Retrospective: Paris - How things happened

3.4. Francesco De la Cruz - Battle plan
Fall 1993, Mae's apartment

Francesco woke up to muffled voices that talked in the distance, interrupted by the deep chimes of the nearby church bells. The late afternoon sun drew circles on the white bed linens. They were soft and warm and smelled like peace. Like a place to stay in forever.
Francesco was at ease.
Until three seconds later reality hit him like a truck.
All the shit that had happened last night, the assault, Diego's threat, followed by his murder, and Mae's and his struggle to deal with the consequences. Which weren't over yet, by far.
He sat up and the pain of his injuries enforced the truth of the recent events. It was not as bad as today morning, but the effect of the painkillers had worn off and the contusions throbbed numbly at every movement.

More careful, he climbed out of bed, as his aching body let him. Mae's bed.
Now it seemed so surreal that they had shared it. They both had been completely exhausted.
He had slept so tight, he didn't notice when she had left the appartement.
"But he was always fine with us hanging out there", he heard her voice, speaking in French through the half-open door, where a cold draft came from.
"I'm pretty sure it has to do with the shots", another voice, also female, replied.
Francesco guessed they were talking about what happened this morning.

He looked for a long-sleeved sweatshirt in his bag.
"Could you find out what happened?", Mae's voice was dripping of anticipation. And some anxiety, maybe? Francesco would've loved to know more, too.
"Artie didn't tell me any details, of course, but I managed to listen on him talking to Leroux, when he came to update him earlier", the other girl replied. "From what I figured, there was a man shot dead."

And Francesco figured that the mentioned Artie and Leroux had a deeper insight into what happened. If they were from the police, he had to be careful around that other girl.
"How terrible! Do they know who did it?", Mae cried out in fake surprise. A little too much, maybe, he chuckled.
He zipped up his bag and pulled the sweatshirt over his head.
Carefully.

"Not yet, of course! But there's something", the other girl said. "It looks like the guy he lived with went missing for a few weeks. Either he's also dead, but if not, that's a strong hint that he might be the murderer. They broke up, you know."
Francesco stopped moving for a second. His worries seemed to come true. And faster than he had expected.

"No way!", Mae exclaimed.
"The police is just waiting for the photo of him from the registration office. They'll broadcast it today with the evening news, or tomorrow morning."
Shit. Everyone would know his face, being a possible murder suspect.

"But it could also be someone else, no?", he heard Mae speaking again. She was a lot quieter now.

He needed to assure her, that it was someone else, not him.

The two girls were sitting on the floor in the hallway. He had walked out before he realized it.
"Oh - you're awake!", Mae jumped up. Next to her sat the girl they had met this morning. She got up a bit less hectic.

She smiled, batting her eyes coyly at him.
"Hi! Don't you work in the môle?", she hesitated a little, trying to find words in English.
He nodded. Charlotte was her name, he remembered.
"Maybe you heard that there's gang fights going on in the next quartier, where the métro station is", she continued.
Francesco furrowed his brows. He wasn't sure. He hadn't really payed too much attention to the gossip of his coworkers at the bar, and Diego never had told him anything like that.

"The thing is, now that there was a man shot dead, not so far from the bar. My brother Artie – oh, he works for the police, by the way – well, he thinks that the fights expanded", she explained.
So she was related to a police officer.

"Okay", he said.
There was a moment of silence. The blonde girl looked a bit confused.
"Well... I just dropped by to tell Mae, but since you work in that area, you should know too. And be careful."

"Thanks", he said.

She swayed her hands around and shot a questioning glance to Mae, who had stayed quiet so far.
"Oh – I guess he still has a hangover, don't mind him!", she exclaimed hastily.
Whatever that was about, he didn't understand.
"Ah, okay!" Charlotte's face relaxed. "Uhm, I gotta go now. Mae, I'll see you tonight at Tony's?"

"Sure!", Mae gave her a quick hug.
"Bye, François", the blonde girl waved at him with a big smile and took the stairs downwards.
He waved back. Francesco had already given up to correct his name to the French. Apparently they just couldn't pronounce it, or didn't want to.

As soon as Mae closed the door behind them, she flipped. "Oh god, Franny, what are we gonna do now? They will put up a search warrant for you!"
"Francesco. I heard that."
Mae threw her hands up in despair, ignoring his correction. "I thought if we're far from there, that's enough to keep you out of – wait, you did hear that?"
"Yeah. They found that I left Diego a few weeks ago and will broadcast my photo on TV."
He wasn't happy about that at all. Maybe he could prevent that if he'd go to the police by himself quick enough. But then they'd just lock him up, wouldn't they. He didn't want that either.
"Maybe if we go and talk to Artie, it will work out well", Mae kept pondering. "He's really nice, and – oh, wait!"

She smiled brightly.
"You actually have a witness! Me!"

"Mae, you didn't see anything, you weren't there. You cannot know if I shot him or not."

"Uhm...", she hesitated a little, "I heard the car coming, and the shots were in time with the breaking sound. I was there only a few seconds later, and you were just rooted there, and the direction that crazy man fell does not fit to your position."
She definitely had watched too many crime shows, analyzing what happened like this, Francesco thought, almost amused.


"But it doesn't really matter anyway", she smiled again. "I almost forgot that I told Artie and Charlie that we were walking around. We just have to stick to that."
"Someone might have seen us."
"No one did. There was no one on the streets. The park on the side was still empty, the dog walkers don't come out so early. And there are no windows on that side of the street, except the bar's, but that one was closed and empty. We were gone before anyone could come there to see what happened."

Francesco was impressed of her observations. He had only blurry memories from the moment Diego fell until they ran into her friends. But he was still not convinced. This was a risky game Mae wanted to play.

"One testimony against you, and you'll look like an accomplice. You should tell the truth. Or better, just stay away completely. I don't want you to get involved like that"
"I am involved already, my friends know that we were together today morning. And if“, she emphasized that word, "there was any witnesses, it's just gonna be their word against mine."

She was so stubborn! "You're not actually a credible witness. You let me stay here overnight. Don't you see how this looks like?"
Mae laughed at his implication that they were sleeping together. "As if! I have friends staying over often. And you're proven gay! No one would think we had something."

He thought for a few seconds. He wasn't, but probably it wouldn't be so bad to pretend so to avoid that their relationship would be misunderstood. And the only woman he had slept with since he was in Paris was Suzette, and his reasons for that were maybe nothing to be proud of, but still somewhat credible. If anyone would even bring that to the table - ok that was probably too far fetched. But thinking of Suzette, he remembered the things Diego had told Mae. She seemed to have completely forgotten them. Or decided to ignore it? Maybe he should clear that up one day.

"Francesco, there's no way I'll pull back my testimony. I will not risk you going to prison if I can easily prevent it", Mae said.
She didn't just quote him, he thought.

"You're not doing this crazy stuff because I said I didn't want you to get killed?" That wasn't even a big deal. Anyone wouldn't want that, but he had noticed that she had changed her behavior towards him slightly. It was somehow more... personal? He couldn't give it a name. "Mae, that wasn't about you! I couldn't let that happen to anyone innocent -"

"Even more, so!" she interrupted him. "You're a - a good person. If you don't let me go with you, I'll just volunteer alone to be a witness in the case."


Stubborn to a fault, and naive. Her words were meant sincere, but they were surprising for him. He had never considered him a good person. Not a bad person either, but definitely not good. Good people were the ones that took care of the elderly and volunteered in animal shelters and stuff like that. He never did anything like that.
But Mae was a good person. Too good for her own good, maybe. He didn't want anything happen to her because of that.


Before he could object again, she continued.
"Don't worry, everything will turn out well", she smiled.
And if he was honest, he wanted to believe her.

"But we have to make a battle plan first", she continued. "First, you have to practice on how to look devastated about the crazy man's death. You're not really good at facial expressions."

"Look, like this -", and she made a face that only missed some crocodile tears, and even her lower lip trembled, "I'm so devastated that he's gone!"

Francesco cracked up. She looked too funny.
"No way, I'm not gonna do that!"
Damn, his injuries started to hurt again from the laughing.

Mae smiled a little too. "At least try and look a little sad!"
"Fine", he confirmed, still grinning. He knew being completely indifferent to Diego's death would just make him suspicious.
"Anything else?", he asked her.
Despite the severity of the circumstances, he couldn't help but be amused by Mae's shenanigans. Maybe things wouldn't be that bad, after all.
He agreed with Mae, that not being at the crime scene when it happened should be the safest way to get out. Who would believe he was there and not being shot, too?
And having their testimonies coordinated, couldn't hurt.

In particular, because Mae tended to go a little wild with her imagination. He had to tone down her crazy ideas a few times. They had to stay credible, at least.
After they talked enough about timing, the streets they walked, and prisoner's dilemmas, they both changed, taking turns using the tiny bathroom as a dressing room.

It was still two hours before his shift in the bar started. Enough to solve the problem, Francesco hoped. Now that they were about to go, he felt insecure again.
He sighed and picked up his bag.
"Oh, you can leave that here", Mae said. "No one will come inside while we're gone."
"Uhm... you're assuming I stay here?"

"Where else would you stay?", she asked him. Casually. As if there was never a doubt about it.
"I thought about prison", he joked. "At least I won't have to worry about rent there."

"Don't jinx it!", Mae scolded him playfully. She was worried too, he noticed.
He caught her wrist before she could land the punch on his head.
It was so slender.

"And you don't need to pay rent here", she added.
Her nose crinkled up, and there were so many freckles on it. He never noticed before, because they were so pale on her even paler skin.
He pulled back.

"Let's go", he said.
He might be an idiot for playing this game, but he couldn't really think of a better option.