The Resistance Man (Bruno Chief of Police 6)

along.’
    ‘He’s my secret weapon. Murcoing likes dogs.’ Bruno looked around the study. ‘It looks like you’ve done this sort of thing before.’
    As soon as he was out of sight of Pamela’s house, Bruno had called Crimson and suggested that he reply to Paul by saying he had no intention of giving the documents to the press. He wanted to deal only with someone who was personally known to and trusted by Fullerton. Otherwise he’d return to England and forget the whole thing. Crimson had agreed and sent the email.
    ‘Florence is teaching but she wants to drop by after school. She’s arranged babysitters,’ Crimson said. ‘Now we just wait.’
    ‘Not quite,’ said Bruno. ‘If you can find a screwdriver we could put that dining table of yours back together.’
    It took them twenty minutes and would have taken longer but for J-J’s arrival with Josette, who explained that she and her husband had just furnished their new house from IKEA and so she knew about putting furniture together. She added that she loved dogs and Balzac was the friendliest little charmer she’d seen in years, which sent her soaring in Bruno’s estimation. She took off her jacket, rolled up her sleeves and took charge. Crimson excused himself to make more coffee. When he returned with a tray, the table was assembled.
    ‘Well done, we can spread out the other maps now,’ he said, gingerly resting the tray on it as if unsure of Josette’s skills.
    ‘Don’t worry, Monsieur. I sat on it to be sure I’d done it right.’
    ‘Before we start on today’s operation, I have some interesting news,’ said J-J. ‘When Josette looked at Edouard’s mail, she found a letter from the traffic police. His Jaguar was caught by a speed camera on the autoroute from Périgueux to Bordeaux just after eight on the evening of Fullerton’s murder.’
    ‘That means he was there,’ said Bruno.
    ‘He was certainly in the general vicinity. And the
juge d’instruction
shares your suspicions, but Edouard now has a lawyer and he’s not saying a word.’
    ‘
Putain
, I was sure you’d broken him yesterday.’
    ‘Me too, but it seems we were wrong. I’ll get back to him when this is over. Now listen carefully because I have something I’m required to say,’ said J-J. ‘This is not an officially sanctioned operation. You are doing this at your own risk and I know nothing about it, understood?’
    ‘Yes, I understand.’
    ‘Here’s a slim-line flak vest, not the latest model but it will stop a handgun. We’ve changed the number plates on your car so it looks like it was hired in Paris,’ J-J went on. ‘And here are the shoes.’ He handed over a pair of black hiking boots. ‘The tracker’s in the heel and Josette has the monitor. We’ll need to be no more than two or three kilometres away for it to work, so keep me informed by phone of where you are. Inspector Jofflin has a second car waiting outside Bergerac with another monitor.’
    ‘Any support?’ Crimson asked.
    ‘Somebody owes me a favour, so a team of
Gendarmes Mobiles
will be doing an anti-terrorist training exercise with live weapons and a helicopter at the Golfech nuclear power plant near Agen. They’re about eighty kilometres away, say thirty minutes, but give me some notice and I’ll have them moved closer. They’ve been informally briefed and we’re on the same communications net.’
    Bruno nodded, and inquired innocently: ‘The favour would be the Brigadier?’
    ‘Don’t ask. And here’s a wire for each of you so we knowwhat you’re saying if you can’t use the phones. It goes under your clothes and we have to attach the transmitter to your backs with tape, so get your shirts off. It’s very short-distance, maybe three hundred metres if we’re lucky.’
    Bruno and Crimson began to strip. J-J waited until they were taped, the system tested and Bruno had the flak vest under his shirt.
    ‘And here’s the gun I want you to use.’ He put his foot up on a chair and drew up his trouser leg to reveal an ankle holster in black webbing and Velcro and drew out the gun.
    ‘It’s a Smith & Wesson Centennial Airweight, designed for this holster. It’s an American thirty-eight, which is pretty much the same as our nine-millimetre. It’s a revolver because it’s less likely to get jammed by sock lint or any kind of debris you pick up walking through rough ground. And I want it back.’
    ‘I don’t want to carry a gun.’
    ‘Take it, and don’t be a