Short Story Fiction, Inspector Pascal Mysteries 1000 #3

Precisely 1000-word Short Story Fiction Mystery-Adventures of Inspector Pascal

INSPECTOR PASCAL’S MYSTERIES 1000
#3 Gold into Lead  ©2016-2023 by T.K. Naliaka

“Inspector, I just can’t comprehend the kind of callousness to vandalize my home in such a manner to steal a pair of vintage stuffed dolls.  They’re just family memorabilia, not worth anything to anyone else.”

“Let me show you.” Pascal drew the blade of his pocketknife over the gold statuette in his hand.

Oscar leaned forward and peered at the dark grey gash.  He frowned and exclaimed, “Lead!”

Pascal picked up one old stuffed doll from the pile and held it up. “They were cut open and the gold statuettes were hidden inside them, replaced by fakes.”

Oscar turned to his niece, Serena, a thin and unkempt young woman in a loose shirt and slim pants. “I always gave you everything you asked for!”

Pascal replied. “She is an addict needing money.  With her alchemist’s touch, I would wager that a good part of your collection of gold artifacts has already been converted to lead.”

Serena screeched with fury.  Pascal jerked himself aside as she threw.  A hypodermic embedded itself into the upholstered chair behind him.  He drew his pistol from his belt holster as he pivoted around, then he froze.

Sergeant Braque had his hand around the grip of his pistol, but he was like a statue with his pistol still in its holster.

Serena’s left arm was wrapped around his and her right hand gripped the plunger of a hypodermic stuck into Braque’s right bicep.  Serena snarled.  “You try to block my way and he gets a syringe of pure heroin!  One wrong twitch and I’ll push it in him!”

Oscar stood up quickly, “Serena!  You don’t want to do that!  You’ll kill him!”

She spat at him. “That’s the point, you fool!  How stupid are you?  You think they’re going to let me go?  I am not going to prison!”

Pascal spoke firmly. “Mr. Oscar, she will do it.  Please listen to her.”

Her head snapped back to glare at Pascal, but at this she arched an eyebrow at her uncle. “That’s right!  Why don’t you listen to me for a change?”

Pascal spoke up. “Sergeant Braque, I don’t want to see it go like this.  But I don’t see much choice.”

Unmoving, Braque replied calmly. “I know, sir.  I don’t either, sir.”

Serena’s glittering eyes widened. “Shut up you!  Inspector, put the gun down!"

Pascal considered her gravely. “Let’s deal.”

“No deals!  Put the gun down or he’s dead!”

“Please, permit me to show you something you didn’t know.”   Pascal lowered his right arm to his side as he reached over with his left hand, lifted one of the cloth sacks and shook it slightly.  A small dark figurine dropped out of it and thudded on the table.

He glanced over at her. “Bronze. Eight times the value of the two other gold statuettes you just took - combined.”

“Combin…?”Serena stared at it, then her scowl shifted with puzzlement, “How?”

“A very rare bronze-age fertility figurine; it was on display next to the set you stole.  Perhaps, it can still be yours… in exchange for Sgt. Braque.”

Her hand tightened around the hypodermic. “No!”

Pascal picked up the heavy figurine and held it up in his left palm. “The second you inject Sergeant Braque, nothing will hold me back.  On the other hand, I value Sergeant Braque alive so highly that I would easily agree to let you go free without lifting a finger to stop you or ever reporting this ever happened.  You could be in Hong Kong by Tuesday and disappear, which the sale of this artifact can easily finance, with plenty of money left over.”

Serena stared at him, then at the small bronze figurine as he held it out to her, “That?”

Oscar spoke up. “Twenty years ago, it was assessed at $528,000.”

Pascal stretched out his arm, lifting the figurine towards the eastern windows. “Serena, this one artifact can transport you anywhere in the world or you… don’t… move… at all.”

Enthralled, her eyes followed the bronze figurine, her head turned following her eyes, her body shifted, following her head.  The figurine began to roll slowly off Pascal’s palm. Serena’s grip around the hypodermic involuntarily loosened to reach out reflexively. Instantly, Pascal brought up his pistol and fired.

Braque quickly turned away, still holding his arm rigid. Pascal holstered his pistol and was at his side in one bound. “Wait!”  He quickly pulled out the hypodermic. He held his breath as he peered at it.  He let it out with relief, “Full!”

Braque rubbed his arm with relief. “That was a very tough shot to take.  Thank you, sir.”

Pascal dropped his hand on Braque’s shoulder.  “I wanted you to be able to make dinner with your family tonight.”

Braque gave him a wry nod of his head, “I appreciate that, very much.”

“It’s still a stop at hospital. We don’t know how clean that needle is.”

“Yes, sir.”

They heard a cry and turned together as Oscar crossed the room and fell to his knees to stare in shock at his niece’s body.  He looked up at Pascal. “Did you have to do it like that?”

Pascal’s hazel eyes held Oscar’s stricken gaze with cool anger.  “She didn’t have the ability to honor any deal we made!  The drugs destroyed whatever capacity she once had.  She was going do it no matter what we did, for no more reason than she wantonly destroyed whatever she’d felt like destroying when she robbed you, simply because she could.   It would have been easier pulling five bullets out of Sergeant Braque than the contents of that syringe.  There was too much at stake and what she was poised to use was lethal.”

Oscar held his head as he cried out. “I don’t understand how could it have come to all this!”

Pascal said. “You indulged her without restraint, feeling sorry for her in her circumstances; so when was she ever taught how to restrain herself to keep away from the company of the indulgent?”
©2016-2023 T.K. Naliaka at TIPTOPduTOP