Cognac Conspiracies by Jean-Pierre Alaux, Noël Balen Read Free Book Online Page B

much. Of course, he was affected by your other brother’s sale of his shares, but Pierre had faith in you. He knew you were capable of preserving the Lavoisier honor. No, even the thought of suicide was against his nature.”
    “What are you getting at?” the heiress said, crushing her cigarette in the ashtray where Benjamin’s cigar was slowly smoldering.
    “I take it you are rejecting the accident theory?” Benjamin hastened to clarify.
    “I have a hard time imagining Pierre falling into the river without managing to reach the bank,” Marie-France said.
    “Which means that you are convinced, just as we are, that your brother did not die a natural death,” the winemaker summed up, looking at his assistant. He noticed that Virgile’s shirttail was coming out of his jeans. The lapse annoyed him.
    “Was anyone angry with your brother?” Virgile asked. “Did he keep company with any shady characters?”
    “Shady? No, not at all,” Marie-France said.
    “If you don’t mind, I’ll take that cigarette,” Virgile said.
    “Oh, yes, of course.”
    “What I am asking is this: Who might have benefited from your brother’s death?”
    “I…I have no idea,” Marie-France answered.
    “Well, I have an idea,” Virgile said. Now he seemed assured, almost impertinent.
    “I can’t think of anyone,” Marie-France insisted. After a long silence she added, “Apart from the Asians, maybe, but that would be jumping to conclusions. Unless it has something to do with your recent decision to resign, Mr. Cooker.”
    “Integrity and ethics drove my decision to resign, madam, and I made up my mind before your brother’s death. I waited to tell you about it until this morning.”
    “I admit I don’t understand much anymore,” Marie-France said just as she noticed that her pen was leaking. Her fingertips were turning black with ink, and color was rising in her cheeks.
    “With all due respect, boss, there are two opposing theories if we start from the premise that Pierre Lavoisier’s death is advantageous to a third party,” Virgile said. “The crime could have been ordered by the Chinese, but one could also imagine that your older brother, Ms. Lavoisier, with the price he negotiated for his shares, might have had an interest in eliminating someone who held a little over thirty-three percent of the company.”
    “Young man, I will not allow you to accuse my brother!” Marie-France responded angrily as she searched for something to wipe her hand with. She motioned to her secretary to fetch a towel. “Obviously, Claude-Henri is at the root of all our troubles, but he’s not a murderer.”
    Benjamin reached for his cigar, brought it to his lips, and took a deep puff before carefully putting it down again.
    “Ms. Lavoisier, there are many people who were surprised, actually shocked, by your older brother’s absence at Pierre’s funeral. You must admit that his silence does not argue in his favor.”
    “Claude was not there because he did not know about Pierre’s death. I can’t tell you where he’s hiding. I haven’t heard from him since he left Jarnac. Not a phone call! Not a letter! I moved heaven and earth to find him. I published Pierre’s death notice in Le Figaro and Le Monde . In vain. Up until the morning of the funeral, I hoped that he would find out, that he’d show up.”
    Marie-France was holding herself together. She was not a woman prone to tears. Again, she scrutinized Virgile. Was she jealous of his young assistant who had become so close to Pierre in the last hours of his life? Or was she coming on to him? Or was it both?
    “When you left that night, what did he say to you, Mr. Lanssien? Did he seem anxious or preoccupied?”
    Virgile was fiddling with the cigarette, which he hadn’t lit. Benjamin knew that he hated blond tobacco.
    “He was clearly happy when I left. He spent more than an hour showing me his herbarium and giving me a lecture on scents. I never could have...”
    Virgile’s