Duval and the Empress's Crown (Napoleon's Police Book 5) Page 3

“Very well,” I said. “Monsieur Margueritte told us that he gave you the crown when he went out. Is this correct?”

  “Yes, Monsieur. He asked me to continue fitting the banding inside. He wanted the crown to be completed before tomorrow at the latest, to take it to the Empress with the rest of her regalia on Saturday.”

  “And you finished it today?”

  “I managed to complete it even earlier than we had both thought. At the end, all the snags we had experienced with the banding seemed to vanish. It sometimes happens like that. Your fingers learn the trick of it, then it becomes simple. I remember holding the crown in my hands, looking at it closely to check for faults. It was perfect. Perfect!” The man’s eyes went glossy, as if he was recreating the moment of triumph, and he smiled for the first time.

  “Then what happened?” I asked gently, breaking into his reverie. His face changed dramatically from pride to woe. It would have been comical if the subject had not been so serious.

  He shook himself and replied, “I laid the crown down on my bench while I fetched the key to the safe. I intended to lock it away with the other finished pieces.”

  “Where was the key?”

  “The patron usually keeps it on his person, but today, knowing I would need it, he left it in the drawer of his desk, across the room.”

  “You did not go out of the workshop?”

  “Certainly not, Monsieur. I would never leave until all my work has been locked away. It is too precious.”

  “So the crown remained in your sight all the time?”

  “It was until I had to turn my back to take the key from the desk. A matter of a few moments only. I had it in my hand. I was just returning to my bench when I was interrupted.”

  “Who interrupted you?”

  “Our apprentice, Jacques. He opened the door and showed some ladies and gentlemen into the workshop.”

  “More visitors? Surely no one should come in here when you are doing work of such importance?”

  “These were no ordinary people. We are also making jewellery for the Emperor’s sisters to wear at the Coronation, necklaces, earrings and bangles. They are exceedingly fussy people and visited us many times, changing this and that. These ladies are very difficult to please. They came back today to inspect our work yet again.”

  There was an infinite weariness in the man’s voice as he said the words and I smiled inwardly. None of the three ladies had good reputations. I was glad I was not responsible for making anything for them. Robart looked around as if to see if anyone overheard his remark. Only Fournier and I were in the room, of course. Then he shrugged and continued,

  “They come here far too often, for no reason, often enough. I thought they wouldn’t be coming again because we intended to deliver their jewellery tomorrow. This visit hadn’t been planned, or the patron would have stayed here to greet them. He would certainly not have left to meet Monsieur Acart or anyone else. They need careful handling.”

  “But he was not here on this occasion.”

  “No. In his absence, I’m the senior workman and so the task of looking after them fell to me. Between us, Christophe and I showed the Princesses the items they wished to see.”

  “Tell me in detail what you did yourself.”

  “At first I was occupied fetching their jewellery from the safe. I went to and fro several times. Most of the work had already been finished, but they wanted me to bring everything out and examine it all over again. They saw and approved it only last week. It hasn’t changed since then.” The man’s frustration showed.

  “How annoying for you. Continue, please.”

  “Christophe has been working on one of the clasps of Princess Pauline’s earrings, so he spent some time talking to her and agreeing on alterations. I looked after Princess Caroline and Princess Élisa. They all took a little time examining each of the pieces. The whole visit was a waste of my time because only Pauline wanted something altered. Why the other two couldn’t wait until tomorrow, when I had promised to deliver all the jewellery into their hands, I don’t know.”

  “Strange they did not want to take their jewels home with them today if they were already finished,” Fournier said.

  “Caroline and Élisa discussed that possibility but Élisa said it would not be sensible. They intended to take coffee with some of their friends after they left here. ‘You’ll want to show off the jewellery if you take it with you,’ Élisa told her. ‘You know that the Emperor told us we should not let anyone else see our gowns or our jewellery before the ceremony.’ Caroline looked as if she would make a fuss but in the end, she did as Élisa ordered and put her jewellery back into the boxes. She handed them to me and I placed them inside the safe. Then they thanked me and left.”

  “Where was the crown all this time?”

  “Sitting on my workbench, or so I thought. When I returned to my place, after I had shown the Princesses to their carriage, the crown was missing.” The man slumped down and covered his face with his hands.

  “Why didn’t you lock it away before you attended to the Princesses?” I asked.

  “I should have done so but I had no time. Princess Caroline came bursting into the room before she could even be properly announced. I could not ignore her and I never imagined for a moment that the crown was in any danger.”

  I nodded. His words had the ring of truth. Caroline is well known for her atrocious manners. It would be just like her to push past a mere apprentice if he got in her way. I doubt she would even notice him.

  “So the crown was sitting on the workbench during their visit?”

  “To the best of my knowledge, yes.”

  “You did not see it was still there?”

  “At the beginning, yes. I did not look for it again until I came back into the work room after showing the party out. I intended to put it into the safe then, but it was gone.”

  “Who exactly was in the room, from the time you last held the crown in your hands, until the time you discovered it was missing?”

  “The Emperor’s three sisters: Princess Caroline, Princess Pauline and Princess Élisa. Two of their equerries: Dupré and Saint Victor, I think their names are. Our workmen, Jacques, Christophe and myself, of course.”

  “What about Madame Margueritte and the two female servants?”

  “Madame was out, or I would have sent for her to attend to the Princesses.”

  “Is that usual?” Fournier asked.

  “Madame is very tactful and often assists us with important visitors. A woman deals better with other women.”

  “What about the maids?”

  “Neither of them would dare to come into the workshop while the Princesses were still here. Louise brought us some lunch earlier, but she was only here for a moment or two.”

  “She never returned?”

  “She did, but only to remove the tray, Monsieur.”

  “Had the crown gone missing at that time?”

  “No. The patron was still working on it. I remember because Louise joked about trying it on. Monsieur Margueritte said that when she became a queen or an Empress, he would make her crown himself and give it to her as a present. We all laughed.”

  “So everyone who works here knew that you were making the crown?”

  “Of course, Monsieur. It would be impossible to keep such knowledge confidential. Women’s tongues always run free, that’s for certain.”

  “So it was no secret?” Fournier asked, pausing in his writing and looking at Robart.

  “Half the world knew, Monsieur. When the Emperor chose the firms to make the regalia for himself, the Empress and the imperial family, the information was published in the Moniteur.”

  “How unwise of him.”

  “It seems to be so now, but it was an honour for us to be among those chosen and we were delighted at the time. We received a lot of new custom after the news was announced.”

  “It was also an open invitation to thieves. Did Monsieur Margueritte not realise that?”

&nb
sp; “He did. That is why he bought such a strong new safe, Monsieur, and took on extra apprentices. These young men are burly and fond of wrestling.”

  “But they weren’t here today when they were needed.”

  The man looked sheepish. “Sadly no, but then the crown wasn’t taken with violence. One moment it was there, the next, no one could find it. It seemed like magic, Monsieur.”

  “No magic but only a pair of light fingers,” Fournier said dryly.

  “I swear to you by all I hold sacred, Monsieur that I did not take it.”

  “I did not say you had,” I told him. “How long have you been employed by the firm of Margueritte?”

  “Many years, Monsieur, ever since I was apprenticed to the patron’s father.”

  “In that time, I imagine that you have handled many jewels?”

  “Certainly. We make wonderful jewellery here; we always have. Why even the late queen...” He stopped abruptly, clapped his hand over his mouth and looked at me in sudden fright. Calling Marie Antoinette ‘the Queen’ would have sent him straight to the guillotine only a few years ago.

  “I’m not here to examine your politics,” I said, soothingly. “Times change. Let’s go back to the issue at hand. You must have had plenty of opportunities to steal jewels that would be far easier to dispose of than so distinctive an item as the Empress’s crown?”

  “But yes.” He sighed and held out his open hands. “I have carried diamonds worth a king’s ransom many times, Monsieur.”

  “Have you never been tempted to take any of them and buy yourself a more comfortable life?” I asked.

  He suddenly smiled. “Of course I have been tempted, Monsieur, who wouldn’t be? Two things made me resist the temptation. Both the patron and his father have been good to me. I could never serve them such a back-handed turn. The other reason is that I am far too stupid to be a thief. If I took jewels and tried to dispose of them, I would be easy to blackmail or to be forced to steal again. I am a timid man, Monsieur. One way or another, I would almost certainly get caught. I have no wish to spend the rest of my life in prison or to rot on a hulk in a godforsaken harbour.”

  “I agree with you,” I said with an inner shudder. Parisian prisons are notorious and few prisoners survive for long on the hulks. I did not really suspect the man. If it had been another item of jewellery, yes, but not this. He, more than most people, would know how hard it would be to dispose of a crown with everyone searching for it. However, I could not eliminate him. He might have been tempted once too often, though, in spite of the ring of truth in his words. We needed to find out whether he had any urgent need of money. It was possible, although Robart did not strike me as a fool and only a maniac would steal the crown for profit. The thief would certainly be hunted from one end of France to the other. No fence, with a proper regard for his own skin, would touch such a thing. It would be impossible to sell within the empire. Almost certainly it would have to be broken down. Even so the jewels might be known and reported. They would have to be smuggled out of the country before their value could be realised, to the Low Countries, perhaps. If Robart intended to change the habit of a lifetime, I doubted this would be the occasion he would choose. Monsieur Margueritte and the rest of his workmen could probably be ruled out for the same reason. They, too, would remain as suspects, of course, until we had more evidence.

  Then a thought struck me. Profit might not be the motive for this theft, no matter how much the crown was worth. Though, if not for money, why had the crown been taken? I needed to consider this reasoning more carefully when there was nothing to distract me. Now was not the moment. We had the other workmen to question first.

  After we dismissed Robart, I said to Fournier, who was finishing his notes, “What do you think? Is he honest or not?”

  “For now, we accept what he has to say until we can prove it one way or another.”

  “Wouldn’t you, if you had his chances, steal something else? A necklace perhaps or even some loose stones? Then a quick trip north and you’d be rich enough to live in comfort for the rest of your life.”

  “You might be right. He was very nervous.”

  “So would you be if you had been if you had been the last one to hold the crown and you had neglected to lock it away.”

  I nodded. “I’d be terrified. If we don’t find the wretched thing, the best thing he can hope for is dismissal. That is if the whole firm is not closed down. I don’t imagine that the Napoléon will be merciful to Margueritte. At the very least, he and his employees are careless.”

  “That’s true. Then, for their sake as well as our own we’d better find the bloody thing.”

  4

  8 Frimaire, Year XIII

  (Thursday, November 29, 1804)

  The other workmen appeared very different; they were much rougher than either Robart or his Patron. They spoke in the guttural tongue of the Parisian slums, which I used to find so hard to decipher when I came to the city. After a few years of experience, I had become more knowledgeable although still far from an expert. I was glad Fournier was with me. He had been born and bred here. I knew he would help if I made a mistake.

  We spoke to Christophe, the journeyman, first. He was a burly bull of a man, florid and strong. Easy to imagine him surging through the streets with a red cap on his head and a pike in his hand. I wondered if he had actually been present when the mob stormed the Bastille, a bloody business so I have been told. I thought him someone who must be treated with caution; he had the appearance of a fervent Republican and these types can be difficult. It was not hard to place him; he even wore the red-white-blue cockade tied to his shirt. Few people wear it now unless they are calling at a government office. We had to, of course, as servants of the former Republic, which had become the Empire less than six months ago. That was something that had not changed, at least not yet.

  “What can you tell me about this affair, Citizen?” I asked him, choosing my words carefully. I doubted whether Christophe had ever been called ‘Monsieur’ in his life.

  “Very little. I saw Robart put the crown on his bench just before Princess Caroline burst in. He stood up and went to greet her. I ducked my head, hoping to avoid her and get on with my work. I never saw the crown again.”

  “Weren’t you curious about the Emperor’s sisters?”

  “I’ve met them all before often enough. We’ve made their jewellery ever since they came to Paris and some of the Empress’s too. We’re not the only firm to do work for them, of course, but we’re the best.” The man’s voice held a distinct pride. “That’s why we got these important jobs this time. The Empress is all right. She’s interested and speaks softly but Caroline is arrogant. I don’t like women like that, Citizen, and I didn’t want to argue with any of them. It’s safer to ignore them if you possibly can.”

  “You did not speak to them?”

  “I had to, unfortunately. I was finishing Pauline’s earrings and that’s tricky work. You need to concentrate in order to get it right. Pauline wanted them altered again. It’s annoying to have to change something when you’re almost finished. I told her that if I made the alterations, I couldn’t promise to deliver them tomorrow as we had previously agreed. She wasn’t pleased, but Robart smoothed it over. He’s good at calming people down.”

  “So let me understand you. Princess Pauline, Robart and yourself stood speaking together.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Where were the others?”

  “At the far side of the room. Robart had already given the other Princesses their jewellery out of the safe.”

  “Could you see what they were doing?”

  “Not very well. I tried to concentrate on what I was saying. I didn’t want to put my foot in my dish if you know what I mean. If I had said what I really wanted to say, I might never have stopped.” Christophe closed his eyes as if he was recreating the scene in his mind. “I caught the odd glimpse of the others, but I didn’t pay them much attention.”

  “
Where exactly did they stand?”

  “It would be easier to show you rather than to tell you.”

  “Show us then.”

  Fournier and I followed Christophe down into the workshop. It was a large room, with a fire at one end which made it very warm, even on this cold December day. I felt the sweat breaking out on my forehead. The room contained a number of trestle tables, with vices and other tools heaped upon them, some shelves and cupboards. An imposing safe had been bolted to one of the walls.

  “I wonder if Lefebvre could open that?” Fournier hissed in my ear. He had found out by chance Lefebvre’s former profession but had never used the knowledge against him, only in jest. Fournier is an honest man and has been a good friend to us both.

  “He’d probably say it was easy,” I answered, with a grin.

  Stools stood behind the benches, but no one sat on them. Monsieur Margueritte, Robart and three young lads, whom I took to be the apprentices, all stood together in front of the fire. They had the look of people whose animated conversation had suddenly been interrupted.

  “We are going to recreate the scene as it was this morning, from the time that the crown was last handled by Robart. I would like all of you to stand where you were at the moment when the Emperor’s sisters came into the workshop,” I announced. They started to shuffle into position.

  “Monsieur Margueritte, you weren’t here, as I know. Two of your apprentices were also absent. They can be excused for the time being, but I would like you to stay here beside me and watch.”

  The young men, at a nod from their master, immediately left the room. They both were tall and strong, which was the reason they had been chosen to work here. A skinny lad with burns on his wrist remained. He could not have been more than fifteen or sixteen and he looked nervous. He stayed by the fire, drawing a stool up and sitting down upon it.

  “This is your apprentice, Jacques, isn’t it?” I asked Monsieur Margueritte and he nodded. “Jacques, show us how you led the visitors into this room.”

  Jacques stood up, shaking slightly as he said, “The bell sounded, Monsieur, and Robart told me to answer it because he was too busy.”