The Resistance Man (Bruno Chief of Police 6)

and Yveline were side by side at the desk normally used by the duty officer and going through the file of her researches.
    ‘Valentoux lied about being in his apartment that evening,’ she said, flashing him a triumphant smile. ‘I checked his land-line records with France Télécom and he got two calls that he didn’t answer. I rang the number and it was an actress he knew. She wanted him to engage her for the festival here. And he didn’t reply, so it looks as if he wasn’t home.’
    Bruno nodded. ‘Sounds like good work on your part. What does he say about the disposable phone he bought?’
    ‘He hasn’t said anything to us. He said he’d wait until he spoke to the magistrate.’
    ‘What was the timing on those two phone calls?’
    ‘The first was seven twenty, the second at seven twenty-four,’ she replied.
    ‘So he could have slipped out to buy a paper or some cigarettes, something so routine it could have slipped his mind.’
    ‘It’s possible,’ J-J said. ‘But when he’s being questioned for murder, I think he’d have remembered. And then there’s the disposable phone. Anyway, it’s up to Ardouin now. I’ve ordered some pizzas, I think it could be a long night.’
    J-J pushed the file across to Bruno and he scanned through the coordinates for the cellphone tracking. The scan had started at noon on the day of the murder and the first location was Villejuif, just south of Paris, and then the phone had followed the Aquitaine autoroute through Orléans and Limoges. The tracking had stopped at six in the evening when the location was St Denis.
    ‘Do we have any more data for before noon and after six?’ Bruno asked. ‘And were any calls made or received on the phone?’
    ‘I just picked those as the relevant times,’ Yveline replied.‘There were a couple of calls, one to a St Denis number and the other to a disposable phone somewhere in Bergerac, but we don’t know who owns it. I’ve asked France Télécom to let us have the records of the number, so at least we should learn something, but they can’t do that until Monday.’
    ‘Do we know whom he rang in St Denis?’
    ‘Delightful Dordogne, a rental agency. That’s all we’ve got.’
    Bruno asked himself why would Yves be calling Dougal’s agency when Fullerton had been making the arrangements.
    ‘Can we get some more tracking on the phone, before noon and after six?’ he asked.
    ‘What’s the point?’
    ‘If Valentoux was the killer, we need to know how he faked his alibi with the autoroute tolls. The phone tracking could tell us that.’
    ‘That makes sense,’ said J-J and asked Yveline to see to it. The pizzas arrived as she was on the line to France Télécom and Bruno took some slices in to Ardouin and Yves, who looked relieved to see him.
    ‘Monsieur Valentoux says he bought the disposable phone when shopping for groceries with his friend Fullerton when they were together in Paris,’ Ardouin said. ‘It seems Fullerton had wanted one because he didn’t want to pay the roaming charges on his English one. Did you find any such phone among his possessions or in his van?’
    ‘No, sir. But we didn’t know we should be looking for one specially.’
    ‘Monsieur Valentoux also insists he was home on the evening in question but might have gone out briefly to buy cigarettes at a local
tabac
on the Avenue Moreau, where he says theyknow him,’ Ardouin continued. ‘They may be able to confirm this. Could you call them, please, and check?’
    ‘It’s called the Café Moreau,’ Yves added. ‘I always buy my cigarettes there.’
    Bruno went out and called directory inquiries and then the café. A woman answered and he introduced himself and explained his business.
    ‘I remember Yves bought a lottery ticket early in the week because he said he was leaving Paris the next day. That was why he bought a couple of extra packs for the journey,’ the woman said. ‘But I can’t remember whether it was Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday. If he still has his ticket, it should give the date and time. They’ll be drawing in a few minutes, that’s why we’ve got the TV on.’
    Bruno thanked her, put the phone down and knocked on the interview room door. Ardouin told him to enter and Bruno asked Yves if he still had his lottery ticket. He opened his wallet and handed Bruno the ticket.
    ‘Purchased at Café Moreau in Paris on the third, that’s Tuesday evening, at seven twenty-four,’ Bruno read aloud. He scribbled down the