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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

He spoke so softly I had to strain to hear. Again I shook my head. How could I tell him the truth when I didn’t know it myself ? The knowledge that my brother had deceived me seethed inside.

‘Listen to me, Eloïse.’

I listened. I listened intently. I wanted him to give me a reason why this was happening. Léon was a policeman and this was his territory. There were things he knew that I didn’t. His shoulder pressed against mine as he leaned close.

‘Go home, Eloïse. Right now. Leave this to me. Go home and stay there until your brother comes home. I will continue to watch here and will telephone you the moment he leaves.’

‘Léon, I am no longer that child who got stuck up a tree. I am leaving for five minutes, but I will be back. I need to give my car keys to Marianne.’

I took a long look at the house that my brother had chosen to enter, but it was no more than a blurred shape in the mist and darkness. On soundless feet I ran out into the black night.

CHAPTER TWENTY

LÉON ROUSSEL

Léon cursed under his breath. He tried to snatch at her but she was gone. That strange elusive creature who was so hard to pin down, so determined never to be caught in a net, driven by so many demons. Like her brother. His demons had always been ones that fed on risks to life and limb, zip-wiring from the topmost branch or tightrope-walking along the ridge of a barn. Now this. But this was not something that a sticking plaster and a rosy apple from the orchard could sort out. Yet again André had dragged Eloïse to the mouth of hell.

That’s why Léon had come here tonight, but he hadn’t expected company. Not André, and certainly not Eloïse, looking ready for trouble in her black garb with her jet-black hair pulled tight off her face. It made her look tough in the same way he knew his police uniform made him look tough, though he’d learned that outward appearances were, more often than not, false.

He’d learned to peel appearances away. That’s what he’d wanted to do tonight, but the arrival of the Caussade brother and sister had put a stop to it. His eyes never left the spot where the front door lay barely visible behind the clammy night air. The man in that house calling himself Gilles Bertin did not realise the way things were down here. The loyalties. The blood feuds. The vast expanse of Camargue marsh wilderness where bodies might not be found for months, sometimes never if a wild boar got to them first.