Black Diamond

told him to follow her finger with his gaze. Left and right, up and down.
    “You’ll do,” she said. “I’m making a habit of this.”
    “She’s a great doctor,” said Pons. “Stopped my nosebleed in no time. She’s making a habit of that, too.”
    Bruno looked coldly at him and turned back to the women. “Thanks,” he said. “I’m off to the bath.”
    Ignoring the slaps on the back from other spectators, Bruno paused only to greet Dominique, who stood well back from the clinging mud that encased him to give him an air kiss.
    “You and Dad were brilliant,” she said.
    “Tell him. It’ll mean a lot to him, it does to me,” he told her. He went into the locker room to find his teammates sitting with their shoes off and their tired bodies steaming. Heslumped onto a bench and tried to undo his laces, but he couldn’t bend. Pierrot limped across, knelt at Bruno’s feet and eased the shoes off.
    “You played a hell of a game,” he said.
    “Another one like that would kill me,” Bruno replied.
    Then the youngsters trooped in, carrying beers for all the players, and pride required that they stand up and drink before they went into the showers and stood a long time beneath the water as the mud slowly washed away. Finally feeling half human, Bruno dressed and left, and some of the stalwart supporters were still there to cheer. Pamela and Fabiola were waiting, but there was no sign of Pons. Just as well, thought Bruno. It would not be a good idea for the chief of police to punch his next mayor.

14
    Bruno was not altogether surprised to see the hulking figure of J-J leaning against the side of the stall where grilled sausages were sold and holding a large plastic glass of beer. As he saw Bruno, he pointed to another full glass on the shelf beside him.
    “Good game, you played well,” he said.
    “You haven’t been here that long,” Bruno replied. “I’d have seen you.”
    “Everybody said you played well. At least, the baron did. But that’s not why I’m here. I’ve got the printouts from Hercule’s phones, and some of my people have run them through their computers and done some cluster analysis. There are a lot of calls to your disappeared friend Vinh, who is no longer answering his phone. Several calls to you and the baron and some long ones to the Vietnamese embassy in Paris. And a lot of calls to prepaid cell phones that aren’t registered to anybody. Meantime, I want to check some local names with you from other numbers he called.”
    J-J pulled a sheaf of computer printouts from a bulging briefcase and flourished them. “I was going to offer to buyyou dinner tonight so you can tell me who they all are. Are you going to introduce me to these ladies?”
    Laughing, Pamela said, “Lovely to meet you again, Commissioner. Are you going to the funeral feast tonight for Hercule?”
    “Luckily, yes. Especially as Bruno’s doing the cooking. Since I’m hunting Hercule’s killer, the baron says I qualify. Maybe it was helped by my offer to bring a couple of decent bottles.”
    J-J’s eyes followed the women with admiration as they left under the stone arch of the stadium entrance.
    “Two fine women,” said J-J. “And we’re off to an all-male evening. We must be mad.”
    “If you’re coming, you’ll have to follow me home first. I’ve got to make the soup and pick up some supplies, and then we’ll head over to the baron’s place.”
    “A small château, they tell me.”
    “Very small. More of a
chartreuse
than a château. It looks imposing, but it’s only one room wide. Leave your car here. You can start reading out those names as we drive.”
    “Let’s start with buying the wine,” said J-J. Bruno drove the short distance to the
cave
of Hubert de Montignac, a legendary place that sold individual bottles of wine for as much as three thousand euros but also dispensed local wine for little more than one euro a bottle from giant vats at the back of the store. Hubert himself came out from behind the counter to greet Bruno and usher the two men into his office that also served as a private tasting room.
    “What’s the matter with you?” asked Nathalie, rising from her desk and offering her cheeks to be kissed. “You’re limping.”
    “Rugby,” Bruno explained and made the introductions.“You’ll be seeing Hubert at dinner tonight, so you should take his advice on what to bring,” he told J-J.
    “Hercule loved his St. Emilion, and Château Angélus most of all,”