Death in Brittany by Jean-Luc Bannalec

Author:Jean-Luc Bannalec
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466867741
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

The Third Day

Salou was already there when Dupin walked into the Central. He was alone, no team with him. He was standing at the end of the bar and looked shattered. Dupin walked over to him.

‘What’s the news? What’s going on?’ asked Salou.

Dupin had expected Salou to take a more aggressive line with him. He had been convinced Salou would consider it an affront to be called in at this hour for no apparent reason. Not that Dupin was overly upset about having called him in so early. But Salou actually looked more nervous than anything else. Dupin had to focus, this was important.

‘I want you to tell me how long the painting over there by the door has been hanging in comparison with the others. Or have they all been hanging here for the same length of time? Is there any trace evidence on this painting or the frame?’

‘How long the painting has been hanging here? You want to know how long this cheap copy has been hanging in this room? That’s what I came here for?’

Dupin walked over to the wall very calmly and positioned himself in front of the painting. ‘I’m talking about this painting in this frame in comparison to the others. And yes, I want to know whether this painting has been hanging here as long as the others.’

‘You’ve already said that. I have no idea what you’re trying to get at. What’s your hunch?’

Salou deserved an answer. But Dupin had no desire to give away even the slightest bit more. ‘I want to know whether this painting here could, potentially, have been hung in the last few days. Surely that’s not too difficult. This place must be dusted on a regular basis. Since the last dusting all of the paintings must have a certain –’

‘I am quite familiar with how to do my job. Nothing in this room changed between yesterday and today. Nothing at all. And apparently not for a long time before that either. We compared the current room with photographs from recent years. We looked at the paintings too. They’re hanging in the same arrangement as they have been for the last few years at least.’

‘I know. No, I mean very specifically this painting.’

‘And why do you want it compared to all the others? This is a nonsense task.’

‘One or more paintings might have been replaced in the last few days.’

‘I still don’t know what you’re driving at, particularly as this is the most idiotic of all the paintings here. Gauguin never painted a piece like that; some amateur came up with it. It doesn’t get much more stupid than that. A mangled imitation of the Vision after the Sermon.’

Dupin couldn’t hide his surprise at Salou’s knowledge of Gauguin. ‘So you know a lot about art?’

‘Gauguin is my great passion, the whole artists’ colony movement, I –’ Salou broke off. He seemed to be asking himself why he was telling Dupin this. ‘That’s really neither here nor there of course. I’m

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