The Devil's Cave: A Bruno Courrèges Investigation (Bruno Chief of Police 5)

’
    When he rang off he looked at Bruno. ‘It seems there’s a small private airport called Souge, a few kilometres west of the main Bordeaux airport. That’s where he landed and he took off again about thirty minutes ago. He could be here in ten or fifteen minutes.’
    ‘His usual heliport is at the hotel,’ Bruno said. ‘But there are police all over it. If he decides to land here, do you think he’ll do so with a Gendarmerie van in the courtyard?’
    ‘See if you can move it under cover. Do you think he’s likely to be armed?’ J-J pulled his Manurhin revolver from a hip holster and checked the rounds. ‘What about you and Sergeant Jules?’
    ‘Jules has his standard PAMAS handgun. I’m unarmed.’
    J-J raised his eyebrows and shrugged. ‘The last thing we want is a hostage situation.’
    ‘I’ll move the van.’ On the way out to the van Bruno asked Jules to look around for an envelope or message that the Count might have left for his grandmother or for Foucher. The keys of the van were in the ignition and he drove it out of the courtyard and round to the stables, where he found a barn half full of hay that was big enough to take it. He looked around the stables but could not see the white mare Eugénie had ridden, nor any sign of a groom. In a cupboard in the tack room he found a large syringe, too big for his standard evidence bag. He used two bags and took it to show Fabiola.
    Back in the hospital room J-J was taking notes as he listened on his phone, and Fabiola was poring over the logbook onthe nurse’s table. He put the syringe on the desk beside her and her eyes widened. J-J beckoned him across and asked whoever was on the phone to wait.
    ‘I’ve got Inspector Jofflin on the line,’ J-J said, beaming satisfaction. ‘The search at the hotel has got a result. They’ve identified microscopic drops of Junot’s blood in the back of that truck you found. They’ve also found Junot’s blood spots on some shoes in the room of Richard Abouard, so we’re putting out an arrest warrant for murder. Computer enhancement on the video from the
déchetterie
shows that Abouard was one of the two men there. And as a nice bonus, they found over a hundred grams of coke in Abouard’s room, along with his Lebanese diplomatic passport.’
    ‘My bet is that Foucher was the other man at the
déchetterie
. We’ll need that forensic team to come here and search Foucher’s rooms once they’re finished at the hotel,’ said Bruno, taking out his new phone to call Isabelle.
    ‘Jofflin is asking why this Lebanese guy would be involved.’
    ‘He’s a partner in the Count’s investment company,’ Bruno said as Isabelle answered her phone. Quickly he told her of the results of the search at the hotel and the arrest warrant and the expected arrival of the Count’s helicopter. A thought struck him and he asked her to hold on. He turned to J-J. ‘Did he refuel at the little airport?’
    ‘I don’t know, why?’ asked J-J.
    ‘It’s nearly three hundred kilometres there and back. If he didn’t refuel at Bordeaux he might have no choice but to put down here.’
    J-J started dialling Bordeaux airport again and Bruno returnedto the conversation with Isabelle. ‘Did you hear all that?’
    ‘Yes, got it. The Brigadier wants to know if the evidence on Abouard for the murder is really certain.’
    ‘It’s forensic, blood on his shoes and a video of him dumping the plastic sheet the body was wrapped in.’
    ‘That should do. Get copies of the forensic report and the video to me as soon as you can. Good luck and let me know if there’s anything we can do from Paris.’
    ‘J-J already called up reinforcements from Périgueux, some of the lads from
la Jaune
,’ Bruno said, using the nickname for the
Gendarmes Mobiles
.
    ‘Right, wait one moment.’ Bruno heard another voice speaking in the background and then she came back on the line. ‘The Brigadier says he’s alerted a military chopper from the base at Bordeaux to follow him and keep track. I’ll let you know when they have him on radar.’ She rang off.
    Bruno went to the window, opened it the better to hear, and scanned the sky. J-J closed his phone. ‘He didn’t refuel,’ he said. ‘He boarded his chopper from an airport cab and a young woman was with him.’
    ‘So we know he’s got her but we don’t know how much he knows about what’s happening here, unless Foucher managed to reach him,’ said Bruno.
    ‘Foucher’s being kept at the