Helen was packing when Sandy let himself in shortly after noon on Monday. Not yet dressed, she was putting the clothes she planned to take into her carry-on. Her vest was at the end of the bed with her traveling clothes.
“Hi, Sandy, what´s up?”
“Well, I wanted to see you off, but there´s something else.”
“Oh?”
“You didn´t exactly level with me Saturday – about meeting Astrid.”
“What´s the problem?”
“Nothing at all, Helen. But you´ll love this. When we closed for lunch today… no, let me go back. You know there´s a big empty room above the office?”
“I think you showed me that once. The first day.”
“Well, early on, Astrid asked if she and Jean could use it to practice in.”
“Practice?”
“They practice martial arts.” He sat on the end of the bed. “I used to do judo myself, so I said it was fine. I bought a couple of mats and, at lunchtime, they go up there and throw each other all over the place. It´s pretty brutal, what they do, I think. You can feel the building vibrate when someone gets thrown. After that, I think, they shower and have lunch, then they usually make love.”
“Sounds like a good way to spend the lunch hour.” Helen put her toiletries in the case and closed it, then pulled on panties and raised her skirt up over her hips. “But, what about today?”
“Astrid came into the office wearing her gi, her practice clothes. She has a black belt, second order.”
Helen grinned at him. “She is quite trim, I noticed. Muscular.”
Sandy chuckled. “Well, I can tell you that, in a martial arts uniform, she is – um – imposing.”
“But not threatening, I hope.” She fastened her Kevlar vest up the front.
“Not at all. Sunny and beautiful. Anyway, she told me she´d hacked the security system, turned off the camera in the medical room, got into my server and located the ‘videos´ you saw.”
Helen choked back a laugh. “And?”
Sandy looked as though he could hardly contain himself. “She wanted to know if it was all right if she made DVDs of the videos.”
“And you said?”
“I said, ‘My dear, you can have anything you want.´”
“Smart.” She had her blouse on, stepped into flat shoes.
“Don´t I know it. But, we did talk a little about her computer skills. She told me how she´d gotten into the system and a whole lot more. I´m going to work with her on some things she mentioned. I think she knows more about that system than I do.”
“I´d put money on it.”
.oOo.
“M. duVin?”
Sandy turned at the man´s voice; he´d long since learned to respond to the French pronunciation of his name. “Denis?” It was the man he and Helen had met at the beach. “Sorry, I don´t think I´ve heard your surname. How are you?” He extended his hand. “And your wife?”
“Sylvestre. Thank you, we are both well. I believe you are the proprietor of the storage rental place on the avenue de Bagnas?”
“Yes. Have you been there?”
“Denise was there recently, and I went by today. We have taken a small storage unit. I wasn´t aware that you were involved, but I asked the young lady and she told me your name.”
“Well, I hope she took good care of you.”
“Yes, indeed. I was impressed. She is most attractive and very efficient.
“But I wanted to ask you a question or two. When Denise engaged a storage unit, all you asked for was her name and address.”
“Well, and also a credit card number. There´s some other information, as well.”
“Yes, but we could be anyone.”
“You mean you could be a criminal.”
“Yes, that´s possible. Or a terrorist.”
“Unfortunately, there is no easily available way to identify either. We could ask for a passport or the Euro ID, but that doesn´t get us anywhere. Surely you know that.”
The two men walked through the Heliopolis gate along the road toward Sandy´s store.
“And I could put anything I want into the unit I rented.”
“Right. Although you do agree when you sign the contract that you will not put anything illegal in the unit.”
“Not worth the paper it´s written on.”
“No, it´s not. It´s just there for legal reasons. Why are you concerned about this?”
“Well, I really don´t want my goods next to something illegal.”
Sandy looked sharply at him. “That´s not it at all. You ride the TGV, and you don´t check the identity or police record of the person who sits next to you. What´s your real problem?”
“Well, there´s no reason someone couldn´t rent a unit and come in the middle of the night and unload explosives or contraband into the thing.”
“How does that affect you? What do you care?”
Denis looked at him. “It´s illegal. It´s scary.”
“Do you want to cancel your rental?”
“No. Not at all. I´m just concerned.”
They had reached the entrance to the store. “Denis,” Sandy said, “when I built this place, I had a long talk with the Préfet de Police; I know him quite well. We went over the entire location carefully. I can assure you that your goods are safe and well-protected against contamination from anything that may be in your vicinity.”
“As I´m sure you know, there has been quite a lot of unrest along these shores recently,” Denis pointed out.
“Rather more in Morocco than here in France, I think.”
Denis nodded. “I think perhaps we understand each other,” he said. “I´m a little concerned about who is storing things with you and exactly what those things might be. And I´ve heard talk that the periodic labor unrest in Sète could have wider implications.”
“You think Sète could be a target?”
“It is a fairly important bunkering port. Coastal shipping takes on fuel there.”
Sandy opened the door. “Please come inside.”
Astrid smiled at them across the counter. “Good day, M duVin, M Sylvestre. How can I help you?”
Sandy said, “M Delacourt, would you please call up M Sylvestre´s record?”
Astrid turned a display mounted on the counter in their direction and made an entry on her keyboard.
Sandy turned to Denis. “Here are the records we have for you. Denise rented a unit from us a week ago. Here is her picture on that day. Later that afternoon, the two of you opened the unit and placed several boxes and other items in it. Here is a video of you doing that. Three days ago, you came in to ask M Delacourt some questions. Here is your picture at that time.” Sandy turned to Astrid, “Would you query that unit, please?”
Astrid tapped some keys. A dim picture filled the screen.
“Light it, please?” The image brightened and a collection of items became visible.
“Denis, I can see that you have several boxes that probably contain household items here. This box is labeled ‘towels´. This one appears to be the box for a coffee maker, but of course I can´t tell what´s really in them.” Sandy turned to Denis. “Should I be concerned about it?”
“How long will you keep the video?” Denis asked.
“We don´t usually keep them more than a month, unless there is a reason,” Astrid contributed. “And if you came in again this afternoon and opened your unit, that video would be overwritten with a new one. We keep a still image like this one from each video indefinitely. It helps us in the event of a claim. If someone removes things from a unit, we have a record of it.”
Denis was impressed. “I had no idea. You are very thorough.”
“I have a background in this sort of thing, Denis. Don´t worry”
Soon after, Denis left.
Astrid asked, “What was that all about? You don´t show that stuff to anyone.”
“I wanted him to see what we do because he is a special case.”
“So, you don´t want me showing it to anyone else – as you´ve already told me.”
“That´s correct; don´t show him anything but his own record.”
“Of course not. And I won´t show him any of the other stuff we have on him, either.”
Sandy gave her a sharp look, which she returned with a broad smile. He shook his head and wondered what her knowledge of his computer system had told her about him.
“Good,” Sandy said, deciding to let the matter go for now. “I told Helen I thought he was a spy for the King of Morocco. Now I´m sure.”