by Mark Hebden
‘We’ve got him.’
‘Well, perhaps it was worth it. But I wouldn’t like to go through that again.’
A police car rounded the corner and stopped near them with a squeal of brakes. Almost immediately another arrived from the opposite direction. ‘Get her home, Nosjean,’ Pel said. ‘Fast as you can. And make sure she has someone to stay with her.’
As they pushed her into one of the cars and it set off towards the centre of the city, Pel turned towards De Troq’.
‘Let’s have a look at him,’ he said.
De Troq’ heaved the man to his feet, slammed handcuffs on his wrists, and pushed him against the wall. A pair of spectacles, crooked on his nose, caught the glint of light from the headlamps of De Troq’s car.
‘Schwendermann,’ Pel said quietly.
Schwendermann seemed as shocked as Claudie, standing with his back against the wall, his face grimy from the dirt of the damp pavement. De Troq’ fished in his pocket and produced a small flick knife. As he pressed the button in the handle, the blade shot out, glinting in the light.
‘What was it for?’ Pel snarled at the sagging figure by the wall. ‘What was that mark you put on their faces?’
Schwendermann’s mouth opened and he gagged on his words before he managed to get it out.
‘Hure,’ he said. ‘Hure. Alles. Immer. Dieselbe.’
‘What’s he say?’ Pel demanded. ‘You speak the language.’
‘“Whore”,’ De Troq’ said. ‘“All. Always the same.” Hure. That’s what he was carving on their faces, Patron. H. For Hure. It’s the German word for “Whore” and the word Monique Letexier heard him say – the one she didn’t understand. We forgot the Germans were in Paris in 1940, too.’
‘His grandfather and his father,’ Pel said in a wondering voice. ‘Especially his father, who was a pastor in the church. No wonder it tipped the balance between sanity and insanity.’
‘I wondered more than once if he was the one,’ De Troq’ admitted.
‘Why in God’s name didn’t you say so?’
‘Because there was nothing to back it up, Patron. I couldn’t find anything any more than anyone else could. Not until tonight. The report from the Siegen Police just confirmed what I thought.’
Pel frowned. ‘But you didn’t see the report from Siegen.’
De Troq’s expression was faintly smug. ‘No, Patron. But I speak German fluently. The “Ah!”, Patron. A strange “ah”. It wasn’t “ah”; it was “ach”, as the Germans pronounce it. And that note he sent you was solid German construction from beginning to end. The inverted verb. The capital letters for the nouns. The spelling of “music” with a K. You’d kept that note to yourself. I hadn’t seen it before tonight. As soon as I did it stuck out like a sore thumb.’
Schwendermann was gagging again and they began to push him towards the second police car.
‘The girls,’ he managed to say. ‘They take off their clothes. There is no goodness. Never. Nowhere.’
‘It must have been that party that started it off,’ Pel said slowly as the car drew away, with Schwendermann huddled between two policemen in the rear seat. ‘The one we heard about. Where Moussia spiked Marguerite’s drink and she started stripping. That and his mother – his aunt, too! – always going on at him. They constantly drummed the evil of loose women into him and he was taking revenge on them.’
De Troq’ frowned. ‘Probably a bit of sexual frustration, too, Patron. Resentment because none of the girls showed any interest in him.’
Pel drew a deep breath. ‘He’d been in the habit of hanging about outside bars and places where prostitutes gathered. Marking them down. He even thought Bernadette Hamon was one because he saw her go into the Bar des Chevaux late at night. Perhaps also because he saw her enjoying herself at the Faculty Ball. She was only fooling about but he thought she was wicked, too.’ He sighed. ‘Name of God, he was clever! Doc Minet said they were. He knew the stairs creaked so he went out of the window. And he knew the way out because I expect Moussia had boasted about it. Moussia didn’t think you could get back in but our friend found a way. With dark sheets. So they wouldn’t be seen at night. And he was never out long because he knew the streets too well; he even had old maps showing every alley and short cut. With a batch of records on the record player he could be out for three hours or more and, with the sound of the floorboards creaking before he left and after he returned, no wonder Moussia thought he was up there all the time.’
‘He was taking a big risk all the same, Patron.’
Pel drew a deep breath. ‘Was he? He picked his times. The night he killed Marguerite de Wibaux there wasn’t anyone to hear him on that lower roof because Annie Joulier had gone up to Aduraz’s room at the other side of the house. And, after that, when she’d moved into the room with the other girls and Moussia had moved to the Rue Novembre 11, there wasn’t anyone at all on his side of the house!’
The lights were still on when Pel turned his car into the drive and halted it outside the garage.
He was still shaken by the narrowness of Claudie’s escape. But for something Didier Darras had said – just a few words that had clicked in his mind at the time – ‘These foreigners. You can never trust them’ – he might never have called for the foreign reports that had finally thrown up the attack on the prostitute so long before in Siegen. Perhaps there was more in his Society of Bigots idea than he’d realised.
As he entered the hall, the lights came on and he saw Madame on the stairs. She was just about to make some comment about the lateness of the hour when she saw his face and her expression filled with concern.
‘I’m all right,’ he said. ‘Just tired.’
‘Something happened. I can tell.’
‘Yes. The Prowler almost got Claudie.’ Her hand went to her throat and, as he reached out to touch her, she put her arms round him. ‘But it’s all right. We arrived in time. We’ve got him. It’s over.’
Note on Chief Inspector Pel Series
Chief Inspector Evariste Clovis Désiré Pel, of the Brigade Criminelle of the Police Judiciaire, in Burgundy, France is, according to the New York Times, in ‘his professional work, a complete paragon. ‘He is sharp, incisive, honest, and a leader of men and everything else a successful cop should be.’
Outside of work, however, ‘he is a milquetoast, scared of his gorgon of a housekeeper, frightened of women, doubtful of his own capabilities.’
It should be noted, though, things do change to some degree, and in the course of the series he marries - but readers are left to judge that and the events surrounding it for themselves.
What is true, is that Pel is ‘Gallic’ to the core and his complex character makes a refreshing change from many of the detectives to be found in modern crime. Solutions are found without endless and tedious forensic and his relationships are very much based in real life.
Pel Titles in Order of First Publication
These titles can be read as a series, or randomly as stand-alone novels
1. Pel & The Faceless Corpse 1979
2. Death Set To Music Also as: Pel & The Parked Car 1979
3. Pel Under Pressure 1980
4. Pel Is Puzzled 1981
5. Pel & The Bombers 1982
6. Pel & The Staghound 1940
7. Pel The Pirates 1984
8. Pel & The Predators 1984
9. Pel & The Prowler 1985
10. Pel & The Paris Mob 1986
11. Pel Among The Pueblos 1987
12. Pel & The Faceless Corpse 1987
13. Pel & The Touch Of Pitch 1987
14. Pel & The Picture Of Innocence 1988
15. Pel & The Party Spirit 1989
16. Pel & The Missing Persons 1990
17. Pel & The Promised Land 1991
18. Pel & The Sepulchre Job 1992
Further titles are available post 1993 See Juliet Hebden (author)
Synopses of ‘Pel’ Titles
Published by House of Stratus
These can
be read as a series, or as stand-alone novels
Pel & The Faceless Corpse
An unidentified, faceless corpse is discovered near a memorial dedicated to villagers killed by the Nazis. Pel is on the case searching for a way to name the faceless corpse. The trail leads him from Burgundy to the frontiers of France, aided by a canny Sergeant Darcy and the shy, resourceful Sergeant Nosjean. Follow the irascible, quirky Chief Inspector on a road to solving the mystery of the faceless corpse.
Death Set To Music (Pel & The Parked Car)
The severely battered body of a murder victim turns up in provincial France and the sharp-tongued Chief Inspector Pel must use all his Gallic guile to understand the pile of clues building up around him, until a further murder and one small boy make the elusive truth all too apparent.
Pel Under Pressure
The irascible Chief Inspector Pel is hot on the trail of a crime syndicate in this fast-paced, gritty crime novel, following leads on the mysterious death of a student and the discovery of a corpse in the boot of a car. Pel uncovers a drug-smuggling ring within the walls of Burgundy’s university, and more murders guide the Chief Inspector to Innsbruck where the mistress of a professor awaits him.
Pel Is Puzzled
New varieties of crime are popping up everywhere in Inspector Pel’s beloved Burgundy. Raids on a historical chateau and the surrounding churches have led to the plunder of priceless treasures. But when theft becomes murder, Pel is called to uncover the true nature of who’s behind the crime wave. The case leads him from Paris to Scotland Yard and a climax involving the famous Tour de France cycle race.
Pel & The Bombers
When five murders disturb his sleepy Burgundian city on Bastille night, Chief Inspector Pel has his work cut out for him. A terrorist group is at work and the President is due shortly on a State visit. Pel’s problems with his tyrannical landlady must be put aside while he catches the criminals.
Pel & The Staghound
Violence, the mugging of gay men, and the disappearance of a wealthy local business man, Rensselaer, troubles Chief Inspector Pel who is baited by his superiors in Paris clamouring for more teamwork, technology, and sociologists. What remains is a harrowing question - has Rensselaer been kidnapped or murdered? Rensselaer’s family don’t seem to mind. Only Archer, his favourite staghound, is anxious for his missing master.
Pel & The Pirates
As Chief Inspector Pel honeymoons with his long-time love Mme Genevieve Faivre-Perret in St Ives, a local taxi driver is murdered on their first night. More puzzling is his attempts to reach Pel before the brutal killing and his message is one of murder, arson, and smuggling. But, can Pel break the silence surrounding the Islanders, and catch the killer?
Pel & The Predators
There has been a sudden spate of murders around Burgundy where Pel has just been promoted to Chief Inspector. The irascible policeman receives a letter bomb, and these combined events threaten to overturn Pel’s plans to marry Mme Faivre-Perret. Can Pel keep his life, his love and his career by solving the murder mysteries? Can Pel stave off the predators?
Pel & The Prowler
The irascible Chief Inspector Pel basks in the warm glow of his marriage until a series of young women are found strangled, with macabre messages left next to them. Pel breaks his idyllic life in honeymoon heaven and begins an investigation among a student community. What ensues is a deadly game of cat and mouse.
Pel & The Paris Mob
In his beloved Burgundy, Chief Inspector Pel finds himself incensed by interference from Paris, but it isn’t the flocking descent of rival policemen that makes Pel’s blood boil - crimes are being committed by violent gangs from Paris and Marseilles. Pel unravels the riddle of the robbery on the road to Dijon airport as well as the mysterious shootings in an iron foundry. If that weren’t enough, the Chief Inspector must deal with the misadventures of the delightfully handsome Serjeant Misset and his red-haired lover.
Pel Among The Pueblos
A brief spell among the Pueblos, and a shoot-out under a moonless sky brings Pel his reward when the redoubtable Chief Inspector chases leads on a double shooting of two ageing crooks all the way to Mexico. This is Hebden’s eleventh novel in a series that delights and entertains a growing number of Pel fans.
Pel & The Faceless Corpse
An unidentified, faceless corpse is discovered near a memorial dedicated to villagers killed by the Nazis. Pel is on the case searching for a way to name the faceless corpse. The trail leads him from Burgundy to the frontiers of France, aided by a canny Sergeant Darcy and the shy, resourceful Sergeant Nosjean. Follow the irascible, quirky Chief Inspector on a road to solving the mystery of the faceless corpse.
Pel & The Touch Of Pitch
When Chief Inspector Pel accepts a drinks invitation at the house of a big shot, Deputy Claude Barclay, he doesn’t realise how compromised he will become by his acceptance. Shortly afterwards, Barclay is kidnapped; the partially decomposed body of a retired soldier is discovered in a wood and as series of art forgeries need investigating. Pel must tie all three together and solve a scandal, which has become the talk of France.
Pel & The Picture Of Innocence
An extravagant, big time gangland criminal is ambushed and assassinated; the only witness a ten-year-old-boy. Chief Inspector Pel is called in to investigate the killing, which spirals into an international investigation when a respected spinster is bludgeoned to death and some curious links begin to clink into place.
Pel & The Party Spirit
Brigade Criminelle is mobilised when a fatal stabbing, an anticipated delivery of lethal drugs from Marseilles, and the discovery of a thirty-year-old corpse in an ancient turreted tower in the town of Puyceldome coincide with a frantic search for two murderous hitchhikers, all on Chief Inspector Pel’s patch. And as folk-dancers, stilt-walkers, fire-eaters, and jugglers lurch through a night of carnival, Pel stalks his prey.
Pel & The Missing persons
A masked gang rob a supermarket at Talant, a home-made bomb is found at the local airport, and the body of an old man is found on the motorway near Mailly-les-Temps, and what is the connection between a fearful lawyer and the fatal stabbing of a Scottish tourist. On top of all this, Daniel Darcy, trusted deputy to Chief Inspector Pel has been suspended on suspicion of taking bribes.
Pel & the Promised Land
The twelfth title in the Inspector Pel Mystery series, this is a story of Pel’s beloved Burgundy as the Promised Land. Fires are breaking out all over the province, from small houses to woodland and when a local farmer’s flock of sheep is poisoned, a tray of valuable rings stolen from a local jewellers, and the body of a woman is found, Inspector Pel has his work cut out for him in this exhilarating murder mystery.
Pel & The Sepulchre Job
A dead man is found floating in a canal, his wallet revealing a strange symbolic drawing, and a hostage drama unfolds at the Banque Credit Rural, where not only millions in francs and jewellery are at stake but also lives. On the other side of town, a stunning art student switches masterpieces for copies. Somehow, the crimes fit like pieces of a jigsaw so Chief Inspector Pel is faced with a challenge of a lifetime and responds with true Gallic guile.
For subsequent Pel Titles see Juliet Hebden (author)
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