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

Marie-Françoise
,’ she called back. ‘
Non tirez
, don’t shoot.’
    ‘Is it you only?’ he called, his gun pointing at the shape in the tunnel across the lake that was waving an arm. His eyes swept left and right, scanning the lump in the lake for movement. It splashed, feebly.
    ‘
Oui, oui
, alone,’ came the girl’s voice. It sounded strained and he heard a cry. She spoke again, ‘
Je suis seule.
’
    ‘Not move,’ he shouted, not knowing whether to believe her.
Merde
, but that other shot had sounded different and the flare of it had felt different, as if it came from a different place.
    There was only one way to find out if there was a second shooter. He rose fast to his full height, turned on his torch and then dived hard to his left, landing on the torch to smother the light as a shot came. Then a second.
    He turned the light off as the girl screamed and two more shots came from behind him, J-J’s revolver.
Putain.
Bruno rolled back and swept his legs like a scythe, sweeping J-J’s feet from under him. ‘Stay down,’ he shouted over J-J’s curses and rolled back.
    He closed his eyes and thought it through. He had two options. He could get J-J to blast fire across at the tunnel while he sprinted over the causeway, dropped and fired from the side, catching the shooter in a crossfire. That would work but it would probably kill the girl. Or he could creep into the water and try to use the floating body for cover. But he didn’t know how deep it was. If he had to swim one-handed he’d splash and be an easy target. And he’d still have to try not to shoot the girl.
    The third option was to wait, to send J-J back up the tunnel to the chapel and then get the
Mobiles
to come in from the other end. J-J could come back down the tunnel with a couple of gas masks and they could throw in the tear gas. That should work but it would take an hour or two. And whoever it was in the lake would die of hypothermia even if they hadn’t bled to death. There were no good choices.
    He heard the sound of scuffling from across the lake followed by a muffled shout from the girl and then two fast shots. In the flashes he saw two figures struggling. That made five shots fired by the second shooter, he told himself as oneof the figures jumped or fell into the lake. There was another shot, that made six, and Bruno heard another scream, muffled by splashing and then footsteps running away.
    He fired twice into the tunnel across the lake, shouted to J-J to stay back, turned on his torch and ran at a crouch across the causeway, firing two more shots into the tunnel. That made eight shots he’d fired, seven left. Now he was spread-eagled at the mouth of the tunnel that led to the Gouffre, shining the beam of light down its emptiness. He called back to J-J to get the girl out of the lake and see how badly she was shot.
    Bruno stayed on watch, telling J-J how to cross the narrow causeway. Then he heard Sergeant Jules calling his name.
    ‘This is Bruno, I’m fine and it’s clear to advance,’ he shouted back, thinking how Jules must have groped his way in darkness along the length of the pipeline when he heard the gunshots, not knowing what he’d find.
    ‘Help Jules over the causeway and he can replace me on guard,’ he said to J-J, who was knee-deep in the lake and reaching for the girl.
    ‘I’ve got her.’ J-J hauled her ashore. She was spluttering and choking but at least she was alive.
    ‘Pull her out of the line of fire,’ Bruno said. ‘Over there to my right. Then guide Jules across.’
    Jules came along the causeway, dragging a floating body. The current must have taken it to the rim. Once Jules replaced him at the tunnel entrance, Bruno flashed the torch onto the face. It was the Count. Bruno checked the neck for a pulse. It was feeble, but it was there.
    ‘How’s the girl?’ he asked J-J.
    ‘I can’t see and she won’t tell me.’ The girl was sobbing and gulping, close to hysterics.
    ‘Wait,’ said Bruno, and went to the small cave that Isabelle had shown him and came back with the candleholder and the lighter. Once he had the first candle alight he brought more and soon the cavern was bright.
    ‘Get the wet clothes off them or they’ll get hypothermia,’ he said, starting to strip the Count. He had one wound in his knee and a second high on his chest. There was a big exit wound at the back but the icy lake had slowed the bleeding. Bruno stuffed the hole with the Count’s shirt, wrung out his