Murder In The Course: Rachel Toury's Mysteries

By Agnes Ruiz

"A fast-paced thriller about the investigation of Detective Rachel Toury" A young woman is murdered during the very popular Tour de l'île de Montréal. Detective Rachel Toury needs to redouble her steps to race against the clock and reach the finish line in her own investigation.

Agnes Ruiz is the author of several best-sellers. She had huge success with her first novel “Ma vie assassinée”. She writes for both adults and children. Her short stories featuring the investigations of detective Rachel Toury have also been very successful in Europe as well as North America. Several translations are available. She is originally from Normandy (France) and lived in Canada for almost 20 years.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BadPress
• Release date: Sep 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9781547559138

Book preview

Chapter 1

The famous Tour de l’île de Montréal was coming to an end the day before. A few bikes were racing here and there all day long, far from the whirl in last few days. Joggers were also enjoying the sunlight shining upon the large green space. It was a clean-up time. Many volunteers were working hard in the park Jeanne Mance.

Among them were Milo Trembley, his friend Victorin Sénécal and his wife Olga. They signed up each year. They were marching in line, one hand holding a spade and the other hand a garbage bag. They were laughing, retelling recent anecdotes and stories that happened long ago. They were planning their next journey.

Suddenly, Milo stopped talking. His body was totally frozen when he saw a breathtaking scene.

— What is it? he spluttered.

He felt like being in a TV series. His heart was beating so fast while his mind told him that was impossible. Olga Sénécal pushed him so that he could give a response. She saw him placing his hand on his chest. He winced and knelt down.

— Milo! What happened? Victorin shouted.

He rushed to Milo when his friend fell to the ground. His head hit the corpse which they had just found.

Olga called for help. A small crowd gathered. Sounds of murmurs rose and fell in the buzzing crowd. Someone took out their cell phone. Some of them were shooting video. Others told their loved one what just happened. Many called the police just as their instinct told them to do so.

When the ambulance arrived, Victorin Sénécal announced that there was a pulse in Milo’s body. He kept performing CPR on Milo.

— Let me take care of your friend, said the emergency physician. Back away, please.

Victorin did what he said but looked haggard. He got back to his companion.

Now she saw the whole interesting picture. Milo’s chest heaved, while a woman remained motionless. There was a huge bloodstain on his T-shirt.

The second paramedic was leaning towards the woman without moving her.

— She’s dead, said Olga who was still shocked by the events.

Chapter 2

The forensic pathologist arrived at the crime scene with a team of scientists. 2 police marked off the zone and dispersed the curious onlookers.

Raoul Corpus looked around for Detective Rachel Toury, the investigator in charge. He was clearly the first one on the scene. A police officer gave him the information gathered from the scene and pointed at Olga Sénécal, who was still there.

— Did you touch the body? asked the coroner.

He looked serious. He might be too rude to say that, but he was quite confident in what he said. The lady shrank back at this verbal assault. Raoul had not yet introduced himself to her. She had to do her best to refrain herself running away from this place that had already turned her stomach.

Finally, her body stopped trembling and spoke firmly in a thin voice. She stuttered but tried to pull herself together, bracing herself up to explain what happened.

— I knew there was nothing else to do for this poor girl. Yet ... it was more powerful than me. I felt like I didn’t let it happen in this way. My husband was taking care of Milo. I couldn’t stand idle. I... I checked if she had a pulse. I put my hand on her carotid. You see, there. she said and touched her own neck.

The doctor wondered who Milo was. He threw that question at her, blunting her momentum. He knew that it wasn’t about those 2 victims except they were hit by a ricochet.

Olga Sénécal kept convincing Raoul Corpus. Raoul hated dealing with witnesses. He rather liked staying in his morgue, where the corpses spoke for themselves at his autopsies.

How could he proceed in this specific environment? Why weren’t Rachel Toury or Jean-François Millet there?

He had no choice left. He had to leave the first-hand findings behind to start a discussion with Olga Sénécal. She spoke too much. He wanted to shut her up. How did Rachel Toury or the psychologist keep talking for so long? How did Rachel Toury or the psychologist keep talking for so long? How did they keep listening, extracting and interpreting the key points from an overwhelming number of messages?

To give some reassurance. That’s what the detective would do, no doubt. He pushed himself to think critically.

— Everything goes well for now, he mumbled.

She looked at him as if he had just talked nonsense. Olga Sénécal reclaimed conversation.

— I think so. But for this victim, she continued, Intractable.

Raoul Corpus cringed. It wasn’t necessary to scrutinize what she said. He sighed with his eyes wide open, trying to spot the car of detective Toury or investigator Millet. To put it simply, a familiar face would help him get out of this bad situation.

— Did you come here alone? Someone could take you home.— I was with my husband. I’ve told you. You didn’t hear anything. Did you? He was there, with Milo.

She roughly showed where Milo Trembley fell down.

— Ah yes. That’s true. Excuse me. It’s very unusual to fall down like this.

— Falling down? They crashed together. Look! Who the hell are you?

Olga suddenly asked herself whether there was really no journalist standing before her to write an exclusive story or anyone who had nothing to do with the police. He was wearing a jacket with a logo. Damn, she didn’t have her glasses to check that.

She bent down to decode the letters. Raoul Corpus resolved her doubts at once.

— I spend more times on the dead than the living. He said, I just need to do my job. For this young lady.

He showed the dead body. Olga hated meeting with this man without a second thought. She felt a chill inside her body.

It sounded absurd. There was nothing she could do right here. Her life must be too enjoyable that this environment had got on her nerves. It was the first time she considered not doing voluntary work next year. For her, the Tour de l’île was a party. Could she pull herself out of this challenging day?

What about Milo? The cell phone in her hand stayed silent. She would’ve wanted her husband to call her and tell her some good news. The paramedics appeared confident just now. They told her firmly that they got him in time. Could she believe them?

Raoul Corpus turned away from her. What she experienced right now was no worse off than what she thought Raoul would do. But she stayed there watching what was happening. She did what many others would do. Sometimes, she chatted with someone who