The Case of the Fallen Hero by Alison Golden & Grace Dagnall

Author:Alison Golden & Grace Dagnall
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Mesa Verde Publishing
Published: 2016-05-19T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

THE TWO OFFICERS collected themselves. Graham readied a new page in his notebook, but they resisted the temptation to indulge in a discussion in such a public place.

“And now,” Graham said with a funny smile, “for something completely different.”

Harding remained deadpan.

“Monty Python?” Graham asked, incredulous. “Please don’t tell me seventies comedy completely passed you by?”

“Not my thing, sir,” Harding replied.

Graham tutted quietly. “My dear sergeant. You simply haven’t lived.” He wrote a few words in his notebook.

“Now for Juliette.”

“Juliette, sir.”

Graham raised his hand to knock, but his phone buzzed. “Hang on. This might be Tomlinson again.”

It wasn’t. It was Graham’s contact with the French police. Their conversation was a little longer this time, and Graham squinted as he listened. “Thank you, Monsieur,” he said. “Most interesting.”

Graham took Harding by the elbow and walked a few doors down the hallway. He spoke quietly to her. “Remember the business with George’s parents over in France?”

Harding nodded. “Did Poirot have something else for us?”

“No kidding,” Graham replied. “Guess—I’m serious, just guess—who do you think owned the farm right next door to the one where the Ross parents were found dead?”

Harding blinked. “No way.”

“Way,” Graham assured her.

“The Jouberts?” she asked. “How about that?”

“How, indeed,” Graham replied. “That must be how George and the two sisters first met.”

Harding brought out her tablet and with the information Graham gave her, she produced a map of the area. “Right next door. You’d actually have to walk or drive through the Joubert’s property,” Harding noted, tracing the map with her fingertip, “to get to the main road. The two families must have been very close.”

“Especially as the Ross clan were there almost every summer, so Poirot said.”

Harding chewed this over. “What did he say about the evidence?”

“That’s where things get murky,” Graham replied. “Ross senior’s fingerprints were on the gun. Once the murder-suicide theory became the dominant idea, they didn’t look for any other explanation. Interviewed everyone in the area, apparently, then called it what they called it and closed the book.”

“But your Poirot doesn’t buy the theory?” Harding speculated.

“He’s on the fence. Said it just didn’t smell right. Bereaved families say this kind of thing as a matter of course, but it seems the Ross parents truly were a happy couple, adored George and his little sister Eleanor, loved the French countryside, were financially stable, all the rest of it.”

“There was one more thing,” Graham added. “The esteemed Monsieur Joubert has a chequered past.”

“Oh?”

“He was involved in some kind of incident with a former business associate.”

“Interesting.”

“He was implicated but never charged in the stabbing of said business associate.”

“Wow.” Harding made a note. “Sounds like Antoine has a temper. Hope it doesn’t run in families, or this is going to be another bloody awkward interview.”

Graham nodded, pulled himself up tall as he often did when approaching a potentially awkward situation, and knocked on the door. Harding was reminded of those animals that try to make themselves look large and fierce in the face of a predator.

In this case, their foe was Juliette Paquet, formerly Ross, née Joubert.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.