BooksBarbecue
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

It was too far away for me to make out any details of the bike or rider.

I was almost home when suddenly I pulled over. I could hear the throb of the motorcycle engine as I reached into a canvas bag under my seat and drew out André’s gun, his High Standard pistol. I had never fired a gun in anger, only on a practice range, so I was surprised to see my grip on it so steady. I swivelled quickly in my seat and peered out of the rear window to see that the motorcycle had also stopped on the side of the road, about five hundred metres behind me. I aimed the gun.

Stalemate.

For a full minute we remained like that, staring at each other. My finger tightened on the trigger. It desperately wanted to pull it. Another minute crawled past and then, without warning, the motorcycle abruptly gunned its engine harshly, spun on one wheel to face the opposite direction and shot off back the way it had come in a cloud of dust. It became a speck once more, then vanished.

I held on tight to the relief. This is what it did to you when someone threatened to kill you, it filtered out all else. Everything except that one thought grew fuzzy and faded.

Did the person on the motorcycle write the threatening note? But why turn and run? It didn’t make sense, and my mind became a blur of questions groping their way towards answers. I threw the car into gear and with knuckles white on the steering wheel I drove in the direction of Mas Caussade. I needed to speak with my brother.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

LÉON ROUSSEL

Léon Roussel was hiding in plain sight. Wearing a black suit, freshly pressed out of respect. No police uniform, not here. Not today. He didn’t want to remind the mourners of the real reason he was in attendance.

He had to admit that Aristide Caussade had chosen a good spot, though it couldn’t have been easy digging so deep in this waterlogged terrain. Léon knew that the water always got you in the end here, whether it was the river, or the thousands of canals, or one of the étangs, the salty lagoons, or even the water butt that caught the run-off from your roof. A man in Serriac had drowned in his own giant waterbutt last week, head first, trying to rescue his cat from the bottom of it. The coroner had declared a verdict of death by misadventure.