44Chief Charlot drove quickly along the back road that wound from Bergerac to Castillac. She had spent the morning in meetings with the chief of the Bergerac gendarmerie, withstanding all manner of slights from a man she deemed not fit to polish her shoes. But Charlot wasn’t any more surprised by his incompetence than by his mere existence; it was the norm, sadly enough for the state of the country, she thought as she whipped around a tight curve and sped up on a straightaway.
By the time she reached Castillac, she had forgotten about the Bergerac chief entirely and was gearing herself up for a fight with Florian Nagrand’s lab. It was unconscionable, having to wait so long for a couple of simple tests. She was beginning to believe that she could count on nothing working in a satisfactory
