In which we return to Puisay, its wise head of Police, Commissioner Sinet, and its most popular family, the Thiriets, whom we met in both The Clue of the Black Cat and The Mule on the Motorway. How can a goldfish in a bowl provide a clue to the identity of the thief who has stolen the money raised by Geoffrey and Lucien Verdier to buy a truckload of rice for people suffering famine in India? If anyone can work it out, it’s Commissioner Sinet; but never underestimate the importance of Bobby Thiriet to help clinch an investigation.
A Truckload of Rice was first published in 1968 by G. P. Rouge et Or under its original French title Le Commissaire Sinet et le mystère des poissons rouges, which translates literally as Commissioner Sinet and the mystery of the goldfish, with illustrations by Prudence Seward, a watercolourist and etcher born in London in 1926, and believed to be still alive today. As “A Truckload of Rice”, the book was first published in the UK by The Bodley Head in 1968, and translated, as usual, by John Buchanan-Brown. My own copy of the book is the first edition. There are a few copies currently on sale online if you want to buy one!
This is the third and final book in the sequence of novels set in the fictional Parisian suburb of Puisay, following on from the excellent The Clue of the Black Cat and The Mule on the Motorway. Once again the end of the previous book sets the scene for the next book, with the story that shops in Puisay are giving away a free goldfish to every customer. The Clue of the Black Cat remains, in my humble opinion, Berna’s masterpiece, but A Truckload of Rice comes close with an entertaining and unpredictable plot about the theft of the sum of fifteen hundred francs that has been raised by the people of Puisay to go to famine relief in Chandrapur, in India.
Unlike the last book, Berna doesn’t furnish us with a map to locate the various areas of Puisay, but we do know from the rounds made by the tramp Thank-You-Kindly, that Puisay is near Orly, Choisy-le-Roi, Louvigny-Triage, Athis-Mons, Massy-Palaiseau, Antony and Sceaux, all of which are real locations. However, unlike the previous book, the locations in this book only play a relatively minor part; it isn’t necessary for us to have any idea of where the places are in relation to each other. Also, unlike most of Berna’s books, there’s no sense of gang membership. The young journalists who work on the Puisay Students’ News are only briefly mentioned, and we only hear of two of Geoffrey and Lucien’s schoolfriends. This book is much more in the tradition of Magpie Corner and The Mystery of the Cross-Eyed Man, in that there are no more than one or two central young characters with whom Berna’s readership can easily identify.
And once again, it’s a very male-centred story, with very few female characters, all of whom are peripheral except perhaps for Catherine Verdier, Geoffrey and Lucien’s mother. The only girls that appear in the story are a brief mention of Gisèle and Caroline, who both attend the private Institution Garnier and whose only interaction with the story involves them giggling at some very minor flirtatious behaviour from Geoffrey. There’s also a couple of short conversations with Belle, Bobby Thiriet’s sister, but she plays no active part in the story at all.
Commissioner Sinet is still in charge at the local police station, assisted by Monsieur Malin, who appeared in The Mule on the Motorway and Inspector Valentin, a bright officer, but whose abilities and attitudes are occasionally found wanting. Lagneau, Geoffrey’s teacher, is unimpressed with Valentin’s attitude towards the theft: “the pickpocket on the 196 is nothing more than an unenterprising sneak thief. And he didn’t get away with all that much when he robbed the boy.” Lagneau replies: “Geoffrey […] reckons the cost, not in the paper francs in the envelope but in what they meant – the food snatched from the mouths of people dying from hunger […] Self-interest still hasn’t got its hold on those boys and girls and they’re far more giving than we are. The fact that a million and a half human beings suffer from hunger as if it were a disease, that ten thousand people die from this cause every single day of the week, has struck home far deeper with them than with their elders.”
Sinet remains very predisposed to approaches from the local children – much more than from the adults, in fact. There’s a moment when Sinet must pretend that Geoffrey and Lucien are his sons, to make their appearance less obvious when they’re out investigating. Sinet has a fatherly feeling towards the boys as he walks with them down the Voie du Renard. He loves to be associated with the youngsters. “Grown-ups bored him. They always wanted a logical answer […] Whatever their age, children would follow for preference a clue which the police would consider outside the range of their investigations.” I’m sure Berna’s characterisation of Sinet encouraged children everywhere to have greater trust in the police.
In the previous book, the distinction between the haves and have-nots in the town was less because the Thiriets had moved from the Rue Mirandole to the Belloy Estate; a move from poverty to gracious living. With Bobby hobnobbing around the stables and mixing with much more gentrified folk, the bad old days seemed a thing of the past. In this book, the Verdiers are firmly rooted in the Rue Mirandole and it’s clear that money is a problem. When it becomes necessary for Mme Verdier to find fifteen hundred francs unexpectedly out of nowhere, it’s not going to be easy. Nevertheless, Catherine Verdier is upbeat about the prospect, as the most important thing is the honour of the family: “It won’t kill us! We’ll just have to do without one of two luxuries: the holidays will have to be shorter and we’ll have to go to the country and not to the seaside; less pocket-money for you, and fewer treats; you’ll have to wear your old clothes until they are threadbare and I shall have to put off buying a new bed for Lucien.”
There are always individual moments in Berna’s writing which stand out for their impact, or humour, or simply because they combine eloquence with simplicity. A good example of this is in a brief description of Geoffrey, who is a robust, enthusiastic boy who throws himself into everything. There’s a delightfully subtle description of this robustness, when Catherine and Lucien are waiting for Geoffrey to arrive at the flat. “Then there was a half-hearted tinkle of the bell. The two looked at one another and raised their eyebrows: it could not be Geoffrey, for he generally sounded a carillon.”
What comes across most strongly from the story is the sense of urgency to raise money for people who are less well off than themselves; even those with few assets of their own show generosity towards the Chandrapur famine. It’s almost as though the Indians, thousands of miles away, are personal friends of the Puisay people; the drive to raise as much money as possible is a matter of unmitigated honour to them. As a result, there’s no competitiveness between the various teams of fund-raisers; there doesn’t need to be, as they’re purely motivated by the thought of raising as much money as possible: “There was no question of beating anyone else’s record. The money which they had collected up and down the streets went to swell a common fund, provided mainly by the generosity of ordinary people. As each emptied his tin upon the classroom table, he or she had the feeling of adding a little bit more to the lifegiving supplies promised to the starving inhabitants of Chandrapur.”
There’s only one instance of rejection of this kind reaction. Outdated language warning alert: This is spoken by the tramp Thank-You-Kindly, who turns on the boys when they try to get him to donate: “Things have come to a pretty pass when the working-man has the bread taken out of his mouth to feed a bunch of wogs!” Berna also doesn’t shy away from emphasising the full honour of dying from starvation, with a clinically brutal description of the process that seems out of place in a children’s book: “First of all the stomach swells up and then the skin gradually becomes drier and drier until it begins to crack. If malnutrition is not halted at this stage, the hair goes grey in a matter of days and then starts to fall out in handfuls; the eyes go dim and glassy; the person’s mind begins to wander, and then he collapses through sheer physical weakness. He may lie for a time oblivious of his surroundings, but not for long. He soon finds himself trapped in a nightmare. Scarcely aware of the daylight, he takes one, two, three steps even, only to collapse in the blazing sunshine of the street.”
Finally, it’s curious that Berna describes the exotic fish as a guariba – as that is actually the proper name for the brown howler monkey, native to Brazil!
Here’s my chapter by chapter synopsis of the book. If you haven’t read the book yet and don’t want to see any spoilers, here’s where you have to stop reading!
Chapter One – The Goldfish. Commissioner Sinet arrives at his desk to discover a goldfish in a bowl. The bowl is small but the goldfish is even smaller. He’s not impressed and demands to know who thought it was funny to leave it there. But Madame Michon, the charwoman, explains that she has given it to him, as it was a free gift with some shopping she did earlier with police funds. It’s a promotional stunt, and about twenty local shops are giving these goldfish away. She assumes that M. Brault, who has opened a new pet-shop, is behind the scheme; everyone who wants to buy fish food, or a larger bowl, or a companion fish, will go to him!
Meanwhile a flag-day is being arranged. The head of the Freedom from Hunger office, and indeed mayor of Puisay, M. Filleul, is on the phone to Sinet to remind him it will take place tomorrow and there’ll be a number of young helpers from the local schools on the streets, rattling tins and encouraging donations for their cause: A Truckload of Rice for Chandrapur. They’ve already raised thirty-five thousand francs through the generosity of local businesses and wealthy individuals. But they’re hoping for at least the same amount to be raised by these young people from the Institution Garnier and the Saint-Maur school.
Doctor and Mrs Kasterin have brought an elderly gentleman to Puisay, Durga Chandar, from his native Rajputana to emphasise the poverty plight that they are trying to address with their fund raising. M. Loetzen, the charity organiser, had suggested that Puisay should be twinned with Chandrapur, to give an extra spur to the effort; an idea that the Town Council agreed unanimously. The different areas of the town are to be divided up between different collectors; there should be no problem in the rich areas like the Avenue de Paris, but there might be some resistance in the poorer areas, like the Rue Mirandole or the Rue Général-Thuboeuf. But M. Lagneau of the boys’ school is convinced his hard-working collectors will do well. They have already worked out their targets: number one on their list is the tax collector in the Rue Mirandole!
Chapter Two – The Flag-Day. Geoffrey and Lucien Verdier can’t wait for the day to come; Geoffrey was out of bed at 7am making hot chocolate for his brother, his mother and himself. They plan to spend the whole day selling flags, so they need a good breakfast. Their mother, Catherine, is proud of her boys and is the first to donate; just five francs, but it deserves a flag. Inspired, Geoffrey and Lucien decide to donate that fortnight’s pocket money to the cause; giving their time alone somehow seems insufficient, when children are starving in India. Even Mme Hubert, the building’s caretaker, is happy to make a donation – having already been forewarned that she should by Mme Verdier.
As previously decided, their first port of call was to be the tax collector’s office. They go up the stairs to the main office where M. Chalus, the tax collector, is loudly complaining to those local citizens who were behind with their payments. Geoffrey is firm with M. Chalus, but Chalus is adamant; he will not give any money to the fund. Eventually though, they shame him into donating, on the understanding that the boys would tell everyone else how generous M. Chalus had been. They had hoped he might donate fifty francs, but he surprises them with a donation of one hundred francs. “They went downstairs with heads held high and in quick succession fleeced the Chief Clerk, the cashier and his underlings with a briskness that cheered the discontented citizens queuing at the counter.”
Chapter Three – Thank You Kindly. Thank-You-Kindly, the tramp, so called because he always uses that phrase to wheedle money out of unsuspecting passersby, is targeting the streets of Puisay for people to give him a few francs. He spots the rich and posh Mme Aubineau, whose dog he likes to flatter in order to get her to give him some money. She gives him a franc, just to get rid of him. Geoffrey and Lucien spot him and are outraged that he should be targeting the same people as them, but for a much lesser cause – he only drinks his money away. They bound up to him and shame him into giving them Mme Aubineau’s franc. Then they advise him to leave town, because with two hundred or so collectors on the go, he’s not going to secure any cash from his begging. Naturally they then turn their attention to Mme Aubineau herself, who flat out refuses to donate at first. It takes a combination of Geoffrey telling her exactly what happens when you die of starvation, and recounting the generosity of M. Chalus, to get her to part with ten francs.
It’s only 9.30 am but they already have a tin full of cash and not many flags left over, so the boys head to the school where teachers M. Lagneau and Mlle Collet are working hard, managing the counting of money and the distribution of flags. Geoffrey and Lucien have collected three hundred francs so far; the other collectors, Gisèle and Caroline, Big Bob and Prosper, have brought in about the same amount. Lagneau’s suggestion of sandwiches and lemonade is replaced by a very welcome celebratory steak and chips, and at 2.00pm the collectors all go out again to continue their good work.
Chapter Four – The Blind Man Shows His Hand. Towards the end of their round, Geoffrey and Lucien pay a call on M. Léonard’s grocery store on the Boulevard de Rungis. He’s happy to donate and gives them a fifty franc note. Geoffrey gives him all the details about how the collection is being handled and tells him about M. Loetzen, Doctor Kasterin and Durga Chandar. Meanwhile, Lucien is intrigued by the row of goldfish bowls in M. Léonard’s shop. The storekeeper offers him one, but Lucien declines as it simply wouldn’t be practical to try to pin flags on lapels whilst holding a goldfish bowl.
Back at the count, the boys are just twenty centimes short of one thousand five hundred francs – an extraordinarily successful day. It’s agreed that Geoffrey will accompany M. Lagneau back to M. Léonard’s in the hope that he will exchange all the small change for big notes. The grocer is happy to oblige and gives them three five hundred franc notes in exchange for their cash. Geoffrey chooses a goldfish to give to Lucien, but decides not to take it at that moment, saying he will come back for it. Instead, Geoffrey has the honour of taking the money to the Town Hall, and giving it Mme Filleul. Lagneau tells Geoffrey which bus to take, and then walks on to the Belloy Estate.
The bus is very full. Just before he’s due to get off, a blind man asks Geoffrey’s help to get off and walk with him a little of the way. Geoffrey of course is as helpful as he can be. Eventually the man walks off once he knows where he is. However – Geoffrey discovers that his jacket has been slit open with a razor and the money has been stolen. All that effort and generosity wasted; what a disaster – and will people believe him?
Chapter Five – A Costly Sense of Humour. Lucien is buzzing with excitement when he gets home and can tell his mother all about their day’s adventures. But when Geoffrey appears, he confesses that he had been standing outside their apartment for the last five minutes: “I heard you laughing and I didn’t dare ring.” Geoffrey tells them both about the theft of the money, the damage to his new jacket and that it was the apparently blind man who did it. Geoffrey goes on to say that he feels he can’t tell anyone, because they’ll all think he stole it.
Catherine takes control of the situation by deciding that they’ll have to pay the fifteen hundred francs out of their own pocket. It will mean borrowing from the neighbours, asking her employer for an advance on her salary and cutting their expenses generally. “In the meantime, we’ll just have to tighten our belts… like the Indians in Chandrapur.” Geoffrey is relieved that she isn’t cross with him and believes him. Lucien is furious but understands.
Geoffrey takes the borrowed money – fifteen one hundred franc notes – to the Town Hall and hands it to the disagreeable and unfriendly clerks, who take his envelope and dismiss him without thanks. Thinking back on the day’s events, Geoffrey feels wretched. ““I shan’t ever get involved in working for charity again.”” But when Lagneau witnesses the envelope of cash being opened, he realises that something has happened – it’s a different envelope, and there are fifteen notes rather than three. Concerned, he decides to visit the Verdiers. He arrives as they are just settling down for dinner and can tell instantly that Geoffrey has a frightened look on his face. He explains that he saw the envelope and the bank notes had changed: “the only possible explanation which occurred to me on the way here is as melodramatic as you could wish and the look on your face isn’t exactly encouraging… Own up, now, you lost the envelope, didn’t you?” Geoffrey tells him what happened and shows him his ripped jacket. Lagneau tells him he should have come straight to him and it could all have been settled easily – but having done what they have done, it will be very difficult to return the money to the Verdiers? Catherine emphasises that she doesn’t want her children to be under suspicion. Lagneau understands – but is appalled at the personal sacrifice the family has had to make.
Chapter Six – The Man on the Bus. Lagneau wastes no time in coming to see Commissioner Sinet with Geoffrey. With great efficiency, Sinet’s backroom staff have all the facts about the numbers of blind people in Puisay. When they eliminate all the obviously inappropriate suspects, they quickly decide the culprit must be M. Rougier, “a disabled soldier […] Very respectable gentleman.” When they pay him a visit, it is Rougier himself who answers the door; and Geoffrey is in no doubt that he was the man whom he helped off the bus. Sinet questions him further; and it emerges that there was a fat man standing next to both Rougier and Geoffrey, who rudely bustled past Rougier – and with his limited vision Rougier could identify the fat man also had a white stick. One more clue: Rougier felt that the man had a cardboard flag in his buttonhole.
Geoffrey realises only a few people could possibly have witnessed Lagneau giving him the sealed envelope and is determined to pursue his own investigations into who it might have been. But Sinet quickly discovers that there were at least fifty people in the street who could have seen the money being handed over. He’s determined to get to the bottom of the crime.
Chapter Seven – A Drop of the Right Stuff. Next day Sinet decides to follow up on the evidence so far and identifies the only blind man in the area who is fat. However, this is a dead end, as this M. Mancheron is also bed-ridden and completely incapable of committing the crime. Meanwhile, at school, life goes on as normal for Geoffrey and Lucien. Lagneau is convinced Geoffrey is completely innocent but appreciates that his mother did exactly the right thing. Geoffrey tells Lagneau that there was something suspicious that happened the day before – but he can’t quite put his finger on it. M. Léonard, too, is perplexed; he notices another five hundred franc note in his till, but he was certain he had given them all to Geoffrey and Lagneau the day before. Why was there another note in the till? It even has a memorable serial number: 12345.
Léonard goes to the Welfare Offices, where he meets Lagneau. He explains the curious situation regarding the notes. Lagneau has a solution: someone has since returned to the shop and used it to pay for their goods, or to exchange it for smaller notes. Together they seek out Sinet. They decide to return to the shop to question Mme Léonard. She remembers someone about 7.00 pm, coming in to buy a bottle of brandy and used the five hundred franc note to pay for it. She remembers him being “cheery, fat, with a hat pulled down over his face and dark glasses. He looked rather like a clown in mufti.”
Geoffrey and Lucien are also at the shop. Geoffrey says they have come to collect the goldfish that M. Léonard had put aside for Lucien. However, Mme Léonard apologises and explains that it has been given to someone else – the man who paid for his brandy with the five hundred franc note. “Geoffrey laid his right hand on Lucien’s shoulder. “And the two of us, “ he said to the amusement of all, “are going to follow the clue of the goldfish.””
Chapter Eight – The Clue of the Guariba. Geoffrey and Lucien pay a call at the exotic fish store recently opened by M. Brault. He tells them that a few of the free fish he gave away were more than just mere goldfish; and Geoffrey’s description of the fish he chose for Lucien leads Brault to deduce it is a guariba. Its water mustn’t drop below 22 degrees Celsius and it lives on green water weeds and plants with tender leaves. Clearly, all Geoffrey and Lucien need to do to find the money is find the guariba!
Meanwhile, one of Sinet’s men has tracked down a man who was shamming blindness, and is conning people into buying his door-to-door wares. He knows he’s not really blind, as the officer saw him get into a car and drive off. His name is Alfred Peignon; but as soon as Sinet sees him, he realises it’s not the same man who bought the brandy – his description is completely different. However, Sinet continues to question him and discovers that Peignon knows another sham blind man; a man who parked a car, a grey DS with a white roof, put on dark glasses a hat and took out his white stick, and got the same bus that Geoffrey and Rougier did. Sinet insists that Geoffrey takes a look at Peignon to find out if he saw him on the bus – but Geoffrey doesn’t recognise him.
Lucien explains the whole story about the guariba to Sinet. They are, in fact, looking for nine guaribas, not ten; as Sinet himself also has one swimming about on his desk. And Geoffrey drops a bombshell to the extent that he just has a slight suspicion that the truckload of rice bound for Chandrapur won’t reach its destination. Lagneau is annoyed at the accusation, but Geoffrey can’t explain why he feels it.
Chapter Nine – The Trap is Set. It’s Saturday, and business is brisk at M. Brault’s exotic fish store. Sinet – alongside Geoffrey and Lucien – wants a list of all those people who have made themselves known to him as being lucky winners of a guariba. One is Madame Deuzy, and we know she’ll have nothing to do with the crime, as she was so helpful in the cases of the Black Cat and the Mule. Another is the esteemed M. de Saint-Véran, a local VIP well known to Sinet as a bank director and business executive. Yet another is Mme Aubineau, from whom the boys struggled to obtain a donation of ten francs; she wouldn’t be seen dead on a bus. Then there was M. Samson, from Voie du Renard, “a district with a bad name […] A big, middle-aged man. Drove a 2 CV” and he paid with a five hundred franc note.
Sinet and the boys arrive at Voie du Renard, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, just like a father taking his sons out for a walk. Stopping outside M. Samson’s house, they engage him in conversation, mentioning that M. Brault had said M. Samson was an expert in tropical fish and that the boy had just taken possession of a guariba. Samson takes them to see his aquarium; he has already bought a companion guariba for his free one. Sinet establishes that the second fish cost fifty francs, but Lucien gives the game away that they are investigating a theft and Samson recognises that Sinet is the Commissioner of Police. On further questioning, Samson reveals that the five hundred franc note he used to buy the fish with was given to him as part of his retirement pension. He also discloses that he is a retired police officer, and he and Sinet reconcile over their mutual professions. Back at the station, Sinet’s men have got the numbers of all the grey DS’s with white roofs in Puisay – there are ten of them, just like the guaribas.
Chapter Ten – Bobby Takes a Hand. Inspector Valentin explains that the owners of these cars are very unlikely to be involved in the case, as they are all respectable, employed people. One of them is M. de Saint-Véran, but Sinet finds it impossible to believe he can be wrapped up in this crime. Another is notable local doctor, Doctor Lavalette. There’s a M. Milard, a butcher who makes ten thousand francs a day from his shop, so he’s unlikely to need the money; another belongs to the wealthiest chemist in town and the sixth to Mlle Amandine, who runs the new fashion shop in Belloy. Then there’s M. Potter, whose car has no wheels, and M. Gourel, a disabled ex-serviceman. The other two belong to M. Filleul, the mayor and Doctor Kasterin of the Freedom from Hunger campaign!
Back at M. Brault’s shop, the seventh guariba-owner emerges as a young lady comes in announcing she’s going to keep her free fish. Sinet sends Valentin to trail her once she has left the shop; he finds out that she lives with her mother on the Belloy Estate and was given the fish by the man that runs the leather shop in the arcade. Annoyed by his approach, either the young lady or the mother gave him a good smack around the face. Later an elderly couple returned their guariba saying it was impossible for them to look after. But then another man appeared, looking for a companion to his guariba; he instantly arouses the suspicion of Sinet and Lagneau. He does not leave a name, and they decide to follow him. This leaves Lucien alone, observing another boy around his own age in the shop; he was from the lycée and wore one of the charity flags. It turns out that the boy owns the tenth and final guariba. He’s come in to buy a cheap aquarium, he can’t afford anything better. His name: Bobby Thiriet.
Meanwhile, Sinet and Lagneau are still following the owner of guariba number nine. He turns on them and demands to know why they are following him. Refusing to help them, he refers them to the caretaker and slams the door on them. The caretaker names him as M. Vibert, an architect. His car is in a scrapyard as he hasn’t driven since his wife became semi-paralysed in a car crash. He confirms that Vibert has fifty or so fish in his aquarium.
Back at M. Brault’s shop Sinet is delighted to discover that Bobby Thiriet owns the final guariba and that Lucien has gone off following him. “Bobby will lead us straight to your thief, simply by getting a confession out of that goldfish everyone around us has been laughing at for the last couple of days.”
Chapter Eleven – The Accusing Goldfish. Bobby knows Lucien is following him and eventually confronts him about it. After they realise that they both know the poverty stricken area in which Lucien lives, and where Bobby lived, the ice is broken between them. Lucien wants to see Bobby’s goldfish – and Bobby doesn’t understand Lucien’s interest. But he’s curious now, especially since it was the clue of the black cat that had stimulated Bobby’s attention a few months back. He invites Lucien in to see it, but Bobby’s sister Belle has bad news: the cat has upturned the glass bowl, and eaten the fish. Lucien explains his interest and Bobby is fascinated. “Your goldfish could convict a man, at least in a rather roundabout way. It’s a terrific story! I’ll tell Charlie Baron about it! He’s chief editor of the Puisay Students’ News. We’ll run it as a 25-part serial.” Lucien’s story reminds Bobby and Belle of how their own family had been tricked out of money.
Lucien finds out that it was Colonel Brousse, the owner of the Saint-Just Riding Club, and who has offered shelter to Quicksilver in The Mule on the Motorway, who gave him the fish. Bobby is keen to confront him about it. They leave for the Riding Club, just before Sinet arrives at their flat and Belle tells him they have gone to see Brousse. Sinet instantly follows and arrives just in time to see Bobby and Lucien ask the colonel about where he got the goldfish. He explains that it was given to him by his son, Joel. In turn, he had been given it by a fat man in a grey DS with a white roof. Joel says that they had seen him before – “Wednesday evening at Doctor Kasterin’s lecture… he was sitting on the platform, next to that old Indian with the beard.”
He was describing Monsieur Loetzen.
Chapter Twelve – In the Bag. Geoffrey had suspected something was wrong all along but couldn’t say anything for definite. He recollects something about M. Loetzen in conversation with M. Lagneau: “On the evening of the flag-day, when you’d finished adding up the takings. His enthusiasm was just as insincere as congratulations. You don’t thank boys of fifteen by patting them on the cheek. Bob and his mate Prosper were just as embarrassed as I was. I’ve thought pretty hard about that little scene.” Sinet has deduced that Loetzen is “just a sneak-thief after easy money.” But what about the Kasterins and Durga Chandar? Could they be implicated in the crime too?
It turns out that Loetzen has been using the Kasterins’ car ever since the appeal opened. After further questioning, Geoffrey agrees that he did recognise the blind man – it was when they met Rougier without his glasses on, and he remembered how different the two men looked. “I was appalled when I realised he reminded me of Monsieur Loetzen. You see I couldn’t imagine that a crook could be as treacherous as that or prepared to rob such a respectable charity as the appeal.”
Sinet confronts M. Filleul with these suspicions. He confirms that it was Loetzen who “put himself forward for the job [of publicising the appeal] saying it was in line with what he did for the Red Cross.” He also advises that Loetzen had asked “for two large cheques to be made out in favour of the firms who are to supply the aid.” Sinet tells him to delay the cheques at all costs. He advises the boys to go home, have a good sleep, and return to the Town Hall in the morning. “But this was not enough to appease Geoffrey’s thirst for revenge. What is more, the good Commissioner was wrong to overlook the fifteen hundred francs replaced by Catherine Verdier.” Sinet gives Lucien his guariba, as though it were a consolation prize.
Geoffrey leaves Lucien halfway home; determined to get his revenge, he decides to catch a 196 bus in the hope of trapping the thief. And there on the bus is Loetzen, with dark glasses and white stick, sitting behind the conductor. Geoffrey doesn’t know how he’s going to catch him but catch him he will. He watches a woman laden with parcels stand next to him, with her handbag dangling right in front of Loetzen’s view. Temptation beyond endurance for Loetzen; and it’s at the very moment when Loetzen has his hand in her handbag that Geoffrey grips his hand to drag him off the bus and straight to the police station.
Chapter Thirteen – Durga Chandar. Sinet reveals to Loetzen that it was Peignon who confirmed his involvement. The cut-throat razor, that Loetzen used to cut through jackets or handbags, lay on the table – full of excuses, Loetzen dismisses it as his bunion remover. Mme Léonard appears and confirms he was the man who bought the brandy and used the five hundred franc note; then Joel Brousse appears and confirms he was the man who gave him the goldfish. Geoffrey demands the return of his mother’s fifteen hundred francs; then Lucien demands eighty francs to mend Geoffrey’s jacket. On return of the cash, they let the felon leave the police station – but outside he walks into a trap, as two officers are there to take him to the police headquarters on a couple of dozen more charges.
The next day Geoffrey and Lucien head off to the Town Hall. Loetzen’s place on the Committee has been taken by M. Chalus, the tax inspector. The ceremony was dull with endless speeches, and the old Indian, Durga Chandar, seemed unimpressed by it all. There was the usual chatter; Brousse offers Geoffrey the chance to ride Quicksilver at the stables for nothing and Mme Kasterin has reserved a place for Mme Verdier with her sons at the banquet. But no one was talking to Durga Chandar – except Lucien, who realised what the problem was. In all the debate about Indian famine, no one had remembered to offer the old man anything to eat! It only took the offer of some chocolate to melt the ice.
To sum up; A beautifully written and constructed book that brings all the goodness and charity (literally) out of its main characters and stresses the importance of honesty and decency. The story is told briskly, taking place only over a matter of four days or so. It’s also a very successful children’s whodunit! Sadly, this would be the last time we would meet the Thiriet or the Verdier families. If you’ve read the book – or are re-reading it now, I’d love to know what you think about it, so please add a comment below. Next up in the Paul Berna Challenge is a completely different scenario, with no associations with any of his previous works, L’Épave de la Bérénice, translated into English as The Secret of the Missing Boat. I look forward to re-reading it and sharing my thoughts about it in a few weeks.
