The Twenty-Year Death Read Online Free PDF Page A

chance to arrange a team of guardsoutside. They killed two of the prisoners on sight, and the third one surrendered claiming that they had just wanted a chance to serve in the war. He was sent to the trenches and killed there. If he’d just waited that would probably have happened anyway.”
    “So none actually made it.”
    “Never.”
    “Do you think that one could have now?”
    “Not without help.”
    “That’s what I think too.”
    Pelleter touched his hand to his mouth.
    “Chief Inspector?”
    Pelleter focused on the young officer.
    “You went to see Mahossier...I mean, you caught Mahossier. You know the man. What kind of a man could do—?”
    Officer Martin broke off, and Pelleter realized that he was glaring at the young man.
    Martin swallowed, but to his credit did not look away. “I just wanted to know if you could tell.”
    Pelleter tried to relax his pose. The Mahossier business had been big news at the time of the killings and was perhaps not as forgotten as Pelleter sometimes hoped. Officer Martin was just the right age that he had no doubt followed the story avidly, perhaps even deciding to become a police officer because of it. And now here was Pelleter, and there was a murder to be solved.
    Pelleter shook his head, trying to soften his expression. “You never can tell. Later, afterwards, of course, and then you wonder if you always knew.” He considered his words. “Men are capable of anything.”
    This upset Martin. “But what Mahossier did, I mean—”
    Pelleter put a hand on the young man’s shoulder wishing he could honestly relieve his anguish.
    Martin said, “I just want to be ready.”
    “If you saw the man now, you would know,” Pelleter reassured him, which of course was not quite the same as knowing in advance.
    Martin was slightly relieved, and Pelleter forced a close-mouthed smile, thinking of the power Mahossier wielded now because people knew what he had done. He tried to remember the first time he interviewed Mahossier, when he was just a suspect, if he had known then. He really couldn’t say.
    Letreau slammed the phone down in his office, drawing everyone’s attention. He was breathing heavily, trying to get control of himself.
    The phone on the counter rang and Pelleter picked up. “Yes...Chief Inspector Pelleter...I need you to pull the file on a Marcel Meranger...All known associates, family, friends, accomplices, enemies, anyone...How long will it take...Good, then I’ll wait...”
    Letreau came out of his office. His face was red, but he otherwise seemed to be under control. He watched Pelleter on the phone.
    Pelleter said, “Wait...Actually I’m going to put another officer on, you give the information to him...He’ll wait for it...Thank you.” Pelleter handed the phone to Martin. “Write down everything he tells you.”
    When Pelleter turned to Letreau, the chief of police’s face went a deeper shade of red before he even started talking. “Fournier said he’d look into it.”
    “I see.”
    “I could—”
    Pelleter stepped forward and took Letreau by the arm, leading him towards his office. All eyes were on the two senior men. Once in the office, Pelleter closed the door, and then stood watching Letreau pace once again, working himself up over the situation.
    Letreau stopped and looked at his friend. “I’m sorry. We haven’t had an unsolved homicide in this town in thirty years.”
    “You don’t have one yet.”
    “Fournier said that he would look into whether or not they were missing a prisoner, but that he thought he would know by now if the man had been missing over twenty-four hours.”
    “He should. Did you say we would come down there?”
    “He said that wasn’t necessary, because he’d be tied up trying to find out what happened and the warden, of course, isn’t there, so if we want to, we should come tomorrow. I told him that perhaps the warden would want to know about this. He said there was no way to get in touch with the warden at