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police could find him or they couldn’t. He had ten or
twelve other cases as well.
    It was
always the way.
     
     

Chapter Five

     
    They
hadn’t been able to get Monique by telephone. She was either out or
not disposed to answer. Perhaps the maid or cook had their day off
as well.
    Hubert had a year’s seniority on Tailler. Every so often he
belabored the point, usually on procedural matters—Tailler still
struggled with the paperwork, being intimidated by senior officers
and jurists. The pair of them were becoming a pretty good team.
What Tailler lacked in polish and experience he more than made up
for in intuitiveness. He was persistent as all hell. He had a
streak of independence Hubert had never seen in such a junior man.
The fact that they were about the same age and experience probably
helped, thought Hubert. They were more friends than senior man and
apprentice. That was a good thing and he didn’t mind that at all.
If you had to be stuck on a train for half the day (and if they
really wanted to get home tonight then they should have been out of
here an hour ago), with anyone, well.
    It might
as well be someone rational.
    Tailler
had very sharp wits, a wicked sense of humour and wasn’t above
having a cold beer on duty, as long as they were away from the
prying eyes of higher-ups. It couldn’t be all bad.
    Levain
was busy as hell. Firmin was eying up stacks of files. His phone in
particular was ringing off the hook, and it would seem that they
were it.
    “ Come on. Let’s grab a couple of sandwiches and get the hell
out of here.” Hubert, not exactly an old man himself, ran a quick
hand through his fashionably long hair and stuffed everything they
had so far into a briefcase.
    “ I’m with you.” The leaves were in full colour and Tailler was
just in the mood for a lark.
    His eye
raced down a faded and yellowing train schedule. Hopefully it was
still valid. They had already missed the next one. They just
couldn’t do it. If they stopped and had a decent meal, they would
miss the one after that. It was all the same to him, although he’d
better remember to call his mother—
    A quick
stop at the cashier’s office for some expense money, and the two
men were clattering down the front steps of the Quai, hats firmly
jammed on due to the incessant breeze and their coats over their
arms as it really was unusually warm for this time of
year.
     
    ***
     
    After
several delays, and what seemed like days on the train but it was
more like six and a half hours, Hubert and Tailler stood in front
of their hotel.
    Stricken
with the notion that the expensive commercial travelers hotels near
the station might send the bean-counters into fits, even more
stricken that the expense might not be approved, they had found
something a lot less costly.
    It was a little off the beaten path, but it would almost
surely be approved. For two young men in a strange town, an expense
account was almost too much temptation. What they saved here, they could
spend there .
Hubert seemed to know what he was talking about. Expenses that were
disallowed, they could pay out of their own pockets in a simple
payroll deduction. It all sounded pretty reasonable to
Tailler.
    A taxi
slid into place before them.
    The
driver rolled the window down.
    “ Messieurs? Monsieur Hubert?”
    “ Yes, that’s us.”
    The
place was so small, cabs did not sit out in front awaiting fares.
The desk clerk, a sallow-faced fellow about their own age, had
phoned for one. With a ferret of a face, and with a rather humorous
air of conspiracy that Tailler for one did not share, the clerk was
nothing if not unprepossessing. Tailler wouldn’t put much past him.
Pimping, pandering and procuring, badger game and blackmail, pretty
much everything went along with a face like that.
    Having
spoken personally with Sergeant Roche at Lyon’s central police
station, they had about all the information they were likely to
get. They had an appointment with Madame Godeffroy, but