BBC Musketeers / Coast of dreams

New Friendships

While his colleagues, went about their jobs, Athos took care of his own task. He was on his way to the police station with the difficult assignment to get information from the forensics lab. Not as easy as it sounded. He clipped the fake ID card to his olive-green bomber jacket. He also wore a grey shirt and olive chinos with matching sneakers. He was just about to go up the stairs to the entrance, when someone stepped in front of him. "Not so fast," a female voice said, as the owner of that voice looked directly into his eyes.

Athos sighed, as he recognized who was standing in his way. His task had just changed from merely difficult to complicated. "What are you doing here?" he asked, drily.

"Shouldn't the question rather be, what are *you* doing here?" the woman in front of him asked back. Athos had no time for her games and pulled her away from the entrance. They would attract too much attention there and that was something he wanted to avoid. "I have to work. You should go back to the hotel." He tried to put his foot down, but with this woman that didn't mean anything.

"I'm just a concerned citizen," she said, mock-innocently, batting her eyelashes. Athos just gave her a steady look. She might be able to fool a stranger, but he had stopped believing her lies a long time ago.

"Why are you really here?" he asked again.

"I saw that you need to get into the lab and would like to offer my help. Athos, you know this is a job for two and you're all alone here," she answered, slowly stroking her fingers up the well-defined muscles of his chest. Quickly, Athos grabbed her wandering hand, so that she had to stop. He gave her a close look. For once, she was dressed moderately in black skinny jeans, a short, bordeaux-colored top and a long, thin knit cardigan, also in black. However, Milady being who she was, she had to have a little extravagance in her outfit, in this case in the form of a pair of leopard-print loafers.

She looked at him expectantly. He wouldn't be able to get rid of her, or at least it would cost him too much valuable time to do so, so he just nodded. Milady smiled for a moment, but quickly grew serious again.

"I assume you don't have an ID card," he said, tapping the one on his own chest. "You stay in the anteroom and warn me if one of the lab techs shows up."

Milady nodded and they both entered the police station. The policewoman behind the reception counter scanned Athos' ID card. Thanks to Nathan's good work, there were not problems.

"Madame, where's your ID card?" the policewoman asked.

Before Milady could come up with something, Athos spoke. "She's a witness, here to identify a piece of evidence. She can go through," he stated matter-of-factly. The woman just nodded and let them both through.

Athos went first and headed straight for the door to the forensics lab. Milady went to find a seat in a corner. Before they had entered the station, Athos had given her an earpiece. He already wore one himself, now she put hers in as well, so that they were in contact with each other. "Everything is clear here, you can start," she murmured.

Athos knew he just had to rely on her this time and went through the door into the lab.

-

Meanwhile, Jeany was in her hotel room. She couldn't get over the fact that Athos' ex-wife was here with them. Most of all, she was concerned that he had never talked about her. Okay, they didn't talk about their pasts very much, they tended to concentrate more on the present, but something this important needed to be shared. She perched on the bed and put her laptop in front of her. She typed in a number of search words and went through a couple of web pages, until she found what she had been looking for.

Vicomte lost brother – wife did not attend the funeral

Last Saturday, the Vicomte de la Fère buried his brother. The funeral and graveside services were attended only by the Vicomte himself and a few close family members, with the beautiful Vicomtesse being noticeably absent. Over the last few month, there were rumors of an impending divorce. Possible reasons could have been the frequent visits of the Vicomtesse to a number of casinos. The brother of the Vicomte had also been seen to frequent these establishments. Close acquaintances of the married couple could not rule out a secret affair between the brother and the Vicomtesse. After the funeral, no further word could be heard about a possible divorce. However, the Vicomte and Vicomtesse have not been seen together in public since then.