The Secret Of The Cathars (2011) (19 page)

“
And, correct me if I’m wrong, but this back wall looks like the original rock of the mountain.”

He nodded. “The builders used the natural rock cliffs as a part of the structure. It meant that in the lower parts of the castle they only had to build the defensive walls on one side.”

“
Except for that area there.” She pointed to an area of rough stone walling just above the paving about five metres along the narrow trench.

“
That’s right. We assume there was a recess there which they filled in to prevent seepage of water into the stores, or something like that.”

She straightened up. “What will you do when you get to the end of the trench?”

“
We won’t today.” Armand shook his head. “That’s the problem about some of this work. Just when you think you may be about to find something interesting a different priority arises. It can be frustrating.”

“
Mademoiselle Blontard sets tough standards.”

He grinned. “You bet. Every trowel-full of soil has to be sieved. Every smallest find which is uncovered has to be photographed in its location from at least four different angles with scale markers and compass directions before it can be moved.”

“
I understand she is very well thought of in her profession.”

“
Oh, yes,” he agreed. “It’s a great honour to be working for her.”

“
Well, thank you for explaining it all to me so clearly. I’ll go up and talk to the others now. Goodbye.” With a lift of the hand and a smile, Cesar Renoir was gone.

Philip and Jeanette had said nothing while she was there, leaving it to the senior man to give the explanations. Now Jeanette said, “You told her a lot, Armand.”

“
Well,” he replied, “she was entitled to know for her book.

“
What do you think, Philip?” she asked.

“
I don’t see a problem. None of the information was secret. Let’s admit it - this area’s a dead duck.”

“
A dead duck?” She giggled.

“
It means it’s useless.”

“
OK,” interrupted Armand, “let’s push on. I’d really like to get to the end of this last slab tonight, if we can.”

They continued right up to six o’clock when Gaston came down to warn them that the vehicles wouldn’t wait for them any longer. By then they had dug the narrow trench nearly ten metres along the top of the paving against the cliff. They had uncovered nothing except three long paving stones each three metres long with tight joints to each other and to the cliff face. It was clearly a substantial area of paving indicating a large room.

“
This fourth slab is obviously the last,” argued Armand. “If only Jackie would let us have another morning down here, I think we could get to the end. That would give us an edge to look at. Then we might be able to find out more about the reason for this unused floor slab. I think I’ll try and get her permission to do that.”

“
It’s worth a try,” Philip agreed.

But in that hope they were to be disappointed. When it was put to her she shook her head

“
I’m afraid you’re just wasting time and money. Jean-Luc has hit some interesting terrain on the main site. We need everybody up there. Maybe there will be a chance to carry on later if we find what we want in the great hall area.”

They had to be satisfied with that.

- 20 -

It was another beautiful, mild evening. Philip sat watching the river as it chuckled over the rocks below him and looked forward to the next hour with pleasant anticipation. Jackie had asked to meet him for a private discussion.

Dinner had been a more pleasant affair this evening. Jackie had chosen to join them and had sat beside Philip. Armand and Jeanette were opposite. The conversation flowed cheerfully about the day’s work. Jackie filled them in on progress on the main site which they would be joining the following morning. She revealed that, to appease Armand for being taken away from the paved area, they were to be given a new trench to open on the opposite side of the great hall. She was able to tell them that finds on the main site during the last two days confirmed that the excavations had got down to the Cathar level.

Armand then told her exactly how far they had progressed with clearing the paving. He promised that one more day would get them to at least one exposed edge of the big slabs. Jackie confirmed that they might have a chance of tackling that later.

“
We also told that journalist enough to send her away happy,” said Jeanette.

“
What journalist?”

“
She said you’d told her she could look around and ask questions.”

“
I did nothing of the sort.”

“
Really? Well, she gave us her card and said she’d spoken to you. Have you still got that card, Armand?”

The young man fished in his pocket and brought out his wallet. He opened it, extracted a card, and peered at it. “Here we are. She’s called Cesar Renoir. This says she’s a journalist.”

“
Let me see.” Jackie took it from him and looked at it. “What did she look like?”

“
About forty to forty-five,” said Philip. “Quite tall, slim and fit, dressed in jeans and a shirt and with a small ruck-sack on her back.”

“
She was rather masculine and sexless,” volunteered Jeanette.

Jacqueline looked a question at Philip and he grinned. “Well - no make-up, fair hair tied back, well boned face.” He nodded. “Personally, I would describe her as handsome.”

“
And what did she want to know?”

Armand broke in. “She asked us what we were doing and I told her it was just an exploratory trench.”

“
She asked which part of the castle we were in, didn’t she, Armand,” said Jeanette. “You told her it was probably a dungeon.”

“
And what did she say about that?”

“
Oh, she said she thought the floor was too grand for a dungeon.”

“
She also asked what the bit of stone walling was infilling a hollow in the rock cliff,” said Philip. “I thought she seemed quite observant for a visitor. But I suppose journalists are trained to look for things like that.”

Armand shrugged. “She didn’t stay long. I don’t think she was very interested in what we were doing. I assumed that she went off up to the main site to get some real information. Didn’t you see her?”

“
No.” She frowned. “Of course I wasn’t there all the time, but neither Gaston nor Jean-Luc mentioned her calling in. Normally Gaston makes especially sure that I know about things like that. I must ask him.”

Philip shook his head. “That’s strange, particularly as she said she was writing a book about Cathar strongholds. I wouldn’t have thought that she’d miss out on questioning the people on the main site.”

“
Ah well, I’ll ask the others about it.” Jackie sighed. “I don’t expect it’s anything important.”

Soon after that Philip excused himself, went up to his room to freshen up and took a leisurely stroll to the meeting-place.

Now he looked up from the water rushing over the rocks to see Jackie striding towards him. He noticed that she had eschewed her normal blouse and jeans and had chosen a simple wrap-over dress. It seemed to cling to the curves of her slim figure. She was also wearing more make-up than usual, especially accentuating the brightness of her eyes. Philip thought she looked absolutely gorgeous.

“
Been here long?” she asked as she took the seat beside him, sitting quite close this time.

“
Not long.” He looked at her. “It was nice that you joined us for dinner.”

“
I wanted to have a chat with Armand and Jeanette.” She tossed her long hair back. “Tell me, Philip, what do you think of them?”

He mused for a while before replying. “They’re strange. They don’t quite seem to fit together. You realise that they’re not married?”

“
Really?”

“
That’s right. Jeanette spilled the beans while we were working together.” He grinned. “In fact she was getting quite - how would you say - quite friendly towards me. He kept on putting her hand on my arm and standing close to me and raising her false lashes to look up into my face.”

“
Did she indeed?” Jackie sounded quite shocked. “And what did you do about that.”

“
Nothing, I promise you. After all, Armand was digging at the other end of the trench, but he took no notice. Perhaps that’s the way Jeanette always behaves.”

“
But she told you they weren’t married?”

“
That’s right.” He scratched his head. “I forget how it came up. I think I asked how they could both manage to get so much time off to go away on holiday together for - well, it must be getting on for a month now.”

“
More like six weeks.” She frowned. “And they deliberately misled me about being married.”

“
I wonder why they should do that?”

“
I don’t really know. The only thing I can think of, is that by appearing to be a simple young married couple on holiday, they found it easier to become friends with us. You see,” she explained, “After Gaston’s two rock-climbers left under rather odd circumstances, Andre and I became a bit suspicious of some of the people who were working for us. We were starting to wonder if they were spies from other organisations who wanted to find out what we were doing,”

“
Why should they do that?”

“
I don’t exactly know. Of course it’s always important to keep the information about a new television series under wraps until the bosses decide it’s the right time to release it. Then there may be organisations who don’t want some of the secrets about the Cathars to become public knowledge.”

“
Who would they be?”

“
Well, the Catholic Church, for a start. They could be afraid that we might find evidence that the Cathar heresy was justified in some way or other. And their actions during the Albigensian Crusade doesn’t appear in a good light.”

“
Anybody else?”

“
I’m not sure. There have been rumours of a shadowy body close to government who may be interested in what’s going on.”

“
Who are they?”

“
Nobody knows. There are rumours about links to freemasonry and also to the Templars.”

Philip laughed. “The Templars are ancient history. I ought to know. I believe my family home in Templecombe used to be a centre of Templar activity in England but that all disappeared long ago.”

“
Don’t you be so sure.” She tapped him on the chest. “Yes, they’ve gone deep underground but they are rumoured to still be in existence in a different, secret form. And they’re all the stronger and the wealthier for the secrecy.”

“
Good god! You make it sound as if you’re being stalked by shadowy organisations waiting to spring on you as soon as you find something.”

She shook her head. “Well, that may be the case. Why do you think that journalist woman suddenly turned up this afternoon?”

“
Oh, she had perfectly good explanation for her arrival. I don’t see any reason not to believe her, even if she did lay it on a bit thick about speaking to you.” He raised his head. “By the way, did you check to find out if she went up to the main site when she left us?”

“
She did
not
- or if she did, she made sure that no-one saw her. I asked both Jean-Luc and Gaston and also a couple of other helpers whether they saw anybody matching your description of her and nobody had. And I believe Gaston - I’m sure he’s straight.”

“
That’s a strange comment. You say you’re sure Gaston’s straight. Aren’t you sure about Jean-Luc?”

“
I suppose you think I’m becoming paranoid.” She laughed, a little falsely. “As you know, I find it strange that he was suddenly available when we needed him. He was recruited in Paris and he has no archaeological record.”

“
Hmm. You seem to be surrounded by dodgy characters. There’s Armand and Jeanette, this journalist woman, Jean-Luc and the dodgiest of them all - me.”

That really made her laugh. “You mean I may have put myself in mortal danger, just meeting you here?”

“
That’s right. Seriously though, you ought to carry out background checks on these guys - me included.”

“
Oh, I have.” She shook her head. “The trouble is, I don’t know how much to believe of the information I’ve received. You yourself saw how Bertrand Dugard more or less confirmed that I was right to be suspicious about Lerenard. And yet the background check on him was excellent. The only one I can believe is you.”

“
You’ve checked up on me?”

“
Of course. And you came through with flying colours. There seem to be no hidden secrets about you which you haven’t already told me about.”

“
I’m pleased about that.” Philip cleared his throat. “However the tone of Abbe Dugard’s comments about Lerenard makes Gaston’s comments appear less ridiculous.”

“
What comments?”

“
Well, as you know, he was strongly of the opinion that Andre Jolyon’s death wasn’t an accident. Nobody took him seriously at the time - particularly me, who he was accusing of the murder. But
he
saw the body and the site before anybody else. Perhaps, with all these dodgy characters around, he was right, but he’d just chosen the wrong culprit.”

“
Mon dieu!” She put her hand over her mouth and Philip noticed her face had gone white. “Are you saying that Andre really
was
murdered? I’d never taken that as a serious possibility before.”

“
Has there been any news about the autopsy?”