Detective Inspector Jenifer Whiteman approached the canal boat with a sense of trepidation.
It floated too perfectly between two willows and the sun shone down on the long wooden boat too brightly. It was just all too happy to exist a hundred meters from a murder scene.
The victim, a social media ‘influencer’ named Tahlia Bowmont made a living exposing fortune-tellers as frauds, then posting about it. Plenty of reason for someone to hold a grudge.
Looking at the side of the boat it was hard for Jennifer not to think the murderer was advertising, the little brass sign read. ‘Madam Le Vasion, Tarot Reader.’
“Come in officer, I’m just making tea. It was white and one sugar wasn’t it? Black for your Sergeant?” a croaky voice called out over the whistle of a kettle at the boil.
How did she know that? Jennifer thought to herself as she pulled aside the little curtain that covered the entrance of the boat. The room was filled with rich gold, red and purple fabrics like Aladdin’s cave.
The table in the middle held a stereotypical crystal ball and a single piece of fabric. Jennifer looked into the crystal ball for a moment and saw her coffee dark skin and long, curly black hair reflected perfectly.
The woman who came through the curtain with three steaming mismatched mugs of tea couldn’t have been any more different.
Her grey hair was tied in a practical bun and her floral dress and apron could have been worn by any old lady going to mass on Sunday.
“Madam Le Vision?” Jennifer asked as the woman set down the mugs on the table and
shifted the crystal ball to one side.
“It’s Le Vasion my dear, it’s French,” the woman corrected sweetly. “You’re here about
the murder.”
“Yes, don’t tell me you predicted we were coming please. I’m conducting a serious
inquiry.”
“Dear I may live in a boat but I have a smartphone, it’s all over the news. Now you’re
here to ask me why that poor girl was here just before she was killed, Oh and you’ll probably
accuse me of doing it.”
“Why was she here?”
“Oh, to expose me as a fraud! She asked me for a reading of the cards, which I gave her. I
said she would find the man of her dreams next week, have three children and be deliriously
happy for the rest of her life.”
“Well, you didn’t see her murder coming then,” Jennifer’s DS quipped.
“Yes, I did,” the old woman removed a silk cloth from the table and showed a neatly laid-
out tarot, the inverted death, tower and moon seemed to almost spring off the table.
“People don’t have their tarot read for the truth dear, they want to feel better. Now have a biscuit and tell
me, do you want the truth? It’s all in the cards.”
Photo by cottonbro studio
