Inspector Pascal Mysteries 1000 #24 Chilled

Put a French detective in a wine cave and who knows what he'll deduce!
INSPECTOR PASCAL MYSTERIES 1000 No. 24 Chilled
by T.K. Naliaka ©2016
1000 words of fast-paced, short-story fiction mystery-adventure that fits in a tea break!

INSPECTOR PASCAL MYSTERIES 1000
No. 24 Chilled by T.K. Naliaka ©2016
    “Inspector Pascal, it’s been four weeks!  What have you found?”
    Light brown-haired and hazel-eyed, lean and trim in a dark brown suit, white shirt and dark green tie, Pascal looked over to the three of them seated in the canvas-stacked art studio. “Unfortunately, most thefts have no witnesses.  The thieves are identified when they sell the stolen items.  None of Giorgio’s objects have surfaced and with his poorly-catalogued collection, it’s been difficult to confidently identify any missing items.  Perhaps the thief who killed Giorgio is more patient than most, who usually steal to sell as quickly as possible as they want the money, not the objects.”
    Sheila rolled her eyes disgustedly. “You have nothing.”
    He clasped his hands behind his back. “I have gotten to know Giorgio, through the home he built for himself and through our interviews with everyone who knew him.”
    Henry snorted. “What good is that?  We knew him better than you can ever hope to.”
    “Of course, but that isn’t necessary.” Pascal pointed to the chrome and black coffee machine. “Giorgio made a fresh Italian espresso in the morning after he opened his studio here precisely at 9 a.m. to start his work day.  A wine-lover, he installed a climate-controlled cave in his house which I was tasked to inventory.  I found that he maintained a large yet unpretentious stock, not so Italian he didn’t appreciate a robust French Cabernet Sauvignon or a pale rosé from the Cape.  Giorgio bought rare antiquities to keep, but he bought wine to drink.”
    Rudy shook his head disbelievingly. “You’ve been reading wine labels for four weeks?”
    Sheila muttered. “He probably didn’t just read the wine.”
  Behind them, standing watch at the door the big-broad-shouldered uniformed police sergeant’s eyes narrowed.
    Pascal shrugged. “There were many details to… digest.”
    Henry rolled his eyes, “Unbelievable.”
   “I clarify: I take notes, not other people’s property.” Pascal continued. “I had plenty of time on-site to compare the scene to the facts of this case as they were first presented to me.  Sometime after 9:00 Wednesday the 24rd and at least twelve hours before 14:47 on Friday the 26th, Giorgio was killed – not in the wine cave, but here - by a thief who then carried his body to the house and left it in the cave.”
    Pascal folded his arms. “But… human nature is such that we only do what we absolutely must do and no more.  It’s seventy meters from this studio to the house, a long way to carry a dead man.  The thief used up a lot of time, energy at great risk… for no apparent reason.  Coincidentally, there was one other person who was inconvenienced by this effort… the coroner.  She was unable to more precisely narrow the time frame of Giorgio’s death with the body as chilled as it was.”
    Pascal picked up a bottle of Merlot from the work bench, “And he was chilled.  This perplexed me: Giorgio was quite relaxed about almost everything except his espresso and his wine, so why did Giorgio keep his wine cave at ten degrees lower than the optimum storage temperature?”
    They became still.
    Pascal returned their gazes. “Or perhaps he did keep it at the optimum temperature, but his killer lowered it to more quickly chill Giorgio’s body.”
     Rudy sat up. “What are you saying?”
    Pascal turned to him. “Perhaps it was never theft; but murder and thus a need to support an apparently ironclad alibi.”
    Sheila laughed. “You’ve had too much wine!”
    Pascal set the bottle down. “So, I stopped looking for stolen goods and started looking for motive and opportunity”
    Rudy paled, “Motive?”
   “Rudy, you left at noon on the 23th, sent by Giorgio to collect a 12th century chair Giorgio had purchased and returned mid-day on the 26th.  Henry, you were absent the 23th to the 26th, a hundred miles away attending seminars at a retreat when Giorgio was murdered.  Sheila, you asked for three days off to visit your mother.  Giorgio was alone, prey evidently to an intruder.”
    “I discovered Giorgio had another habit.” Pascal stretched out his arm and pointed to a small wooden box with rollers, displaying Wednesday 24.  “Every morning as he brewed his espresso, Giorgio set the date on that little perpetual calendar.  The coroner couldn’t estimate the time of death with a cold body, but by this, it seems that Giorgio was certainly alive to set the date at 9:00 a.m. on the 24th, thus he was killed either later on the 24th or on the 25th.”
    They were all nodding slightly – Henry, Rudy and Shelly.
    Pascal considered them coolly, “… or was he?”
    Their nodding ceased.
    Sheila grimaced. “What’s your point?”
    Pascal held up two large photos. “These are from the preliminary photos of the crime scene here. Note this same calendar.”
    Shelley peered at it, “Tuesday 23.”
    Pascal nodded, “The date Giorgio was murdered.”
    Rudy shook his head. “I don’t understand.”
  “I conducted all my interviews here. The murderer noticed the incriminating date and surreptitiously changed it to the 24th, but I had already entered Giorgio’s calendar with only his fingerprints on it and the date of the day of his murder as evidence for the prosecution.  I wiped it clean and returned to its spot.  The murderer’s fingerprints were lifted off it, with the date changed from Tuesday 23 to Wednesday 24, evidence for the charge of first-degree murder… Henry.”
    After a frozen moment, Henry leaped to his feet in livid fury.  “You…!! You set me up!!”
   Before he could snarl another syllable, he was pinned flat on the floor with his hands being handcuffed behind him.  Sgt. Braque hauled him to his feet and shoved him back onto his chair. “Sit down!”
    Pascal agreed. “Of course I did.  You checked into the conference and your room on the 23rd, then you promptly departed to murder Giorgio. You drove back in time that evening to be present at the conference soiree and three days of seminars for your alibi.”
 by T.K. Naliaka ©2016