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

‘She’d have had a hell of a funeral and I’d have heard about it. The Party lovedher.
Merde
, I’d have gone up to Paris for that and we’d have had mourning on all the trains.’
    ‘De Gaulle called her a heroine of France, you remember?’ said the Mayor. ‘It was after she had that illegitimate child by some dead Resistance hero. Didn’t they make a film about her?’
    ‘It was called
The Red Countess
,’ said Louis Fouton, a retired schoolteacher who was the oldest man at the table. ‘I saw it when I was a boy and I remember a lot of misty close-ups and German soldiers shouting “
Achtung
” and “
Donner und Blitzen
” as we clever French ran rings round them. An escaped Russian prisoner-of-war played the hero. I remember the photos of the Red Countess in the Kremlin when she went for the Moscow premiere.’
    ‘She used to lead those demonstrations against our war in Indo-China back in the Fifties, and then she supported the Algerian independence movement,’ said the Mayor.
    ‘She never saw a national liberation movement she didn’t like,’ said Fouton, filling his old pipe. In respect for his age, he was the last person allowed to smoke inside the council chamber. ‘And she never saw a handsome man she didn’t appreciate.’
    ‘She’s a descendant, you know, of Madame de Montespan,’ Father Sentout said into the silence as the men around the table searched their memories for half-remembered stories that explained the Countess’s fame.
    ‘The Red Countess?’ scoffed Montsouris. ‘
Va t’en foutre.
’
    ‘No, she’s descended from Montespan and one of the illegitimate children of Louis XIV,’ the priest insisted. ‘I rememberlooking into it. The château was one of the gifts from the king after he took her back in defiance of the Church.’
    ‘If she’s still alive, where is she?’ the Mayor asked. ‘If she were living down here, I imagine we’d know about it.’
    ‘She’s mainly lived in Paris. There’s a younger sister who’s here from time to time,’ said Father Sentout. ‘I was called once to say Mass in the private family chapel. It’s an impressive place, a bit run down.’
    ‘I presume there’s a housekeeper, someone to answer the door when I make inquiries,’ Bruno said.
    ‘It’s not in our commune so I don’t know if they pay the
taxe d’habitation
but we can find out,’ said the Mayor. He stood up, signalling that the meeting was over. ‘And remember, gentlemen, this is a tragic suicide by a disturbed woman, probably under the influence of drugs, and we’ll have no more speculation about devil worship or long-dead royal mistresses, if you please.’

8
    Bruno usually took Hector on a different route for his evening ride. Today, almost without thinking, he found himself once again cantering into the long straight track through the heart of the forest in the hope of another encounter with the mysterious Eugénie. Even as the thought took shape, a familiar figure on a white horse emerged, silhouetted against the evening light, into the gap between the trees at the far end of the trail. He felt a boyish urge to impress, to gallop towards her and then haul Hector to a magnificent halt, up on his hind legs and neighing like a warhorse, front hoofs pawing at the air. Bruno repressed the temptation, reminding himself that he was not that good a horseman and he’d look ridiculous if he fell off. Instead, he kept the eager Hector to a stately trot, which gave him plenty of time to consider this meeting and his own motives.
    He found Eugénie to be a strikingly attractive woman. He was lonely, he told himself, and feeling bruised. Pamela had been away in Scotland this past month. Isabelle, the fiery police inspector, had such a grip upon him that she could entice him into her arms almost at whim. But she was back in Paris, on her fast-track career on the staff of the Ministerof the Interior. A wonderful summer and a love affair that seemed to consume them both had been followed by one truncated weekend together and then one solitary but passionate night.
    Why do I always fall for women who would never be satisfied with the simple life I offer? he asked himself. But Bruno knew his own nature well enough to supply the answer. The problem was not the women; it was him. The women who appealed to him were independent, ambitious and determined to build a life on their own terms. Family life and children were not high on their priorities, although Bruno felt them