Games of State - Tom Clancy [108]
It had been extremely difficult to convince his superiors to let him undertake this month-long stakeout. The Gendarmerie Nationale was supposed to be an entirely independent caste-blind national police force. But they were very much aware of the legal forces and deadly publicity Dominique could muster against them.
"And for what?" Commander Caton had asked him. "Because you suspect him of a crime that is more than two decades old? We can't even prosecute him!"
That was true. Too much time had passed. But did that make the crime or the person who committed it any less monstrous? Upon investigating the crime scene that night, Ballon had learned that wealthy Gerard Dupre had been seen in the area with another man. He'd discovered that they had left Paris for Toulouse after the murders. And the police hadn't wished to pursue them. Hadn't wished to pursue Dupre, Ballon thought bitterly, the upper-class pig. As a result, he had quite possibly gotten away with murder.
Ballon had resigned from the police force in utter disgust. Then he'd joined the Gendarmerie and studied the Dupre family. Over the years his hobby became a passion. He learned from sealed files in the government archives in Toulouse about how the elder Dupre had been a collaborator during World War II. How he'd infiltrated the Resistance and informed on many of its members. At least thirty deaths over four years were attributed to that batard. After the war, Dupre founded a successful business manufacturing spare parts for the Aerospatiale Airbus. He established his company using money from the United States. Money which had been earmarked for the rebuilding of Europe.
Gerard, meanwhile, appeared to resent everything about his father. Pčre Dupre had sold information to the Germans to survive the War. So Gerard surrounded himself with young German students who needed his money to get by. Pčre Dupre had stolen money from the Americans after the War. So Gerard designed software to appeal to Americans, to have them give him their money. Pčre Dupre hated the Communists. Which is why, as a student, Gerard was drawn to them. Everything he did was an act of defiance against his father.
But then something happened to the younger Dupre. After leaving the Sorbonne, he began collecting historical documents. Ballon had talked to some of the autograph dealers from whom Dupre had made purchases. It seemed to amaze Dupre that he could own important letters written by the great figures of the past.
One dealer had told the Gendarmerie officer, "Gerard seemed to feel as if he were looking over the shoulders of great men. Watching history unfold brought fire to his eyes. " Dupre bought documents from the French Revolution, as well as actual costumes and weapons and memorabilia. He purchased religious letters that were even older. He even bought guillotines.
A psychiatrist who worked for the Gendarmerie said, "It is not uncommon for people disappointed with the real world to cocoon themselves, to create a safe reality with letters or mementos."
"And might he then wish to expand that?" Ballon had asked.
"Very possibly, " he'd been told. "Enlarge the haven, as it were."
When Dupre changed his name to Dominique, there was no longer any question in Ballon's mind that he had begun to see himself as a modern-day saint. The patron saint of France. Or else he had gone mad, or perhaps both. And when the New Jacobins began terrorizing foreigners at the same time, Ballon had little doubt that they were the soldiers guarding Dominique's spiritual fortress-- a France that was pure, as chaste as the original Jacobins had envisioned.
The Gendarmerie had refused to launch an official investigation into Dominique. It wasn't just because he was a powerful man. As Ballon quickly discovered, the Gendarmerie was only slightly less xenophobic