Chapter Text
Commissioner Selwyn Patterson of the Royal Sainte Marie Police Force sauntered into the Honore police station one morning, full of bonhomie and good humour. He had great news for the team, he said. Sainte Marie was soon to be graced with an exciting event. A major film studio was going to be shooting a cinematic picture on the island of Sainte Marie and, in particular, the town of Honore was to be singled out for special attention.
Oh, just think of the benefits to Sainte Marie! All the people involved in the production would be staying in the island's hotels, dining in the cafes, bars and restaurants, spending in the local shops and markets, partaking of all the lovely touristic delights the island had to offer and - best of all - imagine the prestige of having recognisable actors and actresses starring on their island! This even beat the 400 year old legend of pirate Francois LeClerc and his (supposed) buried treasure. And the potential long term benefits were even better; tourism could be up for years, and the economy safe for the distant future.
There was only one possible downside ("oh no, wait for it," thought the collective team of Detective Inspector Richard Poole, Detective Sergeant Camille Bordey, Sergeant Fidel Best and Ordinary Police Officer Dwayne Myers). There would need to be an increased police presence to cope with the likely influx of tourist fans and, more specifically, the film's two main stars, Adam Kerry and Tania Wells, might require a certain amount of "escorting" when away from the protective cover of the production unit.
The increased police presence would not be that much of a problem as extra officers could be temporarily drafted in from Guadeloupe in a reciprocal arrangement made some years before and, at any rate, it was not anticipated that there would be much trouble. The protagonists were (still) only relatively minor stars, nothing like as famous as some of the Hollywood superstars of yesteryear who were regularly mobbed wherever they went.
Richard Poole groaned and put his head in his hands the way he frequently did when he was either embarrassed, exasperated or just plain dreading something. On this occasion it was clearly the latter.
"Dear God, the circus is coming to town. I thought this was supposed to be a normal place (well, apart from the heat, the sand and the bugs); why is someone allowing it to be turned into a glorified amusement park?! And why are they dragging us into it all? Surely they can bring their own bloody security with them?!"
Camille, Dwayne and Fidel braced themselves for another Richard Poole rant, but fortunately it was actually too hot for even Richard to carry on for very long. And if the truth be told, they were secretly rather excited at the prospect of some outside glamour coming to their island. Quite apart from putting it on the map for those who hadn't yet heard of Sainte Marie, it was well known that Tania Wells was one of the prettiest up and coming actresses in films at the time and Adam Kerry was, in Camille's opinion, positively the last word in gorgeous.
Richard, naturally, had not heard of either of them in spite of their having recently started to become familiar to the movie-going public, but then for a man who had never heard of Beyoncé either, that was hardly surprising. Anyway, given his track record for goggle-eyed soppiness with certain types of women, eg Megan Talbot, Liz Curtis (she of the skimpy yellow bikini) and TV presenter Fiona Bruce, it wouldn't be long before Richard was drooling (figuratively speaking) all over the lovely Tania, at least once he'd stopped ogling her.
Camille felt a slight stab of irritation at the thought of Richard fancying another woman. Granted, it wasn't as if they were in an actual relationship themselves, but there were very definite undercurrents of attraction, and the unspoken assumption in many peoples' minds was that it was only a matter of time before the emotional and sexual chemistry between them finally erupted.
But, what's sauce for the goose is indeed sauce for the gander (and not the duck, as Camille had once mistakenly said!), and Adam Kerry was himself no slouch in the good looks department. In fact, he was everything Richard Poole was not. Tall, blond and beautifully tanned, with an air of modest confidence peeking out from his sunny and slightly cheeky smile. At the moment he was yet to make a big mark in mainstream cinema, but if this latest film proved to be a hit at the box office, both he and Tania could well find themselves catapulted into the stratosphere.
"Ooh look, there they are!" A small group of admirers began to form on Honore's main street (whatever that meant in a town as small as Honore) as they watched the stars and the supporting cast of the soon-to be-shot new film going 'walkabout' in the town. It was organised as a sort of goodwill gesture for the islanders and townsfolk to thank them for hosting the small army of people all there to make the movie, and to placate them in advance in case of disruption or inconvenience to their daily lives.
"Isn't he handsome/isn't she lovely?" were all the kinds of expressions from the swooning fans. Richard thought it a good thing that Adam Kerry and Tania Wells were only fairly minor celebrities as he most definitely would not have been willing to tolerate the kinds of frenzied crowds that accompanied the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, for example, back in the days.
Richard's team had been seconded to escort the leading actors throughout much of their time away from the set, something that the Commissioner thought would be great PR for Sainte Marie, but with which Richard did not concur.
"I bet she's an empty headed diva, and he's probably a moron with a six pack", he'd thought very uncharitably and not a little judgmentally. Camille was still young and fun loving enough to see this as a once in a lifetime bit of local fun. Admittedly, it wasn't exactly akin to patrolling the mean streets of New York, but as there was next to nothing else going down at the time, what was wrong with a bit of harmless glamour and glitz? After all, she was a girl who'd been brought up in a culture of festivals and celebrations.
In point of fact, Tania Wells was British, 26 years old, and very pretty, with long brown hair and big blue eyes that tended to fix adoringly on any current object of interest. Adam Kerry was a 28 year old Canadian whose features were almost too perfect to be true; blond hair, sea green eyes, a chiselled nose and symmetrical jawline. He was an appealing combination of manly and sensitive in equal measure.
As they continued down their route towards the beach, smiling and exuding minor Hollywood-style charm, Tania lost her footing and slipped and Richard caught her. The predictable happened.
"Oh, thank you so much, Inspector Poole, I do seem to be rather clumsy today". Tania smiled sweetly at him and then looked down demurely; in fairness to her, she wasn't so much actively flirting with him as trying to cover her embarrassment, but Richard, who had a weakness for damsels in distress (particularly English rose types), found it irresistible.
"Not to worry, Miss Wells; these streets are dreadfully uneven in places. One does often wish the Honore budget would stretch to mending the potholes in the roads."
"Oh, please call me Tania. And may I call you Richard?"
"I...I'd be flattered, of course, Miss Wells.....I...I mean Tania".
Camille rolled her eyes at this exchange, and her gesture was caught by Adam Kerry who smiled at her in a friendly and conspiratorial manner.
"It really is very good of you to put up with us. I'm sure you have a hundred more important things to do," he said, falling into step with her.
"That's okay, don't worry. It's not every day that we have such excitement on Sainte Marie; there's a wonderful carnival atmosphere beginning to build up. I grew up here so I love all that," Camille answered with equanimity.
"You sound French, if you don't mind my being a bit personal. I gather that about 30% of the population on the island are of French descent?" Adam seemed to be taking a genuine interest in Camille, and sounded considerably more intelligent than she might have expected from a young man who looked like a matinee idol.
"Yes," she replied, "my mother is French and my father is Caribbean." She tilted her head ever so slightly to one side as if to ask why he would care to know.
"I'm interested partly because I'm one quarter French Canadian." He was too gentlemanly to tell Camille that the other part of the reason was that he had taken a bit of a shine to her. "My maternal grandmother was from Montreal and we used to spend time with her when I was a child."
Camille was thrilled. "Alors, vous devez parler bien couramment le francais, n'est-ce-pas? C'est bien, ca!" [So you must speak French pretty fluently then? That's great!]
"Pas tout a fait, je regrette," [not quite, I'm afraid] he chuckled. "My grandmother of course hoped I'd grow up bilingual," he explained, reverting back to the more comfortable (for him) English, "but I'm afraid I was rather lazy and didn't bother keeping it up since all of my friends were English speaking. Unfortunately, my gran died when I was only about 11, so I heard French spoken even less after that, except as a second language at school. We didn't speak it at home much at all as my dad wasn't keen on the whole French thing." Now who does that remind me of? thought Camille.
"I think I've heard your boss refer to you as Camille? Is it okay to call you that?"
"Of course," she smiled.
"Thanks. I'm Adam." His grin was dazzling.
"Yes, I gathered that," she replied rather drily. "Quite half the island now knows who you are, even before your film here has been made. You know, word gets out and they all rush out to see if they can get hold of a DVD of your other work."
"Oh dear, some of the stuff I've done has not exactly been Shakespeare. I'm really hoping this picture gets off the ground. It's a story of forbidden love, but it's supposed to be a pretty serious one, with a tragic ending too - though I shouldn't have given that away now, should I?" he groaned, shaking his head.
"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me," promised Camille, with a light hearted laugh.
There was something about this young man that Camille found unexpectedly disarming. He seemed so un movie star-ish, or at least the way she assumed a star of the silver screen would be. Although he had the classical beauty of a Greek god, she could as yet detect no arrogance or conceit in him. Quite the opposite; Adam Kerry, film star in the making, was modest and charming. His interest in her was sincere; his conversation an expression of an open and friendly personality, not a cynical attempt to chat her up.
As the pair carried on their animated and breezy conversation, punctuated by giggles and phrases such as, "really?" and "you're kidding!", they failed to notice that they had also caught the attention of Richard Poole. Richard was not faring so well with his ingénue. After an initial bit of simpering and cooing from Tania Wells, she had then proceeded to ignore him and flirt with one of the cast instead, a guy who looked like he would be much more fun. Richard decided his first assessment of showbusiness types was right; most of them were vacuous and shallow, and Miss Wells could have been their poster girl.
Watching the easy, unforced nature of Camille and Adam's interactions, Richard felt a pang of sadness and jealousy. He quashed the latter emotion as he couldn't possibly admit to himself that he was (unconsciously) in love with Camille, but he was able to accept privately that he envied other men their confidence and ability to talk to women in a relaxed and natural way, and even to ask them out without being turned down. If he had not had feelings for Camille above and beyond the platonic, he would actually have admired the younger man.
As the group approached the beach, Adam and Tania and their co-stars were reunited with the other members of the production company. The Honore police escort would not be needed again for the next few days as shooting was to take place surrounded by the whole cast and crew and a few 'minders', and there was safety in numbers.
Just before leaving to join the others, Adam turned to Camille and said somewhat shyly, "It was really nice meeting you, Camille. I hope you don't mind my asking, but I was wondering if you would consider going for a drink - or perhaps dinner - sometime, assuming I can slip away?"
Camille's mind was trying to think in double time. On the one hand, she was very flattered that a handsome young (almost) film star was asking her out - and she genuinely liked him; on the other hand, there was the Richard Poole dilemma.
If she were to go out for even just a drink with Adam, how would that be interpreted? And if it was dinner, would there be any expectations? And if so, of what, precisely? A one night stand? A fling? A relationship? None of the above?
And what would Richard think? Might it even stir him to jealousy and give him a metaphorical kick up the backside? Would it have the opposite effect and disgust him - or discourage him?
While Camille pondered these myriad possibilities, the absurdity occurred to her that rather than asking herself if she actually wanted to meet up for a drink or dinner with Adam and just take things as they come, she was instead trying to work out which of the above scenarios would be most likely to make Richard want her. She smiled rather ruefully at the irony of it, but she missed the bigger irony: she didn't have to do - or refrain from doing - anything to make Richard want her. He already did, and because it was driving him crazy, he kept doing his best to suppress it.
Nevertheless, Camille sensibly decided that her life was her own and, Richard or no Richard, there was no reason in the circumstances why she shouldn't spend a pleasant evening with Adam and enjoy it for what it was. She was grown up enough to look after herself.
So, with all the grace and charm she possessed, Camille smiled very sweetly at him and replied, "Yes, I'd like that. Thank you very much."
"Great," came the response. "I'll call you soon." And with that, Adam Kerry smiled and turned to walk back towards his colleagues.