The secret of the Indian pentagram 06

"Monsieur Bertram?" "Yes, that's me." He stood up from his chair. "Chief Inspector Francis Laurent. Please accept my apologies for keeping you waiting. Please come with me to my office."
Maurice followed the inspector into the office and sat on one of the available chairs in front of the expansive desk. The office was pleasantly cool.

"Would you like some coffee or something else?" "A double espresso and water, please, if it's not too much trouble."

Laurent went to the office door and called into the long corridor, "Jane Fortis, two double espressos and water, please, to my office!"

"Right away, Sir, Chief Inspector, Sir!" responded a friendly female voice.

"Monsieur Bertram, on behalf of the Mauritian Police Department, I want to express our condolences. I am handling the investigation into the murder of your life partner. We are just at the beginning of our inquiries, but it seems that higher authorities also have an interest in quickly solving the crime against your life partner, Mrs. Veronique Vervier."

"Yes, one of your officers already hinted at something like that. How did Veronique really die? Can you enlighten me? I am still confused by the news and don't know what to make of it. Too many inconsistencies."

At that moment, there was a knock on the door, and Sergeant Jane Fortis entered the office with a tray.

"Sir, your espresso."

"Please place it on the desk; I'll take care of the rest."

"Sir, I'm also supposed to remind you that your grandmother from France is arriving the day after tomorrow, late in the evening. Dinner on the terrace at Hotel Labourdonnais."

"Thank you, Sergeant. I'd be lost without you."

Jane Fortis responded to the remark with a silent smile. She was an exchange officer from Scotland Yard, and Francis Laurent was clearly one of her favorites in terms of qualifications on the police station. She liked his manner, his polished rhetoric, and he also happened to look quite handsome. Sergeant Fortis closed the door behind her, and Maurice and Laurent watched her approvingly.

"Now, the fact is that your girlfriend seems to have been strangled between three and five in the morning. Whether there are additional clues to the cause of death is not conclusively determined yet. We need to await the complete autopsy report. Fishermen found her lifeless body in the mangroves between Flic en Flac and Tamarin. The report from my team, made after their visit to your place, is already in my possession."

Laurent took the pages from the desk and held them demonstratively in his right hand.

"Chief Inspector, what's the deal with the tattoo? I can't make sense of it, and your officers didn't seem particularly eager to share information."

"Our officers may have overstepped their bounds," Laurent admitted.

"It is true that your friend has a distinctive pentagram tattoo on her back, between the shoulder blades. I won't add more at the moment. Things are unfolding, and I assure you, Monsieur Bertram, that you will be informed of the situation in due time. Currently, everything is speculative, as the expert says, and hypotheses are not solid statements."

"But Veronique doesn't have any tattoos on her body!"

"It also appears that it was inflicted post-mortem."

Maurice looked at Chief Inspector with critical eyes. What should he make of this?

"So, are you denying me the right to information?"

"No!" Laurent responded ostentatiously.

"I propose this: my colleague Constable Elmire, whom you already know, will pick you up from your home tomorrow afternoon and accompany you to our autopsy department. It is necessary for you to identify your wife, pardon me, life partner, Veronique Vervier. After that, we'll see."

Maurice agreed with Laurent's proposal. He already found him to be a sympathetic and reliable figure.

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