Parisian Detective Tales, a Trilogy (eBook)

The Mother

Marcel Marquie (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
224 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3178-0298-1 (ISBN)

Infos

In this last part of the trilogy set in 1948, private eye Toni Bonnet is tasked to find the fifty-year-old woman who inexplicably abandoned her family when she was in her mid-twenties. Sandrine and Claudine, her daughters and main characters in the preceding books, were young children when their mother disappeared. The investigation, which brings echoes of the intellectual and artistic scene of the 1920s and 1930s, eventually takes the investigator to the United States.

The author, who was born in France and lives in the United States, has had a long academic interest in pre- and post-WWII France, the chosen setting in Parisian Detective Tales. He has also published and lectured on French film and crime fiction, his other two areas of special interest.

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The first part of the trilogy focused on the mysterious actions of Sandrine and Claudine, the sisters bent on avenging their father, who had been falsely accused of collaboration and murdered by resistants. The second part was an investigation into the abduction of Sandrine's child, who had been fathered by an officer in the German occupation army. Both Two Sisters and The Child were set in 1947. The third book, set a year later, centers on the search for the sisters' mother, who had inexplicably abandoned her very young daughters when she was in her mid-twenties and was believed to have moved to the United States. The investigation, which brings echoes of the artistic and intellectual Parisian scene of the 1920s and 1930s, eventually takes private eye Toni Bonnet to New York.

Textauszug

1

“You want me to go where?”

“You speak English, don’t you?”

“Well, I did once. My father sent me to England to learn the language, and I became pretty fluent, but that was a long time ago . . . I was a teenager.”

“But you also told me that you met English POWs in 1940.”

“True. That was when I was taken prisoner like them. At first, we were held together, then the French and the English POWs were separated. So that episode was short-lived.”

“I’m sure you can do more than survive in an English-speaking environment, Toni. And with your English-sounding name, you’ll fit right in.”

“But New York? It’s not exactly like crossing the channel.”

“I grant you that. But let’s talk about it. Why don’t you come to my house on Sunday for lunch, unless you already have plans.”

“I thought I’d go to the movies, but if you’re inviting me for lunch, and knowing what a superb cook you are, it certainly can be arranged.”

“Perfect. The weather is supposed to be absolutely glorious, and you can enjoy a nice motorcycle ride.”

“By the way, Claudine, where are you calling from? Have you managed to get a phone?”

“Of course not. God knows what I would have to do to get one! I’m calling from the town hall. The mayor is a friend, and on rare occasions, he’s been nice enough to let me use the municipal telephone.”

“That’s quite a favor. You should marry this man.”

“Very funny. So I’ll see you around 12:00.”

That was three days ago. Toni had not heard from Claudine in close to a year, and her phone call had come as a surprise. She still lived in her house in Seine-Port, close to Melun, and that was where Toni was riding to on his DKW on this fine June day. Almost exactly a year ago, he had had lunch on the patio with Claudine and her sister Sandrine, and they had asked him to find Sandrine’s little boy. He remembered that Claudine had served Rabbit Chasseur on that occasion. He had had too much to drink, but since he had traveled by train that day, it had not been a problem, and he had slept all the way back to Gare de Lyon. However, being on a motorcycle required self-restraint, and he would obviously have to watch his intake of wine.

Spring weather being always changeable in Paris, Toni had not been able to do much motorcycling, and he was enjoying being back in the saddle on the small country roads leading to Melun. He had kept his bike all winter in Émile’s garage on Rue du Maine, and it felt good, liberating in fact, to be riding again. There was little traffic, but the postwar enthusiasm for cars could already be felt, particularly with the very successful new economy models like the Renault 4CV and the Citroën 2CV. The automobile market was becoming democratized.

As he arrived, he immediately spotted Claudine’s Citroën Traction Avant parked behind her house. So the car had clearly been repaired. He left his bike next to it. The weather had turned quite warm; so instead of knocking on the front door, he went directly to the small patio where he assumed he would find Claudine. The table had been set, the French doors were open, and he could hear her rummaging in the kitchen and whistling a tune that he recognized, having heard it on the radio.

“I knew you were here. I heard your infernal machine,” she yelled from inside the house.

“It’s not that loud. By the way, I didn’t know that you could whistle. For whatever reason, I thought that only men whistled and that it was not proper for dainty ladies to do so.”

“You’re probably right, but since I’m not a dainty lady, I can whistle as much as I want, can’t I?”

“You most definitely can.”

“Lunch is almost ready. Have a seat. How about a glass of Cinzano?”

“That would be lovely, but just a drop.”

“I remember that you liked my Lapin Chasseur, so we’re having it again.”

Toni had a distinct impression of déjà vu: same place, same time of year, same meal, and a similar request to find a missing person. But that would have to be broached when coffee was served. There would be no business talk while the rabbit was being savored. What was different, though, was Sandrine’s absence, and that absence was deeply troubling. They ate making small talk, and they carefully avoided mentioning Claudine’s younger sister, although the memory of her suicide weighed on them. Toni was not about to forget the gruesome tableau of mother and child lying on a bed next to each other, both dead. She had shot her little boy through the heart before blowing her brains out with Claudine’s pistol. And she had previously murdered the couple who had abducted her child. Sandrine was not going to let them keep her little boy. Mother and child were thus reunited in death.

Toni had loved Sandrine. They had even spent a night together, and he had realized later that the night they were together, she had already made up her mind to kill herself, her child, and the couple who thought they were blessed when the abducted toddler was brought to them.

Claudine and Toni finally stopped their chitchat, and after a long spell of silence, it became clear that they had to stop beating about the bush. Claudine stared at Toni, tears streaming down her face, and she said, “We need to talk about her and how it all came to that horrible conclusion.” So they did, hoping that it would have some therapeutic effect, although neither one really believed that reaching a form of closure was possible, or even desirable. Mourning was painful, and that was that.

Before Toni had discovered the dead mother and child, Claudine was convinced that Sandrine, in her distraught state of mind, was on her way to Austria to murder Günter, the child’s father with whom she had had a torrid love affair during the war. And Claudine was determined to stop her. She had hopped in her car and taken off at full speed toward Germany. From there, she would have gone on to Austria. But she never made it to the border. She drove so fast that she lost control of her vehicle near Metz. The car rolled over, and she was fortunately ejected from it before it came to a stop on its roof in the middle of a field, scaring a herd of cows. Claudine had broken her left arm but was otherwise unharmed, and it turned out that the Citroën was not too badly damaged and could be repaired. Both car and driver were taken to Metz. The Citroën was towed to a garage where it was restored to its original condition, and Claudine heard about her sister’s death in the hospital where her fracture was being treated. Toni wished that he had been able to be the first to tell her about the circumstances of Sandrine’s death, but he had been detained by the police after reporting the deaths of the mother and her child.

“I’m really sorry I couldn’t tell you myself.”

“I know, Toni, but I must say that the gendarmes who came to the hospital were extremely nice. I didn’t know gendarmes could be so tactful.”

“As you must have guessed, I told the police that you were on your way to Germany and that you should be stopped if at all possible.”

“Well, excessive speed stopped me, and I’m lucky I was not killed in the accident. That Traction Avant is an incredibly sturdy vehicle, by the way. Do you remember that stunt commercial in which a Traction Avant was dropped from the top of a cliff and was none the worse for it when it landed on its roof? Well, I can now attest to the fact that it was not fake. Those cars are really amazingly well built.”

“Did the police give you any grief about the handgun Sandrine used? They must have known that it was yours.”

“I’m sure they did, but they pretended it was a matter of little importance.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes. When they heard that I was the head of a Résistance cell during the war, they turned a blind eye.”

“Charging you wouldn’t have changed anything.”

“No, but my carelessness was at the root of it all. Sandrine should never have managed to get her hands on that Luger. It was my fault, and I’ll never forgive myself. I bear the responsibility for her death.”

Toni did not know what to say. She was right, so he kept quiet. When coffee was finally served, it was time to talk business.

She wiped away her tears, recovered her composure, and smiled.

“Two sugars?”

“Yes. You remember.”

“You know that I would like you to find my mother.”

“Yes, you told me on the phone, but I’m not sure why, after so many years.”

“Did Sandrine ever tell you anything about her?”

“No, but when her husband hired me to tail her over a year ago, when he thought she was having an affair, he mentioned that your mother left you the year after Sandrine was born and that it is believed that she then went to New York. Apparently, she frequented American expatriates before the war, and that would explain why she went to the...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 2.6.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Krimi / Thriller / Horror
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3178-0298-1 / 9798317802981