“And that,” said Cesar expressionlessly, “is for killing my lover.” She lowered the gun.
For a second there was a complete frozen silence. The evil little Mickey recovered first. He spun round and hurled his knife with unerring accuracy at the journalist. With a sickening thud twenty centimetres of razor-sharp steel plunged up to its hilt in her stomach. She dropped the gun and grasped her body round the knife. With a groan she sank to the floor.
Jackie started forward but Mickey pushed her back against the chest. Pierre also ran towards her, then halted as an authoritative voice rang out in French.
“Nobody move! I have an automatic pistol and I have the licence to use it on anybody who tries to resist.”
Everybody looked towards the door. To Philip’s astonishment it was Armand Sejour who walked into the room from the entrance corridor. He pointed the gun at Gustav.
“Release the Englishman.” Then, when there was no immediate response. “Release him now, or I will shoot you in the knee.”
The threat was spoken mildly as the young Frenchman advanced, but the brute promptly let Philip go.
“Now, lie on your face on the floor.” He turned his gun on Mickey. “And you.”
The two crooks hastened to do as they were told. Pierre had gone to care for Cesar, wrapping his jacket round her middle. Armand seemed to trust him enough to half-ignore him.
“Can I help?” asked Jackie, for once apparently happy to take a supporting role.
Armand handed her his mobile phone. “Can you go outside and ring the police. Tell them there’s been a double murder. That should bring them running. Also we need an ambulance for the journalist. Tell them as well that we have two Mafiosi to take in to custody. Will you remember that?”
“Of course,” her response held a little of the old acerbity which she might have shown to an assistant who got above himself.
However Armand appeared unaware of it. “I see you have a torch. Good.” He pointed to the entrance corridor. “If you go out through the main door, you’ll find the path down to the road is rough and newly cut, but you shouldn’t have any problems, using your torch. Will you go down there and wait for them to arrive and show them up here?”
She nodded and left without a further word.
Meanwhile Philip had been trying to wipe off the filthy remains of the contents of Alain Hebert’s skull.
“Now,” said Armand to him, “I will tell you how to truss up these two thugs to prepare to hand them over to the police.”
Without questioning his authority, Philip found himself spending the next quarter of an hour strapping the men’s wrists behind them with their belts. Then he had to cut some lengths off the rope and hogtie their ankles so that they would only be able to walk with short steps, making it impossible to escape.”
“Will they be able to walk down the path like this?” asked Philip.
Armand shrugged. “They will fall down a lot, but will anybody worry about that?”
“I suppose not.”
He grinned for the first time. “Now we wait for the police.”
“What about Cesar Renoir?”
“The journalist?” He seemed to remember her for the first time. “I don’t know anything about repairing wounds, do you?”
“Not much.”
“Well, you go and see what you can do to help the other guy. I’ll keep watch on these two.”
Philip went over and knelt down beside the woman. She still had the knife hilt protruding from her stomach. Her face was a ghastly white but she was still conscious.
“We’ve gone to call for an ambulance. How are you feeling?”
She smiled wanly. “I seem to have gone numb down there. I think I’ll just stay as still as I can.”
“She has lost much blood,” said the man.
“This is Pierre.” She introduced him. “He was one of the men who stayed loyal to my father when Montlucon tried to take over. It was Pierre who told me, while we were cutting the path, that they killed my father two days ago.”
“Are you sure you should be talking?”
“It’s all right. Talking doesn’t affect my stomach and there are some things I need to say to you in case I can’t say them later.” She paused for breath. “First you must say sorry to Mademoiselle Blontard. I was responsible for the death of her assistant.”
“Andre Jolyon?”
“That’s right. I didn’t do it myself, but I was the one who told Gustav and Mickey where his room was at the hotel.”
“What happened?”
“They got into his room while he was at dinner. When he returned they knocked him unconscious. Then they waited until everyone was asleep and carried him up to the castle and threw him off the cliffs to make it look like an accident.” She shook her head slightly. “But I never thought they’d fool the forensic scientists.”
“Why did they do it?”
“It was one of Montlucon’s clumsy schemes to try and get the excavations stopped. Alain had warned them that the dig was getting close to the treasure. Of course it didn’t work.”
Philip suddenly had an idea. “Did he then decide to put in Lerenard to take over and muck up everything?”
“Lerenard?” Her look was puzzled. “I know nothing about any Lerenard.”
“Oh. So he’s nothing to do with these guys.”
“Not as far as I’m aware.”
Philip got to his feet, confused by all the different people involved. He wanted to discuss it with Jackie but he knew that would have to wait for an opportunity to do that.
Faintly floating through the corridor came the sound of the first police siren. Now somebody else would take over. Now there would be questions, interviews, hours of sitting waiting to be released from the cross-examination.
- 30 -
“At least Sergeant Leblanc had to take us seriously this time,” said Philip as they drove to Prouille the next morning.
Jackie laughed. “I don’t think the good sergeant has ever had to cope with such a lot of problems at one time in his life before.”
“That’s right. Two more dead bodies; one seriously injured in hospital; three crooks in jail; and a room-full of priceless treasure to look after. The poor chap can’t know which way to turn.”
“On top of that,” she pointed out, “there’s apparently a big row building up over who actually owns the treasure in that underground room.”
“Is that right?”
“So the mayor told me. Some shadowy organisation based in Paris is lobbying the government, telling them that they have recorded proof that the stuff belongs to them.”
A full night’s sleep and a late start had enabled them both to get over the shock of nearly being killed the night before. When they had got back to the hotel some time after midnight they had immediately stripped off the clothes which still carried the smell and some of the remains of Alain Hebert’s death and had stuffed them in a dustbin liner for burning. They had then showered carefully, washing every little last vestige from their bodies and their hair, before they had collapsed into bed.
Now they felt fit to face the world and get on with the business of understanding the little they had been left of the secret documents of the Cathar heresy. But of course their minds still dwelt on the fantastic experiences of the previous evening.
“The real hero was Armand,” said Philip. “I must admit I’d thought of him before as being a bit inexperienced, especially when he seemed grateful to be given a chance to dig trenches in out of the way corners of the castle. Now he comes through like a mixture of James Bond and Inspector Maigret.”
Jackie wagged a finger at him. “We must both be very grateful to him. I don’t know what would have happened if he hadn’t turned up. There was the ginger-haired guy’s gun lying on the floor and that little weasel was free to pick it up. I don’t think we would have lasted long.”
“You’re right of course. And then he took charge until the police turned up. I believe we were all too
shocked to have been much use to anybody without him telling us what to do. It was as if he’d been doing things like that for years. And he said he had authority to use the gun. Do you think he’s some kind of plain-clothes policeman?”
“I don’t know. But I did notice, when the police turned up, that he went and had a quiet word with Leblanc before the sergeant took over. I think there must be some sort of special role which he hasn’t said anything about. But what I don’t understand is why he should come and sign on with me as a trainee archaeologist, if he’s got an undercover job.”
“You seem to have surrounded yourself with personal mysteries. There’s Armand and Lerenard.” He grinned. “And, of course, there’s me as well.”
“At least we’ve cleared up the mystery about Alain Hebert and the journalist.”
“I gather Cesar was taken to the hospital in Carcassonne. Have you heard how she is?”
“I asked Maitre Amboisard this morning. He said she’s in a bad way. They don’t think the knife had completely destroyed any vital organs but she’d lost a lot of blood and her body had gone into shock by the time they’d got her to hospital. As a result they couldn’t operate on her. They gave her a local anaesthetic to enable the knife to be removed. And they’ve got to give her a few days intensive treatment before they can find out what sort of a repair work they have to do on her. It sounds as though her chances are no better than fifty-fifty.”
Philip shook his head. “I don’t know whether she wants to survive now. She’s lost her father. She seems to have been in love with the murdered Alain Hebert. Also I presume that technically she’s at least committed manslaughter.”
“That’s right. And she’s also been guilty of helping this criminal organisation which her father used to run and which has carried out I don’t know how many crimes in Marseilles. Perhaps she can claim that she was coerced into it by threats of what would happen to her father if she didn’t go along with them. But, if she recovers fully, I can’t see how she can escape a long stay in jail.”
“Not a very bright future.”
“No.” Jackie’s face was set in a grim expression. “What I can’t forgive her is showing those thugs where to capture Andre. He’d done nothing wrong. They just wanted to use him to close down the excavations.”
Philip reached out and grasped her hand. “I’m sorry, Jackie. There’s nothing that can be done to bring him back.”
“I know.”
She was quiet for a long time. But when he looked at her she wasn’t crying.
At last she spoke again, showing she had moved on emotionally. “On the plus side, I suppose that if she lives she’ll be able to provide the first-hand evidence to get Mickey and Gustav put away for premeditated murder. That should remove two of La Force Marsellaise’s thugs for a nice long time.”
“What’s happened to them for now?”
“They’ve been taken to a high security prison near Toulouse.”
Philip grinned. “Well, that’s relieved Sergeant Leblanc of one problem. Now he’s only got to look after Pierre.”
“Why didn’t that man go with the other two?”
“Well, he didn’t actually do anything wrong yesterday,” said Philip, “except that he was a part of Montlucon’s gang who cut their way in to the treasure room. So I don’t think Leblanc actually has anything to charge him with at the moment. No doubt he’s sent the details off to Marseilles to see whether they have anything against him.”
“It was what he told Cesar about her father being killed which made her shoot Montlucon and saved you from a nasty, painful death.”
“And you after me, I expect. We’ve both got to be grateful to them as well as Armand.” He put his head on one side. “That reminds me - I’m sure Armand wasn’t just there by chance.”
“I agree with that. When I quizzed him about his role in all this he wouldn’t tell me anything. But when I asked why he had turned up at that very moment, he more or less had to admit that he’d been following us ever since the site closed down. Apparently they were just behind us when we drove past the empty van at the parking place. So he got Jeanette to drop him just round the corner before they reached the van. He saw us go up the path to the castle.”
“But he didn’t follow us?”
“No. Because apparently we’d only just disappeared out of sight when he saw two men come back to the van and collect some big crow-bars. This roused his suspicions so, instead of going up to the site behind us, he decided to follow them. It was then that he discovered they’d been cutting this new path through the undergrowth towards the lowest part of the castle walls.” She paused.
“He told me that he was able to work out that they were getting quite close to the trench you and he had dug earlier in the week and he had a special interest in that trench. Of course, when they reached the wall he found they had set up spotlights and screening round a large boulder which was leaning against the wall. They were working there, clearing an area of bushes and undergrowth. When that was completed he said they used the crow-bars to force the boulder away from the wall and revealed the outside door which led to the treasure room.”
“That explains why you couldn’t open it when you tried. They must have been making quite a lot of noise but I suppose the wind stopped us from hearing them until they actually got into the room.”
“And it also meant we weren’t heard knocking the back off that chest.”
“That’s true.” Philip was silent as he thought of how close they had come to disaster. After a while he said, “Have you found out anything about what’s actually in those storage chests?”
“Only what’s on the photos we took, and you’ve seen those as well. I took a look in the chest which they’d just broken open but it was full of a fine powdery packing stuff. It was that powder which made you cough. I tried feeling around a bit, but I couldn’t find anything near the top of the chest and I didn’t want to go too deep under uncontrolled conditions in case I damaged something.”
“Ever the archaeologist.”
She grinned. “There were also half a dozen policemen wandering round, in case you hadn’t noticed. I particularly didn’t want them poking around. That’s why I put the top back on and kept guard near it.”
“So what’s going to happen now?”
“I asked Maitre Amboisard about that when I declared an interest in it. He said the information had been passed to Paris. Several high-ups are rushing down today to take a look at it. Meanwhile the entrances to the room have been blocked up and gendarmes are guarding them. It’s when these big noises from Paris turn up that the arguments will start.”
“Will they break into the chests?”
“I sincerely hope not. I’ve reserved myself a position on the inspection party when we get back from Prouille. I’ll be there first of all to see that they don’t do anything destructive.” She looked straight at him. “I can still pack quite a punch you know. I have a lot of influential supporters I can call on.”
“Will they take you seriously?”
“They’d better. I’ve told Amboisard that it was us who found the stuff. I’ve also told him we removed the back from the first chest in order to provide positive photographic evidence because Leblanc didn’t believe us when we tried to report it to him yesterday evening.”
“Will that get him into trouble?”
“I don’t think so. I think he and Amboisard are hand in glove at the moment.” She giggled. “But I’m going to hold that over them to make sure they keep me informed of developments.”
“That means we’re going to have to rush straight back after we’ve seen Abbe Dugard.”
“I’m afraid so.”
Philip was thoughtful. “Talking of that, are we going to let him look at the original of the scroll or only let him see the photos and the copies we’ve made?”
“I’m going to leave that decision to you, Philip.” She leaned back in her seat and stretched. “It’s your property, so you must decide.”
“He would treat the original with care?”
“Oh, there’s no doubt about that. I’m sure he will appreciate its importance - probably more than me.”
“And you can trust him to keep quiet about it? At least for now?”
“I hope so.”
“All right. Then I think we’ll risk showing him the original. I suppose it would be a bit of an insult to only let him see the photographs and copies.”
She smiled. “I hoped you would say that.”
So they continued the last few kilometres to Prouille and their hoped-for enlightenment.
- 31 -
Bertrand Dugard was expecting them. He was doing some cataloguing in his office when they arrived so they were invited to go straight in. He treated Jackie to a kiss on the cheek. Philip set the bag down by the desk and found himself shaking a clean hand for a change.
Jackie launched straight into the reason for them being there. “We’ve brought you an old scroll, Bertrand. I think it may be written in Ancient Hebrew. What I hope is that you can give us an idea of what the document is about. Is that all right?”
“Of course it is my dear. How exciting. I’ll be delighted to help.”
“I’m sure you’ll agree with me when I say that it is important to contaminate the scroll as little as possible. So I’ve brought a clean sheet to lay it out on. Can we clear your desk and spread the sheet over it.”
“That’s absolutely correct, my dear. I’m pleased to see that you take so much trouble.” He immediately set about clearing the desk of all its clutter, chatting away happily as he did so. “It’s a long time since I was able to handle something like this. I seem to spend all my time these days down in the bowels of the earth.”
When the table was cleared she lifted the sheet from the bag and spread it over the top. “I’ve brought gloves for us all,” she added.
“How thoughtful,” said the Abbe. “I don’t know where on earth mine are. And I’m afraid they’d probably be in a dreadful state if I could find them.”
The men put on their gloves and Philip lifted the bamboo tube out of the bag and set it on the sheet-covered table.
The Secret Of The Cathars (2011) Page 23