Jean-Christophe Grangé - The Empire Of The Wolves

Deep down, Sema had always known that the Wolves would eventually discover her new appearance. And from that moment, they would know exactly where to find her. For an extremely simple reason. Their leader was Mr. Corduroys, the lover of chocolate filled with marzipan who was a regular customer at the Maison du Chocolat. She had made that incredible discovery as soon as she had recovered her memory. His name was Azer Akarsa. Sema remembered seeing him in an Idealist camp in Adana when she was a teenager, where he was already seen as a hero…

Such was the final irony of her story. The killer who had been tracking her for months in the Turkish quarter had seen but failed to recognize her twice a week while buying his favorite confection.

According to the TV report, the events in Saint-Cloud had taken place the previous day, at around 3:00 in the afternoon. Instinctively, Sema sensed that they would await the next day before attacking the Maison du Chocolat.

In other words, right now.

Sema grabbed the phone and called Clothilde at the shop. No answer. She looked at her watch: 12:30 in Istanbul, so an hour earlier in Paris. Was it already too late? From that moment, she tried the number every thirty minutes. In vain. Powerless, she paced around her room, worrying herself to death.

At her wit's end, she went down to the hotel's business center and sat down in front of a computer. Via the Internet, she consulted the elec tronic version of Le Monde from Thursday evening, reading through the articles devoted to the death of Jean-Louis Schiffer and the double murder at Saint-Cloud.

Absentmindedly, she browsed through the other pages and came across some more unexpected news. The article was entitled "Suicide of a Top Police Officer." There, in black and white, was the announcement of the death of Laurent Heymes. The lines wavered before her eyes. His body had been discovered on Thursday morning, in his apartment on Avenue Hoche. Laurent had used his service revolver-a 38-mm Manhurin. As to his motives, the article briefly mentioned the suicide of his wife, a year before, and the fact that friends said he had been depressed ever since.

Sema concentrated on these densely worded lies, but she could no longer read the words. Instead, all she could see were pale hands, a slightly panicked stare, flaming blond hair… She had loved that man. A strange, disturbing love, mixed up with her hallucinations. Her eyes brimmed with tears, but she held them back.

She thought of the young cop. dead in that villa in Saint-Cloud, who, in a way, had sacrificed himself for her. She had not wept for him. So she would not weep for Laurent, who had been one of her manipulators.

The most intimate one. And thus the biggest bastard.

At 4:00, she was still there, chain-smoking, with one eye on the television and the other on the computer, when the bomb exploded. It appeared in the new electronic edition of Le Monde, in the "France-Societe" section:

SHOOT-OUT ON RUE DU FAUBOURG SAINT-HONORE

At noon on Friday, March 22. the police were still present at 225 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré after a gun battle in a shop called La Maison du Chocolat. No explanation has yet been given for this spectacular shoot-out, which has left three people dead and two wounded, three of them from the ranks of the police.

From the initial reports, especially the testimony of Clothilde Ceaux, a shop assistant who escaped unscathed, it appears that the sequence of events was as follows: At 10:10, just after the shop opened, three men arrived. Some police officers in civilian clothes, who had been stationed just opposite, immediately intervened. The three men then produced automatic pistols and opened fire on the police. The gun battle lasted only for a few seconds, on either side of the street, but was extremely brutal. Three officers were hit, one fatally. The two others are in a critical condition.

Two of the assailants were killed, but the third escaped. They have been identified as Lüset Yildirim, Kadir Kir and Azer Akarsa, all Turkish nationals. The dead men, Yildirim and Kir, both had diplomatic passports. It has proved impossible to find out how long they have been in France. and the Turkish embassy has refused to comment.

According to the police, the two men were known to the Turkish authorities as members of an extreme right-wing group known as the Idealists or Grey Wolves, and they had already carried out a number of contract killings on behalf of Turkey 's organized crime cartels.

The identity of the third man, who managed to flee, is even more surprising. Azer Akarsa is a businessman who has had extraordinary success in the tree-farming sector in Turkey and enjoys a good reputation in Istanbul. He is known for his patriotic views, but he backs a modern, moderate nationalism that is compatible with democratic values. He has never had any dealings with the Turkish police.

The involvement of such a person in these events suggests a political motivation. But the real reasons remain obscure. Why did the Turks go to the Maison du Chocolat armed with assault rifles and handguns? Why were there policemen in civilian clothes (in fact, officers from the Division Nationale Antiterroriste, or DNAT) stationed across the street? Were they following the three criminals? It is known that they had had the shop under surveillance for the past few days. Were they preparing an ambush for the three Turks? If so, why take so many risks? Why attempt an arrest on a busy thoroughfare, in the middle of the day, when no warning had been given? The Public Prosecutor's Office is concerned about these anomalies and has ordered an internal inquiry.

According to our sources, one lead is being favored. The gun battle on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré could be linked to two other cases of murder, which were reported in yesterday's edition: the discovery on the morning of March 21 of the body of retired inspector Jean-Louis Schiffer in Père-Lachaise, then the bodies of police captain Paul Nerteaux and of plastic surgeon Frédéric Gruss later that day in a villa in Saint-Cloud. Over the last five months, Captain Nerteaux had been investigating the murders of three unidentified women in the tenth arrondissement of Paris and had consulted Jean-Louis Schiffer, an expert on the capital's Turkish community.

This series of murders could lie at the heart of a complicated affair, both criminal and political, that seems to have escaped the attention of both Paul Nerteaux's superiors and the investigating magistrate, Thierry Bomarzo. Further confirmation of a link lies in the fact that one hour before his death, the captain had put out a bulletin on Azer Akarsa and requested a search warrant for Matak Limited, in Bièvres, one of whose main shareholders is Azer Akarsa. When his portrait was shown to Clothilde Ceaux, the main eyewitness of the shooting, she formally identified him.

The other key figure in this case could turn out to be Philippe Charlier, one of the commissioners of the DNAT, who clearly has some information concerning the assailants. Philippe Charlier is a major figure in the war against terrorism, but one whose methods have proved controversial. He has been summoned later today by Judge Bernard Sazin, who is leading the initial inquiry.

This confusing series of events occurs in the middle of a presidential campaign, with Lionel Jospin planning to merge the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (DST) with the Direction des Renseignements Généraux (DCRG). This projected merger is aimed no doubt at reducing the sometimes excessive independence of certain police officers or secret service operatives.

Sema closed her browser before making her own personal summary of the events. On the good side, Clothilde was safe and Charlier had been summoned by a judge. Sooner or later, he would have to answer for all these deaths, as well as the "suicide" of Laurent Heymes…