Spilt Wine

43. Profiling and Tangents

Grattien remained in the room after the psychiatrist and psychologist arrived, first to give them an overview of the case, then to focus them on what we are trying to understand. When he was satisfied they were ready to begin, he said he would remain to gain additional insights for the investigation.

They began by asking Catherine for a description of Philippe, when she had first met him and where. "The first time was at Louis' father's funeral in 1982. He died on the first day of Spring, the day of new life, I had thought. The funeral was the following Tuesday. I had been engaged to Louis only a short while then –"

"Do you remember noting anything unusual about Philippe at that time?" the psychiatrist asked.

"No – no, I don't, but that's likely because I was much more focused on Louis and on his feelings at the passing of his father to notice much else around me. I had met Philippe's wife, Francine, several times before that when she had come to visit her dying father."

"Did Louis say anything about him? Had he discussed Philippe with you then or before?"

"Louis talked very little about him at any time." After a searching pause, she added, "And thinking of it now – I haven't thought of this before, but I'm sensing that he might not have liked Philippe."

She stared unfocused across the room for a while, then continued. "The next time was at my wedding with Louis four years ago, on 5 May 1982 – our fourth anniversary will be next ..." Catherine pressed her hands to her mouth and closed her eyes tightly as she shuddered. She shook her head and reached for some tissue.

I gently squeezed her arm, then turned to look at the doctors and said quietly, "Maybe we can do this later. She's been through a few hells." I moved my hand to her back.

"No." She shook her head. "No, I'll be fine, just give me a few moments." A short while later, she looked up and continued, "Where was I? – I'm remembering now Louis had been saddened that Philippe hadn't visited when his father – when Philippe's wife's own father was dying."

"And after your first two meetings, did you see him often?"

"Only twice. They lived in Paris, and we went there rarely. Louis was always too busy, and he was reluctant to leave his vines and his wine for more than a day. Last month was only our second visit."

"What about his visits with you down here?"

"Francine came down occasionally with her brother, Pierre. She would tell us Philippe was too busy with chemistry projects."

"Chemistry?"

"Yes, he's a chemist. Francine told us he was always away, travelling on projects."

"He worked for a company?"

"Other than for the pharmacy, I don't think so. Francine never mentioned it anyway. He filled in sometimes at a pharmacy, mostly for holidays or to cover other chemist's absences. To me it didn't look like it was for money; they appeared to be very comfortable –"

"Most likely as a source of controlled chemicals," Lieutenant Grattien interrupted.

"And other chemicals ... This now starts to make more sense to me," I added. "His chemistry projects were likely blending wines. Taking big complex wines, like yours." I looked at Catherine. "He probably added your wines to cheap, characterless ones, then balanced the resulting soup as necessary with acids, fruit syrups, tannins – but this is heading off on a tangent."

"I love tangents," Grattien said.

"Yes, so do I – okay, I think I can now see why Grotkopf wanted most of Louis' big wines. He could ameliorate them, bastardise them and still have sufficient character remaining to allow them to sell under their Appellation labels without much concern of detection. They'd have the paperwork, the harvest declarations, invoices and so on from Louis, in case there were –"