Peter Mayle - The Marseille Caper

“Where is she? Who are you?”

“That needn’t concern you. Now listen carefully. Miss Morales will be returned to you unharmed as soon as you withdraw your bid for the development on the Anse des Pecheurs, officially and unconditionally. You may give any excuse you want-apart, of course, from the real one. Is that clear? You can call me on this number when you’ve made the necessary arrangements. I’d advise you not to waste any time.”

“How do I know you’ll keep your word?”

“You don’t.”

“Why should I believe you?”

“What other options do you have?”

There was a click, and the line went dead.

Philippe was already in the kitchen, standing at the window and nursing his first espresso, when Sam came in-a haggard, unshaven, red-eyed Sam wearing his rumpled clothes from the day before and clutching his cell phone. He got himself a cup of coffee and sat down.

“Still no news?” asked Philippe. Sam shook his head. The night before, when Sam had told him about the phone call, Philippe had once again called the police, the hospitals, his underworld contacts, and the emergency services. As before, the result had been a series of blanks. It was time to acknowledge the ugly fact that last night’s caller had been serious; Elena had been kidnapped.

Philippe came and sat down. He put his arm around Sam’s shoulder, wincing as his cracked ribs complained. “I know it’s hard, but let’s try to be logical about this. D’accord? ” Sam sighed and nodded. Philippe continued: “It’s not a normal ransom job, because nobody’s asked you for money. They’ve been very specific about what they want and how they want it done. Also, the guy spoke in English. Did he have any kind of accent?”

“Hard to tell. His voice was distorted.”

“That’s standard procedure.” Philippe shook his head. “ Putain -I’m starting to talk like a cop. But did he sound English, or like a Frenchman speaking English?”

Despite the distortion, Sam remembered, the voice had sounded completely at home with English. “Now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure he was English. A Frenchman nearly always has difficulty pronouncing English words that begin with an h . This guy didn’t have a problem.”

“Right. So an Englishman calls you and wants you to pull out of the project. Now who’s going to do that? Who would gain from it? Who else could it be but Wapping or one of his entourage?” Philippe got up to make some more coffee. “It has to be him.” He looked at Sam and shrugged. “That’s the easy part. Now we have to work out where he’s holding Elena. Bear in mind that he doesn’t know Marseille very well, so he’s not going to hide her in some apartment. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t involve Patrimonio in something like this. That would make Patrimonio an accomplice to a criminal act-too risky. Now put yourself in Wapping’s shoes. He needs to keep Elena somewhere secure, somewhere discreet, somewhere he has total control. Where does that lead us?”

“The boat?”

“Exactly. The Floating Pound , where there’s no chance of any outsiders seeing something they shouldn’t. Also, if he has a problem he can just sail away. Plus, he has the helicopter. So let’s assume that we know who the kidnapper is, and we know where he’s keeping Elena. Now we come to the hard part. Somehow, we have to get onto the boat.”

“Philippe, just a minute. Where are the police in all this? Why can’t we get them to raid the boat?”

Philippe shook his head slowly, and took a deep breath. “Down here, we don’t like getting on the wrong side of rich foreigners. It’s bad for business. Marseille has had enough trouble with its reputation already. But more important, much more important, there isn’t any evidence-no recording of that phone call, no witnesses, no clues. Just our little theory, our word, that’s all. No proof. And without something to go on, no cop is going to board a private vessel.”

“Don’t you have a really solid police contact we could talk to? An inspector?”

“Andreis? He retired-went off to Corsica to make cheese.”

Sam had started the morning feeling desperately worried and frustrated. Now he was getting angry. The thought of Elena being used as a bargaining chip made him crave action, preferably something that involved breaking Wapping’s neck. And with the anger came a rush of energy, all memories of a sleepless night forgotten.

“OK, so we need to search that boat. If we can’t use the police, then we have to think of something that will make the search look official. Otherwise they won’t even let us on board.”

Sam’s phone rang. He grabbed at it, nerves making him clumsy. It was Reboul, hoping in vain for good news. He was shocked to hear about the kidnap call. “Sam, I don’t know what to say. It’s my fault for getting you into this mess. I just want you to know that you can count on me for any help I can give you. Anything at all. What are you going to do?”

“I’m working on it. I’ll let you know.”

While he’d been on the phone, a tousled, yawning Mimi had joined them. She went over to Sam and put her arms round him. “Still nothing?”

Sam shook his head and bent down to kiss her forehead. It was burning hot. “Mimi, are you feeling all right? You’ve got a hell of a temperature.”

“Oh, it’s nothing serious. There’s some bug going around. I’ll be fine.”

There are times when the mind makes some curious random connections, and Mimi’s bug took Sam back to an unhealthy moment in Marseille’s history. “You two would know more about it than me, but wasn’t there a big plague in Marseille back in the eighteenth century? I remember reading about it.”

Philippe looked puzzled. “It was in 1720,” he said. “When they weren’t bothering too much with quarantine. Thousands of people died.”

“So I guess there must now be quarantine restrictions.”

“Of course. Especially now, you know, given all the problems with illegal immigration. Why do you ask?”

“Well, suppose there was a report that some contagious disease might have been brought into Marseille on a boat-let’s say, a boat from the Ivory Coast. Wouldn’t the quarantine authorities want to do some emergency health checks, to make sure it wasn’t spreading?”

For the first time that morning, Philippe grinned. “I think I can see what’s coming.”

“A team from Health and Immigration, with a couple of cops as official backup, to inspect all foreign-registry boats.”

“Starting with Wapping’s boat?”

“Exactly. But at night, when nobody’s expecting a visit.”

In ten minutes, they had worked out a shopping list, and Sam called Reboul.

“Francis, we have an idea, but to make it work we need a police speedboat, two guys who could pass as police officers, and a few medical accessories. For tonight. Can you help?”

Reboul took a moment to think. “The speedboat is no problem. Nor is the medical equipment. The police officers-ah, yes, I think I know just the men for that. Give me half an hour to set things up, and meet me in an hour at the private terminal at Marignane. Bring your passport just in case. You can tell me all about your idea while we’re on our way.”

“Where are we going?”

“Corsica, my friend. Corsica.”

Sam was shaking his head as he put down the phone. “How simple life is when you’re a billionaire. It looks like we’re all set.”

Philippe had been pacing up and down in an agony of curiosity. “Well? Well?”

“Reboul is taking me to Corsica this morning. I think we’re going to have a meeting with two fake cops.” Sam went over to Mimi, who curled up in an armchair. He kissed her burning forehead once more for luck. “I’ll never forget you gave me the idea. Now take a couple of aspirin and get back to bed.”