C'est la Vie (Raja Williams Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Americans as arrogant, vulgar and uneducated. However, experience as a police inspector gave him the opportunity to meet a wide variety of people. He had learned not to be too quick to judge a person and found that doing so often dulls one’s perceptions. “No offense to your French. You speak it well — for an American.”
    Raja shook his hand and said, “I learned from a Haitian girl in my youth. Granted, it is certainly not Parisian French.”
    “Perhaps language is not all you learned from her, no?” said the inspector, hoping to throw Raja off balance.
    “What about the shopkeeper?” asked Raja, ignoring the innuendo.
    The two eyed each other like fighters circling in the ring.
    “As I said,” continued Gilliard, “no one seems to know what the shopkeeper had in the safe. The two other employees who worked there and also might have known are both dead. Whatever it was, it must have been valuable enough to kill three people over.”
    “Perhaps. Perhaps not.” Raja was not going to assume anything.
    “They are dead, are they not?”
    “Provided your coroner is competent, I would have to agree. That they are dead appears to be all that you know.”
    Seeing that Raja would not be easily deflected, Gilliard changed tactics. “I can give you all the reports on the antique shop murders, if that would help.”
    “I would appreciate that, Inspector. As you know, I am most interested in recovering Professor Browning’s wife—preferably unharmed. And I will do everything I can to assist you. What I would like to understand is why a simple shopkeeper was tortured to obtain what would have to be a meager amount in his safe.”
    The inspector was running short on patience. “You are here only as a courtesy to the British ambassador. If you intend to insult our police work, I’m sure he will understand my cutting your visit short.”
    “I don’t think he will. One of his citizens who was in police custody is now missing, possibly dead, and the French police refuse to cooperate. No, he will certainly not understand. Comprenez vous? ”
    Now the inspector turned an ugly shade of red, but somehow he held his tongue. He did not like being baited, but the Director-general himself had ordered him to cooperate with the American.
    Seeing no disagreement with his statement, Raja continued. “I’m more interested in the woman who was observed at the scene where your three officers were shot. It was Margaret Browning, was it not?”
    The inspector had the look of a cornered animal. Raja would not have been surprised had Gilliard leaped at him and bitten his throat.
    Instead, Gilliard sighed and said, “Yes, I believe it was.”
    Raja only nodded, waiting for more. He made a mental note to have Vinny look into the inspector.
    “The whole sequence of events has me puzzled,” said Gilliard, shaking his head. It was an obvious attempt at obfuscation.
    “Then you can imagine how puzzled Professor Browning must be. And distraught.”
    “We are looking into a number of things, including the professor. I did not see the point in upsetting him any further.”
    “Or alerting him. You are considering him a suspect, are you not?” Raja knew the compulsion police everywhere had for investigating the victim of the crime.
    Gilliard had other reasons for trying to keep the details under wraps, but said, “We are looking into the professor’s background and his reasons for coming to France.”
    “And?”
    “We have found nothing suspicious,” said Gilliard.
    “Then it seems we are on the same page.”
    “Look, Monsieur Williams, we have three dead police officers and a missing British citizen. As you can imagine, there is a great deal of pressure to find the killer. We can overlook no one.”
    “I would like to see the autopsy and ballistics reports.”
    “I’m afraid that is information I cannot release at this time.”
    “Can not or will not?”
    “The terrorist division of the Gendarmerie has taken control of the