answer theirs questions. However you had your lunch with your friend Rosie today, right? At what time did you come back?
His mother stopped daydreaming, she just noticed too that the policemen were carelessly walking on her flower plants. But she also thought that, after all, this was meaningless. She looked at Thomas:
- Yes, I was at Rosie's place, I came back around 6pm, not a long time before you arrived, actually. I did not even ring at your door, you usually come back later, and you said me that Seth was in holidays; I do not thought she would be there. Why was it, anyway?
Thomas didn't want to talk about that.
- She came back yesterday evening, sooner than expected.
- Do you think she had any trouble during her holidays? And why didn't you go together? Where was she?
Thomas knew the discussion would irremediably lead to this polemic topic between her mother and him:
- I don't know. In the Alps, If I remember correctly.
- Honestly! Not even knowing where his girlfriend is going! My God, if by chance you were gone with her, but why?... It was the same in November, when she had been alone to the Ré island, what a...
Thomas interrupted his mother, irritated.
- Mum, we are not going to talk about that again, so be it, she wanted to be alone, what could I do about that? Well, whatever, you did not see anything, is that right?
His mother regretted to have irritated him, she well knew that he didn't like to talk about that, but she just did not understand him. She did not understand young people any more, she was thinking:
- No... Now that we need them this is bad luck the Martins were in vacations, usually she is always spying through
the window, it would have been useful this time.
Thomas was going to ask her to go back to her house, but he finally retracted and daydreamed to something else when he saw the hearse arriving. His mother was still talking to him:
- The Piranoccis neither, by the way, both of them are working, but, well, just in case, it costs nothing asking them.
Thomas stepped back into the conversation, without really taking care of it, it has been so much time he has been having false conversations with his mother.
- And the Simons?
- Simons? Noooo... Except if the murderer came from the backyard, but with the hedge the Simons can't see anything, honestly they could cut it a bit more often... No if somebody has see something, it must be Miss Marin or Miss Louis, they always walked in the neighbourhood. But never before 6 or 7pm this days, likely too late, anyway, the weather is far too hot sooner in the day. Well, you know, they were likely just sleeping both of them when the crime happened.
Thomas placed his hand on his mother's shoulder:
- Well, I gonna see what is happening, go back, you warn me if anybody talk to you about something suspect; but be careful not to talk about that too much, even if you hear some new things, this just creates rumors and suddenly everybody knows who is the murderer and has seen everything.
- Yes, OK, but will you sleep now that you house is blocked? You do not want to come in at home?
- No, it's OK, well, I'll see, I'll came back late, anyway. Well, I must go. See you Mum.
Thomas went to Stéphane who was taking notes with Jean-Luc. He gave them some clue about the neighbours, from his mother speech. He talked about Miss Martin and Miss Louis. Jean-Luc did not lost any time and he went to question the neighbours, even if the odds