The clerk nodded. ‘Yes, Sir. That’s the question the lady told me to put to you.’
Calque rolled his eyes. He willed himself to cast his mind back to earlier that morning, and not to throttle the clerk. ‘Let’s be surgically precise here. I ate three. Or rather, two and three-quarters. Two of my own, and one of Madame Mercier’s that she inadvertently abandoned, unfinished, on her plate. Does that satisfy you?’
The clerk scrabbled underneath his counter and came up with an envelope. ‘Then I’ve been told to give you this, Captain.’
Calque lunged for the envelope.
The clerk clutched it against his chest, a canine expression on his face.
Calque grunted. He rummaged around in his pockets and handed the man a ten-Euro note.
The clerk hesitated, as if he were briefly considering holding out for more. Then he handed Calque the envelope.
‘Did anyone else ask for Madame Mercier?’
The clerk shrugged. ‘If they had, I would have asked them the same question I asked you. And if they had answered correctly, I would have given them the envelope. Madame Mercier gave me the strictest possible instructions.’
Yes. And a fifty-Euro tip with my money, you snivelling little bastard, thought Calque.
Calque retreated to the lift, just as if he were contemplating an imminent return to his room. Once out of sight of the front desk, however, he tore open the envelope. All it contained was a single line of writing and an initial.
8, 7, 11, 13, 12, of where we sat this morning. Your jacket. L
Calque leaned back against the wall. What now? Another trap for him to stumble into? Perhaps the Corpus was having difficulty reading the handwriting on his case notes? Perhaps they wanted to invite him back to the Domaine to make sense of all the material they’d pilfered from his hotel room? It would be a simple enough thing for anyone with a semi-normal IQ to work out where he and Lamia had been sitting that morning. After all, the Corpus had staked out the place with cold-blooded efficiency, had it not? And the road to the beach was a cul-de-sac – meaning it led to a single, specific destination. The whole thing was scarcely nuclear physics.
Calque shrugged, and began to work out the riddle in his head. He decided that he had little choice, in the circumstances, but to follow where it led him.
PAMPELONNE PLAGE. Eighth letter N. Seventh letter O. Eleventh letter P. Thirteenth letter A. Twelfth letter L. NOPAL. What was that? Some kind of Mexican cactus, no? Or was it a seaweed? Definitely Mexican, anyway. So what was there likely to be that was Mexican in a town like Cogolin? A restaurant? That was the most likely answer. Or maybe a shop that sold Mexican goods? But more likely a restaurant. Lamia wouldn’t have had a long time to think up her plan, and she would have been under considerable pressure. She would have made the answer as obvious as possible in the time left to her.
The concierge was obviously for sale to the highest bidder, so no point asking him if there was a Mexican restaurant in town. Calque might as well take out an ad with Radio Free Europe.
Calque made up his mind. He headed towards the rear of the hotel. This time he expected to be followed. If the Corpus had truly failed to get their hands on Lamia, then he was the obvious person to lead them to her.
Calque breezed out of the hotel’s rear exit. He accosted the first passer-by he saw and asked the man the way to the nearest police station. Disinformation. That was the name of the game.
With the address of the gendarmerie safely to hand, Calque walked briskly up the street, looking neither to his right nor left. Let the bastards stew in their own juice. They’d obviously let him go for a reason, and that reason was that they’d failed to get Lamia back. Now they were expecting him to lead them to her. Well, he’d soon show them that they weren’t about to have everything their own way.
Calque walked boldly up the gendarmerie steps and straight to the main desk in the lobby. ‘Good morning, Sergeant. My name is Captain Joris Calque, Police Nationale, retired.’ He proffered his entirely legal and above-board retirement warrant card – it wouldn’t do to flash the illegal one by mistake.
The pandore behind the counter stood up and saluted. ‘It’s a pleasure, Captain.’
Calque returned the salute. So I’ve still got what it takes, he thought to himself. You can take the policeman out of the service, but you can’t take the service out of the policeman. ‘I’m staying up the road, at the Hotel de la Place. I just thought I’d drop by and leave you my card. I have a feeling your Commandant and I know each other from way back.’
‘Shall I call him, Captain? I’m sure he’d be pleased to come out and see you.’
‘No. Please don’t do that. I’m already running late. And I’m sure the Commandant is very busy. I was just passing by on my way to lunch. I’m going to eat at the Nopal. I’m right, aren’t I? It’s just up the road?’
‘The Nopal?’
‘A Mexican restaurant, yes. Chillies. Enchiladas. Things like that.’
The desk sergeant grinned. ‘No, Captain. That’s the Esposito. It’s the only foreign restaurant in town. But it’s got a bar attached to it that’s called the Nopal. You’ll find it just off the Place de la Liberte. But I wouldn’t recommend either of them. The Largesse is much better. Proper French food. Try their pot-au-feu. Madame Adelaide has been using the same recipe for thirty years. And none of us regulars have complained yet. Tell her Sergeant Marestaing recommended you.’
‘Ah. That’s it. The Esposito. But we are to meet in the bar first. I knew I would get the name wrong.’ Calque allowed a wistful smile to invest his features. ‘I have no choice in the matter of where I eat today, Sergeant, as I’m invited. But I shall try the Largesse for certain tomorrow, on your personal recommendation. But tell me. Could I possibly use your toilet while I’m here? I have prostate troubles. Need to go every couple of hours. You know how it is?’
The pandore nodded, as if he did, indeed, know how it was. He directed Calque up the corridor.
‘Can I go out the back way when I’m finished? Save myself a walk?’
A telephone rang on the pandore ’s desk, conveniently redirecting the man’s attention away from Calque. ‘There is a rear exit, yes, Captain. Please feel free to use it.’
‘Thank you, Sergeant. I will.’ Calque felt curiously satisfied following their exchange, as if he had proved to himself that he could still take the initiative. Still cut the mustard.
Once out in the daylight again, Calque’s demeanour underwent a subtle transformation. He stopped three times before he reached the corner of the street to make sure that no one was following him. He wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice in one day. He wasn’t about to lead the Corpus back to Lamia.
With any luck, whoever had been tailing him would be fully taken up with communicating to the Countess that Calque was still tucked cosily away inside the gendarmerie – no doubt spilling the beans about the dead footman. Disinformation. Disingenuousness. Deceit. The three D’s. His late lamented mentor, Maurice Edard – an old-school policeman who had cut his milk teeth in the good old pre-1966 days when the Police Nationale was still the Surete – would have been proud of him.
Calque grinned as he imagined the bedlam back at the Domaine. The Countess would be ordering the decks cleared pretty fast if she thought the police might be about to pay her an unexpected visit.
32
By the time he arrived at the Esposito, Calque was 99 per cent certain that he hadn’t been followed. He had doubled back on himself twice more since his first flurry of activity, confined himself to side streets only, and he had even done a Humphrey Bogart – minus Dorothy Malone, unfortunately – in a second-hand bookshop.