Death on the Marais

CHAPTER THIRTY

Two days later, with no further sign of Didier and no closer to solving the mystery of Nathalie Berbier’s murder, Rocco was growing twitchy with impatience. Stop-and-detain bulletins had gone out on Didier Marthe, with warnings that he was armed and dangerous, but he wasn’t about to hold his breath. Such bulletins often relied on the stupidity of criminals doing something to bring them to the attention of the police, rather than a thinly spread police force spotting a face in a crowd.

He had twice driven down to the marais and sat staring at the lodge in impotent silence, aware that if he followed his instincts and broke in, he would probably have to suffer the consequences of discovering that Massin was no longer able to help him. Yet deep inside, he knew there was a connection somewhere that could propel the case forward, if only he could risk taking the plunge. Even so, he had driven away both times, aware that ending his career here through an act of impulse would solve nothing in the long run.

He had relied on Claude to trawl the village for any snippets of gossip about Didier, but that had also proved unhelpful. The man had hardly set out to make himself popular since his arrival a few years ago and cared nothing about public opinion.

In the end, out of a sense of frustration, he rang Michel Santer, seeking any information he could provide on Philippe Berbier. Santer had the nose of a true cop and picked up information almost by osmosis. If there was anything on the industrialist, he would surely know.

‘You kidding?’ Santer laughed. ‘You think I move in those exalted circles? The man’s a living legend… and a friend of the president. I bet if you asked them, the esteemed sewer workers of Paris will tell you even his shit’s squeaky clean. What are you looking for, anyway?’

Rocco didn’t entirely trust the phone system to talk too openly. It wouldn’t be unheard of for the Interior Ministry to have someone listening in, and he didn’t want to draw Santer into a mire by association.

‘Just curious,’ he said vaguely, hoping Santer would catch on.

Santer did. ‘Um… you ever been to Clermont? It’s on Route 16 out of Paris, about twenty kilometres east of Beauvais.’

‘I know it.’

‘Should take you about forty minutes to get there in that battle bus of yours,’ Santer continued. ‘I’m due some time off. Meet me outside the town hall at noon. You can buy lunch.’

Clermont was quiet when Rocco arrived and saw Michel Santer standing looking in the window of a fabric shop near the town hall. It was just on midday.

‘Thinking of taking up knitting?’ said Rocco as they shook hands.

Santer smiled lugubriously, his grip warm. ‘I’m saving that pleasure for when I retire. It’s about as far from police work as anything else I can think of.’ He nodded to a restaurant across the street. ‘It’s your treat, don’t forget. I should warn you, I’m hungry.’

Inside the restaurant, they sat and ordered lunch. While it was being prepared, they did the small-talk ritual over drinks, discussing who had moved where and when, who was up for promotion and who was on the way out. After the food was served and the waiter retreated, Santer raised the subject that had brought them there.

‘So,’ he said, chewing on a slice of bloody steak. ‘How are you settling down out in the sticks? Got to meet any of the local vermin yet?’

‘Only the fruit rats.’

Santer raised an eyebrow and Rocco explained about his housemates.

‘Jesus, how do you sleep at nights? That’s creepy.’

‘Actually, I’m growing used to them. They’re harmless.’

‘Well, good for you.’ Santer sat back and took a sip of wine. ‘So. Philippe Bayer-Berbier, rich bastard. What’s the deal with him?’

‘For a start, how did he get to be rich?’

‘You aren’t the first to ask that. The truth is, nobody knows for sure. He wasn’t born that way: his parents were medium-rank professionals by the name of Berbier; the Bayer bit came later — and not his wife’s, either. She’s deceased. You met the mother?’

‘Yes. Armour-plated and vicious.’

‘Also thought to be behind his social climbing. Mummy-knows-best kind of thing, I reckon.’

‘You saying he added the Bayer name?’ It wasn’t unknown for names to be hyphenated by wives seeking a specific identity in a marriage, but Rocco had never heard of a man adding a name of his own. Mother’s influence, no doubt.

‘Must have done. Maybe he thought it had a better ring to it for all his moving and shaking. Anyway, he started out dealing in reconditioned army trucks after the war, when the haulage industry was on its arse. Before long he was buying into other businesses. He has the Midas touch, apparently: can’t help making money.’ He shrugged. ‘If I was his accountant or bank manager I’d know more, but I don’t. Where’s all this coming from?’

Rocco gave him a quick summary of everything he knew so far, including Berbier’s attempt to gloss over the death of his daughter, his call for helpers from the Interior Ministry and the information from Sophie Richert.

Santer shrugged, playing devil’s advocate. ‘Fair enough. Maybe he’s an overprotective father. Heavy-handed, even. You can understand him being miffed about her getting knocked up — any father would be. He has a reputation to protect.’ He grinned. ‘Something you or I will never have to worry about.’

Rocco grunted. ‘True enough. Even so, there’s something there that bothers me. He was taking a hell of a chance getting her body away from the Amiens morgue — and I still don’t know how he found out she was there. It could have easily blown up in his face, interfering with procedure like that.’

Santer was sceptical. ‘That I doubt. Believe me, Lucas, I’ve seen a lot of these people and the way they operate. They have friends everywhere… and where they don’t, they call on contacts who do. People like Berbier also believe in their untouchable status — like the old aristos and royals. They don’t get into trouble because they simply don’t believe they can. And that belief breeds arrogance. It’s as if they think they can walk through walls. I’ve seen people like Berbier walk away from charges that would have had you and me locked up in a second.’ He shook his head. ‘If you think he’s hiding something in connection with his daughter’s death, you won’t find it out in the open.’

Rocco saw the sense in what Santer was saying, but he wasn’t going to give up that easily. ‘He’s a rich businessman. Men like that have secrets.’

‘True. They also know people: people who can make nasty things happen.’

‘Meaning?’

‘Meaning if you don’t watch your back, you could end up seeing the dark end of a muddy ditch.’

Rocco stared at him, looking for a sign that he was teasing. ‘You think?’

‘No question.’ Santer moved his plate away and leant closer. ‘I checked with a mate who used to work in a division dealing with financial crime. A couple of years ago, one of Berbier’s factories near Toulouse was hit by a strike. It was serious stuff, union men coming in from miles away and threats on both sides. Dangerous practices were being encouraged inside, according to the workers, and a couple of assembly line people had been killed. Anyway, the strike for better equipment and conditions began to spread to other factories and looked like going national. Then two of the ringleaders travelling along a clear, open road down near Bordeaux died in a crash.’

‘It happens. So?’

‘A military fuel tanker ran over their car in broad daylight. The tanker driver claimed the car swerved across the road in front of him, and a half-empty bottle of pastis was found in the front of the car. It was written down as a drunk in charge. Without its two main leaders, and with an under-the-table pay-off, the strike folded.’

‘And the tanker driver?’

‘He died ten days later in a shooting incident while on manoeuvres.’ Santer shrugged eloquently. ‘End of story.’

Rocco sat back, frustrated but hardly surprised. If it was true and Berbier had instigated the accident, it proved he was capable of using strong-arm tactics when it suited him. That made him no different from a handful of other business leaders who had cut corners and slipped into criminal territory to get what they wanted. It still didn’t take him any closer to finding out why Berbier was so coy about his daughter’s death. Reputation and scandal were polar opposites, and sufficient reason for anyone to want to hide unpalatable truths. But times were changing fast, in France as well as everywhere else. The Sixties were ushering in more than just a passion for long-haired youth and loud music, the Beatles and Johnny Hallyday. Moral outrage was no longer the potent force it had once been, and a man like Berbier would be able to weather the scandal of a pregnant, unmarried daughter easier than most.

There had to be something else. ‘That’s it?’ he asked.

‘It’s all I have. If I get anything else, I’ll let you know.’

‘Inspector Rocco?’ It was a man’s voice, gruff with authority, cigarettes or too many late nights.

‘Speaking.’ Rocco hadn’t been back from his meeting with Santer more than ten minutes and was fast becoming disenchanted with his phone, wondering why it was that it rang so often early in the mornings or when he was just getting in. It had never been like this in Clichy, with an office to work in. If he wanted to escape the calls, he simply went out to a crime scene for a while.

‘Detective Bertrand, Rouen commissariat,’ the man introduced himself. ‘Forgive me for disturbing you, Inspector, but I think you might be able to help me.’

‘I’ll try,’ he said cautiously, wondering if an old investigation had caught up with him. Some cases never let go, coming back to haunt you years after they had concluded, or were gathering dust in a pending tray.

‘You made a visit recently to an Ishmael Poudric in the Saint-Martin retirement village near Rouen. Is that right?’

‘Correct. Why?’

‘Before I answer that, could you tell me the purpose of your visit?’

Rocco stifled a groan. Surely he wasn’t about to have to apologise for stepping on someone else’s turf. Then he remembered, hadn’t Massin cleared this with the local office? ‘I was investigating an attempted murder involving a former member of the Resistance near Poitiers. There was a group photograph Poudric took during the war which we found during our investigation. I thought it might give us a lead. My visit was run past your office in advance by Commissaire Massin in Amiens.’

‘That’s not the problem, Inspector, don’t worry. I’m not that territorial.’ The captain’s voice contained an element of patience. ‘But I think you might want to come down here. We have a situation.’

‘Go on.’ Rocco felt the air around him go still. This was going to be more bad news. He knew it.

‘Poudric is dead. He was found in his study earlier today, stabbed through the heart.