Pel and the Faceless Corpse

by Mark Hebden

  After a while, Darcy held up his hand, and they stopped, crouching down.

  ‘I see red, Patron,’ he whispered. ‘It’s a kid in a red windcheater.’

  ‘Nosjean reports himself in position, Chief,’ Lagé said quietly. ‘Right.’ Pel gestured. ‘See if we can get a bit nearer. Spread out. Darcy, stay close to me. Lagé, you stay alongside, too.’

  They moved a little nearer and halted again.

  ‘Misset’s ready, Patron.’

  ‘Only wants Krauss,’ Darcy said.

  ‘He’s bound to be last,’ Pel observed. ‘He’s a dim flame, if ever there was one.’

  A few minutes later Krauss reported in.

  ‘Tell them to spread their men out and report back.’

  After a while, the other groups reported themselves ready. Pel nodded. ‘Tell them we’re going in, Lagé,’ he said. ‘Come on, Darcy, let’s go!’

  They moved forward at a half-run, the undergrowth crashing before them.

  Almost at once the man in the red windcheater appeared by the barn. He called something to someone inside and a moment later a man in a blue windcheater appeared also. He carried a sawn-off shot gun which he fired in their direction. They heard the pellets striking the leaves and the boles of trees.

  ‘Fat lot of good that’ll do,’ Darcy commented. ‘At this range. Standing by the bole of a tree, he rested his right arm against it, steadying it with his left. The crash of the shot echoed through the wood and Pel saw the man in the red windcheater go head over heels.

  Two more men had appeared now and there was shooting from Nosjean’s party on the other side of the barn. One of the men ran to the back of the building but there was a fusillade of shots and he staggered back against the wall and slid down to a sitting position.

  Misset’s men and Krauss’ men could now be seen on either flank, then Nosjean, leading his men forward as if he were storming the Malakov at Sebastopol. As they went forward, a thin shaft of sunlight lanced down unexpectedly, falling directly on the barn so that the men were illuminated as if by a spotlight.

  ‘The sun of Austerlitz,’ Pel said.

  The firing was continuous now, and the man in the blue wind-cheater fell. For a while, they waited for the fourth man to appear, but there was no sign of him and they moved forward warily.

  The man in the red windcheater was dead, shot through the heart by Darcy’s first bullet.

  The other two were both wounded, but neither of them so seriously he wouldn’t be able to stand trial for murder. Inside the barn were suitcases filled with money – five, Pel noticed, one doubtless for Matajcek – and two .38 pistols, one at the feet of a fourth man who was standing with his back to the wall, his hands as high in the air as he could get them.

  Darcy whipped him round so that he was facing the wall, resting on his hands, his feet well back and wide apart. His gun in his fist, Darcy ran his hands over him.

  ‘No weapons, Chief!’

  ‘Manacle him.’

  As the man was handcuffed, Darcy began to stuff his pistol away.

  Pel stopped him. ‘Let’s have a look at that,’ he said.

  Darcy looked puzzled. ‘Three shots, Patron,’ he said. ‘That’s all I fired.’

  ‘Let me see.’

  ‘What is this, chief?’

  ‘Don’t argue!’

  Darcy looked indignant. ‘It’s not usual, is it?’

  ‘It is this time.’

  Frowning, Darcy handed over the revolver. Pel broke it open, examined the contents, and handed it back. Darcy had begun to stuff it away again when Pel laid a hand on it.

  ‘Keep it in your fist,’ he said.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘You might need it.’

  ‘We’ve got them all, Patron.’

  ‘Holy Mother of God,’ Pel snapped. ‘Can’t you do as you’re told for once?’

  Darcy stared at him, startled, but he kept the gun in his hand.

  ‘Misset?’

  Misset glanced at Darcy, equally puzzled, but he handed over his gun. Pel went through the same rigmarole.

  ‘Krauss.’

  ‘Patron, I didn’t fire.’

  ‘Don’t argue.’

  Krauss handed over the weapon. Pel broke it open, examined it and handed it back.

  ‘Nosjean.’

  ‘Look, Patron,’ Darcy began, ‘if we have to go through this performance every time we arrest somebody–’

  ‘Massu.’

  Massu scowled. ‘I only fired one shot.’

  Pel made no comment but stood with his hand out. With a shrug, Massu handed over the pistol. Pel broke it open but this time, instead of merely glancing at the rounds in the chamber, he tapped them out into his hand, studying them carefully. Then, slipping them into his pocket, he tossed the weapon to Darcy.

  ‘See that Ballistics get a look at that,’ he said. ‘I think you’ll find it’s the gun that killed Vallois-Dot and our friend at the calvary.’

  Darcy’s jaw dropped. Massu was standing with his feet wide apart, his dark ugly face growing red. Then, suddenly he made a dive between Darcy and Pel and started crashing through the trees.

  ‘Get him, Darcy!’

  ‘Shoot him, Patron?’

  ‘In the leg. If you don’t hurry, he’ll be too far away.’

  Darcy crouched and fired. The first shot missed, but the second brought Massu down and, as they ran towards him, he lay groaning and clutching his thigh.

  Pel stared down at him. ‘I told you, Massu,’ he said coldly. ‘It’s not the job of the police to be judge, jury and executioner. Especially when you get the wrong man. The man you and Vallois-Dot executed in the Plaine looked like Geistardt. He even had a similar name, but it wasn’t Geistardt. His name was Hannes Gestert and he was an insignificant crook; not an SS officer but an unimportant corporal of Engineers.’

  Twenty

  ‘It was vengeance,’ Pel said. ‘Plain, ordinary, common or garden vengeance. We caught the right murderer, but for committing the wrong murder.’

  He paused and began to toy unenthusiastically with his little cigarette-rolling gadget. ‘All the same,’ he said, ‘he’ll pay the penalty. It was a pity for him Vallois-Dot got the wind up and wanted to give it all away.’

  Darcy offered a Gauloise. Pel stared at it, then at the little gadget in his hands.

  ‘Go on, Patron,’ Darcy urged. ‘Be a devil.’

  Pel stared a moment longer, then he tossed the cigarette roller into the waste-paper basket and took a Gauloise. Lighting it, he blew out a cloud of smoke like the Riviera Express coming into the Gare de Lyon, and went on.

  ‘They jumped to the conclusion,’ he said, ‘that because Gestert was a German and resembled Geistardt, that he was Geistardt. Especially when he showed himself interested in the woods at Bussy-la-Fontaine.’ He drew a deep breath. ‘However, we’ve also caught St Etienne’s bank robbers and we’ve got the murderer of Madame Matajcek – at least, we have when he comes round. And finally, we found out who’d been robbing the chicken houses. The Chief’s delighted about that, so it’s not been a bad day’s work.’

  Darcy studied him. ‘How did you fall on Massu, Patron?’ he asked.

  Pel rubbed his nose. ‘I didn’t,’ he said. ‘But when I saw his file, the whole lot came together. The meridional colouring, all the links to the Louhalle woman. He probably even looked like her. He was certainly sturdy like her, quick-tempered and free with his hands. That’s why he wouldn’t take me to see Madame Foing. He thought she might recognise his mother in him. Especially as I was going to see her about her.’

  He paused, drawing at the Gauloise and coughing as if he were consumptive. ‘When I saw his mother’s name in his file, it hit me between the eyes.’ He struck himself on the forehead with the flat of his hand. ‘So I kept him busy writing a report while I got the Lab to examine his van. It had a slit in the tyre that matched the plaster cast Misset took, and they found traces of blood inside of the same group as Gestert’s. And, of course,
there were fingerprints all over it that matched the unidentified ones on Vallois-Dot’s car and the car at Rivière-Française.’

  ‘Was he after the swag from the de Mougy place, too, Patron?’ Pel shook his head. ‘I doubt if he was even interested.’ He drew deeply on the cigarette. ‘He was clever,’ he went on. ‘He was banking on the fact that, while we’d check every weapon we could find, we wouldn’t check police weapons. Any more than we’d check police vehicles. And we didn’t.’

  ‘And Vallois-Dot?’

  ‘He was going to throw himself on our mercy with the information that they’d got rid of a murderer of innocent Frenchmen. That was something that had burned in Massu’s brain from the day he was old enough to understand. His mother was a heroine and the Germans had tortured her. No wonder he was always walloping old Bique à Poux. He thought he was a German, too.’ Pel stubbed out the Gauloise and, while Darcy was absorbed in the story and unlikely to notice, hurriedly helped himself to another. ‘It was the file,’ he said again. ‘The confirmation and the reason were there, in this building all the time. Father: Unknown. Mother: Dominique Louhalle. If he’d thought about it, he’d probably have stolen it. If we’d known, he might still have got away with it. His mother was known as a Resistance fighter and if his victim had been Geistardt – even if we’d thought his victim was Geistardt – his counsel could have pleaded provocation and the court might well have accepted it. Until he murdered Vallois-Dot, that is.’

  Darcy frowned. ‘But why did he never claim the Louhalle woman as his mother, Patron? Surely he could have been proud of her.’

  ‘Could he? As a mother?’ Pel shrugged. ‘Perhaps he didn’t fancy acknowledging the fact that she was a tart and he was the by-blow from a night’s entertainment.’

  ‘Poor bastard.’ Darcy realised what he’d said and gave a twisted grin. ‘And that little business in the wood?’

  Pel shrugged. ‘He was always too quick off the mark, and a policeman’s gun’s too handy. I was afraid if we tried to take him any other way he might start shooting. I’d also hoped,’ he added slowly, ‘that he might get himself shot and save himself from being dragged up in court by his friends and colleagues.’

  Darcy sighed. ‘While Geistardt, if he’s still alive, is probably living in the lap of luxury in Argentina.’

  ‘And the de Mougy plate,’ Pel said in a flat voice, ‘belongs to anyone with the patience to dig up one thousand hectares of Piot’s land.’

  Note on ‘Chief Inspector Pel’

  According to the New York Times, Chief Inspector Evariste Clovis Désiré Pel, of the Brigade Criminelle of the Police Judiciaire, in Burgundy, France is ‘in his professional work, a complete paragon. He is sharp, incisive, honest, and a leader of men and everything else a successful cop should be.’ Outside of work, however, ‘he is a milquetoast, scared of his gorgon of a housekeeper, frightened of women, doubtful of his own capabilities.’

  In fact, his morose attitude has been said to add ‘a piquancy’ to the reporting of his adventures. His general complaints about all those around him are mollified a little when, in the course of the series, he marries - but readers are left to judge that and the events surrounding it for themselves.

  One of the delights of the books is their setting - Burgundy - and Pel is ‘Gallic’ to the core. Moreover, his complex character makes a refreshing change from many of the detectives to be found in modern crime. Solutions to his cases are found without endless and tedious forensic and his relationships are very much based in real life.

  Order of ‘Pel’ Series Titles

  These titles can be read as a series, or randomly as stand-alone novels

  1. Death Set To Music Also as: Pel & The Parked Car 1979

  2. Pel & The Faceless Corpse 1979

  3. Pel Under Pressure 1980

  4. Pel Is Puzzled 1981

  5. Pel & The Bombers 1982

  6. Pel & The Staghound 1940

  7. Pel & The Pirates 1984

  8. Pel & The Predators 1984

  9. Pel & The Prowler 1985

  10. Pel & The Paris Mob 1986

  11. Pel Among The Pueblos 1987

  12. Pel & The Faceless Corpse 1987

  13. Pel & The Touch Of Pitch 1987

  14. Pel & The Picture Of Innocence 1988

  15. Pel & The Party Spirit 1989

  16. Pel & The Missing Persons 1990

  17. Pel & The Promised Land 1991

  18. Pel & The Sepulchre Job 1992

  Further titles are available post 1993 See Juliet Hebden (author)

  Synopses of ‘Pel’ Series Titles

  Published by House of Stratus

  These can be read as a series, or as stand-alone novels

  Pel & The Faceless Corpse

  An unidentified, faceless corpse is discovered near a memorial dedicated to villagers killed by the Nazis. Pel is on the case searching for a way to name the faceless corpse. The trail leads him from Burgundy to the frontiers of France, aided by a canny Sergeant Darcy and the shy, resourceful Sergeant Nosjean. Follow the irascible, quirky Chief Inspector on a road to solving the mystery of the faceless corpse.

  Death Set To Music (Pel & The Parked Car)

  The severely battered body of a murder victim turns up in provincial France and the sharp-tongued Chief Inspector Pel must use all his Gallic guile to understand the pile of clues building up around him, until a further murder and one small boy make the elusive truth all too apparent.

  Pel Under Pressure

  The irascible Chief Inspector Pel is hot on the trail of a crime syndicate in this fast-paced, gritty crime novel, following leads on the mysterious death of a student and the discovery of a corpse in the boot of a car. Pel uncovers a drug-smuggling ring within the walls of Burgundy’s university, and more murders guide the Chief Inspector to Innsbruck where the mistress of a professor awaits him.

  Pel Is Puzzled

  New varieties of crime are popping up everywhere in Inspector Pel’s beloved Burgundy. Raids on a historical chateau and the surrounding churches have led to the plunder of priceless treasures. But when theft becomes murder, Pel is called to uncover the true nature of who’s behind the crime wave. The case leads him from Paris to Scotland Yard and a climax involving the famous Tour de France cycle race.

  Pel & The Bombers

  When five murders disturb his sleepy Burgundian city on Bastille night, Chief Inspector Pel has his work cut out for him. A terrorist group is at work and the President is due shortly on a State visit. Pel’s problems with his tyrannical landlady must be put aside while he catches the criminals.

  Pel & The Staghound

  Violence, the mugging of gay men, and the disappearance of a wealthy local business man, Rensselaer, troubles Chief Inspector Pel who is baited by his superiors in Paris clamouring for more teamwork, technology, and sociologists. What remains is a harrowing question - has Rensselaer been kidnapped or murdered? Rensselaer’s family don’t seem to mind. Only Archer, his favourite staghound, is anxious for his missing master.

  Pel & The Pirates

  As Chief Inspector Pel honeymoons with his long-time love Mme Genevieve Faivre-Perret in St Ives, a local taxi driver is murdered on their first night. More puzzling is his attempts to reach Pel before the brutal killing and his message is one of murder, arson, and smuggling. But, can Pel break the silence surrounding the Islanders, and catch the killer?

  Pel & The Predators

  There has been a sudden spate of murders around Burgundy where Pel has just been promoted to Chief Inspector. The irascible policeman receives a letter bomb, and these combined events threaten to overturn Pel’s plans to marry Mme Faivre-Perret. Can Pel keep his life, his love and his career by solving the murder mysteries? Can Pel stave off the predators?

  Pel & The Prowler

  The irascible Chief Inspector Pel basks in the warm glow of his marriage until a series of young women are found strangled, with macabre messages left next to them. Pel breaks his idyllic life in honeymoon heav
en and begins an investigation among a student community. What ensues is a deadly game of cat and mouse.

  Pel & The Paris Mob

  In his beloved Burgundy, Chief Inspector Pel finds himself incensed by interference from Paris, but it isn’t the flocking descent of rival policemen that makes Pel’s blood boil - crimes are being committed by violent gangs from Paris and Marseilles. Pel unravels the riddle of the robbery on the road to Dijon airport as well as the mysterious shootings in an iron foundry. If that weren’t enough, the Chief Inspector must deal with the misadventures of the delightfully handsome Serjeant Misset and his red-haired lover.

  Pel Among The Pueblos

  A brief spell among the Pueblos, and a shoot-out under a moonless sky brings Pel his reward when the redoubtable Chief Inspector chases leads on a double shooting of two ageing crooks all the way to Mexico. This is Hebden’s eleventh novel in a series that delights and entertains a growing number of Pel fans.

  Pel & The Faceless Corpse

  An unidentified, faceless corpse is discovered near a memorial dedicated to villagers killed by the Nazis. Pel is on the case searching for a way to name the faceless corpse. The trail leads him from Burgundy to the frontiers of France, aided by a canny Sergeant Darcy and the shy, resourceful Sergeant Nosjean. Follow the irascible, quirky Chief Inspector on a road to solving the mystery of the faceless corpse.

  Pel & The Touch Of Pitch

  When Chief Inspector Pel accepts a drinks invitation at the house of a big shot, Deputy Claude Barclay, he doesn’t realise how compromised he will become by his acceptance. Shortly afterwards, Barclay is kidnapped; the partially decomposed body of a retired soldier is discovered in a wood and as series of art forgeries need investigating. Pel must tie all three together and solve a scandal, which has become the talk of France.

  Pel & The Picture Of Innocence

  An extravagant, big time gangland criminal is ambushed and assassinated; the only witness a ten-year-old-boy. Chief Inspector Pel is called in to investigate the killing, which spirals into an international investigation when a respected spinster is bludgeoned to death and some curious links begin to clink into place.