Clémence Damour knew she lived a charmed life. As the heiress to the Damour patisserie chain, baking was in her blood. She spent her days developing new dessert flavors with her head baker Sebastien Soulier in their flagship patisserie in the 16th arrondissement, and her nights out with her friends to all the fine restaurants and bars that Paris had to offer. Aside from a couple of grisly murders that had happened in her neighborhood since she came back from two years of traveling around the world, things were going swimmingly. Now that she wasn’t mixed up with those murder cases and Inspector Cyril St. Clair was off her back, she had more time for all the things she wanted to do, including painting. She was just starting to get the hang of the work-life balance. Perhaps it was easier because she didn’t have a boyfriend. Sure, there a couple of guys who were interested, but Clémence found them to be wholly unsuitable. Besides, trust wasn’t something that Clémence doled out easily anymore. Relationships were complicated. This was exemplified Rose’s relationship with Pierre. Her good friend Rose, whom she had known since she was thirteen, had been having trouble with her live-in boyfriend lately. When Rose asked Clémence to take off for a spa weekend in Switzerland, Clémence didn’t hesitate. She also deserved a break after a hectic few days of trying to prove an employee’s innocence in a murder case. Rose desperately needed a break from Pierre, as he had been a curmudgeon in the past few weeks, always finding faults in whatever Rose did or said, and starting fights for no reason that she could find. Perhaps Pierre had been more stressed from the long hours at his finance job. He seemed to be coming home later and later in recent... ... middle of paper ... ...e’s clothes were still there. “Oh. Maybe he has just stepped out. Ugh. I’m so crazy.” “Come on, let’s have that drink that you promised me.” But when they stepped into the kitchen, Rose screamed. “Pierre? Mon dieu!” The Frenchman in a seat at the table, but his face was down on the table, smashed on a plate to be exact. “Oh lord, is he conscious?” Clémence wondered out loud. She was reluctant to approach him, but considering how distraught Rose was and how she should’ve been used to being around dead bodies by now, took a few steps forward and cleared her throat. With hesitation, she tapped him on the shoulder. “Pierre?” she said cautiously. “I hope to god he’s just sleeping!” Rose exclaimed. Clémence somehow doubted this. She touched his neck; his skin felt cold. When she felt for a pulse, there was nothing. “I’m sorry, Rose. I think Pierre is dead.”
After lunch, Clémence took a quick shower and left. She wasn’t in a huge rush because she wanted to make sure that Paolo would be in the office when she got there. She had looked him up on the internet with Rose’s help. His photo on LinkedIn featured him smiling with both rows of teeth, and he was incredibly well-dressed in a well-cut suit and silk pink tie. With dark hair and tanned skin, Paolo looked too relaxed to have lived in Paris for long. But would this happy-go-lucky Italian also exhibit
In 2009 Toyota Motors (TM) posted a net loss of $4.6 billion ("Market watch," 2014). From 2009 to 2011 Toyota encountered a number of factors contributing to their economic downturn. It began with recalling millions of vehicles, for quality related problems, followed by natural disasters hitting northeastern Japan. These disasters wiped out Toyota’s production capabilities (Tabuchi & Vlasic, 2014). While these events were occurring, the cloud of the 2008 global financial crisis was still being
Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451, is set in a dystopian future where books are illegal and firemen start fires instead of putting them out. The theme is to fight for your freedom when it is taken away by society. The first reason that illustrates this theme is, life before Montag had books was boring and depressing for him. Second, when Montag discovers his excitement about books he finds a purpose in life, something worth fighting for. Third, without dissenting voices society would be just like
Thomas Jefferson in his letter to Nehemiah Dodge said “The legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions ... thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.”(Jefferson) The concept of the separation of religion from state has been battle that has endured through the furnace of time. While some may argue that religion and state should not be merged, a presumable equal population will agree that religion and state should not be separated. This paper will reflect