by Pirate Irwin
Lafarge on entering whistled his appreciation of his boss’s new quarters. The shabby and shambolic office that had housed Massu, and then briefly Pinault, had been replaced by a spacious room which had windows looking out both over the Seine and the Place Dauphine.
Lafarge complimented Pinault on it and was making to go, thinking this had been the object of the exercise, when he noticed they were not alone. For sitting in a comfortable-looking armchair to the side of the room was a thin, quite severe-looking man with salt and pepper hair and glasses that gave him a professorial air, though Lafarge was quite certain he was not a visitor from the Sorbonne.
Pinault cleared his throat realising there had been a misunderstanding about the premise of bringing Lafarge to his office.
“Chief Inspector, may I present you to our Prefect of Police Charles Luizet. I’m not sure you were even aware of his appointment given the hectic schedule you have been keeping but I thought the time was right for the two of you to meet,” said Pinault.
Luizet smiled thinly and rose to shake Lafarge’s hand, a surprisingly firm one the Chief Inspector noticed. The Prefect then invited both Pinault and Lafarge to sit down. The Chief Inspector began to wonder whether this was Pinault’s office after all.
Under Bousquet’s unpleasant reign he had got wearily accustomed to walking round the corner to another well-furnished office. However, perhaps this Prefect preferred to be in the same building as his men and also was uncomfortable at sitting in an office where so many criminal orders were signed off on.
Luizet’s name meant nothing to him. He hoped he might be enlightened a little as to his background as he didn’t like knowing nothing about the person he was talking to.
Pinault had somehow managed to procure some decent-tasting coffee. Wine, calvados and Armagnac had remained in plentiful supply during the Occupation but France’s favourite non-alcoholic tipple had become scarce and the ersatz version was absolutely disgusting. Thus the trio spent a second or two swirling the dark liquid round their mouths as if it was their first real day of liberation.
“I gather from Pinault you were a POW,” said Luizet finally breaking the silence.
Lafarge nodded and didn’t add anything as it would have been odd had Pinault not told Luizet all about him. Luizet fixed him with a steady gaze and smiled.
“Yes, well I think we can dispense with the rest of your war record, it is pretty common knowledge after all,” he said in a neutral tone.
Lafarge didn’t know how to react to this comment as Luizet’s manner was as inscrutable as his look.
“For my part I spent it in Algeria, mostly trying to evade being lined up against a wall or tied to a stake and shot by our compatriots, your father’s lot,” said Luizet.
Lafarge bristled at the term used about his father but at least it clarified on which side Luizet had been from the outset. The fact he had been based in Algeria must be the reason he was present this morning for he may have crossed paths with the protagonists in the case.
“Indeed I met your father once, a man of some charm but of little judgment,” said Luizet.
Lafarge refused to rise to the provocative remark.
“My father and I have not been in contact for some months now, sir. While he facilitated my return here to Paris to clear up the Suchet murder, and to deal with Bousquet, we had a disagreement that was not satisfactorily resolved by the time I left France … with my family,” said Lafarge, who could feel tears brimming again but resisted the urge to let them come lest Luizet think a bit of ‘gardening leave’ might be in order.
Luizet nodded.
“Anyway Lafarge I’m not here to pass sentence on your father, or you for that matter, regarding what happened under Vichy. That is in the past, and for some like him, there will come a time when he has to answer for his actions.
“No, I am here as you have probably guessed to see where we are with regard to your present case. I am sure Pinault would not mind me saying that thus far you have impressed him, just as I believe you did the same with his predecessor Massu,” said Luizet retaining his even tone, though he delivered it with a thin smile.
Lafarge looked at Pinault, who shrugged and looked a bit embarrassed.
“Pity we couldn’ run our fingers round the top of that remark to see if it rang true sir,” said Lafarge, provoking Pinault to laugh.
Luizet looked nonplussed at Lafarge’s comment but pressed on.
“Anyway I just wanted to fill you in on some information I thought might be useful to you, and give you some advice,” said Luizet.
Lafarge smiled and thought: “Here we go”, that it was really the advice he was here to deliver and it could prove to be the sticking point between them.
“I came across the Count and the Courneuves in Algiers. At this time I felt freer to move around and the Vichy authorities or at least Darlan appeared to realise the game was up and that making martyrs out of more of their compatriots would not be the wisest thing to do,” he said drily.
“I have to say it was a point of view I concurred with,” he added to which both Lafarge and Pinault laughed.
Luizet helped himself to some more of the coffee, eschewing the dodgy-looking milk and the powdered sugar.
Lafarge found it hard to believe that this mild-mannered and inconsequential-looking man, who appeared from his coffee-drinking in any case to be at ease without comforts, had been prowling the streets of Algiers as some daredevil resistant. But then he had totally misjudged the good Dr Petiot and that had cost him dearly.
Lafarge shivered, prompting Luizet to give him a look of surprise before he continued.
“The Count, I have to say, given his predilections was not the wisest choice to send to Algiers. Young men were readily available, but also used liberally as honey traps, and our victim was a willing Queen bee.
“The Courneuves, well as you have come to discover, are a disgustingly depraved couple and were well chosen to lure the Count into the trap.
“Now all this and the subsequent details you know. What you may not be aware of is that despite his local difficulties and the Courneuves believing they had his unqualified ‘support’ because of the blackmail, he carried on trying to seduce – and I use the term in the political sense – Admiral Darlan to come over to our side.
“Darlan was a man I had respected until he switched sides so brutally and pulled the rug from under those politicians such as Mandel, who left Bordeaux for Algeria believing he was on their side. However, with his son seriously ill and his powers being taken away from him at the expense of the Nazis darling Laval, he seemed prepared to come back to us.
“The Count did brilliant work – he completely fooled the Courneuves – but unfortunately others noticed his charm was working on the Admiral and his fate and that of Darlan was sealed.”
Luizet’s abrupt finish to his account surprised Lafarge.
“These other people, they came from inside the General’s circle I take it? I say that because if the Courneuves seemed happy with how they had neutralised the Count, then Vichy would have been content and not sought to use other means to prevent the Count’s mission being a total success,” said Lafarge.
Luizet’s eyes for the first time since they had met lit up, and Lafarge didn’t think it was because of the effects of two excellent cups of coffee sparking some life in his superior.
“Yes, Pinault, you were right in your assessment of the Chief Inspector. He is extremely smart. Lafarge, you are correct there was only one way in which the opposition could have ascertained the Count had succeeded and that was because his reports were being monitored in London by someone who, while close to De Gaulle, was secretly working against him.
“I was wondering on that note whether you had any ideas as to who that person might be,” added Luizet, a certain merriment dancing round his eyes.
Lafarge looked at Pinault for any clue as to who this person might be but got no help from that quarter and then fell back on the one name he could
safely say without being ridiculed.
“De Cambedessus.”
“Bravo, Chief Inspector. Yes indeed, the snake in the Garden of Eden that was London for the Free French. However, this is where it gets complicated politically speaking,” said Luizet.
Lafarge took a deep breath for this didn’t sound encouraging. Once the words ‘complicated’ and ‘political’ were uttered in the same phrase it usually set off alarm bells as he remembered bitterly from his time with Bousquet.
“De Cambedessus is no fool as we all reluctantly will attest to. Thus he knew Vichy’s days were numbered because the Nazis would not be able to beat both the Allies and the Soviets. So being a Royalist at heart – his family had remained so throughout the Napoleonic era and beyond and fed off the tales of their land being sequestered and their ancestors’ heads being lopped off – he turned to Henri d’Orléans and his camp as a means of securing another Restoration.
“His visceral hatred of the General also drove him on to see the Count’s mission ended in abject failure. For that could have ended with Palewski being removed from the inner circle and see him move up a rung. Not being a player for small stakes he decided the Count would be left in place for later use, but Darlan would be assassinated.
“Having made contact with other sympathetic members of the Bourbon clique he found a willing assassin in the young enthusiastic royalist Fernand Bonnier de la Chapelle, who fulfilled the contract on the Admiral and ended any hopes of bringing down Vichy quickly.
“It did not thankfully see Palewski demoted. The General accepted it was a terrible blow but being a man of greater vision saw the bigger picture – while it would result in more French dead than he had wished for, now the only option was a military one.”
Lafarge was dumbstruck by the machinations of de Cambedessus and the boldness of his plan. It had failed initially but was now being deployed again although this time his accomplices, or rather his tools, had overstepped the mark and let him down badly.
However, it begged the question which Lafarge asked and no doubt Luizet had been expecting.
“If you knew all this then, why didn’t you arrest de Cambedessus at the time? It clearly cost the Count his life and lord knows how far advanced his new plot is. I mean he has even American generals ready to support a restoration,” said Lafarge.
Luizet glanced at Pinault and nodded.
“I’m aware of that. However, at the time there were two factors which counted against me succeeding in arresting de Cambedessus. Firstly, the General was close to Orléans and couldn’t believe he would be implicated in such intrigue. Secondly, your mistress’s husband convinced enough people he had not been involved and it was in fact Henri d’Astier de La Vigerie who orchestrated everything,” said Luizet.
Lafarge was stung by the reference to Berenice; it appeared in terms of personal privacy nothing had changed from the times of Vichy. He was also a little exasperated he was involved in a case which need never have become one had his new overall boss been bolder two years ago.
“But, sir, you knew the truth. Why didn’t anyone listen to you?” asked Lafarge.
Luizet smiled again.
“I thought you worked under Bousquet, Chief Inspector? Did he believe everything you told him? Or indeed did you not decide it was best to hold your tongue after a while and hope, as Mister Micawber said, something would turn up? Besides General Giraud, the Americans’ ‘poster general’ at the time, decided to lock up Astier de La Vigerie instead so everyone was happy,” replied Luizet.
Lafarge sat back and nodded, well remembering the many times he had jousted with Bousquet before he realised the prefect was part of the problem not a way of solving it.
“So now you see that particular axiom is coming true. It is why I have decided to hold this informal meeting now. Pinault has apprised me of the case, as he knows it, and I wondered whether you had anything to add,” said Luizet.
Lafarge puffed out his cheeks and tried to think of information pertinent to the case that perhaps the resourceful Pinault might not yet have been told of.
“Well de Cambedessus keeps his cards close to his chest. I would be none the wiser about his role but for having fortunately been present at the Courneuves’ house when he met with him. However, the American General McLagan is quite the opposite and has invited me to be part of their scheme, which may not please de Cambedessus a lot,” said Lafarge.
Luizet and Pinault nodded approvingly at this information.
“I am awaiting contact and should I have the opportunity I will duly inform Commissaire Pinault. He can provide the back-up required to arrest them once the meeting is breaking up because only then will I have the necessary evidence to have them convicted,” said Lafarge.
If Lafarge had expected a round of applause and a hearty bout of congratulations on his plan he was soon to be disabused of that. Luizet took a deep breath and resumed his professorial air as if he was addressing one of his student’s over their latest essay.
“I’m afraid that while it is logical you should proceed in such a fashion, we cannot allow that to happen,” he said.
Lafarge looked at both him and Pinault in disbelief, but before he could put that into words Luizet was off again.
“The General may now see himself as the sole person capable of leading France out of this dreadful dark period of her history but he does not wish it to be after a bloodbath which sees more royal blood spilt,” said Luizet.
“Believe me, Chief Inspector, the Comte de Paris would have to be executed if your plan was to be put into action. Exile in the old days would have been a possibility but now with aircraft increasingly the choice of transport a rival could return within hours.
“We could not afford to be so lenient with him. Even if he is not fully aware of the plot he remains a figurehead and we cannot allow him to become a martyred one.”
Lafarge could feel his blood boiling that a nonentity such as the Comte de Paris could be considered of such importance solely because of his title. Worse, in order to protect him all the other bandits who had associated themselves with him and committed crimes to boot would also get a free pass.
“Respectfully, sir, I cannot be expected to sit idly by at a meeting discussing the removal of our commander and future head of state and not do anything,” said Lafarge as equably as he could.
“Besides de Cambedessus has perpetrated, or ordered at the very least, two murders, sorry four as I forgot the two gendarmes murdered during the attack on Courneuve. To allow him to escape justice is scandalous. You said yourself only a few minutes ago that you had been waiting your chance to finally get de Cambedessus and now you have it.”
Luizet looked at Lafarge coolly and steepled his fingers in front of his thin lips.
“Chief Inspector, is that the policeman speaking or the man who cuckolded the accused?” asked Luizet, his tone glacial.
Lafarge’s first impulse on hearing this was to rise to to his feet and irrespective of their rank punch Luizet, but reasoning that would spell the end of his career he managed to restrain himself. However, he was still searching for an appropriate response when Luizet saved him the trouble.
“Relax, Lafarge. I posed the question de Cambedessus’s lawyer would understandably ask at any trial and to which unless you wished to perjure yourself you would have to reply yes. Imagine the impact that would have on the judge. Of course I want the bastard to face his just fate – that is the guillotine or the firing squad. I fear that wanting and getting will prove to be two very different things,” said Luizet.
“Besides the lust for blood at the moment will not be directed towards someone who has served his country faithfully and well. There is no doubt de Cambedessus has done that, so justice will be meted out on those like Petain, Laval and your dear friend Bousquet who led the country into a treacherous alliance and perpetrated the foulest of crimes.”
Lafarge couldn’t have agreed more about the men Luizet had mentioned but they were not presently
available and de Cambedessus was the more immediate threat.
“Well they will have to be patient with regard to them, so why not show that the new authorities are willing to dispense justice on anyone, whether they are friend or foe,” said Lafarge.
“Dear me, Chief Inspector ,do you think the people’s priority is to see who can be thrust up against a post first and shot? In any case there are plenty of thugs and collaborators who have either been dealt with or are awaiting trial in our prisons, so we will wait for the return of the chief criminals. They are the digestif if you will.
“No, Lafarge, I don’t know if you noticed but at the moment what most Parisians, indeed French people, want is for the queues to diminish at the shops, the bakeries, the vegetable and fruit seller. They also want good clean water and electricity to be restored fully. That is what is of primordial concern, not that there is a royalist plot to be destroyed,” said Luizet.
Lafarge accepted while the result was far from satisfactory, there was no way he would be able to convince his present audience from changing their minds, not least because the order must have come from de Gaulle.
“Very well then, sir, what do you wish me to do? I feel like my hands are tied but if you have any helpful advice as to how we can at least emerge with some honour and without de Cambedessus looking smug then I would welcome it.”
Luizet and Pinault both sighed with relief and it being nearly midday it prompted the commissaire to serve all three of them a healthy glass of calvados. Luizet, Lafarge admiringly noted, downed his in one gulp. He could still be a lion inside the grey suit of a mouse, mused Lafarge, albeit his claws have been blunted from on high.
“I appreciate you acquiescing with our demand, Chief Inspector. Now in order to at least give you some leeway what we propose is you go to the meeting if you are invited.
“If the Comte de Paris is not present and it is just his acolytes and camp followers then you are authorised to take further measures,” said Luizet.
