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across the well. ‘What about my wife? What are you doing with my wife?’ His voice shook. One hand snaked down as if to feel for any damage to his knees.
    ‘Don’t worry, Colonel. She’s coming along for the ride too.’

     
    Once they were safely out of town, Vau stopped the car, and they transferred the inspector and his wife to the trunk. It was a tight fit, but it seemed unlikely the pair would actually suffocate. Both parties had wet themselves, which saved the brothers the trouble of having to stop somewhere en route for a leak break.
    Vau caught his brother’s eye. He gave a speculative chuck of the head. ‘I know exactly what you’re thinking. But we’ll never make it. You can’t beat a TGV. Those things average more than three hundred kilometres an hour.’
    ‘Three stops. They have to make three stops. Then they have to cut their speed radically along the coast. I’ll give you a thousand Euros if we make it to Madame, our mother’s, twenty minutes before our allotted time.’
    ‘Done. You want to take the wheel?’
    ‘No. You’re a better driver than I am.’
    Vau fishtailed the car out onto the highway, in the direction of the nearest autoroute toll booth.

6
     

     
    They made it to the Cap Camarat lighthouse with fourteen minutes to spare. Below them the rocks loomed white in the glow of the waxing moon.
    ‘Jesus, Abi. You don’t mean to bung them off here? We’re only a few kilometres from the house.’
    ‘Look.’ Abi held out an unfamiliar cell phone. ‘It probably belongs to the pimp who owns this car.’
    ‘So what?’
    ‘So what? So everything. We get them out of the trunk, give them the keys, and let them take off.’
    ‘Are you crazy?’
    ‘But not before we’ve phoned a place in South Africa I know of and arranged a movie download – the damned thing will take hours and cost thousands. Then we bury the cell phone down the side of the seat. After that we phone the
flics
back in Saint Evry, and check up on what we claim is our stolen car – the one that we called in a few hours ago. Don’t they remember taking the call? Maybe it was someone else on duty? There’ll be a record of it, anyway. Then we tell the
flics
that we just remembered that there’s a cell phone in the car, and give them the number and the server. Then we leave the rest to them.’
    ‘I still don’t understand.’
    ‘Come on, Vau. The
flics
check on the cell phone. They find that the line is conveniently open. They can then pinpoint the car to within about three metres, give or take. So they swoop down and reel these two losers in.’
    ‘But then they’ll tell the
flics
about us.’
    ‘Oh really? That they were kidnapped and forced to drive three hundred kilometres by two guys the inspector talked rough to on the train? That they were then calmly handed back the stolen car keys, and, to celebrate, they began to download a child porn movie? When the
flics
get through with them – if they ever get through with them – Monsieur
et
Madame L’Inspecteur will still have the pimp to reckon with. And his dear old mother lives just down the road from them, remember? And they’ve just run up an uninsured bill of three thousand Euros on the pimp’s cell phone, and got him branded a paedophile to boot.’
    ‘Christ, Abi. That’s genius.’
    Abi used his own cell phone to call up a local taxi. ‘You’re right. It is. Why bother to kill people when you can simply ruin their lives with a little creative imagination?’

7
     

     
    Geneviève de Bale, dowager Countess of Hyères, stood on the steps of the Chateau de Seyème and watched as her adopted twin sons descended from their taxi. They were the last of her children to arrive, and she was marginally displeased.
    ‘You were due in at 8.10.’
    She leaned towards her personal assistant, Madame Mastigou, who consulted her brooch watch and mouthed the correct time to her.
    ‘Abiger, you are twenty-five minutes late. I had expected you to join me on the