Black Diamond

a thread of cynicism running through it. “You taught me everything else,” he said, already at the door that led out to the parking lot. “I have to go.”
    “And I have to stay, and make a speech of thanks to Pons. That’s politics, too.”
    Bruno put his head around the door. “The new science teacher at the college, her name’s Florence and she has two toddlers. I brought her over from Ste. Alvère but she’ll need a ride back.”
    “Is she the blonde who was wiping chocolate off your face?”
    “That’s her.”
    “Consider it done. If she’s moving here she’s a new voter, so I’ll drive her myself.”
    “She might represent a vote for the other side. She’s teaching environmental science, so I guess she’s a Green.”
    “So am I,” said the mayor. “When I have to be.”

25
    Didier was sprawled on the floor behind his desk, his legs still entangled in the chair. Inspecteur Jofflin from Bergerac was bending over the body. He squinted at the inside of the ring he had removed from Didier’s hand. “Didier—Annette” was engraved upon it.
    “Is that a Rolex he’s wearing?” Bruno asked. “They cost a fortune.”
    “Rolex Oyster Perpetual,” said Jofflin. “About five thousand euros. And his name’s engraved on the back.”
    “The bastard,” said the mayor of Ste. Alvère, his eyes squinting against the smoke from the Disque Bleu hanging from his lip. “That was the town’s money.”
    “He left no note?” asked Bruno.
    Jofflin went to the desk and handed him a piece of notepaper inside a plastic bag. “Just this.”
    Bruno glanced at the three words, and read them out:
“Je regrette tout.”
The mayor snorted.
    “And these were in the wastebasket.” Jofflin pointed to a not-yet-crumbled mass of burned paper inside another evidence bag. It looked as if it had been glossy. “I think they werephotos. Maybe the forensics boys can get something from them. They’re on their way.”
    “Has his wife been told?” Bruno asked.
    “My wife is with her,” said the mayor. “She knows.”
    “About the fraud?” Bruno asked. He felt a great weight of responsibility creeping over him.
    “Not yet,” said the mayor. “Just the suicide.”
    “The mayor showed me your findings,” said Jofflin. “Would that be enough to make him blow his head off?”
    “He’d have been going to prison,” said the mayor, about to stub out his cigarette in the wastebasket. Jofflin put out an arm to stop him, took the stub from the mayor’s fingers, opened the window and tossed it outside.
    “Mustn’t pollute a crime scene, sir,” Jofflin said with a polite smile. This young man would go far, thought Bruno.
    “Sorry,” said the mayor, lighting another cigarette. “I wasn’t thinking. But yes, we’d have made sure he went to prison, and I made that clear when I spoke to him. I called him in soon after you left, Bruno, once I’d looked at the logbooks and verified the notes you gave me. I kept Nicco here as a witness.”
    “It was Alain’s statement that got to him,” Nicco said. “He broke down, said he’d been waiting for this to happen and was very sorry. I took some notes because it sounded to me like a confession. Then he said something about being under a lot of pressure and wanting to call a lawyer. We let him go, and about ten minutes later we heard the shot. I’m pretty sure I recognize it as Didier’s shotgun, a Manufrance.”
    “It seems strange that he would have kept it in his office,” Bruno said. “And the ammo as well.”
    “Probably kept it locked in the trunk of his car,” said Nicco. “A lot of people do.”
    “Have you searched his car, and the desk?” Bruno asked, as the front bell sounded and a SUV could be heard pulling up outside.
    “We’ll leave that for the forensics team. That’s probably them now,” said Jofflin.
    But it was Bruno’s boss, the mayor of St. Denis, coming to offer condolences and ask for a word with Bruno. Behind him the forensics team began to clamber out of their vehicle.
    “I’d better take a statement from each of you, but I’d rather not do it here,” said Jofflin.
    “We can use my office,” said the mayor of Ste. Alvère, crumpling an empty cigarette packet and casting a last glance at Didier’s body. “I’ve got some more smokes in there.”
    “Our new science teacher and her children are home safe and sound, but she gave me a real interrogation about you and Pamela on the way back,” Mayor Mangin said as they