MYSTERY: Pascal Tourret Private Detective (Mystery, Suspense, Crime, Murder, Detectives, Fiction, Unsolved Mysteries, Mysteries, Thriller, Intense, Drama)

by Johnny Scotland

  “I know that you had an argument with Maurice Gautier and I am here to help you,” he said.

  “Are you a cop?” the boy asked.

  “No, I am working for a private client and just want a bit of help,” he continued,

  “Can you keep me safe?” asked the boy.

  “It depends what you have in the way of information,” said Pascale. The kid was playing hard to get and what crossed Pascale’s mind was that his fear of Gautier was greater than his fear of Pascale. Therefore, it took precedence. The boy was unlikely to give too much without some kind of pressure being placed on him.

  “Look kid. You got involved with the wrong people. It’s your choice. You either talk or I dump you here and let Gautier know you spilled the beans. You will end up dead in the River Seine within 24 hours.”

  The kid winced.

  “There is an alternative,” said Pascale, looking the boy directly in the eyes.

  “The more truth you can tell me, the more I can help you to escape the clutches of Gautier, who will soon be out of business anyway.”

  The kid was crying. Pascale couldn’t believe that Gautier would use kids this young, this inexperienced to do his work for him. “Listen,” said Pascale. “Your tears are wasted. You’ve made a bad mistake getting involved with Gautier, but you can get out of it if you cooperate.”

  “How do I know you won’t kill me?” sniveled the boy.

  “You don’t and that’s why you are going to take a chance and tell me everything. If you don’t, you may as well write your own obituary.”

  The kid was becoming more lucid, made more sense and recovered from his state of emotional turmoil. As the story came out, Pascal knew that what the boy was telling him was true. “Would you be prepared to wear a wire if I wanted you to? I need hard evidence and you may be able to get out of all this shit by helping.” The boy was like putty in his hands. He knew that he had become too deeply embroiled with the criminal underworld and this was a potential way out. It had been hard living with the pressure placed on him by Gautier and Max Boyer and the boy wanted out. Gautier had been angry at the suggestion although after his initial anger, had agreed to give the boy more money if he stayed on as a courier. “You are one of my best.” Gautier had said and that may work in Pascale’s favor.

  The missing links were beginning to gain flesh. Pascale was able to put the pieces together from what he learned from the boy. He knew, for example, which airport was being used. He knew the frequency of the shipments and he knew that Max Boyer was a huge investor in the cocaine being shipped from Bogota, Colombia by students from the boy’s college. Everyone he had talked to over the past inquiries and these inquiries hated Gautier. It was easy to see why. The guy was capable of tempting people into a false sense of security and then taking that security blanket away, leaving them stranded when things didn’t go right. The boy’s name was Michel Guillot and he explained how at first it had been something fun but that gradually Gautier had dragged his friends into the drugs trade and had abandoned them if they were caught. Michel knew that Gautier had no loyalty and helping Pascale could be a step toward liberating his classmates from Gautier’s vicious hold over them.

  “If you are so trusted by Gautier, how do I know you won’t tell him about meeting me?” asked Pascale.

  “I would be signing my own death warrant if I did that. I may have made mistakes, but I am not entirely stupid.” Michel explained. “As it is, Gautier uses me to organize the couriers for the flights so I have a lot of information that can help you to bring him down. I’ve seen what he can do when he doesn’t get his way and I want out,” he said. “The trouble is that, having trained me, he doesn’t want to go through training someone new.”

  “Then you are ideally placed for helping to bring this guy down. You know the risks though?”

  “I knew the risks when my best friend died at Gautier’s hands. I have lost two friends now through him and quite frankly I don’t care anymore. I just want the guy put behind bars.”

  Pascale knew that Michel would be putting himself in danger. Under the French legal system, Gautier would know that Michel was a witness and although Pascale could keep him safe until the trial, he knew that the risks after the trial were very real ones. The kid didn’t seem to care anymore, and as he poured out his story, Pascale knew that his evidence would weigh heavily in favor of locking up many of the people named on his list.

  “Jean-Yves?” Pascal asked. He had dialed his friend in the Lot area of France.

  “I may need your help.”

  “You know that I will help in any way that I can,” assured Jean-Yves.

  “I have a kid that I want to protect until a criminal trial comes up. It’s not actually until they are arrested, but are you open to a house guest?”

  “Sure, any time,” his friend assured him.

  Chapter 8 – Putting the Pieces Together

  The case was coming together nicely. Michel had returned to see Max Boyer and had apologized profusely for bothering him. Boyer hadn’t suspected a thing. He knew that the boy was under pressure from Gautier and had half expected problems. The tape that they had put together from the wire that Michel wore was enough to give dates and times of flights, and the locker numbers that would be used for the shipments. There was less risk to the students and there was more security for Boyer to know his investment was safely out of harm’s reach. Details were never written down, but the recording gave everything that Pascale needed for a raid to take place. He wanted the raids and arrests of all of the people on his list to be simultaneous and had talked to Jacques about the possibility of arranging it at short notice. Jacques assured him that this was possible.

  One of the main reasons for short notice raids was that Pascale had Gautier’s timing down to a tee. He knew that the only moment that he would have to gain access to Claudia left Gautier. The same routine had been used over and over, and there was a pattern to the behavior of these criminals which was almost predictable to the minute, and that helped in the precision of the arrests and of taking Claudia Duclos out of the picture entirely. Getting Michel into safe custody was easy enough too now that Jean-Yves had agreed to look after the boy until the trial. It may be months, as French trials were notoriously drawn out, but Jean-Yves would keep the boy safe.

  The last name on the list that Madame Duclos had provided was still a mystery though Pascale intended to put that right today. Visiting the address of Jean-Paul Coste, he could see that Coste was a wealthy man. From inquiries, it appeared that he worked in the advertising world which had little connection with Gautier. In this part of town, the only connection that Pascale could make was that perhaps Coste was a user of cocaine rather than one of the criminal element distributing the drugs.

  The advertising agency was humming with activity when he arrived. Coste’s office was huge and overlooked the city below. Making the appointment had been easy. Knowing what to say and how to approach a discussion with Coste was quite a different matter. Pascal dressed well. He wanted to leave an impression.

  “What can I do for you?” asked Coste, welcoming Pascal into his office.

  “I met you several years ago at a party,” said Pascale “and I remembered you worked for this advertising agency. I am in town and I don’t know how to approach this, but need a little discreet help.”

  Coste looked mildly amused. He didn’t remember Pascal but that wasn’t unusual. With the number of parties that he attended, there had been too many faces. He didn’t want to appear forgetful or rude.

  “Of course. I will help in any way that I can,” he said.

  “The problem is that I have a hot date tonight and I’ve been out of Paris for a while. I don’t know where to get a little of the white lady.”

  Coste smiled. He knew what the guy was talking about but didn’t want to make it too obvious yet. “White lady?” he asked.

  “You know,” said Pascale. “Snow. Fact is I couldn’t bring anything through the airport and I
really need some extra energy.”

  Coste walked toward the door of his room. While Pascale had kept his voice to a very quiet level, Coste didn’t want his secretary poking her nose in where it wasn’t welcome. He passed a business card across the table. “This guy will help you,” he said, “and you can tell him that I sent you.”

  With Coste crossed off the list for the raids, the chain or sequence of events was allowing Pascal to put the pieces together very neatly. Now, it was just a question of timing. The name on the card was one that he had already investigated and Pascale had included him in the schedule for the raids which would follow.

  Chapter 9 – Claude Geraud

  Pascale felt he owed it to Alain Suchard to visit him and keep him up with news of what was happening. This guy had put his life on the line. As Pascale pulled into the parking lot outside l’Hopital Saint Anne just off the Boulevard Saint Jacques, he felt a little sorry that there was not more that he could do to help Alain Suchard. Yes, the boy seemed to have his wits about him, but he knew that even after the trial, there was the possibility of reprisal and that Suchard could end up dead just as witnesses had in previous high profile cases.

  “I am here to visit Claude Geraud please,” said Pascal. So far, Gautier had been unaware of the inquiries that Pascal had been making. Being a private detective gave you that edge. Suchard looked more human now, and perhaps the treatment that he was getting was helping him to recover after indulging in drugs he knew how to manufacture, but not how to take in moderation.

  Today, the nurses were okay with them going out into the sunshine. He had been a model patient and had given them very little difficulty since those initial first couple of days and then his behavior was more to do with the meth than his character. As they walked together in the gardens of the hospital, there was a certain sense of camaraderie between them. “I’ll be glad when this is all over,” said Alain. “I am sure you will,” reassured Pascal, “but the information you have given us is amazing. I am making sure that the case is water tight before arrests are made.”

  “The trouble is,” said Alain, “You can’t stop people like Gautier. He’s an evil bastard and deserves whatever he gets, but there are always people too frightened to say “no” to the guy. I hope he gets what he deserves.”

  “Where were you educated?” he asked Alain.

  “I had a private education. My family are well off. My problem was that I got too ambitious and wanted everything now, rather than when my parents said that I could have it.”

  Pascal had heard that before from young people so impatient to gain independence. They didn’t want to work hard to get it. They just wanted to grab life now and pay later. To a certain extent he had been like that himself in his youth, and certain Jacqueline would have empathized with Alain’s way of thinking.

  “I won’t be in Paris long now,” said Pascal, “but I wanted to thank you for your bravery. I don’t know what deal you will get for your evidence, but I will do all that I can to make sure you get fairness.”

  The afternoon was pleasant. The gardens were inviting and the company had been good. Alain Suchard may have been stupid enough to have manufactured methamphetamine, but he had done so strictly under the guidelines of Gautier’s men. Having diced with death and having seen what these drugs were doing to so many people, Alain’s attempt to escape through taking the drugs had been the only way that he knew of getting away from the reality of the life he chose in order to gain independence. Instead of that perceived independence, all he had achieved was slavery to someone who had no respect for life and who was screwing with the recipe of the crystal meth to gain more profit.

  As they walked back to the ward together, Pascal was pleased to note that a police car had been stationed just outside the doors to the ward where Alain was being treated. It made Alain feel safer too. “Was that your doing?” he asked Pascal.

  “Yes” he said, “I didn’t want you ending up in the River. I’ve only just become acquainted with you and I think you’re one of the good guys, even though you made a few mistakes on the way.”

  “That’s what the shrink says,” he joked, “although he thinks I am Claude and Claude is actually a very great friend as well as my cousin.”

  Chapter 10 – The Arrests

  Gathering all of the information needed to carry out the raids had taken Pascal a total of two months. For those two months, he had missed his home in the south. Today, perhaps, he would be able to start thinking of his trip back home. He had to take Michel down to stay with Jean-Yves and he had to get Claudia away from the scene before the raids took place.

  The list that Madame Duclos had given him had been hard work. Now, with evidence, photographs, statements, plane schedules and the locker numbers, Pascal had all that was needed by Jacques for the raids to take place. He had left out the photos of Claudia. After all, it was his job to protect her. He met Jacques in a local café and handed over all of the information. “It’s been tough work,” he explained, “but you have enough in this file to put these guys away for life.”

  “The trouble is that we just didn’t have the manpower to devote to one case,” said Jacques, though he need not have said it. Pascal was aware of the limitations of the legal system. “This should be all that we need to get the job done.” They had never brought the killer of Jacqueline to justice and that irked Pascal. He had made a promise that one day he would bring the man to justice.

  At three thirty on Wednesday, the raids would take place and Pascal knew that he had to be in the right place at the right time. As Claudia walked away from Gautier and Gautier entered the building, Pascal was more concerned for Claudia’s safety. Stopping the car with a screech, he screamed at her. “Get in Claudia quickly. The police are about to make a raid.”

  “Who the hell are you?” she said. The blonde may have been beautiful but she had a hardness in her voice that Pascal found un-endearing. “Get in the damned car!” he shouted and she followed his instructions.

  Driving a safe distance from the sound of police sirens and busy traffic, he was able to explain to Claudia that she was about to be busted and that if she wanted any future at all, she had to go home. “Why are you doing this to save me? I don’t even know you,” she winced. “I am doing this for your mother. Gautier is finished. The business is finished. Give me what you have on you and go home Claudia. It’s the only way that you can get out of this situation.”

  Claudia opened her handbag and passed the packets to Pascale. She had no choice. It was either this or spend the next twenty years in a prison. He could smell that wonderful perfume as she leaned toward him to hand him the packets. “This way, you have no connection to these crimes Claudia. You are fortunate that your mother cares sufficiently about you to have given you this chance.”

  For the first time since entering the car, Claudia actually looked grateful. She leaned toward him and kissed him. “You will never know how grateful I am,” she said with a sweetness he had not perceived in her character before this moment. “You want me to show you?” she asked temptingly. “Yes,” said Pascale. “Show me by going home and learning that there are other ways to get rich.”

  The raids on all of the addresses given to the police by Pascal were successful and although the trial took some months to complete, each of the men on his list were successfully placed in prison, except one. This had been a user though the information that he had given Pascal had been the final link to finding out where the cocaine outlet was.

  Driving back toward the southern area of France where he had made his home, Pascal had enjoyed Michel’s company. Michel was kept safe at Jean-Yves’ house until the day of the trial, a distance sufficient to keep him safe, though within two days of the guilty verdicts having been placed upon Gautier and the other list of accused, Michel’s body was found in the River Seine.

  It saddened Pascal to hear the news, though the boy’s sacrifice had not been in vain. Thanks to his courage, kids wouldn’t have to act as couriers f
or Gautier anymore and the streets would be safe for a while from the methamphetamine produced in Gautier’s laboratory.

  An announcement a year later in the society newspapers would tell Pascal that Claudia had married well and was now enjoying life in a villa in Nice.

  MYSTERY 2:

  Pascal Tourret: Private Detective

  By Johnny Scotland

  Beaujolais Nouveau

  Chapter 1 – A Call for Help

  It hadn’t been long since Pascal Tourret had talked to her. His love for Agnes was something he had kept secret most of his life, though he had learned to live with the fact that his cousin, Hector, had married her. He had felt jealousy and outrage at first, although now, as the sun set in the sky over the towers of Montvalent, he had found some sense of inner peace. He wondered why she had telephoned and would take thoughts of her to bed with him tonight, her breasts standing proudly and her long golden hair flicked back from her face. She was better in dreams than perhaps in reality because in dreams, she always stayed young, beautiful and so sexy. When he had met Jacqueline, he had learned the difference between fantasy and reality and his marriage to her had been something that left no regrets except the bitterness of loss but his love for her had been very real.