Bruno, Chief Of Police by Martin Walker

Author:Martin Walker [Walker, Martin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: read, Detective
ISBN: 9781554682645
Publisher: Harpercollins Canada
Published: 2010-04-05T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

The Juge-magistrat, a dapper and visibly ambitious young Parisian named Lucien Tavernier who might just have reached the age of thirty, had arrived on the early morning flight down to Périgueux airport. Bruno took an instant dislike to the man when he noticed the predatory way he looked at Inspector Isabelle at the first meeting of the investigative team. It was just after eight a.m. and Isabelle had woken him with a phone call at midnight to say his presence would be required. Bruno had not wanted to go; he had a parade to organise for midday and he was not a member of the investigative team, but J-J had specially asked him to be there to explain the new evidence that put Richard Gelletreau and Jacqueline Courtemine in the vicinity of Hamid’s cottage. Without Bruno’s phone call to J-J on the previous day, Richard would already have been released.‘What he said is that he used to go to the woods to have sex, and he hadn’t even noticed Hamid’s cottage since he had other matters on his mind,’ said J-J. With his hair awry and his shirt collar undone, he looked as if he’d barely slept as he gulped thirstily at the dreadful coffee they served at the police station.

After one sip, Bruno had abandoned his plastic cup and was drinking bottled water instead. There was a bottle, a notepad, a pencil and a report on J-J’s last interrogation sessions in front of each person at the conference table, except for Tavernier who had pushed these local courtesies aside.

‘Neither Richard nor Jacqueline have any alibi for the afternoon of the killing except one another, and they claim to have been in bed at her house in Lalinde,’

J-J went on. ‘But we now know that she used her credit card to fill her car at a garage just outside St Denis at eleven forty in the morning. So first, they’re both lying, and second, she at least could have been at the murder scene. This strengthens the evidence from the tyre tracks on the way to Hamid’s cottage, and we’re awaiting the forensic report on the cigarette butts and wine glass and the used condoms found in the woods. But there’s still no clear evidence from the cottage itself to demonstrate that they ever went into the place. So far, it’s only circumstantial evidence, but in my view it points clearly to them. They were in the vicinity, if not necessarily at the murder scene. I should add that we have no traces of blood on their clothes nor in her car. But I think we have enough cause to continue to detain them.’

‘I agree. We have a clear political motive, and the opportunity, and they are lying – quite apart from the drugs,’ said Tavernier briskly, looking at them all through his large and obviously expensive black spectacles. His equally expensive suit was black, as was his knitted silk tie, and he wore a shirt with thick purple and white stripes.

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