The Resistance Man (Bruno Chief of Police 6)

journey to Sarlat when Bruno’s phone rang, and J-J’s gruff voice told him that new evidence had emerged. Yves Valentoux would be arrested that evening for questioning.
    ‘It looks bad.’ J-J went on. ‘Yveline has evidence that he wasn’t at home in Paris all evening, like he said. And she went through all his credit-card statements and then through the individual bills. He bought a disposable phone about six weeks ago which we’ve tracked moving down here from Paris on the day that Fullerton was killed. It’s as if the guy was being followed as he drove down here.’
    ‘How do we know it was Valentoux’s phone?’
    ‘It’s on his credit card. He bought it at a Leclerc when he was doing his groceries. At the same time he put twenty euros onto it prepaid, so we were able to identify the SIM card.’
    ‘What does he say?’
    ‘I haven’t spoken to him yet. I’m on my way to Sarlat to arrest him. I cleared it with the magistrate. Ardouin will join me at the police station. I thought you might want to be there.’
    Bruno explained to Jacqueline and the Mayor and then rang Annette.
    ‘I know about it,’ she said as soon as she answered. ‘Ardouin just rang me. So much for our happy dinner party.’
    ‘Does Yves know?’
    ‘Yes. He’s sitting beside me, shattered. He’s agreed to go to the station and I’ll go with him. All we know is there is supposed to be new evidence. Will I see you here?’
    ‘Yes, J-J invited me to the station. They can’t keep you on the case, not now you’re sharing a house, and obviously I can’t talk about the new evidence. But I’m sure you can find him a good lawyer. I’ll stay in touch.’
    Bruno rang off and called first Pamela and then Gilles to explain, and felt relieved when Gilles offered to take Pamela and Fabiola to dinner instead. Driving to Sarlat, he welcomed the time to himself as he drove, time to consider just how little he really knew of Yves. Bruno knew that he was a skilled actor, able to perform and entertain at a dinner table within a day of finding his lover’s body. He had abundant charm, and Bruno and his friends had all warmed to him. Bruno had been touched when Yves showed him the photograph of his daughter, but could that have been a theatrical ploy to secure his sympathy?
    He would have to wait until he saw the details of the new evidence. And there would be questions to answer. If Yves had driven down with his disposable phone, it was clear from the distance counter he hadn’t used his own car. What transport had he used? Could he have driven down earlier, parked at a station and then used the trains to get back and provide himself with an alibi from the motorway tolls? He tried to remember exactly what Yves had said about the evening he spent at his apartment in Paris. And if he had followedFullerton down to the Périgord and killed him then he’d have needed to clean up and change. Where had he done that? The forensics guys were sure nobody had stayed at the
gîte
since Dougal’s people had cleaned it.
    As he navigated the series of roundabouts that led into Sarlat, Bruno concluded that the crucial point was that if Yves had not been at home in Paris when Fullerton was killed, then he’d been lying. That need not mean he was the killer but it made him into a top suspect along with Paul Murcoing. Could they have somehow been in it together?
    Bruno usually enjoyed being in Sarlat, a town where he half-expected to walk into a film crew making yet another version of
The Three Musketeers
. The set designers might need to tidy up a few shop fronts and remove the chairs from a few café terraces, but otherwise they wouldn’t have to change a thing. The town had been preserved as if in aspic since the sixteenth century, a glorious jumble of medieval houses and narrow alleyways, dark tunnels and grand Renaissance town houses, all built around a monastery and an abbey that dated back to Charlemagne’s time. Now the capital of the Périgord Noir and one of the most visited towns in France, Bruno never tired of wandering its cobbled streets on those evenings when he made the journey to its cinemas with Pamela and Fabiola. Like Annette, they were passionate about film and Annette’s decision to settle in the centre of the old town had made their own visits more frequent.
    This was a more sombre visit, and when Bruno arrived at the town’s
sous-Préfecture
, which housed the Commissariat of Police, Ardouin was already questioning Yves. J-J