-mouth.
“The artists of all backgrounds periodically gather here from around the world, including poets, Jazz musician, and writers from the Beat Generation. They seem to fit in with our French Impressionist artists of Paris,” she proudly told them.
Sue Lee knew the Beat Generation was a group of Bohemian writers who started in the early forties meeting in uptown Manhattan or Greenwich Village. The group of authors later migrated to San Francisco. Now some of the writers were becoming famous for their works. She noticed a painting on the wall by the small stage in the bar. It was done in a modernistic style portraying a jazz band with a lead saxophone player dominating the scene. It was so large and colorful it held your attention among all the artworks. Meg paused talking to Jane and said. “It's one of my favorites. I know you'll like it too!” She said turning on the lights above the painting.
Sue Lee stepped onto the stage for a closer look and immediately recognized the artist. She had the same signature on a painting in her cottage in Bodega Bay. Alex painted a portrait of her and delivered it on her birthday. "This is done by Alex? I had no idea he did the modernistic style. I assumed he was a Portraitists. It's wonderful, it's a perfect match for the La Beat? When did he do this for you?"
"I doubt he knows I have it. He's only been here once since I opened. Monsieur La Monte sold it to me. He said it took a world war to persuade Alex to sell his paintings."
"You know La Monte, then," Jane asked?
"Yes, He's a peddler hawking his wares between here and the English countryside."
Sue Lee and Jane also knew he was helping the alliance during the war and had connections.
"Meg, Is it possible we could meet with him," Sue Lee asked?
"Sure, but I don't think he had any of Alex's paintings left, they sell fast!"
With Jane's help, Sue Lee went into the details about Clara Pendleton in Clovelly, and the book Monsieur La Monte donated to their library; that supposedly was written by her dead husband.
"My God, what a turn of events for that dear woman, have you told Alex about this?"
"Sir Jonathan is taking care of that, but we haven't heard," Sue Lee answered.
"Maybe I can help, I still have a few connections and will see if they can have Alex call here. If you think La Monte can help, I can send for him?” They both nodded yes. “I’ll ask him to join us for breakfast. That way, he will be sure to come. Now tell me what else is on your minds?"
"Meg, we arrived last night to meet Garcia, who specializes in old paintings? He made all the arrangements with Sir Jonathan. The dinner was excellent, my compliments to your Chef, but no Garcia he never showed. What do you know about him,” Sue Lee asked?
"Frankly, I know little about him. He showed up shortly after I hired López. Garcia lives in the hotel and pays well, no delinquent bar tabs, and that frequently happens here in the Latin quarter. Nevertheless, I question his source of income for one so young." She said thoughtfully.
“He’s a kid?” Jane said surprised. “Are they friends, your Chef, and Garcia?"
"Yes,” Meg stood and opened a door and called out, “López, do you have a moment?"
A handsome young man joined them and quickly removed his hat, self-consciously covering his smeared apron.
Jane guessed his age to be the early twenties, and his culinary expertise taught by his mother or another female member of the family. Dr. Jane had tasted the dish they had last night in the past. She assumed Meg too had acquired a spicy taste while living in Spain before she was forced to leave.
Jane’s days being a flying surgeon in Spain were over. Like Meg, she helped Jewish refugees escape from the German death camps.
A contract was put out to kill them both. A fascist Mayor, who harmed Anna, had Doctor Jane shot while flying to rescue Sue Lee.
Instead, Sue Lee saved her life.
She was brought out of her thoughts when Meg asked López if he knew Jane, he hadn't stopped looking at her since he entered the room.
"Sí, She is the Flying Doctor who saved my father's life!"
Jane looked again at López with recognition. "Your father had appendicitis. I remember now. Oh, the food, of course, you cooked for me that night, so your mother could watch him. How are your father and family," she asked as she stood and took the boy's hand?
"He is old now but working our farm with my brothers, my mama, she too is well," he said smiling showing his beautiful white teeth.
"Please sit López, we have a few questions about Garcia. We are worried about your friend. Sue Lee and Doctor Jane are here to buy a painting from him by his request, and we can't find him.”
Jane moved so they could sit together. She wanted to make him more comfortable while answering their questions. From the past she had learned, Spanish men sometimes have a machismo loyalty between friends.
“Sí, he left with two men, I saw them back in the bar again last night, but I had a plugged drain and no time to ask where Garcia was."
"Have you been friends for a long time?" Sue Lee asked.
"Sí, we grew up together, but he suffered a sad life. He lost his father during the war. His mother after that, she was very sick."
Jane suddenly remembered that Franco would only let volunteers fight for Germany against Russia. "Where was his father killed in battle, at the Eastern front?"
"Sí, he fought with the Blue Army."
Sue Lee knew the Blue Army was formed by Franco to appease Hitler. At the same time, he was receiving aid from the United States. His neutrality was based on whichever way the wind blew in his favor.
"Do you know how Garcia receives the paintings he's been selling?" Meg asked, and Sue Lee's immediately thought. He had sold others? She needed to ask Meg about that later.
"He receives them as payment for the men who stay at the farm and other things. He showed pieces of gold to my sister Annette once. She is now forbidden by my father to go there anymore. He says those men are bad hombres! He fears for Annette, she has always been the curious one."
"These's men must be friends of Garcia's family," Jane stated?
"No, they are strangers they stay for a short time and then go, but two remain.”
"You said Garcia left with two men, and now the same ones came back last night? Can you please describe them for me López,” Meg asked?
"Sí, the tall one who told you he was a pilot, and the short dark man with the large mustache.”
"Gracias, López, I appreciate your help, but don't talk to anyone else about Garcia, understand?"
"Sí, I will do as you ask."He gave a short bow to them and walked back to his kitchen.
"Blimey, what the hell have we stumbled into? Garcia rents his family farm out to bad hombres. Who pays him in gold? He's living high in your hotel and apparently using it for contacting people such as ourselves to buy and sell his goods. I say he is very enterprising for someone so young.”
“I don't like the way this sounds. Alex should know about this. What're your thoughts, Meg,” Sue Lee asked?
"I'm definitely going to let Alex know, but let's also do a reconnaissance tonight. I don't like the idea of my bar being used for clandestine meetings of any kind. Y'all game?"