Free After the Crash by Michel Bussi

Saint-Simon replied. ‘Gentlemen, let me remind you of
the clothes the child was wearing when she was found. A cotton
vest, a white dress with orange flowers, and a beige wool sweater.
We can be fairly certain that the clothes were bought in Istanbul,
in the Grand Bazaar, the largest covered market in the world . . .’
Judge Le Drian did not let this opportunity slip: ‘The Vitrals were
only on holiday in Turkey for two weeks, and they spent only two
days in Istanbul. Logically, Emilie Vitral would have been wearing
the French clothes she had brought with her for the journey. It
seems highly improbable that her parents would have thought to
dress her, a few hours before they went back to France, in clothes
bought in Istanbul. If the child was wearing a vest, dress, and
sweater bought in Turkey, then it seems to me that this baby must
be Lyse-Rose de Carville. She was born in Istanbul, after all . . .’
Saint-Simon retorted: ‘Except, your honour, that the Turkish
clothes worn by the baby were relatively cheap. I checked – they
are completely different to the rest of the clothes I found in LyseRose’s wardrobe in the de Carvilles’ villa in Ceyhan. I will send you
a detailed description. Lyse-Rose’s clothes were all by well-known
brands, bought in the eastern district of Istanbul, in Galatasaray.
Not in the Grand Bazaar.’
Before he could launch into a sociological analysis of the various
districts of Istanbul, Le Drian interrupted him: ‘OK, I’ll look at the
list. Vatelier, could you tell us about the ballistics report?’
Rubbing his beard, Vatelier gave the judge a wary look.
‘The experts tried to reconstruct how and at what precise moment
the baby was ejected from the plane. We know where each passenger was sitting. The de Carvilles were in the tenth row, on one side,
towards the back of the cabin; the Vitrals were in the centre of the
Airbus, roughly level with the wings. So the two babies were more
or less equidistant from the door that broke open on impact – the
door through which the baby was ejected. All the experts agree on
that point. I’ve sent you the files. They were able to reconstruct the
point of impact in detail, the way the door twisted, and they all say
that only a human being weighing less than twenty pounds could
possibly have escaped alive.’
‘All right, Superintendent,’ interrupted the judge who, that day,
was sporting a mustard-yellow scarf that was not a particularly good
match for his bottle-green jacket. ‘But since then, there has been
the Le Tallandier theory. Unless I’m mistaken, the physics professor Serge Le Tallandier demonstrated the unlikelihood of a baby
being ejected laterally. Meaning, in other words, that it is less probable that Emilie Vitral should have been ejected, because she was
sitting in the centre of the cabin. What is your opinion on that,
Superintendent?’
‘To be completely honest, Le Tallandier’s calculations are so
complicated that a mere policeman – even one from the forensics
department – wouldn’t dare to contradict him. But I should point
out that Serge Le Tallandier was a classmate of Léonce de Carville
at military school, and that he was also the advisor on Alexandre de
Carville’s dissertation at Mines Paris-Tech . . .’
The judge looked at Superintendent Vatelier as if he had just
blasphemed.
‘Are you attempting to discredit the opinion of a renowned
expert who runs his own laboratory at the Polytechnique, the best
military school in France?’
Vatelier smiled and said: ‘I am not attempting to discredit
anyone, your honour. I have no competence in that field. But I can
tell you that, when I talked to Le Tallandier’s colleagues at the Polytechnique about his theory, they burst out laughing.’
The judge sighed. Outside, the Eiffel Tower had completely
disappeared in the fog. Hundreds of tourists had probably waited
hours in the rain for nothing.
    The weeks passed and the case