Page 54 of Nothing Left

***

"This is it," Juliette said. "The Basilica La Sagrada Familia - or the Basilica of the Holy Family. It was designed by the architect Gaudi, who's widely acclaimed as a genius, and it's the most famous of the tourist sights in Barcelona."

It was eight a.m. the next morning, and she was standing, in warm sunshine, in front of the extraordinary, extravagant towers of the basilica. She felt battered and bruised, but after finalizing the work on wrapping up the case, a very late dinner, and a surprisingly good sleep, she had been able to regroup.

The killer, the psychopathic Mateo Lopez, was in a maximum security cell. He would remain there for the rest of his life, with evidence now linking him firmly to the two murders.

The man, from an abusive family background, had been a trapeze artist, a circus clown, an acrobat, a tightrope walker, a petty thief, and a burglar during his life. And recently, he'd crossed the line into murder.

But Juliette didn't want to think about that now. This was a happy morning, and they were at the first of several sights that they were going to take in before the task force flew back at lunchtime.

“You just don’t get architecture like this in America,” Wyatt said, taking out his phone and snapping pictures that Juliette knew would be immediately sent to Suzy. “What a place! What a building.”

"Wow, it's so intricately designed. I'm looking and looking and just seeing more and more detail. Imagine coming up with all of this and building it," Sierra said. "Isn't it amazing?" She turned and asked the question of the woman next to her, who was standing and looking at it in awe.

"It's truly beautiful. Like a fairytale castle, and it's even better inside. Wait until you see the pillars, like trees, and the way the light shines through the windows," Heather Andrew agreed. "I'm so glad you could see it, Dad."

Heather squeezed the hand of the dark-haired man standing next to her, who'd been in tears of thankfulness last night as he'd praised the task force for their heroic determination.

Juliette had to smile as she watched them.

Once Mateo's arrest had been processed, Heather had been immediately released. Commander Delgado had kept his word and had even held a press conference explaining the breakthrough that the police, working closely with the FBI, had achieved. Juliette didn’t mind that he took some of the credit. She was just happy the killer was caught.

Heather had a long, tearful hug with her father - no bars separating them - and then Juliette had booked a room for her in the hotel where her father was staying so that she could have a comfortable night's sleep. She deserved it after her ordeal, together with a slap-up late dinner that Wyatt had treated the father and daughter to.

Already, this morning, Juliette had seen a newspaper article that described the 'innocent victim, framed by a devious and brutal killer' and knew that public opinion would swiftly swing the other way and that Heather would be hailed as a brave heroine, a survivor whose memory fragment had helped to track down the killer.

Juliette was vastly relieved that everything had turned out for the best after a nail-biting quest to find this killer.

And now, it was time to walk inside and start their journey of discovering and enjoying the good side of Barcelona, the tourist side.

The dark side was behind them at last.

EPILOGUE

It was six p.m., and it looked set to be a beautiful clear evening in Paris by the time Juliette tiredly walked out of the elevator and headed along the corridor to her apartment.

As she did, she saw her new neighbor and potential new friend Anthony Abbott – or Tony as he liked to be called. He was leaning over the balcony, staring out at the street behind their building with appreciative enjoyment.

It was worth the view, Juliette knew. With the bakery across the road, the street trees turning golden, the park in the distance, and the glorious sunset over the outline of Paris's buildings, this was something she loved to do in the evenings, too.

He turned as he saw her approach.

"Good evening," he said. "I'm taking in this beautiful view. Good to see you back. Were you away on a case?"

"Yes. It was a short but eventful trip and a successful outcome," Juliette explained, not wanting to say too much about it. "And I'm glad to be home."

"I'm sure you must be ready for a relaxing night if you've been away on a work trip," he said. He looked down, drew a deep breath as if summoning his courage, and then stared at her. "On Thursday evening, would you like to go out? I'd love to do some sightseeing and thought it would be wonderful to spend a couple of hours at the Musee d'Orsay. I see it's open at night on Thursdays, so we could go after work. If you're available, of course; otherwise, we could do it another time?"

"Thursday is an excellent day. And I'd love to go," Juliette said. She was looking forward to it. It had been ages since she'd last visited the famous museum and taken in the artworks. "It's a date."

He grinned, looking pleased that she’d agreed. They discussed where and when to meet, and then Juliette headed inside to her apartment, and so did Tony to his.

She would have loved to put her feet up on the couch and pour herself a well-deserved glass of wine, but after putting down her carry-on, she knew there was one place she needed to go first.

It was troubling that she hadn't heard back from Paulette Bouchard. She'd promised to contact Juliette within two days with the information she'd been planning to research that might shed light on her father's case. This was now the end of day two, and Juliette was feeling scared that Paulette was backing out of her agreement, that she'd had cold feet.

She considered calling her and actually picked up her phone before deciding an in-person visit would be better and have a greater chance of success.

---