H.J. Gaudreau - Betrayal in the Louvre (21 page)

Chapter 42

I

“What do we do now?” whispered Eve. 

“We’ve got to get back to town and our car,” Jim whispered back.  “But we’ve got to be careful that he doesn’t see us walking on the road.  And I don’t think we need to be whispering.” 

“Any suggestions on how to get to town and the police while a psychopath is looking for us?” asked Eve in a normal voice. 

“Okay, we….well, we….I think we…I don’t know hon.  I’m not a Special Forces guy.  I’m a retired logistics guy.”  Jim’s frustration was boiling to the surface.  “Okay, here’s an idea.  We stay in the woods, close to the edge and parallel the road.  We’ll be out of sight and not get lost.  Maybe we can sneak back to town that way.” 

“Alright, sounds like a plan.  Let’s do it.”  Eve sounded perfectly confident in Jim’s idea.  Jim took his eyes off the house and looked at her.  “We’re going to have to be very careful on this; and if he comes, you run as fast and as far away from me as you can, got it?” 

Eve met his gaze.  “Not going to happen, but sounded good hon.  Now let’s go.” 

The wood they were in was little more than a stand of trees between two fields.  It provided only meager concealment, but they considered some better than none.  They turned and slipped out the back, keeping the trees between themselves and the house where they’d been kept.  Finding the road they paralleled it, staying just inside of the edge of the wood and out of sight as much as possible.  Finally, they came to a fence line with trees growing right up to the road.  Here they crept closer and waited.  After forty-five minutes Jim heard a tractor approaching.  Hiding behind a tree he waited and watched.  After determining the farmer to be exactly that, a farmer, he stepped into the road and waved his arms.  The man, slightly taken aback, stopped the tractor and began a loud and excited speech in French.  Apparently, he was upset with Jim for stepping in front of his tractor.  His manner changed when Eve stepped into the road, and a few moments later he agreed to deliver them to Cheveuges. 

Their anxiety grew as the tractor chugged toward town.  Once the man stopped, dismounted, and examined a field of grass; determining if it was ready for cutting and bailing.  The man causally walked across the field while Jim and Eve attempted to hide behind the tractor whenever a vehicle approached on the little road.  Eventually they arrived back in town and began a search for their rental car.  It was not in the alley where their abductor had left it.  The old woman at their inn took fifteen minutes to explain that she had no knowledge of it or its location.  A fast walk around the small village didn’t locate the vehicle.  Finally, in desperation they elected to go to the police. 

A sign on the front of the town hall directed police department visitors to the rear of the building.  They rounded the building and there, in the police parking lot, sat their car.

“What do we tell the cops?” Jim asked.

“What do you mean?  We tell them that some nut pointed a gun at us in that barn and another nut kidnapped us!”  Eve nearly shouted.

“Well, let’s think this over,” Jim replied. 

“Think it over? What’s to think over?  There’s a couple of nut jobs out there pointing guns at people,” she insisted.

“Hon, the problem is that the police will ask us why somebody was pointing a gun at us.  Then they’ll eventually find out we were digging in the barn looking for some of the most important and valuable items in the history of France.  I think that will raise a few eyebrows.  I’m sure someone will be upset that we didn’t notify the authorities we were looking for the Sword of Charlemagne, only one of the biggest deals in French history and culture.  We don’t have an answer for that.  We might be charged with trying to steal the things or something.” 

“What, who cares?  Why is that a big deal?  And, we did tell someone.  Remember we went to the Louvre?  We told them!” 

“Yes, we told them about the Royal Patent, but we didn’t say anything about the sword or anything else,” he paused.  “We might be charged with some law that says we should have reported searching for antiques or something.  Maybe we were trespassing in that barn?” 

“Are you telling me we’re criminals?  We didn’t do anything wrong!  We’re the ones that had a gun pointed at us and got kidnapped.”  She was getting excited. 

“Actually, yeah, I guess I am.  All I’m saying is we’ll be better off not to mention the gun and the kidnapping.  Let’s just say we were picked up by a friendly stranger and spent the night in Chehery.  We walked back early this morning and are just picking up our car now.” 

Eve didn’t like it, but they told the tale to the policeman at the desk.  He didn’t blink, fined them twenty Euros, and twenty minutes later they were standing next to the now liberated Citroën.  A stop at the pastry shop for a quick breakfast, and they were headed back to Paris.  They drove in silence, stunned by the events of the last forty-eight hours.  Eventually Eve asked, “What do we do now?”  The question hung in the air. 

After a moment’s thought Jim slowly said, “OK, where are we….let’s start from the beginning.  My great grandfather found the Royal Patent.  Jean said that the Patents were always kept with the Sword of Charlemagne and other items.  I think we found that sword.  She also said that a coronation crown might be with the sword.  I’ll bet that was what was in the other box.” 

Eve thought for a second then said, “Agreed. But, we don’t have any of them now and the chances of getting any of them back are pretty slim.  Let’s not forget two guys pointed guns at us; one left the other after I smacked him on the head.”  Eve looked at Jim who merely shrugged. 

She continued, “And, the other kidnapped us and tied us up in some old house then disappeared.  This is all very weird.”

They thought for several minutes.  Finally Eve broke the silence, “In fact, I have no idea where to even start.  What do we do?”

Jim shook his head, “I don’t know.”  Neither said a word for the next ten minutes. 

“Well, we’ve got the Patent and the tube,” Jim said.

“No, the Louvre has them.”  She corrected him, “and, there’s no guarantee that they’re not going to just keep them.  The way our luck is going they’re going to say that the items really belong to France, and all we get is a thanks, get outa the country and don’t let the door hit you on the rear end.” 

He thought about that for a moment.  Then, he looked at his petite wife.  For the first time since they’d walked into their room to find a mad man and a gun he smiled at her.  “You’re getting fired up.”  

She looked at him and grinned, “Damn straight.”

They both grew quiet.  Jim passed a few slower cars on the highway.  Eventually he said, “Seriously, you’ve got a point.  They could just keep everything and kick us out of the country I guess.  Hopefully they’re not that cold, but it is possible.  In the meantime, let’s think about getting the boxes back.  Any ideas?” 

“Get them back?  All I can think to do is report what’s happened to the Louvre,” Eve said slowly.  “They’ll know we’re telling the truth, and they’ll see that what we’ve done makes sense.  The thing is I just didn’t like that guy, he seemed a bit, well, odd.” 

“Really?  The guy we met with?  Hervey or something like that?  He seemed a bit stuffy but alright to me,” Jim said, checking his rear view mirror for the umteeth time.

“Hervey?  Not even close.  It was Marcil.”  Eve said, looking at Jim with a grin.  “You’re really bad with names.” 

“Yeah, so you’ve said.  Anyway, he’s alright.  And, I think your idea of talking to him sounds like a decent idea…it makes sense anyway.  I’m just not sure it will get us any closer to the boxes.  The only good thing is that it does get the authorities looking for them.  And, at a minimum it gives the French government a chance to save its historical treasures from some crook that probably doesn’t know what he has.  And, it gives us a good chance of staying out of trouble, which strongly influences my vote, as they say.  Let’s do it.”  

“Jim, its not that big of help to the police.” 

“How so?”  Jim asked.

“We’ve still got the same problem.  We don’t know how to find the boxes so we don’t know how to help the police or whoever the Louvre puts on this.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true, well…wait, no…no…it’s not.  We know two important things.  We know what the guy that grabbed us looks like and we know about his car,” Jim said.

“We know he was dark skinned, dark eyes, and dark hair,” Eve replied. 

Jim looked at her.  “That’s the best you’ve got?  That’s the entire male population of every country on the Mediterranean.”

“Who knew I was going to have to draw a picture of the man pointing a gun at me!”  She shot back, not amused at the sarcasm.

“I’m just sayin’…”  After a moment Jim continued,  “He was wearing a nice suite.  And, he was about, what?  Maybe a hundred fifty, hundred sixty pounds?” 

“A suit?  It wasn’t a suit.  It was a nice pair of pants and a leather jacket,” she said then lapsed into thought.  A few minutes later she said, “And, now that you mention it, he was in pretty good shape.”  Eve grinned at him.

“Hey, hey, stay focused here,” Jim said with a smile. 

“Knew I’d get you with that.” 

“Ok, so, he wore nice clothes, was a buck sixty, didn’t have any meat on his bones…”  Jim glanced at Eve with a grin.  “…was about five foot six would you say?  Anything else?  Any marks on his face that you saw?”

She thought for a while.  “No, I’m not good at this.  I was looking more at that gun than him. That was a silver pistol with the biggest barrel in the world.  That’s all I’ve got.”

Jim shook his head.  “Yeah, I know.  He had a few days of beard so if there were scars or marks they would have had to be pretty big.  But, we can do better on the car.  That thing would stand out anyplace.  It was a new, dark brown Mercedes S with a light brown interior.” 

“And it was a leather interior,” she added.

“Did you get the license plate when we put the boxes in the trunk?”  he asked.

“No…well, I don’t remember.  It was something like, it started with two “As” because I thought of Alcoholics Anonymous, so it was AA then some numbers and letters.”  Eve sounded sure of herself.

Jim tried to picture the car.  He just couldn’t get it.  Finally he said, “Ok, let’s go with the AA.  Now, look at all the plates on the cars we pass, they’re all two letters, three numbers then two more letters.  Maybe that will jog our memories.”  He thought for a few miles.  “I think the numbers were 278 or 298, but I’m not certain.  And, I can’t remember the last letters at all.  But, the stripe on both sides was blue, I’m sure of that.”  They discussed the license plate for a few more minutes, but didn’t make any progress.  Eventually, they both became lost in their thoughts.

They drove in silence for the next ten minutes, each rehashing the events of the past twenty-four hours.  Finally, Jim glanced at Eve, “Do you think it was really the Coronation Crown in the little box?” 

“I have no idea,” she said, turning in her seat.  “That sword was pretty neat though.  Do you think it was the really the sword Charlemagne used?  That would be something.  The box had to contain the Coronation Crown; there’s no other explanation.”

They toyed with license plates for the next several miles.  They couldn’t be sure.  All they had was the AA and the 278 or 298.  Even the numbers were suspect.  They couldn’t be certain they had those right.  Finally, they gave up and drove the remainder of the trip back to Paris in silence, each lost in thought. 

II

It was late afternoon as they approached the city’s outskirts.  As a precaution they elected to spend the night in a cheap hotel outside the city center.  Dinner was at a small restaurant in the town of Saint-Maurice. 

As they waited for their order to arrive Eve began to talk about the Louvre.  Finally, she got around to what was really on her mind.  “Jim, when that guy Marcil first talked to me on the phone back home, I didn’t like him.” 

“Not liking him isn’t a reason not to go tell him what we’ve been up to,” Jim said as he took a sip of his wine. 

“No, not liking him isn’t the right words.  I didn’t trust him.  He sounded pretty determined to get that tube and Patent from us.  I don’t know, its just that, well…Jim, do you trust the guy,” she asked.

“I don’t see any reason not to,” Jim replied.  “He’s a bit of a bureaucrat, but he’s not done anything to us.  And, he did buy us the tickets to get here.  Why wouldn’t I?”

“I’m not sure.  There’s just something there,” Eve said.  “Something about him.  I don’t know, maybe it’s the way he was aloof and the way he demanded we leave the tube with him when we met him in his office.  Or, maybe it was from the first time I spoke to him on the phone.  He seemed to get under my skin then.  He said that they intended to….um, what was it?  Repatriate, yeah, repatriate was the word he used.  He was going to repatriate the tube and the Patent.  It was as if it was a done deal.  There was some sort of implied threat if we didn’t hand the things over.  I got a little leery of him.  And, when I was about ready to hang up on him he offered to buy the tube and Patent; said he’d have to authenticate them first and offered us the trip over here for that purpose.  That’s how we got here.  I guess I was so shocked by the money and the trip I forgot I was getting upset with the guy.”