Free Death at the Clos du Lac by Adrian Magson Page B

man like Paulus would have chosen anything so elaborate; if soldiers decided to kill, it was usually short, sharp and brutal. He changed tack to lower the tempo. ‘Let’s go back to last night. Did you see or hear anything?’
    ‘Like what?’
    ‘Cars going by … voices … a knock at the door?’
    ‘No. It’s always so quiet here. We never hear anything.’
    ‘What about the patients? Have they said anything about last night?’
    ‘Not to me. Stefan said he’d talked to a nice man, though. I thought he was imagining things. He does that a lot. Was it you?’
    ‘Yes.’ He wondered whether Drucker was going to turn up and spoil things, and went back to his original question. ‘So, who were the other patients?’
    Dion stood up. ‘I’ll show you.’ She walked out of the room and they followed.
    She led them to the office Rocco had seen before.
    ‘Drucker keeps everything locked away. He’s obsessive about secrecy and doesn’t trust anyone.’ She reached under the desk and took out a key. ‘He doesn’t know I found this, though.’ She went over to one of the filing cabinets and unlocked it, and swept open the top drawer.
    It was empty.
    ‘Looks like someone got there already,’ observed Rocco.
    ‘I don’t understand.’ Dion looked stunned. ‘It was full only yesterday. All the patient records were in there, arranged alphabetically. The staff files, too – everything.’ She checked the lower drawers but they were also empty. Then she used the key to open the other cabinet. The same. ‘Why would they do that?’
    ‘It’s what they do.’ He took a turn around the room. It was standard security behaviour if a place became compromised: cleanse the scene thoroughly and leave nothing behind. But why here? What were they hiding?
    ‘What do we do now?’ said Alix.
    ‘We keep looking,’ he said quietly, and picked up the telephone. He rang the office in Amiens and got through to René Desmoulins. ‘Can you get away?’ he asked him. Desmoulins relished getting involved in investigations withRocco, and had a usefully rebellious streak when it came to dodging authority and cutting corners.
    ‘Just tell me where and when.’
    ‘Now. But quietly.’ He gave him directions and cut the connection, then handed the handset to Alix. ‘Can you get Claude here?’
    ‘Of course.’ She looked at him knowingly. ‘You’re planning something.’
    ‘We’re going to search this place,’ he told her, ‘starting with the patients’ rooms and working our way down. Desmoulins can help when he gets here, and Claude can do the outside.’ He looked at Dion. ‘You probably shouldn’t be here for this. But thanks for your help.’
    She shrugged. ‘I’ve got nothing else to do until I contact my base for instructions. Is what you’re going to do legal?’
    ‘I don’t have the authority to do it, if that’s what you mean.’
    ‘Fine. Count me in.’ She gave a half smile and reached into her jacket pocket, and took out a packet of cigarettes. ‘I’m not normally allowed to smoke on the premises,’ she said, and lit up, then blew out a mouthful of smoke with relish. ‘Drucker would have me transferred on the spot if he knew. But who’s going to stop me now?’ She gestured towards the door. ‘I’ll show you where everything is. And if we’re going to break the law together, Lucas, my name’s Inès.’

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
    It took them two hours to comprehensively search the entire house, even with Desmoulins helping. And Rocco knew that even with that, they were probably only scratching at the surface. The building was a rabbit warren of rooms and corridors, although with Inès’s help they were able to isolate or disregard a number of places where access had been denied to patients. But it was still a long job, moving furniture and checking a number of what could have been obvious places of concealment. Rocco had considered getting in more manpower, but figured they would only get in the