The King Arthur Case: A Brittany Mystery by Jean-Luc Bannalec

Author:Jean-Luc Bannalec [Bannalec, Jean-Luc]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Thriller
ISBN: 9781250753083
Google: KtEuEAAAQBAJ
Amazon: B092T8GP4V
Goodreads: 57693294
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Published: 2022-04-26T05:00:00+00:00

* * *

Without noticing it, Dupin had turned off at the entrance of the village of Tréhorenteuc down a road that took him past the Church of the Holy Grail.

He slowed down, thought for a moment, and then stopped. Almost exactly where he had parked that morning, when everything was still a harmless, cheerful office excursion. Now the morning seemed like it was days ago. He would take a quick look around, seeing as he was there.

A few bright red slate stones shone in the moonlight, glowed in fact, as if they contained a unique crystalline light. The others remained pale. It was as if they made signs—mysterious, indecipherable signs. The church was a plain, long building with a short transept. The remarkably little church tower stuck up from the shining dark silver roof, as if it were missing a part. On the right side was an extension, like a little house that had grown out of the church, with a single round window.

“Hello, is anybody there?” Dupin shouted.

He walked up to the entrance, which was presumably locked.

“Hello!” Dupin knew how curious the scene would seem to a passerby. “This is Commissaire Dupin. Commissariat de Police…” He stopped.

Nothing moved.

Dupin hadn’t the remotest idea what it was he wanted to say. Other than that he hoped to find Riwal and Kadeg. Even though he hadn’t a clue why they might be here, of all places.

He would walk once around the church and then drive on to Madame Cadiou.

His eyes automatically swung over the buildings and the surrounding area. The only noticeable thing was that in the meantime lights had gone on and windows had been opened. Two sleepy-eyed people stuck their heads out. Dupin half expected that somebody would call the police.

In response to an undefined impulse, after completing his tour around the church, he walked back up to the entrance again. Above the door was the phrase that somebody had quoted earlier in the day. Had it been Riwal? La porte est en dedans. The door is only accessible from inside. As extraordinary as everything else here. It meant something like: only when you’re already inside can you get in. It was more or less what the storyteller had said about the wood. And that was exactly what this case seemed like to him. Only when he was already inside would he find the entrance. And Dupin was undoubtedly outside.

The door was made of wood and painted red, a pale red in the moonlight, with a plain red metal handle. Dupin pushed it. The door swung open and in the next moment the commissaire found himself unexpectedly inside the church.

“Hello, anybody here?”

How come the church wasn’t locked?

Dupin looked for a light switch. He couldn’t see any near the door.

“Police!”

A surprising flood of moonlight fell through the windows on either side of the main door and one at the far end of the church.

Dupin stood there as if rooted to the ground. He was spellbound by two dramatic displays. On the

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