Flykiller

‘Batard, my Julienne isn’t well and spends much of her time at a private clinic! Migraines, that sort of thing.’

‘Dr Raoul Normand?’

Marie-Jacqueline had worked part-time at the clinic but did St-Cyr know of this yet? ‘A crisis of the nerves. Several of them. Somehow the good doctor manages to calm her, particularly after she’s stayed in that hospital of his for a few days or a week or two.’

‘And your children, were any or all of them aware of this infatuation of yours?’

‘Jean-Guy? Martine? Therese? Why do you ask?’

‘Monsieur Jean-Guy manages the racecourse and its stables, Jean-Louis. The Jockey Club and riding stables as well.’

Lucie Trudel would have known the son … ‘And the other two, the sisters?’ asked St-Cyr.

‘Therese teaches ballet; Martine, having taken her degree in horticulture, tries to brighten the Government’s solitude with her flowers. We’ve a labrador retriever, also a cook, housekeeper, chauffeur, groundskeeper and two, or is it three, maids of all work. My wife keeps firing and then rehiring them.’

‘But were your son and daughters or any of the staff aware of your running around?’

‘My fucking Lucie? Why should they have cared, especially as it kept me happy and content?’

‘It must have cost you plenty.’

‘I’ve private money. I’ve always had it.’

‘And the riding crop, monsieur? Why did her killer or killers place it in her hand?’

Ah damn this infernal Surete! ‘I’ve no idea. How could I have?’

‘It’s curious, that’s all.’

‘Then if you’re through with me, I’m already late for a meeting with Dr Carl Schaefer, the coordinator of the Bank of France and director of the Office for the Surveillance of French Banks.’

‘Das Bankenaufsichtsamt,’ said St-Cyr in Deutsch just to increase their uneasiness if possible.

‘The reparations,’ countered Deschambeault in French without a whisper of disquietude. ‘Try as we consistently have, our friends refuse to reduce them.’

Five hundred million francs, nearly seventy per cent of the value of the whole economy, went to the Reich every day of every year. Two and a half million pounds sterling at the official rate, or eleven and half a million US dollars.

‘Secretaire, transport was promised and is urgently needed.’

‘A Peugeot two-door sedan has been left for you and Kohler outside the Hotel du Parc. The keys, together with petrol and food tickets, are with the concierge. It’s the best I could do under … under the circumstances.’

‘Merci. Then please notify the sous-prefet that we again require the services of his iron man. Felix Laloux is to do the autopsy on this one also, and I’m grateful you arranged his release from prison. There were only four of you in your little group? If there are others, now is the time to say so.’

‘Four only,’ said Bousquet guardedly.

‘An bon. Then for now that is all, but please remind the others to take precautions. No one leaves town. Not today, tomorrow or any other day until this matter is settled.’

‘And the killer or killers?’ demanded Deschambeault.

‘Have ears that have been wrapped around each and every one of you. Let us hope my partner can pin things down a little more firmly.’

Already St-Cyr had gone back to his probing, easing a drawer open, leafing through a novel with the blunt end of that pencil. Totally absorbed as if he’d forgotten them.

‘He won’t,’ swore Bousquet as they left the building and headed for the car where Georges sat behind the wheel. He had kept the engine running in spite of the ordinance to do no such thing. ‘He’ll remember every word you said, Gaetan, every nuance. The cigar, the riding crop, the laissez-passers Fernand so generously parts with from that allocation of his when you grease his palm, as do I and others. How could you have gone to Paris without telling me she’d been murdered?’

‘You worry too much, Rene. He’s only a cop.’

‘His partner’s a Gestapo.’

‘Who has yet to visit Herr Gessler to pay his respects.’

‘Then let us hope he doesn’t.’

‘Gessler says Herr Kohler’s loyalties are being constantly questioned and that Gestapo Paris-Central would just as soon be rid of him and St-Cyr.’

‘Idiot, both are considered far too honest and seek only the truth. But it’s you I’m also worried about, Gaetan. You would take Lucie to Paris. You know how I’ve warned you about Doriot and Deat and the others of the far right. Any excuse to let us have it is excuse enough for them.’

‘The Intervention-Referat, the Bickler Unit?’

‘Hired assassins who know how to hide behind the Resistance and have or have not the sanction of their Gestapo friends. Georges, drop the sous-directeur off at La maison des saumons plus beaux for a taste of that fish he and Lucie used to love, and where I know he’s to meet with Schaefer, then run me round to the commissariat. We’ve found another one.’