The Coldest Case by Martin Walker (mobi reader android txt) 📕

any photos you kept of that trip, anything that might show the faces of these two men?’ J-J asked.

Dominique laughed. ‘No mobile phones back then, we’d never even heard the word selfie so we weren’t taking photos of everything all the time like they do these days. Your mum had a little camera but I don’t know that she used it much.’

‘These two men, Max and Henri, how would you describe their relationship?’ asked Bruno. ‘Were they close friends, real buddies, or was there any kind of tension between them?’

‘They were just friends spending the summer together, making some money and chasing girls. We didn’t spend a lot of time talking and they seemed to get on just fine. It wasn’t like the guys were jealous of each other. They both seemed pretty happy at what they’d found, and so were we.’

‘What contraception were you using?’ Yveline asked, the first time she’d spoken since entering the room.

‘I was on the pill but she wasn’t. She wanted to start having babies as soon as she was married, the whole motherhood and nesting thing. I made sure she had some condoms.’

‘Do you know if she used them?’

Dominique shrugged. ‘She said so but if she did, they didn’t work.’

‘If you saw either of these guys again, would you recognize them?’ Yveline asked.

Dominique gave a mocking laugh. ‘You mean even though they’ll be going bald and running to fat? Even if I did recognize them I probably wouldn’t want to. But yes, I suppose I might know their faces if they hadn’t changed too much.’

‘I’d like you to do a photofit, work with a police artist to recreate their faces as best you can,’ J-J said. ‘And if we can find any photos of the félibrée we’d want you to look through them. We might also want your help in staging a reconstruction.’

‘I’ve got a business to run here,’ Dominique almost snapped. ‘I can’t just drop everything for some ancient case.’

‘Madame, let us understand one another,’ J-J said. To Bruno’s ears his voice sounded dangerously calm. J-J leaned forward and turned off the recording system on his phone before he spoke again.

‘You are a material witness in a murder case, probably the only one. From what you have said already, you may be the last person to have seen the dead man alive. Inevitably, that makes you a suspect and that gives me grounds to detain you. If you want me to arrest you and make you do as I ask, that’s up to you. One way or another, I will require you to cooperate with my investigation. And if I’m forced to arrest you, I will have this house and this business torn apart by a bunch of cops to make sure we miss nothing. I will also be sure to alert the local newspapers and TV stations to send cameras and photographers. You will briefly be famous, or perhaps infamous. And after that, you might not have much of a business to come back to when we let you out. Your choice.’

Dominique stared at him coldly before shrugging again. In a bitter voice, she said, ‘For this I pay my taxes.’

‘You know our motto, Dominique,’ J-J replied calmly. ‘Honoured to serve.’

J-J and Dominique glared silently at each other for a long moment before they were interrupted.

‘Please, Tante-Do, we really need your help with this,’ Sabine said.

Dominique shifted her gaze and her expression changed. She looked fondly at her old friend’s daughter and replied, ‘For you, sweetheart, anything.’

Mon Dieu, thought Bruno. That was astutely done, one of the most perfectly timed good cop–bad cop routines that he’d ever seen, except that it seemed natural rather than deliberate. It certainly had not been planned.

‘By the way,’ said Bruno to J-J in a low voice as they all returned to the car for the drive back to Périgueux, ‘that young woman, Virginie, working on the skull – she was in the lab alone when we saw her. Can you keep a paternal eye on her? You know what cops can be like.’

As he said this, Bruno suddenly recalled the big guy in uniform who’d made that nasty remark about country cops and sheep shaggers in the police canteen.

9

Back at the commissariat de police in Périgueux early that evening, Bruno collected a fat file of photocopies of J-J’s original inquiry into Oscar’s death and took a lift back to St Denis in Yveline’s car. He turned down Yveline’s offer to join her and Sabine for dinner, thinking it would be better to let the two women establish their own rapport. It was too late to join the evening ride at Pamela’s but he went there to collect Balzac and then drove home. He took Balzac for a long walk along the ridge as dusk deepened. He made himself an omelette and a salad from the garden and called Pamela to say he’d see her the next morning to exercise the horses and he’d bring croissants. After a less than illuminating hour or so with J-J’s files, Bruno made a final check of the chicken coop, drank a last glass of red wine from the town vineyard and went to bed for an early night.

He woke just before six after a solid eight hours’ sleep and took Balzac for a long run through the woods. In St Denis by seven, he picked up a bag of warm croissants and two baguettes from Café Fauquet just as it opened. Soon afterwards, he was at Pamela’s riding school, where he collected a hatful of fresh eggs. He let himself into the kitchen and heard the shower running upstairs. He put the kettle on for coffee, set out cups and plates and began halving and squeezing oranges. The kettle boiled so he made coffee. After a moment he heard her voice from upstairs, ‘Is that you, Bruno? I can see Balzac at the stables and I can smell coffee.’

‘It’s me and breakfast is ready unless you want