Martin Walker - The Devil's Cave

Back in the hospital room J-J was taking notes as he listened on his phone, and Fabiola was poring over the logbook on the nurse’s table. He put the syringe on the desk beside her and her eyes widened. J-J beckoned him across and asked whoever was on the phone to wait.

‘I’ve got Inspector Jofflin on the line,’ J-J said, beaming satisfaction. ‘The search at the hotel has got a result. They’ve identified microscopic drops of Junot’s blood in the back of that truck you found. They’ve also found Junot’s blood spots on some shoes in the room of Richard Abouard, so we’re putting out an arrest warrant for murder. Computer enhancement on the video from the dechetterie shows that Abouard was one of the two men there. And as a nice bonus, they found over a hundred grams of coke in Abouard’s room, along with his Lebanese diplomatic passport.’

‘My bet is that Foucher was the other man at the dechetterie . We’ll need that forensic team to come here and search Foucher’s rooms once they’re finished at the hotel,’ said Bruno, taking out his new phone to call Isabelle.

‘Jofflin is asking why this Lebanese guy would be involved.’

‘He’s a partner in the Count’s investment company,’ Bruno said as Isabelle answered her phone. Quickly he told her of the results of the search at the hotel and the arrest warrant and the expected arrival of the Count’s helicopter. A thought struck him and he asked her to hold on. He turned to J-J. ‘Did he refuel at the little airport?’

‘I don’t know, why?’ asked J-J.

‘It’s nearly three hundred kilometres there and back. If he didn’t refuel at Bordeaux he might have no choice but to put down here.’

J-J started dialling Bordeaux airport again and Bruno returned to the conversation with Isabelle. ‘Did you hear all that?’

‘Yes, got it. The Brigadier wants to know if the evidence on Abouard for the murder is really certain.’

‘It’s forensic, blood on his shoes and a video of him dumping the plastic sheet the body was wrapped in.’

‘That should do. Get copies of the forensic report and the video to me as soon as you can. Good luck and let me know if there’s anything we can do from Paris.’

‘J-J already called up reinforcements from Perigueux, some of the lads from la Jaune ,’ Bruno said, using the nickname for the Gendarmes Mobiles .

‘Right, wait one moment.’ Bruno heard another voice speaking in the background and then she came back on the line. ‘The Brigadier says he’s alerted a military chopper from the base at Bordeaux to follow him and keep track. I’ll let you know when they have him on radar.’ She rang off.

Bruno went to the window, opened it the better to hear, and scanned the sky. J-J closed his phone. ‘He didn’t refuel,’ he said. ‘He boarded his chopper from an airport cab and a young woman was with him.’

‘So we know he’s got her but we don’t know how much he knows about what’s happening here, unless Foucher managed to reach him,’ said Bruno.

‘Foucher’s being kept at the Gendarmerie with the others and no phones allowed,’ said J-J.

Bruno shook his head. ‘De la Gorce was there but Foucher was allowed to leave. He could easily buy another phone.’

‘ Merde , so he could have briefed the Count about the failure to entrap you.’

‘Problem is, the Count might simply say he was picking up his long-lost cousin and looking after her until the funeral,’ Bruno said. ‘All we’ve got on him is circumstantial evidence and a lot of suspicion.’

‘You’ve got a bit more than that,’ said Fabiola from the nurse’s table. ‘This old woman may or may not have Alzheimer’s but she’s been very heavily sedated for months, according to these notes. But they only date back to last year and the notebook is marked as number three, so I want to find numbers one and two. They’ve had her on chlorpromazine as well as the sedatives. That’s not treatment, it’s criminal abuse. I can find nothing physically wrong with her except for a bad case of bedsores, but she’s had no exercise and I imagine she’ll now be dependent on these drugs for the rest of her life.’

‘But it’s not murder,’ said J-J. All three of them turned to the window as the first clattering beat of a helicopter could be heard.

‘They tell me he flies a Eurocopter Colibri. It has a range of seven hundred kilometres, so he wouldn’t have needed to refuel.’

‘There are no facilities to refuel here or at the auberge, so he wouldn’t have started with a full tank,’ said Bruno, and then he saw it coming up the valley from the west at about a thousand metres but losing height as he watched. He couldn’t tell at first if the machine was heading straight for the chateau or not. Then the angle changed and it was heading for the far side of the river.

J-J was calling Inspector Jofflin to warn him to keep out of sight as the chopper began circling lower over the auberge, apparently preparing to land. Perhaps he was just showing the place off, because after a final circle the engine note rose and it began heading across the river towards them.

‘He’s going to land here,’ Bruno said, the noise of the rotors getting louder as it passed overhead, not much more than a hundred metres above them and circled around the chateau. All three of them raced across the room and into the long hall to try to keep it in sight, and then J-J groaned aloud.

‘ Putain ,’ he said, at the sight of Sergeant Jules, holding his kepi onto his head, standing in plain sight and in full uniform in the centre of the courtyard.

‘It’s my fault, I should have told him to stay out of sight,’ said Bruno, as the engine note changed again and the chopper began to rise and soar away back towards the river.

‘What’s he telling the girl?’ Fabiola asked. ‘Is he just showing her the sights or what?’

‘How much of a warning has Foucher given him, that’s the question,’ said Bruno.

He tried to put himself in the Count’s place and think through the various options. If the fuel gauge on the chopper was nearing empty, what could the Count do? The chopper was above the hotel now but it wasn’t losing height. It was rising, following the road up to the plateau with the abandoned village and ruined chapel of St Philippon.

‘I think he’s going to try the secret tunnel and come out at the cave. Foucher could meet him with a car,’ Bruno said, thinking aloud but suddenly aware that J-J and Fabiola were staring blankly at him. Quickly, he explained the route of the secret tunnel.

‘Can you get the Gendarmes Mobiles to head for the Gouffre and block the entrances, including the basket from the roof if it’s been repaired? I can take the Gendarmerie van across the river and up to the cemetery, it’s got four-wheel drive. Then I’ll follow him through the tunnel so we seal both ends. You’d better call the Gouffre and tell them to evacuate the public.’

‘Look, I think he’s landing,’ said Fabiola, staring through the window.

‘That’s where the ruined chapel gives access to the tunnel,’ said Bruno.

‘You aren’t armed,’ said J-J. ‘I’ll come with you and we’ll bring Sergeant Jules.’

‘I have to stay with the patient,’ said Fabiola.

‘If any of them make it back here, you could be in trouble,’ J-J objected.

‘We can get reinforcements of our own,’ said Bruno, pulling out his phone and calling Montsouris to ask him to get to the Red Chateau to help protect the Countess as soon as he could, and to bring along some burly friends.

Collecting Jules on the way, Bruno and J-J jogged to the stables and took the van down the track to the ford across the river. J-J sat in the back, phoning in turn the Mobiles , the Gouffre, Inspector Jofflin and finally the Procureur . Bruno drove and tried to explain to Sergeant Jules along the way. They reached the ford, where the water looked to be both fast and high.