strongholds in the area.”
“ That’s right.” He stood back and folded his arms. “When I told her that whatever we found would be published later in the year, it seemed to satisfy her. She didn’t hang around asking lots of questions. I think she regarded it as lucky that we might be able to give her some additional information. She simply said she might pop back later to see whether we had anything more we could tell her. In any case the book won’t be published before the autumn.”
Jacqueline shrugged and turned away. “Nothing important. Well, that’s it for tonight, Jo. Let’s lock the gate and go for dinner.”
He followed her down the hillside in the gathering evening gloom. The path had been cleared and graded and was now much more easy to negotiate. It took less than ten minutes to reach the car and they headed back to Quillan in companionable silence.
- 7 -
Alain Hebert had taken a six-month lease on a holiday cottage on the outskirts of Rennes-les-Bains under his assumed name. He drove there in a small Citroen which had been contract-hired by a friend for the same period. He spent the first week calling in to local shops and bars and chatting with anyone who would listen to him in order to establish his credentials.
He was letting it be known that he was a writer researching the history of the Knights Templar in the region, with the intention of publishing a book on the subject in the next two years and enjoying a summer sabbatical from his job as a lecturer at one of the Paris universities - a story which had some approximation to the truth. He had postcards printed inviting anybody with suitable information to contact him. He felt this story would give him justification for taking walks around the area and especially up to the castle at le Bezu.
Back in Marseilles La Force had taken less than a week to come back and tell him they had accepted his proposal. They were working on the distribution system. They showed him the warehouse on the outskirts of the city where they would store the treasure. The premises was already the base for a business providing spare parts for car repairs all over Southern France. All sizes of vehicles delivered and collected goods at the warehouse. They could reverse vans inside, close the doors and leave them there overnight for loading and unloading. Because the car parts were valuable, the building was already surrounded by high fences and protected by a sophisticated security system. La Force was constructing an additional inside wall which would partition off part of the warehouse to provide a very safe store which nobody would suspect might hold a treasure of unique value. They had also shown him examples of forged paperwork to export items all over the world from the criminal-infested docks of Marseilles. He had been impressed by their efficiency, although he still had the feeling that Montlucon was only a front man.
In return for their efforts he had given them further evidence of his knowledge of mediaeval artefacts, their valuation and potential markets for the items of treasure which he expected to find. He believed he had convinced them that they would be wise to honour their agreement with him, because the twenty-five percent of the proceeds which he received would be more than recovered as a result of his specialist knowledge. Without releasing the exact location of the treasure, he had told them of his plans to spend the summer in Rennes-les-Bains.
All that remained after that was to arrange a suitable means of communication between Montlucon and himself. He had rejected their first proposal of the weasel-faced Mickey who had been his original, distasteful contact with their organisation. He pointed out that so obvious a petty crook would be an uncomfortable giveaway in an upper middle class area like Rennes-les-Bains. So they came back to him two days later with a much better contact - a journalist named Cesar Renoir. They told him that Renoir
“ That’s right.” He stood back and folded his arms. “When I told her that whatever we found would be published later in the year, it seemed to satisfy her. She didn’t hang around asking lots of questions. I think she regarded it as lucky that we might be able to give her some additional information. She simply said she might pop back later to see whether we had anything more we could tell her. In any case the book won’t be published before the autumn.”
Jacqueline shrugged and turned away. “Nothing important. Well, that’s it for tonight, Jo. Let’s lock the gate and go for dinner.”
He followed her down the hillside in the gathering evening gloom. The path had been cleared and graded and was now much more easy to negotiate. It took less than ten minutes to reach the car and they headed back to Quillan in companionable silence.
- 7 -
Alain Hebert had taken a six-month lease on a holiday cottage on the outskirts of Rennes-les-Bains under his assumed name. He drove there in a small Citroen which had been contract-hired by a friend for the same period. He spent the first week calling in to local shops and bars and chatting with anyone who would listen to him in order to establish his credentials.
He was letting it be known that he was a writer researching the history of the Knights Templar in the region, with the intention of publishing a book on the subject in the next two years and enjoying a summer sabbatical from his job as a lecturer at one of the Paris universities - a story which had some approximation to the truth. He had postcards printed inviting anybody with suitable information to contact him. He felt this story would give him justification for taking walks around the area and especially up to the castle at le Bezu.
Back in Marseilles La Force had taken less than a week to come back and tell him they had accepted his proposal. They were working on the distribution system. They showed him the warehouse on the outskirts of the city where they would store the treasure. The premises was already the base for a business providing spare parts for car repairs all over Southern France. All sizes of vehicles delivered and collected goods at the warehouse. They could reverse vans inside, close the doors and leave them there overnight for loading and unloading. Because the car parts were valuable, the building was already surrounded by high fences and protected by a sophisticated security system. La Force was constructing an additional inside wall which would partition off part of the warehouse to provide a very safe store which nobody would suspect might hold a treasure of unique value. They had also shown him examples of forged paperwork to export items all over the world from the criminal-infested docks of Marseilles. He had been impressed by their efficiency, although he still had the feeling that Montlucon was only a front man.
In return for their efforts he had given them further evidence of his knowledge of mediaeval artefacts, their valuation and potential markets for the items of treasure which he expected to find. He believed he had convinced them that they would be wise to honour their agreement with him, because the twenty-five percent of the proceeds which he received would be more than recovered as a result of his specialist knowledge. Without releasing the exact location of the treasure, he had told them of his plans to spend the summer in Rennes-les-Bains.
All that remained after that was to arrange a suitable means of communication between Montlucon and himself. He had rejected their first proposal of the weasel-faced Mickey who had been his original, distasteful contact with their organisation. He pointed out that so obvious a petty crook would be an uncomfortable giveaway in an upper middle class area like Rennes-les-Bains. So they came back to him two days later with a much better contact - a journalist named Cesar Renoir. They told him that Renoir
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