The light of the day gone and the moon clearly visible in the night sky, Pascal’s head hit the pillow and he slept, the softness of his duvet enveloping him in warmth and security.
Chapter 4 – The List of Names
“So all of these are the associates of your daughter that you want put behind bars?” said Pascal as he looked at the list. It was quite extensive and would take some time to work through.
“Yes. They are all criminals. This is a known fact and the justice system has allowed them to carry on with business as usual. The problem is that some of them are prominent members of French society.”
Pascal could see the concern in the lady’s eyes. “You realize this will cost you a lot of money?” he said. She looked toward him.
“We don’t talk about money. It’s a vulgar subject and my daughter’s life is worth whatever you charge. I know your reputation and I trust that I will get my money’s worth.”
It was true that his reputation was good and that his clients rarely complained about the costs involved. For them, it was a chance to even up the balance of the scales of justice and sometimes, they needed a little help. Gautier was at the top of the list. He was a known felon and finding something that would leave the courts in no doubt as to his guilt would probably be the easiest.
“Don’t be concerned.” Pascal assured her. The meal had been delicious. Her company was good and looking over the city from a great height, Pascal felt relaxed and ready to take on this next assignment.
After leaving the restaurant separately, as she had requested, Pascal made his way back to his apartment. This was his city dwelling and a little less comfortable than his country residence, but it suited him for the work that he did within the city. The traffic in the street outside was noisy though that never bothered him. It was a constant reminder of the hustle and bustle of Paris. He opened the balcony doors and looked down into the street below. At least there was parking and he didn’t have to worry about the Merc.
Picking up the telephone, he dialed Jacques, an old colleague in the force. He would be able to tell him the latest information on Gautier but he wouldn’t ask over the phone. They would meet in the old café La Liberté on the corner of Gaité Street as that had always been a favorite.
As he saw his friend approach, he stood and shook hands. “How are you? Long time, no see,”
“You know how it is,” said Jacques, “nothing changes but I miss working with you, even after all this time.”
He showed Jacques the name on the top of the list and Jacques winced. “He’s bad news, Pascal,” he said, “You’d be better staying away from that guy.”
“Since when has that ever stopped me?” said Pascal.
“The guy is heavily into drug dealing and we have tried so many times to catch him in action because we know he is producing methamphetamine which is killing people but every raid that we have turns up nothing or no connection to the guy.”
“I need as much information as you can give me on the guy’s recent movements.”
“I can give you that. I can also give you the contacts he has been using, but you won’t get much out of them. They are too afraid of the guy. The one person who was willing to help us turned up drowned in the river and it is general knowledge that Gautier doesn’t forgive.”
“What’s your situation on witness protection these days?”
“Practically non-existent, unless the case is sufficiently important to merit it. Drug dealers don’t come into that bracket. It’s more reserved for cases against politicians and mafia.”
Thus, it was unlikely that Pascal would find anyone that was willing to talk. In Paris streets, news spreads fast and no doubt Gautier’s reputation for violence would be a deterrent for anyone. The trouble was that criminals such as Gautier used young people to do his dirty work for him, and their very vulnerability meant that they would be too afraid to say anything at all.
Jacques had, however, given Pascal details that would help and this should be enough to bring Gautier to his knees. What Pascal had on his side was that he had all the time in the world to devote to catching this guy whereas the police force time was divided because of other day to day police activities.
“You will give me backup if I need it?” he asked Jacques.
“You know that I will and that my office will give you everything you need. We want this guy behind bars more than you do, but we don’t have the time to devote to investigation that you do. Perhaps you can come up with something valuable and, if you do, we will be waiting for your call.”
It made Pascal feel good that he had the hands of the law on his side. Jacques knew that Pascal was a hard man who pushed to get results and who even overstepped the line these days. What he also knew was that Pascal’s heart was in the right place and if it took dirty tactics to get better results, there was no one he would prefer to be using them than Pascal.
Chapter 5 – Observing
From observation, Pascal could see that Gautier was a creature of habit. His comings and goings from his home were predictable and the addresses that he visited were either of others in the drug trade or business premises. Sooner or later the guy would make a mistake and that’s what Pascal was waiting for. On the second day of following him, that break came. One of the premises that he visited was known to Pascal. The business owner had been involved in an older case that Pascal had handled and would be fairly easy to break. For now, he waited and observed.
Gautier left the building about an hour after arriving. As he did so, Pascal couldn’t help noticing the beautiful blonde across the road from where he was parked. Her hair hung over her shoulders, she was stylish and wore expensive clothing and though he didn’t see her face clearly from where he was sitting, could see that she had taken Gautier’s arm as he made his way toward his car. He captured photographs because all links to Gautier would be useful.
Two of the addresses that Gautier visited were properties owned by people on the list that Madame Duclos had provided. That made it even more interesting from Pascal’s point of view. If he could bring down more than one of them at a time, this would make his work even easier.
The first couple of days were used to case up the activities of Gautier. He didn’t want to risk losing the opportunity to work out Gautier’s habits, his movements and his associates. These would all help in making a case against the guy. One thing that disturbed Pascale was that there were two different business operations running hand in hand. One was clearly the manufacture of crystal meth and the other appeared to involve imported drugs. He had seen young couriers at one of the addresses and could instantly recognize the type. Young and ambition, these were people who were willing to risk their liberty for a little bit of extra money. The young were sometimes shortsighted.
The cell rang and Pascal answered. “Hey man,” said Jacques. “We have information that might interest you. There’s a kid in l’hopital Sainte Anne, Alain Suchard, totally screwed up by Gautier’s meth, but angry enough to give you information.”
“Then why aren’t the gendarmes talking to the guy?” asked Pascal.
“Because they consider him a psychiatric case and unreliable. Personally, I think the guy is genuine. They took brief information from him over the phone, but that’s as far as they are willing to go.”
“Thanks for the tip, does Gautier know about the guy being there?” said Pascal.
“No not yet. He’s been reported as missing by his parents and the hospital have him under a different name.”
“How did he swing that?”
“I checked up on that,” said Jacques, “and the guy has his head screwed on the right way. It would be obvious that Gautier would be after his neck for using when he was supposed to be producing the drugs. “The name is he is using is Claude Geraud. He explained that it’s a cousin’s name and talked his way around producing his Carte Vitale at the hospital.”
“How do you know all this if the cops aren’t taking the guy seriously?” asked
Pascal.
“I make it my business to know!” said Jacques with his usual flair. It felt good to have someone within the gendarmerie on his side and Pascal was grateful for the long term friendship he had experienced with Jacques. Jacques had been there when Jaqueline was killed and knew just how important justice was to Pascal. “Can you protect this guy if need be?” asked Pascal. “It’s probably going to be better to file a report that the guy is dead. That way, Gautier is completely off the trail. Let me know what he says and if you want me to take that action.”
At the final location Gautier had visited, the blonde got out of Gautier’s car and walked away from the building, while Gautier entered. They had waved to each other. She seemed rushed and a little too wary of her surroundings. Pascal followed. He had followed Gautier enough for now. He had all of the addresses and photographs of associates, and a little diversion was called for. He wanted to know who the blonde was and what she had to do with Gautier’s criminal activity. Gautier was married and perhaps the blonde was merely a mistress, although Pascal thought there was more to it than that.
Following her three or four blocks from where he had first seen her, she disappeared into a building on rue Emile Duclaux and he took a note of the number, although the guy in the vehicle behind him tooted impatiently, as Parisian drivers do. Parking the car wasn’t that easy as the street was fairly narrow, though he managed to find a spot and walked back toward the building where the blonde had disappeared. It wasn’t going to be easy taking any photographs in this street without drawing attention to himself, though very soon, the blonde emerged from the same door that she had entered, in the company of two youths. Both were scruffy in appearance and Pascal was able to get a shot from a distance and hoped that the camera was good enough for him to be able to recognize the faces later.
The blonde turned toward him and he moved his camera as if taking photographs of the buildings. As she walked past him, they nudged shoulders and the perfume she was wearing left a reminder with Pascal that she had passed, while the youths that she had come out of the building with were walking in the opposite direction.
He had also taken a photo on his cell and sent it through to Jacques asking him if he recognized the woman. The text that came back was interesting. “That’s Claudia Duclos. I see you are mixing in good company!” came the reply. It actually shocked him that the very person he had been employed to protect was so central to the activities of Gautier. It would mean good timing if he was to get Gautier arrested and save Claudia from being associated with the crimes. He didn’t mention her involvement and laughed it off, making Jacques assume she was a friend with benefits.
Claudia had disappeared by now, but that didn’t matter to Pascale. He had enough information for the day. He was hungry and a good meal was called for. Following criminals meant fast food and little time to digest it and the Laurant in Avenue Gabriel had always been a favorite of his. Tonight he would eat in style. The Parisian streets never darkened. They merely transformed from daylight to street light. It had always amazed Pascal how this city stayed alive 24 hours a day, and this was also one of the reasons that he preferred his country residence for rest between jobs. It afforded him more exposure to the natural elements and a calm at night that allowed him to unwind.
Chapter 6 – The Hospital
Pascal was able to gain entry the next afternoon into the psychiatric ward more easily than he had thought. He gave the name of the patient and asked if he could visit. The nurses were welcoming and showed him to the day room where the patients were sitting watching TV. “Claude Geraud, you have a visitor,” she said and he stood and walked toward them.
“Can we go for a walk outside?” Pascal asked the nurse.
“Usually, we only allow established visitors to go outside, but we do have another day room where you can talk.” With that, she walked them down the long corridor and toward a room where they could talk privately.
“Thank you,” said Pascal, as the nurse closed the door behind her.
The boy looked young and his hair was a mess. His clothing looked like it needed a wash and his face was unshaven. There was a strange conundrum about this character, as his voice was educated, though his appearance was similar to street dwellers that Pascale had seen wandering around the capital begging for money.
“You know why I am here, don’t you?” asked Pascal.
“Yes, I have important information and I want to tell someone,” said the boy.
“Then do you mind if I record what you have to say?”
“No. That’s cool,” said the boy. Pascale wasn’t quite sure how to address him, knowing that he had used an alias to get into the hospital. He had used the false name when he had inquired about the patient because it was obvious to him that the staff would not know him by any other name.
The boy was afraid. That was obvious from what he had to say. If Gautier found him, then it was almost certain that he wouldn’t live long with the information that he had. Letting Gautier think that he was dead would be advantageous and Pascal assured the boy that information would be leaked to the newspapers and TV stations, so that Gautier would not move the lab yet again. It had to be done quickly because otherwise their only witness would be of little use to them. With all of the information that the boy supplied, there was indeed reason to arrest Gautier.
He also now knew the blonde’s role as the boy had described her quite accurately as Gautier’s “bit of posh.” She took the meth from the lab and delivered it to the dealers. That way, there was no central point where the dealers could lead the police to the lab. It was interesting to hear the story unfold and to learn the links between the cocaine trading done by Gautier and how this ran in parallel with the crystal meth lab. He even told Pascale about the couriers being employed by Gautier and how he had targeted kids at the local lycee or college because they were the type of people who traveled frequently and the customs would not think of them as being the carriers of thousands of Euros worth of cocaine.
As he left, he felt sorry for Alain Suchard. His head was messed up, but his facts tied in nicely with the buildings that Gautier had visited over the past few days. With the report going out on the TV of Suchard’s demise, Gautier may get careless. Suchard was the only weak link at this time and he had only disappeared yesterday. Jacques was more than enthusiastic about passing the news to a friendly reporter and letting Suchard’s parents know that he was in protective custody. Jacques would also make sure that Suchard was given protection, though he doubted that Gautier would even look for him once the news story was released.
The complexity of the business that was being run by Gautier began to make sense. The business addresses were used as pick up points, but he had to work out what airport was being used for the import of the drugs. Geraud had suggested Orly though the security at Orly was usually pretty tough. Pascale thought that the Air Mexico flights into Charles de Gaulle airport were more likely since these were the budget flights that were favored by students. Talking to Jacques, he also knew that there had been a few arrests at de Gaulle airport in the past but that recently, there were very few.
Pascale used his usual method of putting information onto a board. It was a good way of sorting out the logical sequence of events and there were a few missing links. For example, he couldn’t tie in two of the names on the list to the drug cartel although he did know that Gautier was visiting those businesses. It wasn’t enough evidence. He needed to connect them with concrete evidence if he was to close down the cartel. A lot of what the boy had told him had filled in gaps in Pascale’s knowledge but there were areas of his investigation that were weak and it would be these that he would need to work through in the next week. The hospital visiting hours were suitable for him to pop back and ask the boy specific questions which would help to fill in those gaps. If he didn’t know the answers, perhaps he had sufficient knowledge to send Pascale in the right direction.
One of the most upsetting aspects of Gautier’s activit
ies was that he was using children to do his dirty work for him, and indeed, although Claudia was no innocent, her naivety was what had pulled her into this underworld where she risked everything.
Pascale phoned a report to Madame Duclos. “I know that Claudia is involved in very criminal activity,” he said, “but I believe that I have a way to get her excluded from the arrests that will be made.” Madame Duclos was clearly grateful that his common sense would help him to deal with the situation discreetly. She had heard good things about Pascale and was beginning to gain confidence in his apparent professionalism.
Chapter 7 – Missing Links
Finding the link between the couriers from the airport and Gautier proved difficult at first. Pascale had been patient. He had seen kids visiting the business premises of Max Boyer in rue Volontaires in the Montparnasse district, though they didn’t appear to be carrying anything. However, on the third morning that he was observing these premises, something interesting happened. Gautier turned up at the premises at around 11 o’clock and left the building at around 11.30. As he was leaving he was arguing with a young guy in his late teens. Pascale saw Gautier threaten the guy and the look of fear on the face of the young man told him that something was amiss. He managed to snap photos of the event and followed the youth as he made his way toward Montparnasse station.
Stopping the car in rue Lecourbe, he asked the kid to get in. “I don’t know what you want,” the boy objected. “I am a friend. Trust me,” he said and somehow the confidence that he exuded persuaded the boy to get in. “What do you want from me,” the boy asked though Pascale needed to maneuver the car away from where it was parked as drivers behind were getting impatient. “Hold on,” he said. “I will explain but I need to get parked somewhere.” The one way system and the bus lane were making it difficult to find the right spot, though as soon as he did, he pulled in. The boy looked afraid and Pascale tried to reassure him.
MYSTERY: Pascal Tourret Private Detective (Mystery, Suspense, Crime, Murder, Detectives, Fiction, Unsolved Mysteries, Mysteries, Thriller, Intense, Drama) Page 2