The Resistance Man (Bruno Chief of Police 6)

a pleasant change to go there without going to the hospital. She’ll be here shortly. We can have a drink before we head over there.’
    Bruno took a deep breath and asked: ‘How’s Cécile?’
    ‘Asleep in a morphine dream. Her hand twitched when I held it. We grew these plants from seedlings, and now she won’t live to eat them. I’ve accepted that. What’s the matter with you?’
    Bruno recounted his conversation with the Brigadier.
    ‘I wish I could identify for you one election when nobody in the state apparatus tried to put his thumb on the scales,’ the Mayor said. ‘It’s what they do, part of the price we have to pay for the existence of an intelligence service. We expect them to keep us safe from terrorists, but we’ve never been very good at defining the lines they should not cross.’
    The Mayor walked back to the tap on the side of the house, turned it off and wound the hose into neat loops. ‘You know what I mean, Bruno, you cross a few lines yourself from time to time and so do I. It’s an imperfect world so it comes down to personal judgement. I let you get away with a few things because on the whole I trust your instincts and your motives. It’s for you to decide how far you trust the Brigadier.’
    ‘I’m not sure there’s anything I can do,’ Bruno said. ‘I thought I was doing the right thing in advising Jacqueline to release a summary of her work, so at least she keeps control of it and it doesn’t get suppressed. But now it turns out that’s what the Brigadier wanted all along.’
    ‘Not quite. The Brigadier wants it released. So do you and so does Jacqueline. But if you’re worried that the Brigadier wants a wave of heated headlines to emerge like a bombshell in the final days of the campaign, you don’t have to let him get away with that. Ah, there she is now.’
    The white BMW pulled into the drive and Jacqueline stepped out. She was wearing high heels again and a silk dress in pale green. She kissed the Mayor on the lips and hugged him briefly before turning to Bruno and offering her cheek.
    ‘I took your advice,’ she said to Bruno, and pulled two folded pages of typescript from her bag. ‘Here’s a first draft of an article I’m thinking of sending to
Le Monde
.’
    Bruno read out loud. ‘Recently declassified documents from American archives suggest that US-European nuclear cooperation went further than has been hitherto believed and that like Britain, France’s development of missiles and nuclear weapons benefited from the discreet sharing of US technology …’
    ‘It reads like
Le Monde
,’ he said, handing it to the Mayor, who skimmed it quickly.
    ‘Those who know will understand the significance of this, and those who don’t will probably not get past the first paragraph,’ the Mayor said. ‘Perfect; it’s all there but not sensationalized.’ He gestured to the table on the terrace where a bowl of olives and another of nuts awaited, and invited his guests to sit before he went into the kitchen and returned with a tray bearing three champagne flutes and a half-bottle of champagne.
    ‘Just enough to wet our lips before we head for Sarlat,’ he said, and turned to Bruno as he opened the bottle. ‘I hope you’re not planning to go in uniform.’
    ‘I’ve got a jacket in the van. I’ll look like a boringly dressed civilian.’
    ‘Talking of wetting our lips,’ said Jacqueline, ‘I was thinking about Bruno’s friend at
Paris Match
. It might be a good idea to have him run a small item first, a teaser to whet
Le Monde
’s appetite. In my limited experience of the media, they seem all the more interested when they know a rival publication is sniffing after the same story. Would your friend be amenable to that?’
    ‘He might be, if we pitch it the right way,’ Bruno said, raising his glass to her. ‘You may have to succumb to the
Paris Match
treatment, a flattering photo and an interview with the glamorous historian who straddles two continents.’
    ‘That doesn’t sound too bad.’
    ‘That’s not all. You can expect quite a lot about your past, May ’68, Vietnam protests, SDS, radical feminist, Greenham Common.’
    The Mayor raised his eyebrows and Jacqueline gave him a sharp look. ‘You’ve been doing your homework.’
    ‘Not at all,’ Bruno replied. ‘It was just read out to me from an Interior Ministry file on you that’s currently sitting in the Gendarmerie.’

18
    They were climbing into Jacqueline’s car for the