Read Online The Critic by Peter May - Free Book Online

of the deceased. There was no way of accounting for all of those.’
    ‘So who’s the head of the
Ordre
?’
    ‘The president?’
    ‘Ah, yes, there’s always a
Monsieur le Président
, isn’t there?’
    ‘Why should I tell you?’
    ‘It’s not a secret, is it? I’ll find out anyway.’
    ‘So you will.’ Roussel kicked at a stone on the ground with one of his big, black boots. ‘His name’s Jean-Marc Josse, a winemaker at Mas Caussé near Cestayrols. He’s been running the show for a long time. A real character.’
    The sound of a door banging made them turn as a triumphant Michelle strode out of the
gendarmerie
waving a sheaf of papers. ‘I have the release forms, signed and sealed. A veritable Amazononian forest.’ She beamed at Enzo. ‘Thank you, Mister Macleod. Now all I have to do is go to somewhere in Albi to get the stuff.’
    ‘The TGI,’ Roussel said. ‘The Tribunal de Grande Instance in the Place du Palais. It’s a beautiful old building.’
    III.
    Nicole sat on the
terrasse
of the Grand Café des Sports at a plastic table under a yellow awning. The tables at the Brasserie Saint-Pierre next door were empty for the moment, waiting in silent anticipation for the
midi
rush. There were only a couple of other tables occupied at the Café des Sports, a disabled man in a high wheelchair, and two farmers in from the country, greasy overalls and cloth caps and big fingers holding small glasses of red wine. Nicole’s car was lined up among the others in the shade of the trees in the Place de la Libération, where old men sat on benches watching the traffic and sucking on nicotine-stained, hand-rolled cigarettes held precariously between dried lips. On the far side of the square a young girl was setting tables on the pavement outside the Cassis restaurant where lotus eaters from England gathered to exercise their native tongue and complain about the French. A brown puppy with a huge head and big paws was flapping up and down the pavement, playfully chasing passers-by.
    Nicole sipped her coffee and munched on the
chocolatine
she had bought in a
boulangerie
across the square, and examined the map and the list of
chambres d’hôtes
she had acquired from the tourist office beside the abbey. There were dozens of them. The trick was going to be finding one close to
Château
des Fleurs, the cost of which would not send Monsieur Macleod into another fit of Scottish apoplexy. He could, she reflected, be seriously bad-tempered at times. She put it down to the lack of a woman in his life.
    She highlighted the Château des Fleurs on the map with a marker pen, then drew a circle around it with a radius of around two kilometres. Now she tried to match the place names within the circle with place names on the list.
    Her concentration was such that at first she didn’t notice the tugging at her shoes. When she did, she tutted with irritation and looked under the table. The brown puppy was pulling at the laces of her running shoes and had somehow managed to undo both of them. When Nicole’s head appeared beneath the level of the table it stopped, looking at her eagerly, as if for approval, but poised ready to back off if its achievement had the opposite effect. Nicole could not be angry. ‘You little devil!’ She reached down and ruffled its head, and it went springing delightedly around the table. She leaned over to retie her shoelaces.
    ‘Sorry about that. He’s been doing it all week.’
    She looked up to see the waiter grinning at her. He was a young lad, with a shock of dark, curly hair shaved close around the back and sides of his head. Nicole was aware of his brown eyes being drawn involuntarily to her cleavage then quickly, self-consciously away. ‘What, untying shoelaces?’
    He nodded. ‘It’s a trick he’s learned. Some of our customers are less tolerant of him than you. He’s only narrowly avoided the toe-end of a few boots.’
    ‘So who taught him the trick? You?’
    The boy laughed. ‘No, he’s