Peter May: Blowback

“A murder that you committed.”

“Yes, but she didn’t know that. And nobody ever would as long as she believed it was suicide. Even if the murder story unravelled, she and I would be able to back each other up in telling the authorities he had killed himself.”

“And why did you kill him?”

Guy let air escape through pursed lips. “You tell me, Enzo. You’re the detective.”

Enzo glanced at his daughter, then back to her captor. “You were going to lose everything.” He paused to think. “What was he going to tell the Press that day? That he was going to sell up to pay off his debts?”

Guy’s mirthless laughter resounded in the silence of the cave. “Of course he wasn’t going to sell! Not the restaurant, anyway. He had too much of himself invested in it.” He drew a long, quivering breath. “My little brother’s problem, Enzo, was that he was too successful too soon. The future stretched ahead of him without any challenge. He was bored. So he found his excitement elsewhere. In his reckless gambling. In his affair with Anne. Only at the last did he realize he was on a course to self-destruction, that he was going to piss away everything he had worked for.”

“So what was he going to tell the press?”

“Toward the end he had been seeing some psychotherapist in Paris.” The word psychotherapist was laden with contempt. “She’d persuaded him that it wasn’t too late to save the situation. That he could still put things right. Which is why he finished it with Anne. A clean break, a fresh start. Marc Fraysse on top again. But I only found out what he was intending to do when I took a call from an assessor at an auction house in Paris. The man wanted to arrange a time to come and value the wine.” His voice trembled, still, with indignation. “ My wine, Enzo. The cave didn’t mean anything to Marc. He saw it only as a way of raising cash to pay off the goddamned debts. His debts. In theory he owned half of it, but it was my collection. My wine.”

“So you confronted him?”

“Damn right, I did. Do you know what the bastard was going to do? Announce the closing of the restaurant during the winter. Tell them he was going to use those dead months to develop new dishes, new menus, shake everything and everyone up. Take the time to do some renovations. Chez Fraysee would be reborn in the spring.” A snort of frustration and contempt exploded from his nostrils. “But it was all smoke and mirrors. A cover up. Renovations to mask a saving on overheads, new menus an excuse to reassess the wine, sell off the old to buy new.”

It all became clear to Enzo. It was Marc’s mercurial genius in the kitchen which had created the opportunity for success, but Guy’s solid financial management that had built the Fraysse empire. And Guy’s passion, Guy’s obsession, which had amassed one of the most prestigious and valuable collections of wine in the whole of France. And his little brother was going to take it away from him. “So you killed him to save your wine?”

“To save it all, Enzo. Come on! He was an addict, a gambler. He’d put his restaurant- our restaurant-in hock to a bookie. He had fresh cards in his hand, ready for a new play. But sooner or later he’d lose, crash again. Destined to fail.” Guy shook his head and Enzo saw tears glistening in his eyes. Even at this distance. “The irony of it was, the only dispensable part of he empire was Marc himself. He might have been the creator, but in the end we didn’t need him any more.” He waved his hand toward the ceiling. “Look how successful we’ve been without him.”

“And Elisabeth?”

“She had no idea. She really did think he’d killed himself.”

Enzo felt the cold rising up into his legs through the flagstones beneath his feet. His hand trembled. “So what are you going to do now? Kill me and Sophie? Because that’s not going to do you any good, Guy. Like I said, it’s over.” And he reached very carefully into his inside pocket to take out the photocopy of the restored ‘suicide’ note that Raymond had given him. He shook it open and held it up. “That’s the page of your letter, made fully legible by a machine called a VSC6000. The police already have it in their possession. And the photographs of blood spatter on the back of Marc’s hands taken at autopsy prove beyond doubt that he was murdered, and didn’t commit suicide. Killing us won’t make any difference now, Guy.” But he could see fear and indecision behind the tears, a man on the edge. He had embarked on a certain course and, like a runaway truck on a dangerous descent, there was no guarantee he could stop himself. Enzo couldn’t afford to wait and find out.

He flicked a switch, plunging Guy and Sophie into darkness, then ducked quickly out of the beam of Guy’s flashlight. Guy’s voice rose in panic. “What are you doing? I’ll kill her, Enzo, I will.” He started dragging her along the end of the racks flashing the beam of his electric torch up and down the rows. Then he froze at the sound of breaking glass. “For God’s sake, Enzo, what was that?”

Enzo’s voice boomed out of the darkness. “A St. Emilion Grand Cru, 2005, Guy. Worth what… a hundred and fifty euros?”

“Stop it! I swear I’ll kill her.”

“Harm a single hair on her head, and I’ll break every fucking bottle in this cave.” The menace in his voice in no way reflected the uncertainty in his heart. But he’d made his play. He had to see it through now. The sound of more breaking glass echoed around the glistening bedrock. “That was a Crozes Hermitages. Oh, and here’s a good one. Lynch Bages. Must be more than a thousand euros in this one.” Enzo dashed it on the floor. The smell of wine, like fresh blood, filled the air. And he went running down the aisle between the racks pulling out bottles at random, letting them smash on the floor behind him. “Are you dying a little bit with every bottle, Guy?” he shouted.

Guy’s shriek of anguish filled the cellar, and the deafening report of a gunshot stopped Enzo in his tracks. Guy’s flashlight swung around the end of the row, catching Enzo full in it’s beam. Guy still held Sophie by the neck, but Enzo could see the panic in his eyes as he directed his torch toward the broken glass and priceless wine that pooled on the floor. He no longer had the gun at Sophie’s head, and she used the moment to drive an elbow hard into his gut.

He grunted in pain and cursed, the beam of his flashlight crazily criss-crossing the cave as Sophie struggled to break free. Then it fell from his hand and rolled away across the floor. He swung a fist blindly in her direction, catching her on the cheekbone and sending her spinning away in the darkness to fall semi-conscious to the flags.

Enzo made his move, trying to cover the four or five meters between them before Guy had a chance to recover. But Guy was quick to swing the gun in his direction. And even by the reflected light of the fallen flashlight, Enzo could see the intent in his eyes. He knew, in that moment, there was nothing he could do to stop him from pulling the trigger.

The sound of the shot reverberated around the walls, and Enzo staggered two steps back, clutching his chest, wondering why he could feel no pain. He looked down and saw there was no blood on his hand as Guy toppled backwards, crashing into a row of wine bottles and sending the rack tipping over to smash its precious cargo and spill its contents over the floor. Priceless wine washed all around him. Worthless now.

The bullet wound was almost in the center of Guy’s chest. His head was pushed forward by the rack that semi-supported his fallen body. His eyes were wide open, staring at the wound, as if in disbelief. But he was quite dead.

The cave was suddenly flooded with light. Enzo turned to see Elisabeth standing on the top step, the gun she had used to shoot her husband’s killer and one-time lover still trembling in her hand. “I never knew,” was all she said.