Where Every Man (Inspector James Given Investigations Book 4) by Charlie Garratt

Author:Charlie Garratt [Garratt, Charlie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sapere Books
Published: 2020-10-05T16:00:00+00:00

On Saturday morning the market was quiet. I spent my time in the early spring sunshine reading a three-day old English newspaper, though the news was depressing. The front page carried stories of the successful evacuation of a naval base at Scapa Flow off the north coast of Scotland. The story next to this discussed the imminent invasion of Denmark and Norway by Germany. Events on France’s Eastern border were relegated to an inside page, even further back than coverage of a minor riot at Dartmoor prison, but the commentator speculated it would only be a matter of time before Nazi pressure would threaten French defences.

As it approached twelve o’clock and it had been twenty minutes without a customer, I was wondering if it might be worth packing up for the day, so I started to tidy the front of my stall. I’d been at the job less than a couple of minutes when someone coughed at my shoulder.

‘Not closing already, Monsieur Given?’

I turned to see Doctor Hodin. ‘Not if there are customers waiting. What can I get for you?’

He asked for several items, which I weighed and put into his bag, but he then hovered for a few moments after I took his payment. I thought he’d forgotten something.

‘Was there anything else, Doctor?’

‘After we spoke, Monsieur Given, I got to thinking about your questions and I couldn’t rest without checking. My notes are very thorough, as they have to be in the circumstances, and I rang a colleague in Paris who would be much more familiar than I with violent deaths. He’d see serious accidents and even killings on a regular basis, so I went through my findings with him.’

‘And did he see anything?’

‘Nothing conclusive, but the bottom line is he threw enough doubt on my conclusions for me to think Madame Perron’s death may not have been accidental after all. His main concern was the position of the head wound. He thought it more consistent with a blow from behind than a fall.’

‘Are there more tests you could do?’

‘Not without disinterring her body, and I’d not get permission for something so drastic without stronger evidence. All I can do is apologise for perhaps being a little too casual in my original conclusion. I’m happy to pass this information on to the police if you think it would be helpful.’

‘It would be more than helpful, Doctor. Anything which throws more light on Lisette Perron’s death could be useful in convincing Pascal Jaubert to reopen the case. It’s good of you to have taken another look.’

He promised to call straight away to see the policeman when he’d finished his shopping. ‘You seem to be fairly certain someone murdered Madame Perron. Do you have a suspect?’

‘I can’t say I’m certain, but the evidence is pointing that way. As for who did it, I haven’t a clue. I had a man in mind, but it seems it couldn’t have been him. I hope we can convince the police to become properly involved and ask questions.

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