The Resistance Man (Bruno Chief of Police 6)

Fabiola will be there to keep an eye on me. But why the uniform? Isn’t today your day off?’
    ‘Something came up on this murder case so I had to go to Bergerac and look official.’ He placed the flowers in the vase and turned back to her.
    ‘Bruno, really, you can’t just dump them in like that,’ she said in mock reproof. ‘Bring the vase to me and hold it while I arrange them. Honestly, you men have no idea.’ She began with her good hand to arrange the mixed red and white roses, making him strip some leaves and bend some of the stems to change their height. ‘At least I can afford to buy a new horse now, thanks to my mother’s will. That’s something to look forward to.’
    ‘Make sure it has a rabbit-hole detector.’ He was pleased to hear her sounding so normal and looking so much better than he’d expected. Fabiola must have brought in some make-up and the pretty white nightgown that he recognized. The newspaper was probably her idea, too.
    ‘I hope these are tough enough for you.’ Bruno laid on the bed beside her a booklet of Sudoku puzzles. Normally she raced through them almost as quickly as she could fill in the numbers.
    ‘Lovely, such a treat, but now I want to hear all about the murder case. Have you traced Murcoing yet?’
    No, but he now knew a lot more about the young man, and he explained his findings in Bergerac and the Arch-Inter connection.
    ‘So who would have sent the photo to Murcoing of his lover kissing Yves? Who might have had an interest in driving him into a fit of jealous rage? And who would benefit from Fullerton’s death? It’s obvious, it must be the brother. He stands to inherit, after all.’
    Bruno shook his head. ‘Brian says his brother’s will leaves everything to Brian’s kids, to be held in trust. He may be lying but we can check that through the British police. Now they have a death certificate there’s no reason for the will to be secret. If Brian is lying about the will, then obviously he becomes the main suspect. But how would Brian or anybody else have known that Paul would be driven to kill just by that photograph? He doesn’t strike me as a man so concerned with sexual fidelity that he’d murder a lover who cheated on him. And we might never have known about the Corrèze farm if Brian hadn’t told us. It doesn’t hang together.’
    She nodded. ‘How certain are you that Murcoing is the killer?’
    He shrugged. ‘We can place him at the murder scene at about the relevant time, but mainly it’s because he’s gone on the run. That always feeds suspicion. He had a romantic motive and maybe also a financial one, if he thought Fullerton was cheating him. Certainly Fullerton had a lot of money and Paul seems to have been getting very little.’
    Not wanting interruption, he’d switched both his phones to vibrate that morning before going to see Joséphine. The second, private one vibrated now. He glanced at the screen, recognized the number that was calling and said: ‘I have to take this.’ He excused himself, heading into the corridor and out of earshot as he answered Isabelle.
    ‘Have you seen the
Paris Match
website?’ she began, her voice neutral rather than angry. ‘Your friend Gilles is making news again.’
    ‘I haven’t seen it but I think I know what it’s about.’
    ‘The Brigadier knows you’re behind it. And there’s a rumour that there’s something coming in
Le Monde
.’
    ‘I don’t understand why he thinks I’m involved. Gilles talked directly to Jacqueline Morgan. Her book is finished and she’s looking for publicity. I know she’s written something for
Le Monde
but it’s up to them to decide what to do with it.’
    ‘Don’t be coy, Bruno, not with me. And I don’t care whether her story runs or not, but there are aspects of this that you don’t know. Can we meet?’
    ‘Did the Brigadier tell you about the difference of opinion between him and me at our last meeting?’
    ‘Yes, and that’s partly what I want to talk about.’
    ‘Where are you?’
    ‘I’m in Périgueux. It needs to be discreet, so can I come to your place?’
    Bruno checked his watch. ‘Alright, let’s say five this afternoon.’
    They rang off and he went back to Pamela, who greeted him with a question. ‘Are you absolutely certain that your corpse is the man you think it is? The head has been destroyed so how did the brother identify him?’
    ‘They’re doing a DNA test and the usual fingerprints. He’d served a prison