Chapter Thirty-EightPerrault flew down the street, slipping in the snow. For once, she had accomplished something tangible! Who would ever have guessed that old Madame Tessier would turn out to be a gendarme’s best friend?
“Chief!” she shouted, a little too loudly, as she burst into Dufort’s office. “I just talked to Madame Tessier, and I think we’ve got Michel Faure!”
“Slow down, Thérèse,” Dufort said. His voice was gentle, but his gaze was intense. “Now tell me what Madame Tessier said.”
“Well, you know she’s the biggest gossip in all of Castillac. Sits on her stoop when it’s warm, peeps out of her window when it’s cold.”
“Yes, I know all that, I’ve seen and spoken to her quite often.”
“She saw Michel on Wednesday, walking down rue Saterne. Carrying a paper bag. Which he put on Mada
