A Death in Time, page 18
‘Fancies himself?’
‘Yeah, even when he turns up for work on his wife’s scooter.’
‘Rather than his motorbike?’
‘He hasn’t got a motorbike.’
‘My mistake,’ Darac said, scribbling “bullshitter?” next to Reixe’s name in his notebook. ‘Have you ever witnessed a heated exchange between Samira and anyone else here?’
‘Oh, it wasn’t an exchange between Samira and Brice. She just told him where to get off and he did. Her loss, he said to me afterwards. Her loss! Load of crap.’
‘Quite. Heated exchanges?’
‘Sorry.’ Once again, Eric settled himself before answering. ‘Yes… It wasn’t really heated but a couple of weeks ago, she and one of the athletes had a bit of contretemps outside the changing rooms.’
Long experience told Darac that Eric was more likely to answer the “who with?” question if he asked it later. ‘What was it about, this contretemps?’
‘She was tired and wanted to go home. The other athlete wanted to go with her. And more besides, if you follow me.’
In lieu of a red flag to hoist, Darac’s eyebrows rose. ‘For sex, you mean? He wanted it and she didn’t?’
‘Well, that was my impression. Though I could be wrong.’
‘Was this first-time sex, do you think? Or were they in a relationship?’
‘I never saw them holding hands or anything but I’d sensed they were an item a few times before. Just little things, you know? Until that exchange of words, that is. There was nothing really nasty in it. It was a… lovers’ spat, I suppose you would call it.’ His eyebrows knotted, Eric appeared to be considering the accuracy of the term he’d used. ‘Yes, that’s about the size of it.’
Darac produced the lightest, matiest smile he could. ‘And did they leave together?’
‘Did his bleating wear her down, you mean?’ Despite the anguish he was clearly feeling, Eric managed a smile in return. ‘No, it did not.’
Now Darac needed to know if there had been any witnesses to the encounter, a leading question which required a little disguising. ‘They must have felt pretty relaxed about things to air their views on the subject in public.’
‘Oh, there was no one else there at the time and they didn’t notice me, either.’
‘That was a couple of weeks ago, you said. Fast forward to yesterday’s session. Had they patched things up? Did you see them together at any point?’
‘No, I didn’t but that doesn’t mean they hadn’t. With people coming and going at different times and so on – I often miss things.’
Opting to park the question for the moment, Darac took Laborde’s list out of his bag and handed it to Eric.
‘On the issue of comings and goings, Monsieur, we’ve been in touch with Coach Gilles Laborde and his PA has supplied a list of everyone who took part in last night’s session. I gather you don’t have a list?’
‘Not as such. I only make a note of how many vehicles have come in. Otherwise I wouldn’t know when they’d all gone at the end. So I know when I can lock up.’
‘It would be a great help if you could give us a steer on who was doing what and when, both before and especially after the session.’
The request appeared to discomfit Eric.
‘I’ll do my best, Captain, but…’
‘Yes?’
‘Monsieur Laborde – he knows what’s happened, then?’
‘Not in any detail. Why does that concern you, particularly?’
Eric hesitated. ‘It doesn’t,’ he said, turning distractedly to the list of names. ‘Except they’re his life, these athletes. It’d be a terrible shock to him, all this.’
‘I’m sure.’ He brought up Bonbon’s emailed list. ‘You’ve said that most of the athletes use the team bus. How does that work?’
‘You mean where do they catch it to get here and where does it go on the way back?’
‘To start with, yes.’
‘Do you know that line of bus stops at the bottom end of Boulevard de la Madeleine in Magnan? On the bay side of the rail bridge?’
‘Yes.’
‘The bus starts and finishes there and then calls at various campuses and other spots en route. On the way back, Roger – Roger Lauvette, the driver – he’s been known to drop people more or less at their doors if they don’t live too far off the beaten.’
‘He must work to a passenger list, I imagine?’
Catching the implication, Eric nodded, ‘I see what you mean – he does, yes. Ticks the names on and off at the various stops and everything. Be worth talking to him.’
‘Indeed. Got his number there?’ Darac said, realising that Eric’s mobility issues probably meant he’d keep a lot of things to hand.
‘On my phone, yes. I’ve got it here.’
Darac entered the number in his case contacts list.
‘For the time being, could you tell me roughly how many of the 26 names on the list you’ve got there used the bus last evening?’
‘By looking at it the other way around, I could tell you how many should have used it and who they were. Process of elimination.’
Darac gave him an appreciative nod. ‘Go for it.’
As Darac himself was wont to do while putting something together in his head, Eric stared at the floor. ‘So, one, two… six… Seven didn’t use the bus. And that means…’ As an aid to the mental arithmetic, he closed one eye. ‘Seven from 26… there were 19 on the bus. Of course, I don’t know where they got on to get here or where they went eventually but you’ll have Roger for that.’
‘Good call. You’ve got a pen there, I see. Mark the bus users on the list, would you?’
While Eric added a letter B to every relevant name, Darac annotated the list on his phone accordingly and, adding that he hoped Perand was en route already, shared it with Flaco and Bonbon.
‘So, that leaves the seven who didn’t use the bus. Let’s start with Mademoiselle Padar.’
‘God rest her soul.’ Eric took a couple of breaths.’ Yes, she came in her car, as I said.’
‘And parked opposite the changing rooms.’
His forehead creasing, Eric didn’t answer immediately. ‘That’s a funny thing now I think about it.’
‘Go on.’
‘She did park there when she arrived but when she left, she came up from the far end.’
‘From the part tucked around the corner, you mean?’
‘Yes. I’d been in the toilets a couple of minutes. She must’ve gone down that way while I was in there.’
‘I see. The surface is poorer down that far end, isn’t it?’
‘A lot poorer. And it’s further from the changing rooms, of course – two reasons why people don’t usually use it.’
‘Might there be more space there to turn, perhaps? Making it easier to get out?’
‘That’s true but the way things were last night, I think she could have just pulled out of her space, turned immediately left and gone. Like she usually did.’
‘And like everyone else parked near her on the night did?’
For the second time in as many minutes, Eric hesitated before answering. A seasoned investigator, Darac understood that while such moments of indecision were not in themselves suspicious, less innocent explanations were equally possible.
‘Let me think,’ Eric said.
Whether Eric was intent on concealing an uncomfortable truth or not, Darac realised that a visual representation of the comings and goings in the car park would prove useful and for a moment, he considered calling in Astrid. But time was against them.
‘Got a pencil handy, Monsieur?’
‘Yes?’
Darac took a blank sheet of A4 out of his bag. ‘The layout of the players’ car park doesn’t appear to be on any map so I think we need to make our own. Could you draw a rough diagram of it? And mark where people were parked, and so on?’
‘Dunno. After a fashion I could, I suppose.’
‘You’ll make a better job of it than I could, I assure you.’ He handed over the sheet. ‘Something to rest on?’
Eric reached down and pulled a lap tray out from under his chair.
‘I can still bend,’ he said. ‘Had a lot of practice picking the ball out of the net in my 20s.’ He indicated a grouping of photos on the wall opposite. ‘Keeping goal in front of a leaky defence will do that to you.’
‘I guess so. I’m going to make a few notes so I’ll look over your shoulder if I may.’
‘Fine.’
‘Just make it as clear as you can.’
Eric began promisingly, sketching in the site boundaries in what Darac thought a good approximation of the lay-out on the ground.
‘Do you play, Captain? You look fit.’
‘Football?’ Darac could hear his police team, his jazz group, Frankie, and in time probably Lily, laughing in absentia. ‘Afraid not.’
Under Eric’s pencil, the changing rooms began to take shape and he seemed to be locating them in the right place on the page.
‘The building isn’t just changing rooms, by the way. It’s an equipment store as well. Football goal nets, high jump poles, the lot.’
‘A separate key for that, I imagine?’
‘Oh yes. Well, keys plural. The groundsman has one. Each of the coaches do. So do the football and athletics team captains, as well. And they probably have spares if they’ve got any sense.’
‘Quite. The groundsman – was he present at the session?’
It seemed Darac had posed a second preposterous question. ‘Freddie Carlo? Works 10 ‘til 5 Tuesday to Sunday and boy, does he stick to those hours. He’s the best turf man there is so he gets away with it.’
‘We’ll still need to talk to him.’
‘Of course.’
‘If he doesn’t work in the evenings, who takes out and brings in the high jump poles and the other equipment you mentioned?’
‘Freddie sets out all that stuff and after the session, the athletes bring in the smaller items like the runners’ starting blocks and so on. Bigger things, like hurdles, they leave out for him to round up when he turns up in the morning. When there’s a football match, the players take care of the nets, corner flags and so on.’
It raised a point Darac hadn’t yet considered. ‘If there’s a match scheduled for later today, it will have to be postponed or played somewhere else.’
Eric shook his head. ‘The next game is a week on Wednesday.’
‘But the football nets are in place for a match, aren’t they?’
‘Ah, yes.’ He gave a rueful smile. ‘The team played in midweek. I asked the skipper to leave the nets up for the kids. It’s a treat for them, you see.’
‘The kids who sneaked in earlier?’
‘Different ones come. I have to shoo them off after a few minutes. The ogre, you know. They think it’s still worth it, bless them. The pair this morning? Doubt they’ll ever come back.’
Darac felt it worth asking the question one last time.
‘Are you still sticking by—’
‘What I said about not being able to recognise them and so on? Yes. Absolutely.’
‘Alright, back to the changing room-cum-equipment store. Who locks up the building at the end of the sessions? Coach Laborde? One of his assistants?’
‘No one does. Or in a way, everyone. The door locks itself. So if you’ve left something in there and you’re the last one out, you’re stuffed.’
‘Unless you happen to be one of the keyholders.’
‘That’s right.’
Or there was one still on site whom you could approach, Darac reflected. ‘Don’t you and Reixe have keys, too?’
‘No.’ A vaguely self-pitying quality soured Eric’s mien for the moment. ‘Not trustworthy enough, Captain. Don’t know what they think I might nick. Tend not to have much use for high jump poles and the like, myself.’
Eric may have been joking, but Darac had no problem doubting Reixe’s untrustworthiness.
‘To be fair,’ Eric went on, ‘we don’t really need the changing room keys and it would only be something else to worry about.’
‘No harm done then. Am I right in thinking you can’t alarm the changing rooms until everyone is out of the players’ car park, you’ve locked the gate and got back to your caravan?’
‘You are, yes.’
‘Uh-huh.’ Another flag unfurled. ‘And last night, no alarm was triggered at any point?’
‘No. Never has since I’ve been here. Well, I tell a lie – once, it has. They reckon an insect of some sort got into the casing and triggered it. For the record, the insect wasn’t interested in high jump poles, either.’ He checked over his handiwork. ‘That’ll do for the changing rooms, I think.’ He looked up. ‘So you’re not into football. You’re more a rugby man, are you?’
‘Don’t play any sports at all, I’m afraid. Nor watch them, either.’
‘Me, I’m Le Gym through and through but no use asking you who you support, then.’
‘None. You’re doing well, by the way.’
‘Yes? I’ll put the parking spots in. Apart from the bus bay next to the changing rooms, they’re all on one side as you saw. Room for 30 or so cars theoretically but only the top ten have lines painted to demarcate the spaces.’ He completed it in short order. ‘That looks about right.’
‘To me, too. Right, let’s go through the sequence of events for last evening in as much detail as we can.’
‘I ought to say I don’t see everything that goes on, Captain. Especially if I get chatting with someone.’
‘Sure, but you were on the scene when the first vehicle arrived to park?’
‘Had to be or they wouldn’t have been able to get in.’
‘So when the first vehicle arrives, you unlock the outer gate where your caravan is and admit the vehicle in question. What happens then?’
‘What’s supposed to happen then isn’t humanly possible and that’s why it doesn’t happen.’
‘Explain.’
‘The outer gate is meant to be locked at all times when the caravan is unmanned. The players’ car park gate ditto when I’m down that end. So when I leave either gate, I’m required to lock them behind me.’
‘Hang on. So you admit the first vehicle at the caravan, lock the outer gate behind you, nip down to the players’ car park in the 2CV and unlock the inner gate. You let the vehicle in, lock that gate behind you and, shuttling backwards and forwards every time a vehicle arrives at the outer gate, repeat the process until everyone has arrived? Surely it would be a lot easier if—?’
Eric was ahead of him. ‘There were two of us on nights? One at either end? Yes, and until last October, that’s exactly how it worked. Streamlining they said. Cost-cutting exercise is what it really was. Been there 17 years, Mauro had.’
‘Familiar story, alas. So what do you actually do each time, Monsieur?’
‘Alright. I was going to ask you not to tell the Powers That Be but after today, I doubt I’ll carry on there. How could I? Don’t have to work, you know. I just do it for the… Anyway. This is what I do. The first one arrives at the caravan gate. I let it in and, leaving the gate open, escort it down to the players’ car park, open that gate and stay there until they’re all in. Only then do I head back to the caravan and lock the outer gate. What I do next is up to me until the match or the training session ends. What I usually do is go back and watch. It does my heart good to see young… Yeah well, you get the idea.’
‘Indeed. And when the first vehicles are ready to leave the players’ car park?’
‘If I’m down that end at the time, and I usually am, I set off to the caravan gate, unlock it and what I’m supposed to do then is wait there until everybody’s gone, lock up, head back to the players’ gate, lock that, return to the caravan, turn on the alarm and that’s me for the night. And sometimes I do just that even though it means I might miss the start of my programme.’
‘Programme?’
‘TV programme. I’ve got one in the caravan. It’s a real boon to me. I like watching Annie Provin’s 10.30 news round-up on Télé-Sud. Could do with more like her on the box, don’t you think?’
‘She has her place, certainly.’ Darac omitted to specify quite where. ‘Overnight, you make rounds of the site, presumably?’
‘At midnight, 2.30 and 5 o’clock. But I don’t shine a light into every corner. I wouldn’t go down to the arse end of the players’ car park for instance unless I saw or heard something.’
‘And last night?’
‘Nothing, Captain. The whole site was as quiet as the…’ He shuddered and it took several deep breaths for him to continue. ‘It was quiet.’
‘When vehicles are arriving before a session or a match and leaving afterwards, do you roam about or stand more or less in one place?’
‘Bit of both. I never stray very far from the gate, though. Quite often, I stand by the spaces nearest the gate facing the changing rooms. That way, you interact with everyone. Theoretically.’
‘Mark that spot, will you? And put your initials next to it.’
Eric did so.
‘Excellent. So, can you remember the order in which the vehicles arrived last evening?’
‘The bus was first as it nearly always is. And it was all students on board. Again, that’s the norm.’
‘And when did it arrive?’
‘About 6.35. The sessions are underway by seven.’
Under the heading Cauvin Car Park Diagram, Darac wrote 1 = Bus in his notebook and added Eric’s estimate of the arrival time. ‘Will you mark on the diagram where the bus parked?’
Eric drew an appropriately sized rectangle parallel to the changing rooms’ right-hand side elevation. ‘Five-point turn Roger does to get it in there. Ends up facing out.’
