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Back The Guardian of Lies Save as PDF
Chapters (56)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. CHAPTER ONE
  4. CHAPTER TWO
  5. CHAPTER THREE
  6. CHAPTER FOUR
  7. CHAPTER FIVE
  8. CHAPTER SIX
  9. CHAPTER SEVEN
  10. CHAPTER EIGHT
  11. CHAPTER NINE
  12. CHAPTER TEN
  13. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  14. CHAPTER TWELVE
  15. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  16. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  17. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  18. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  20. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  21. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  22. CHAPTER TWENTY
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  32. CHAPTER THIRTY
  33. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  42. CHAPTER FORTY
  43. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  44. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  52. Acknowledgements
  53. ‘The Survivors’ Ad
  54. ‘The Betrayal’ Ad
  55. ‘The Liberation’ Ad
  56. Copyright

I put down the phone, the black Bakelite covered in my sweat. Horses are better than people. They don’t lie. They don’t pretend. They just kick you in the teeth if they don’t like you.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

LÉON ROUSSEL

The American captain left. At last. At long bloody last.

Léon immediately dumped the mountain of Lucky Strike butts spilling out of his ashtray into the trash and yelled to Feroulet in the outer office for coffee. He threw himself back into his desk chair, fighting the urge to grab a paintbrush and daub a sign on the outside of his door: AMERICANS ENTER HERE AT THEIR PERIL.

Maybe not. Given that one just got murdered in his town.

But Captain Doug Prendergast from the 1606th Air Group of the USAF was not the easiest of investigators to work with. Léon set about pile-driving his way through more of the hundreds of witness statements stacked in front of him. Despite the late hour – 21:40 – he still felt the pulse of raw energy through his veins.

He took it personally. This murder. It was his job to protect the inhabitants of Serriac from any marauding criminals, a job he loved with a passion and which he viewed as a trust. Even if it only meant digging into who had been stealing the fruit from Madame Daudier’s orchard of apricot trees or smacking a few heads together in a dispute over tractors. Settling a drunken brawl or tracking down a burglar. These were his people and he had failed them today. When he thought about how easily that knife could have slid between Eloïse Caussard’s slender ribs a shudder wracked him.

Adjutant Feroulet hurried in with coffee, black and bitter as the murderer’s heart. The way Léon liked it.

‘Go,’ Léon said, and waved a dismissive hand. ‘Get your jacket and go home. It’s been a long day.’

‘Sir, I can check through more of the statements before I leave.’

‘Go home. You have a new baby. Get back there before your pretty wife runs off with her lover.’

Feroulet was young and his wife was very beautiful. For five seconds he looked alarmed, but then laughed and shook his head. ‘She likes my uniform.’

‘And your gun, no doubt.’

His coffee-carrier was a good officer but still green enough to flush at the tease. He muttered a quick ‘Goodnight, sir,’ and shot out of the door. For the next hour Léon buried himself in paperwork until he suddenly picked up yet again Eloïse Caussade’s statement. He read it through three times, picturing her saying the words, and then reached for his car keys.

*

There were still lights on downstairs in the Mas Caussade. That didn’t surprise him. What did surprise him was the lone figure that his Citroën’s headlights picked out in the yard. Even in the darkness, he knew it was Eloïse.