“It was very dangerous. No, really.” She had looked at Patrick in mock offence. “If hunters wounded a large boar, it could not be left in the forest. They would telephone my husband, and he would try to kill it.” She had spread some butter on a piece of bread. “He had two huge Bordeaux mastiffs on leads, which would follow the trail of blood from the boar. No, really.” She was reacting to Patrick’s smile. “He had to wear overalls, eye protectors and carry his gun over his shoulder. These dogs would drag him through the forest and branches following the scent. Then, he would put the poor pig out of its misery.” She had popped the bread in her mouth.
“You must have got fed up eating the stuff?”
“It’s on every menu here in the Alsace.”
“OK, I’ll have it. Although you may have an inflated idea of what British chief inspectors are paid.”
“I will charge this lunch to my account. It does mean that we must talk about this case for at least one minute.”
He had smiled back at her. “Thank you. I’m sure we can manage that.”
She paused. “Tell me what’s bothering you while I try this wine.”
“I will,” he had said, while lowering his eyes and then raising them to stare directly at her, “if you tell me what’s bothering you, afterwards? And this is off the record.”
Whether there was more sexual, rather than professional, tension was hard to judge.
“I am Jacqueline, by the way.”
He had grinned and leant back in his chair. “I’m Patrick. OK, let me fire a few things at you. Let’s start with losing the CCTV footage of the two poisoners.”
She had sipped her wine. “Incompetence, nothing more.”
“Secondly, why no progress on finding the two poisoners?”
“That is not surprising. We have no photograph. No names. No fingerprints. No vehicle. No leads. Plus, they were professionals.” She paused. “They knew what they were doing.”
It had been his turn to sip some wine. “Thirdly, what about the conflicting results from the lab on the poison?”
Some of the light had appeared to leave her eyes. “I am nervous about that,” she had said, “I am nervous of political interference.” But she went no further.
“I have two more things. Are autopsies normally undertaken that quickly in France?”
“They can be … especially when the victim is a high-profile individual.”
“Finally, how active are the Moroccans in France – I mean the secret services?”
“I have never come across them. It is the Algerians who cause us the most problems.”
They had both paused.
“Now it’s your turn,” he had said.
She had looked around to catch the waiter’s eye, but he had been out the back.
“Why do you think your minister drove down here and didn’t take a one-hour plane trip?”
“Johnny Musselwhite is, or was, a maverick.” He looked at her to check that she understood the word. “I don’t even want to speculate what dodgy business he was involved in, and I don’t just mean his cocaine addiction. Apparently, he was driving down to the Mediterranean and on to Spain to stay at the villa of the CEO of Petronello. He was an avid supporter of the PEGASUS pipeline project from Algeria that Petronello are promoting. He was probably getting backhanders; I mean bribes.”
Her face had slowly changed. “What do you know about Yves Dubuisson, our Minister of Energy?”
“Nothing.”
“What if I said that I, and many others, have grave suspicions about him, especially about this potash mine project?”
“Do you think Johnny Musselwhite and he were involved in this together?”
She had shrugged.
“And PEGASUS?” he asked.
With that, she had turned to catch the waiter’s eye.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Mike Kingdom had stopped on her way down to reception. Her first idea had been to talk to Karolina and find out which room was Randy’s and when she had seen him last. She was now having second thoughts. Where did Karolina’s loyalties lie, and would Hassan overhear any chat she might have with her? Mike began to think that she needed to be extra careful and use other methods to find his room.
Standing outside her room in the open-sided first-floor corridor around the courtyard, she dialled the riad’s phone number. Karolina answered. Mike squeezed the top of her nose to change her voice and asked to speak to Randy Ramirez.
“I don’t think that he’s here at the moment,” Karolina said.
“Will you try his room, just in case?” Mike asked.
“Sure.”
Mike lowered her phone and listened carefully. She couldn’t hear a phone ringing in any of the rooms above or below her, even as she walked around the corridors on the four sides.
“There’s no reply, sorry,” Karolina said. “Would you like to leave a message?”
