The Resistance Man (Bruno Chief of Police 6)

if you trifle with her, you’ll have me to deal with and you’ll wish you were back in Sarajevo.’
    ‘Trifling is not what I had in mind, Bruno, not with Fabiola. I’m serious about her, in fact I’m smitten.’
    ‘She’s a serious woman and she’s also the best doctor we’ve ever had in this town, so don’t even think about trying to lure her away. Meanwhile, tell me about the reaction to your Neuvic article.’
    ‘A couple of deputies have called for a parliamentary inquiry, the Banque de France is under pressure to hold a press conference and the Socialists have issued a statement denying that they got any of the money.’
    ‘Never believe anything until it’s been officially denied,’ Bruno said with a chuckle.
    ‘But something else has come up you ought to know about. I’ve had an email from Paul Murcoing. It came through on myphone just now as I was coming into the
Mairie
, and there’s a big document attached. Can we get out of this crowd and find a quiet place to read it?’
    Bruno led the way back to his office, noting with approval that Gilles managed to pick up two full glasses as he ducked and darted through the thickening crowd. He turned on his own computer and gestured for Gilles to take the chair and use the big screen to read whatever Paul had sent.
    It began with an email, sent to the electronic address listed for Gilles on the
Paris Match
website, congratulating him for ‘bringing this scandal from the shadows of our history into the light of day’. But he’d only scratched the surface of the story, Paul went on, and the real truth had yet to emerge. Gilles clicked on the attachment to open the document.
    ‘
J’accuse
,’ read the title page, a cliché in French political journalism since Emile Zola had used it on the front page of
L’Aurore
to condemn the miscarriage of justice in the Dreyfus case.
    ‘I accuse André Malraux of theft from the people of France … I accuse the British government of using their influence over the Resistance to manipulate French politics in their own interests … I accuse the government of the United States … I accuse De Gaulle … I accuse François Mitterrand …’ And on and on it went, some of it taken wholesale from the rants he had posted on the Resistance history websites, some of it about his grandfather. And the attack on British intelligence contained a scan of the concocted document Bruno had seen on Crimson’s iPad the previous evening.
    ‘In the old days before the Internet,’ said Gilles, ‘this sort of stuff used to be written in green ink with lots of underliningsand capital letters and usually finished up claiming they were being bugged through the fillings in their teeth. Except this British document looks new. Is this for real?’
    Bruno made a quick decision. You either trusted a man or you didn’t. ‘No, it’s a fake,’ he said. ‘It was cooked up and sent to him to smoke him out. It looks like Paul’s taking the bait.’
    ‘
Putain
, this story gets better and better and
Paris Match
is at the heart of it. Dead Resistance hero, gay grandson on the run for murder, British spymaster faking documents to help French cops capture him, all this and a conspiracy theory around the great train robbery. And he’s got his sister with him. You couldn’t make it up.’
    ‘Are you planning to use some of this?’ Bruno asked, a little nervous at the prospect of a media circus.
    ‘You bet I am. This is a manhunt story made for the Internet age – and I’m in touch with the target. I’ll send out a tweet that he’s reached me and then do something for the website, but first I have to call Paris and brief them.’
    ‘Just don’t say anything about the document being faked. And make me a couple of printouts of that rant of his while you’re sitting there. I’d better find Crimson.’
    He pulled J-J out of the party and took him onto the balcony outside the Mayor’s office to brief him and give him one of the printouts.
    ‘It was all your idea, J-J,’ Bruno explained. ‘You were the one who asked if we could set a trap for Murcoing. He didn’t show for the funeral but he’s biting at this. We need to find out where this computer is that he used to email Gilles, but I’m betting he’s still in France and that camper van with the Dutch plates was just a ruse.’
    ‘You haven’t thought this through,’ J-J replied, looking cross. ‘So he gets in touch with Crimson. What then?’
    ‘Then I go to