Watch out for that ICE, Joe! You’re talking too much! You’re lucky to be just another awesome character in an even more awesome book by F.Y. Richard ↓

He was genuinely pleased to see Joe. He knew a good guy when he saw one. And Joe’s cooking was definitely worth the trip. Now the fact that Amandine’s former student’s family restaurant was located at the corner of Jacques Dorset Boulevard and « massage alley » also played a part. He waited for the Khao Niao Ma Mouang, a dessert that Joe mastered to perfection, before letting his “work commitments” resurface. As the restaurant owner refilled his cup for the umpteenth time, he pushed forward his first pawn: “By the way, Joe, although I only followed the case from afar, I understand that you lost a neighbor  last year? A pity, really! After this sumptuous meal, a digestive massage at the Phuket Sun would have been very welcome!”

That was a rather heavy pawn, to be sure! Momentarily taken aback, Joe didn’t shut himself off like a Bangkok oyster. Instead, he chose to bounce back. “A digestive massage!  Commissioner sir! I have the weakness of thinking that my cooking rivals the lightness of a hummingbird alighting on a frangipani flower!” Then, in a more serious tone: “Regarding the Phuket Sun, what can I say except that you can’t hide an elephant’s corpse under a water lily leaf? Everyone here knew that sooner or later it would end this way. If Frémaux Street has such a bad reputation, it’s because some of my fellow citizens…” Joe paused. Wasn’t he straying a little too far from the code of silence that was de rigueur in his profession? His voice dropped to a whisper. “…Encouraged in their abuses, it has to be said, by…” Now he was about to criticize the inhabitants of his adopted country!

B., not at all shocked—quite the contrary—gave him a hand. “…By local perverts. Honourable scum, let’s not mince words, my dear Joe!”

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