Dominique Manotti: Dead Horsemeat

‘Go on, I’m listening.’

Romero starts.

‘We’ve identified the supplier. He’s a certain Dimitri Rouma, farrier, a gypsy, residing in Vallangoujard in the Val-d’Oise.’

Surprised. ‘Bravo.’

‘Lavorel and I went to a cocaine-fuelled party in Chantilly on Saturday night, at the house of a jockey called Massillon. Several of Senanche’s customers there, others unknown. We took a note of all the vehicle registration numbers, and there was a guy called Nicolas Berger dishing out coke to everyone.’

‘Excellent. What next?’

Lavorel picked up:

‘I tailed Berger from the party to a horse show he was competing in. And there, he was murdered. His car was booby-trapped and blew up twenty metres away from me. He was killed instantly, along with one of his friends who was sitting in the car next to him. Guy named Moulin. And I didn’t see a thing, I was asleep.’

‘Ah, now we’re getting somewhere.’ False innocence: ‘Were you alone? Where were you, Romero?’

With as much dignity as he could muster. ‘At the party, I accidentally sat on a plate and injured myself. I went home.’

‘Don’t feel bad Romero, it happens to all of us, more often than you’d imagine. Berry, your turn to make the coffee. We’re going to try this one.’ Hands him the packet of Brazilian coffee. ‘Do a good job, it’s an honour and a step up. And don’t forget, a weak one for Le Dem. And then, to work.’ Daquin smiles. ‘Now we’re finally getting to the heart of the matter.’

Audible sighs of relief.

After the break, everyone seated, pens and notebooks poised. Lavorel describes the explosion: two bodies in the car, the arrival of the gendarmes who took charge of the investigation, identification of the victims, clues, forensic reports, eye-witness accounts.

‘I introduced myself to the captain and explained what I was doing there. He’s expecting to hear from you.’

‘Did you mention the party at Massillon’s to him?’

‘No, I decided to leave that to you.’

‘You did the right thing.’

Daquin thinks for a moment, doodling on a blank sheet of paper.

‘In two hours I want written accurate, detailed reports on the identification of Rouma, the party at Massillon’s, and Senanche’s customer network. Meanwhile, Le Dem, you come with me, I want to find Massillon before the gendarmes do. On my return, I’ll edit your reports before passing them on to the chief, then I’ll contact the gendarmerie and the public prosecutor. My line of action will be to try and cooperate with the gendarmes over Nicolas Berger’s murder, and to give them the list of Senanche’s customers in exchange. They’ll be happy and it’ll free us up to chase bigger fish. We’ll have to be discreet about it, because the one thing the police department doesn’t forgive is cooperating with the gendarmes.’

‘Amelot and Berry will carry on with their job and finish it, cross-referencing all the lists, the new registration numbers, and the tapped phone conversations. Lavorel and Le Dem, you take Rouma. You can start by going to see the gendarmes in Vallangoujard. I’ll let them know you’re coming. I’m certain they already have files on him. A gypsy farrier in a godforsaken village in the Val-d’Oise is hardly inconspicuous. And Romero and I will handle Nicolas Berger’s murder.’

Massillon’s villa looks empty, door closed, windows open, but there’s a Porsche parked in the garden and the gates are still open. Daquin climbs up to a wrought-iron balcony and clambers over it without any apparent effort. After a second’s hesitation, Le Dem follows.

The ground floor is deserted, and is an indescribable mess. Daquin freezes, looks and listens for a moment. Nothing appears to have been touched since the end of the party, yesterday morning. There’s disaster in the air. Daquin motions to Le Dem and rushes over to the staircase that leads up to the first floor. Doors open onto the landing. Only one room is occupied. Pale blue fabric on the walls, a pink and white en-suite bathroom, virtually no furniture, a big bed, a jumble of shot-silk sheets, and, lying across the bed, asleep on his stomach, a naked young man with a finely chiselled, slender muscular body. Daquin lingers for a moment, ill at ease. On the long-pile rug, a very young girl is asleep; she’s naked too. The boy’s hand is resting on her buttocks, and her hands are tied to the foot of the bed with a gold chain, secured with an elegant padlock inscribed with entwined initials which she probably wears as a necklace in other circumstances. A few red marks, dotted with dark spots on her lower back, buttocks and thighs. And beside the bed, next to an empty champagne magnum, a jockey’s riding crop, a vicious weapon in itself. Judging by the marks, Massillon had used it with less enthusiasm than at the finishing line of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, remaining within the bounds of decorum.

Daquin stifles an urge to laugh, you have to respect people’s vocations, grabs the man under the armpits, hikes him up, carries him to the bathroom and dunks his head under the shower. The girl has woken up and is curled at the foot of the bed, her eyes dilated, trying to cover herself with a sheet, which isn’t easy without hands. Daquin returns, dragging the soaking man at arm’s length, and plonks him on the bed.

‘Police. I want to ask you a few questions. Are you awake enough to understand what I’m saying?’

He nods, his teeth chattering. A damp patch slowly spreads on the silk around him.

‘Your friend Berger was murdered when he left here yesterday morning. His car was booby-trapped, and it exploded. Killed outright.’

Massillon, stunned, gapes at him open-mouthed. Daquin turns to the girl.

‘Is your master always as lively as this, miss?’ She gives a little squeak. ‘Le Dem, go downstairs and get me two glasses of something, the strongest drink you can find, I think it’s the only way to wake them up.’

It takes a little while until it’s finally possible to get some sense out of them. While Daquin ferrets around upstairs, Le Dem calmly explains the situation to Massillon, who’s beginning to dry off.

‘If you’re nicked for cocaine trafficking and you cop more than three months inside, which is highly likely, you’ll lose your jockey’s licence, and there’ll be no more parties, girls or the Porsche. Back to being a stable lad. It’ll be tough.’

Everyone has forgotten the girl, still chained to the foot of the bed. Daquin comes back from his little stroll, having found nothing of interest.

‘What do you want?’ asks Massillon.

‘The name of your dealer.’

‘Senanche. He works at Meirens.’

A pushover. Le Dem had told him, jockeys are used to obeying. The owners, the trainers, why not the cops too?

‘And Berger’s?’

‘Nicolas also bought from him, fairly often.’

‘Yesterday, Berger came here with a large amount of cocaine.’ Massillon looks panic-stricken. How do they know? Tries to recall who was at the party but his mind’s a blank. ‘Did Senanche supply it?’

‘No, I don’t think so. Actually, yesterday was a treat. Nicolas was celebrating an unexpected windfall. A company gave him a huge commission for getting them an advertising account. He brought coke the way anyone else would bring a bottle of champagne, you know?’

‘Did he often do that?’

‘No, it was the second time.’

‘And where did he get his “treats” from?’

‘I think it was probably at work. A big insurance company, Pama, where he was head of advertising.’ Massillon looks up at Daquin. ‘Will I be OK?’

‘It’s not up to me. I’m going to hand you over to the gendarmes, but I’m giving you a twenty-four hour headstart. You can finish off your girlfriend at your leisure, if you have the heart for it, and then it’s up to you to find some way of protecting yourself because you’re in for a rough ride.’