detective story - part 6

Part 6 – Madame Mireille

After getting confirmation from Mdm. Mireille to the guardhouse, and scanning my car for suspicious looking weapons and packages, I was finally let in the gated community, after leaving my Identity card and driving license behind.

Mdm. Mireille sure is a high flyer, having succeeded in closing a lot of big deals in Initial Public Offerings(IPO’s), Mergers and Acquistions (M&A’s), working her guts out while I sleep and while my time away.
The BMW 7 series and Jaguar in her driveway looked monstrous compared to my tiny car. Her garden is well maintained, and I walked forward to ask the gardener who is watering the plants to announce my arrival.

“Excusez moi,….”
“Yes?...Oh, its you, M. Sticky !” I got a shock to realize that Mdm. Mireille is the gardener herself !
“Oh..bonsoir madame, my apologies to intrude you upon this late hour, but this is regarding Mdm. Flauntine’s ruby…”I recovered myself and went straight to the point.
“Ah, come on in, and we talk about it over dinner.”She invited.

“Bon appetite, madame.” I raised my glass of wine, and toasted her.
“Bon appetite, monsieur.” With that, we clinked our glasses, and tucked into dinner. Dinner was nice, with frois gras, Jelly duck as appetizer, followed by truffles, salmon in salsa sauce as main course. The sauce is something to be remembered, made from coriander, ginger, masala and a host of spices.
I started the topic again, when dessert of blue vein cheese and dark Venetian coffee is served.

“Hmmm…nice coffee. Thank you. Madame, now that we are finished…”I started after taking a sip at the strong coffee.
“M. Sticky, it is an insult to even suggest that I’m connected to the theft. As you can see, I’m loaded. Let’s put this matter aside, and talk about other things.”She cut me off curtly.
“Ah, well, if you insist, madame.” Detective handbook rule#2, Go with the flow. And I adhered to it religiously.

Mdm. Mireille rattled on her high profile deal on the merger of Lemon Brothers and Earnest & Old. It’s the deal of the century, with staggering amount of money involved. Not to mentioned the intricate share swaps, rights issues and Irredeemable Convertible Unsecured Loan Stock (ICULS) involved. She even lamented that had she the extra cash, she would buy up shares of Lemon Brothers. But as it is, she’s making tons of it now.

Finishing my financial lecture, I thanked her politely before leaving for home to arranged my notes.

Later that night, I chatted up Michelle, an analyst working for a multinational, 3N, for details on the M&A. She confirmed a positive yes, from her sources in the stock market. Rumours are running wild that the price may go up sky high. Before she can ask me on how to compensate her for her losses in gold spot trading, acted on my dumb advice, I told her I’m tired out tonight, and logged off.

Hitting my mattress, my thoughts wandered from the case to the gals, before I drifted to la la land.

To be continued…