John Matthews - Past Imperfect

Dominic hit 'play'.

'It's Duclos. Is it all right to talk? Are you with anyone?'

'No, it's fine.'

'I'll be coming down soon.'

'When will that be?'

'I'm not totally sure yet, but probably three weeks from now. I just wanted to make sure that Bernard would be there.'

'Yes, he will. Everything will be arranged as…'

A car horn blared to Dominic's side as he swung around the roundabout. Somebody filtering in from the right. Coming out of the roundabout, traffic was slow, a long tail back ahead.

Dominic had already heard the cassette briefly. When Bennacer called, Dominic asked him to play it over the line so that one of his radio officers could make a cassette copy. He was heading out urgently for a meeting with Corbeix and he'd like to take it with him.

Dominic hovered over the operator anxiously while the tape was being made, replayed it quickly once, then grabbed a portable cassette player and the tape and headed for his car. But he was worried that the extra ten minutes wait and now with traffic heavy heading out of Lyon, he would be late for Corbeix.

Three weeks? No, it wasn't worth waiting. Everything else on Duclos was practically in place. Dominic made the decision there and then. The traffic started to move ahead as he dialled Bennacer on his mobile. Brief routing through the Marseille station desk, then Bennacer's voice.

'Go for it,' said Dominic. 'We can't afford to wait. Raid Aurillet's place now and haul him in. Grill him as hard as you can on Duclos.'

'Do you think we've got enough?'

'Let's hope so. I just don't think we're going to get much more. We've got under age boys on one call, Duclos on another. Let's just try and forge the two together as best we can. Good luck.'

'… We were meant to service the car, give it a thorough check over, clean it up for display.'

'What particular duty were you given?'

'To check all the tyre treads and pressures, check the wheel balance and alignment. Which included checking the spare tyre pressure.'

Dominic walked in, nodded quickly to Corbeix. 'Sorry I'm late.' He took a seat at the end of the table on the same side as Corbeix and the notary.

Corbeix leant over the tape machine. 'Chief Inspector Fornier enters the room at three-twelve pm. Interview resumes…' Corbeix looked briefly at his notes. 'Now. In checking the tyre pressure and wheel balance — what would that involve?'

'It means taking off all the tyres and spinning them for balance and then testing with a gauge for pressure. Including the spare tyre — which in this case was located in the boot.'

Dominic realized they had obviously already covered most of the preliminiaries, including the year Roudelle worked in the garage and the type of car. Details he had already gained on tape the same night after Roudele's initial call.

Eleven days and the whole nature of the case had changed. Surprise and elation with Roudele's initial call had brought him quickly alert from his sleep. A quick call to Corbeix, and he was booked on a flight to Limoges the same night. He taped an interview with Roudele and a date was arranged for an official statement with Corbeix and a notary. Two days later, Bennacer's precinct received an anonymous tip off about Duclos and a local child pimp, Vincent Aurillet. Within twenty-four hours they had a line tap arranged with France Telecom. Now that too had paid off. Dominic was elated.

The only drawback was that Roudele's initial call had disturbed him barely an hour into his sleep. And with the renewed activity, his sleep pattern had been poor since. Three weeks on a frantic roller coaster bouncing between hope, despair and back again. His nerve ends were frayed raw. He'd never felt so tired. Only wild adrenaline drove him on.

'… And in removing the car's spare tyre, what did you find that day?'

'A coin, a silver coin.'

'Can you please describe it to us?'

'It was from Italy, dated 1928. A silver twenty lire.'

'And was it particularly rare or valuable?'

'Reasonably rare in France. It was the first time I had come across one here, at least. But they're obviously more common in Italy, because the value wasn't that high.'

'What did you do with the coin when you saw it?'

'I put it in the pocket of my overalls.'

'Did anyone else see you take it?'

'No… not that I was aware.'

The atmosphere in the room was tense. Only Corbeix and Roudele's voice and the notary silently observing. The sound of the tape whirring in the gaps between questions. Dominic noticed his hand rested on the table shaking slightly. Build up of tiredness and nerves and the traffic rush getting there.

'Having taken the coin, what did you do with it? How long did it stay in your possession?'

'I kept it with my father's coin collection until ten or eleven years ago. Then it was sold along with the rest of his collection.'

'Do you remember the name of the place where you sold it?'

'Yes. A coin shop in the centre of Limoges — Bagoudet's .'

Corbeix leant forward again. 'Let the record show that the coin shop in question was visited on the twenty sixth of April by Chief Inspector Fornier. An entry record was found for the coin in question, dated October, 18th 1984. A statement was taken from the coin shop's proprietor and entered on form…' Corbeix leafed through the papers before him, found the statement form and read out the number. The notary checked the statement form briefly, passed it back.

After seeing Roudele, Dominic had stayed overnight in Limoges to visit the coin shop. Corbeix felt it was essential to back up Roudele's statement in case Duclos' defence tried to rip holes in it, suggest that he was fabricating purely to collect the reward offered. The coin shop provided that last vital link.

The coin brought originally from Italy by Jean-Luc's father, passed to Christian, then Duclos' car and the garage worker… the trail finally ended in a musty basement in Limoges with an aged coin shop proprietor leafing through dusty files. Somehow appropriate.

And then suddenly everything was in rapid motion: line taps, statements and notaries, a frantic flurry of paperwork crossing Corbeix’ desk, the strands spun wide weeks ago now fast pulling in. Everything converging. Dominic drew a slow breath, trying to ease his jaded nerves. Aware that even now as he sat with Corbeix and Roudele, over a hundred miles away in Marseille, Bennacer and his men would be bursting into Aurillet's office…

'I really can't help you. I'm sorry, I wish I could.'

'Oh, but I think you can.' Bennacer had arranged the three most incriminating conversations in a loop so that they ran in succession. He pressed play and sat closely observing Aurillet's expression.

The only other person in the small interview room was Moudeux, a lumbering DI who Aurillet had been handcuffed to in the back of a black Citreon on the way down to the precinct. A head taller than Aurillet, Moudeux had spent much of the journey jibing: 'You into bondage, are you? I understand you guys sometimes sample the merchandize. Do you test the boys yourself? What do you do, put these on them?' Moudeux raised the handcuffs. 'I suppose with an ugly shit like you, they'd come in useful. Stop them getting away.'

Aurillet had stayed silent throughout. The first few questions from Bennacer he met with blank denials, and now Moudeux stayed silent, just contemplated Aurillet with his slow, doleful eyes and smiled menacingly. As the tape ran, Aurillet looked nervously down at the table. Aurillet looked faintly puzzled as the Duclos segment came on; unlike the other two, children weren't mentioned. Just a name: Bernard .

'… Fine. Look forward to seeing you.'

Bennacer stopped the tape. 'So. We've got you clearly on supply of under age children and your connection with Alain Duclos. What we want to know is how far your association goes back with Duclos. All the details.'