Pel Among The Pueblos

by Mark Hebden

  ‘Six, to be exact. When I said midnight, I meant midnight.’

  ‘What does it matter? I have the money. You have the letters. What’s the difference?’

  There was a silence then Donck’s voice came again. ‘I didn’t expect anybody else to be involved.’

  ‘Delahaye didn’t expect to be knocked down and break a leg. I’ve been involved from the start. I knew what he was up to because he happens to be my fiancé.’

  Darcy looked at Pel and grinned. ‘This one ought to be a cop, patron,’ he murmured.

  There was a further silence then Donck’s voice once more. ‘Get the money.’

  ‘When I’ve seen the letters.’

  Another silence was followed by Donck’s voice again. ‘Here they are!’

  Again there was no sound for a while and they assumed Mijo Lehmann was examining the packet.

  ‘Fifteen, I was told,’ she said. ‘And a diary.’

  ‘They’re all there. Give me the money, and let’s get away from here. I don’t like this place.’

  There was a long wait then they heard a car door slam. ‘She’s giving him the money,’ Darcy murmured.

  There was another silence as they waited for the lighting of a distant cigarette. But it didn’t come and Pel began to wonder if Mijo Lehmann had been unable to manage it in the drizzle and the breeze. Or had something gone wrong? Had Donck offered forged letters? Had he produced a gun?

  His fingers began to tap and he had just decided they couldn’t wait any longer when they heard Mijo Lehmann’s voice. ‘These look good,’ she said.

  Pel glanced at Darcy and he was just about to call the cars when the voice came again, this time louder and agitated.

  ‘Come back!’

  ‘He’s snatched the letters back!’ Pel said. ‘Let’s have the light!’ With startling suddenness, the powerful searchlight illuminated the crossroads. For a moment, they saw the two figures frozen and silvered in its glare, the girl, slim and small in her wet mackintosh, struggling with Donck, a strong, thickset shape alongside her, clutching a blue holdall.

  ‘It’s a trick!’ His voice came in a snarl.

  ‘Go, De Troq’,’ Pel said and De Troq’ started forward.

  As he vanished into the darkness, they saw Nosjean appear, heading toward Mijo Lehmann. Donck had released the girl and begun to run. Seeing Nosjean, however, he turned back and, grabbing the girl’s hand, wrenched her arm behind her and held her in front of him.

  ‘Stop!’ he yelled. ‘Or I’ll shoot her!’

  She was leaning against him and they could see the terror on her face. The blue holdall containing the money was on the ground by Donck’s feet with the holdall that had contained the letters, and they could see the glint of metal by her head. Nosjean had come to a standstill.

  ‘Hold everything, everybody,’ Pel said. The Chief’s fear had been sound. Donck had a gun.

  Nobody moved and only Nosjean was visible. De Troq’ had sunk out of sight and the image was frozen again, with Donck holding the girl, clearly wondering what to do, how to handle the money and the girl and still make his escape.

  ‘Drop the gun!’ Darcy’s voice came over the loud hailer. ‘You’re covered from half a dozen angles.’

  Donck’s head turned. He looked desperate, uncertain how to use the few facts that were to his advantage. Then he looked down at the holdall containing the money, clearly wondering if he could still get away with the loot. The letters had disappeared into an inside pocket.

  Then, suddenly, they saw a movement beyond him. It was Bardolle. Despite his size, Bardolle’s days of poaching had taught him to move silently and to take advantage of every shadow. Then abruptly, another shape emerged beyond Donck and Pel recognised it as Aimedieu. Like Bardolle he had managed to move close. But he hadn’t been as skilful as Bardolle and Donck saw him. As his head turned, Nosjean leapt forward and, reaching out, snatched the girl away. Donck yelled, the gun went off harmlessly, then he grabbed the holdall and started running.

  The gun went off again, this time in Aimedieu’s direction, but Aimedieu was running, too, now. Donck was close to his car. If he reached it there was a chance he might escape.

  ‘Cars,’ Pel snapped into the microphone. ‘Stand by!’

  Seeing Aimedieu closing up in front of him, Donck had swerved and was running in a curve to his left. As he did so, however, a burly figure rose up abruptly in front of him and they saw a heavy fist swing. Donck stopped dead in full flight and with the blue holdall flying from his hand, seemed to perform what looked like a perfect backwards somersault to land on his face. They even saw the splashes from the wet grass in the glare of the searchlight as he fell.

  By the time they reached the crossroads, Bardolle was rubbing his knuckles, Aimedieu was staring down at the unconscious Donck in amazement, and Nosjean was holding the shuddering Mijo Lehmann tightly in his arms.

  Bending down alongside Donck, Pel felt into the wide pocket of the windcheater he wore.

  ‘Torch,’ he said.

  Aimedieu produced a light. By this time, the headlights of cars were visible on every one of the four roads to the crossing, and men were moving swiftly forward across the grass and from the woods towards them.

  ‘What did you hit him with, Bardolle?’ Darcy said. ‘An iron bar?’

  Bardolle looked down at his great fist and said nothing.

  Pel had the packet open now and was bending by the headlights of one of the cars, flicking through the contents. At once, he saw the words ‘Napoleon III’ and he opened the old stiff paper. ‘Sire, my brother,’ he read. ‘Il m’est impossible de vous dire comme j’ai souffert et comme je souffre encore. Je vous écris de Querétaro où nous sommes assiègés…’

  ‘It is impossible to tell you how I have suffered and am still suffering. I write to you from Querétaro where we are besieged…’

  He nodded and pushed the letter back into the packet, then he checked the remaining documents one after the other and made sure the diary was there, too, before putting the packet into his pocket. By this time Donck was beginning to regain consciousness and Bardolle reached down to his collar and hoisted him to his feet in one vast bone-cracking heave that lifted his shoes from the ground. Pel glanced round him at the men in wet coats, the angles and planes of their faces, damp from the drizzle, catching the glow from the car headlights. Nosjean still had his arms round Mijo Lehmann and she was clinging to him as if he were her last support on earth. It seemed to call for a pronouncement of some importance. He did his best to supply it.

  ‘After a hundred years,’ he said, ‘Maximilian’s appeals for help have finally reached Europe. Let’s go.’

  Note on ‘Chief Inspector Pel’ Series

  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

&nbs
p; 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.

  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 heaven 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.

  Pel & The Party Spirit

  Brigade Criminelle is mobilised when a fatal stabbing, an anticipated delivery of lethal drugs from Marseilles, and the discovery of a thirty-year-old corpse in an ancient turreted tower in the town of Puyceldome coincide with a frantic search for two murderous hitchhikers, all on Chief Inspector Pel’s patch. And as folk-dancers, stilt-walkers, fire-eaters, and jugglers lurch through a night of carnival, Pel stalks his prey.

  Pel & The Missing persons

  A masked gang rob a supermarket at Talant, a home-made bomb is found at the local airport, and the body of an old man is found on the motorway near Mailly-les-Temps, and what is the connection between a fearful lawyer and the fatal stabbing of a Scottish tourist. On top of all this, Daniel Darcy, trusted deputy to Chief Inspector Pel has been suspended on suspicion of taking bribes.

  Pel & the Promised Land

  The twelfth title in the Inspector Pel Mystery series, this is a story of Pel’s beloved Burgundy as the Promised Land. Fires are breaking out all over the province, from small houses to woodland and when a local farmer’s flock of sheep is poisoned, a tray of valuable rings stolen from a local jewellers, and the body of a woman is found, Inspector Pel has his work cut out for him in this exhilarating murder mystery.

  Pel & The Sepulchre J
ob

  A dead man is found floating in a canal, his wallet revealing a strange symbolic drawing, and a hostage drama unfolds at the Banque Credit Rural, where not only millions in francs and jewellery are at stake but also lives. On the other side of town, a stunning art student switches masterpieces for copies. Somehow, the crimes fit like pieces of a jigsaw so Chief Inspector Pel is faced with a challenge of a lifetime and responds with true Gallic guile.

  For subsequent Pel titles see Juliet Hebden (author)

  www.houseofstratus.com