The Resistance Man (Bruno Chief of Police 6)

replaced the monkey on top of the computer and glared from one man to the other. ‘Well?’ she demanded. ‘It’s not going to work, is it?’
    J-J cleared his throat and said: ‘She’s got a point, Bruno. We’d have to bring in the
juge
.’
    ‘What about sending out singles in plain clothes, dressed like ramblers, with a pair of binoculars to see if they see any movement or spot the camper van?’
    ‘They’d be fools to move round outside,’ said J-J. ‘I’m not sending anybody poking around in range of the houses because this guy is armed and dangerous. What we need is to set some kind of trap, something that would tempt him out. Still, I like the idea of taking a careful look at these places. You’re the local man, Bruno, get me some big maps and mark down each house, see if you can locate a likely place nearby where you could stay in cover and watch. Meanwhile, Yveline and I will have a look at the laptop.’
    ‘Leave it with me,’ said Bruno, an idea forming in his head of a way to take a discreet look at each of the houses without needing the elite
Mobiles
squads from the Gendarmes. Armed to the teeth and encased in body armour, they were trained for terrorist and hostage situations; they’d blunder all over an unfamiliar countryside. It was hunting season, when men with guns and a sense of fieldcraft were a common sight around the woods and farms of the region. He began making a mental list of the friends he could trust enough to call out on a job like this.
    ‘I’ve got to do a report for the
Procureur
on that burglary yesterday, the one with the American coffee pot,’ Yveline said, giving Bruno a suspicious look. ‘I don’t suppose you’d know why his office seems to be taking a special interest in it.’
    It was on the tip of his tongue to respond with a sharp comment that it was because whoever broke in used the samemethod as the Crimson burglary. He restrained himself. She was a young woman, nervous at this first job in command, and she was evidently under strain. Older and wiser people had helped him when he was making the inevitable mistakes that came with lack of experience. He should do the same for her.
    ‘Maybe it’s just that they’ve heard of this famous American, Paul Revere,’ he replied from the doorway. ‘I’m off to pick up a sheaf of maps from my office. If you want some advice from a village copper, I’d get ready for a few calls from the local papers about the value of this coffee pot.’

20
    Hector picked his way down the steep bridle trail through the woods until Bruno reined his horse in at a place where there was a break in the trees and he had a clear view of the isolated house below. For once the binoculars case was being used for its proper purpose rather than as a way to carry Balzac while on horseback. He took out the heavy Second World War binoculars that had belonged to Pamela’s father and brought the house into focus. The shutters were all closed, the cover was still on the swimming pool and there was no sign of heat from the chimney. A tarpaulin was snugly tied down on the wood-pile, covered in last autumn’s leaves and bird droppings. There was a barn, but its door was too low to take a camper van. He scratched it off his list.
    ‘It’s empty,’ he said to Pamela, settling his shotgun back more comfortably on its strap around his shoulder. He was dressed as a hunter: camouflage jacket and brown trousers and a brown woollen cap instead of the usual riding helmet. If he had to dismount and search on foot, he had to look the part. ‘Give me a moment to check with the others.’
    He pulled out his phone to scroll through the text messages. There was one from the Baron to say that the first house he’d been assigned was certainly empty, and similar ones fromStéphane, Maurice and Raoul. Bruno had been confident that his friends, experienced hunters who had tramped over these valleys for years and knew each fold of ground, would be the most natural and least obtrusive way of checking the rental homes on Dougal’s list. He acknowledged each message and sent a query to the other hunters about their progress.
    He knew this was a long shot. There were many rentals not on Dougal’s list, and Paul Murcoing might be smart enough to have worked out that the police would make the connection between his sister and Dougal’s spreadsheet. But at least Bruno felt he was doing something positive in this increasingly frustrating hunt for Fullerton’s