Death at the Clos du Lac

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

The moment the sub-machine gun came to rest on the bottom step without spitting fire, Desmoulins jogged across the foyer and up the stairs, ready to shoot at anything that moved.

‘One man,’ he called back. ‘Dead.’

Rocco grunted. One down, two plus Delombre to go. Fewer if the earlier shooting had been on the side of the angels.

It had. Moments later a soft whistle came from the front entrance and one of Godard’s men covering the field came in. He slid a hand across his throat and held up a single finger.

It left Delombre and one other.

They covered the rest of the house with care, leapfrogging each other to check every room and cupboard. It took several minutes, the search sweaty and frenetic, the way all house clearances are, each man expecting at any moment for a door to swing back in a blaze of gunfire.

But they found nothing, ending up back in the foyer, crunching through the fallen plaster and mouldings.

‘Weird that there are no other patients,’ said Desmoulins, checking his weapon.

‘Not really,’ Rocco replied. ‘This was strictly for the Bessine job. After what happened here before, they probably didn’t want to risk having anyone else around.’

‘So where are the bad guys?’

‘Out there somewhere.’ Rocco nodded towards the front entrance. It was bad news. A mix of open country, marshland, trees, the canal and the lake, it would take a small army to search the area effectively, and the darkness wasn’t in their favour. Too much chance of shooting at shadows … or each other.

And Delombre would know that.

He beckoned to Godard’s man and said, ‘Call an ambulance. The Bessine woman’s in the lobby at the back of the pool house where we came in. She needs urgent treatment. Ask Commissaire Massin to get word to her husband. The nurse is tied up in a hole in the pump room. Don’t untie her or she’ll ruin your sex life. She’s part of all this.’

The man nodded and went in search of a telephone, while Rocco debated what to do next.

‘We could wait until morning,’ suggested Desmoulins. ‘Get more men in and flood the area.’

Rocco nodded, but he didn’t like it. These men needed catching. Delombre, especially, with his experience and training, could cover a lot of ground in a few hours. His options were limited, in that he was in unfamiliar territory and needed transport to get away, but that meant heading for a farm or a village. And the nearest village was Poissons.

‘It’s risky either way,’ he said. ‘Claude?’ He was happy to defer to the one man who knew the area best.

‘I reckon they’ll go for the lake,’ said Claude calmly, checking his load and settling his jacket around him. ‘The road’s too open and the fields up behind here lead nowhere. Down by the lake and canal, it’s a small jungle. They’ll count on being able to hide until they find a way out of here.’

Rocco nodded in agreement. It was a jungle all right, and one he’d seen at close hand. But two men in the dark were as dangerous as ten, and he wasn’t about to send anyone out there to find them who wasn’t used to the terrain.

A clatter of footsteps heralded the arrival of several men, and Godard appeared through the door.

Rocco said, ‘There are two men on the loose, both armed. We’ve searched the buildings, but they might have doubled back.’

‘No problem. We’ll run a sweep of the area.’ He looked around and saw his man using the telephone. ‘We heard a small war going off. Is anyone hurt?’

‘Only Desmoulins’ pride,’ Rocco said with a grim smile. ‘The three of us are going out to look for the two men down by the lake. Keep your men up here, will you? We don’t want to exchange fire with our own.’

Godard looked as though he was about to argue, then nodded, seeing the sense in not having too many guns out there. ‘OK. But if you want more, we’re here.’

‘Got you.’ With that, he turned and led Desmoulins and Claude out into the night.