Spilt Wine

48. Progress on Three Fronts

The contracts for Gerrard and Sophie were easy, standard formatted things, but trying to find a way to handle the six months for the viticulturists was more complex. The lawyer thought it best to offer a six-month fixed-term in a standard format, but add that besides mutual agreement, serious breach, or act of God, termination could also be by reason of being offered a permanent job. This would allow not only a worker to cut the term short, but also allow Catherine to offer permanent employment to the other worker, thereby cutting his fixed contract.

The four contracts, each typed in triplicate, were delivered by a young man shortly before thirteen thirty, after he had been accosted by the gendarme at the arched gate.

"The new vignerons need to be shown the estate, but I don't know where all the vineyards are, even though I've visited all of them over the years," David said after they had reviewed the contracts and waited for their meeting. "Have you a plot, a map that shows them all?"

"There's a collection of drawings and plans in the files, some old documents, surveys from early in the century, pages from generations of estate settlements, a court order and some arbitration agreements, a lot of other papers, sketches, scribbled notes. I've tried to get Louis to draw up a proper plan since his father died." She looked up and did a good rendition of Louis' Gallic shrug. "He said he knew where all his vines are, where his rows begin and where they end. He contended that all his neighbours also know these details for their vines."

"There must be a legal registry of the titles, details of the ownership of the land. That should include precise surveys. This land is far too valuable to be imprecise."

"We can talk with Jean-Paul and Loic about this. They must know about the land registry or whatever it's called here, and how to put together a vineyard plot from the commune records. That can be a job for one of them as we begin to reorganise."

David nodded. "The prices of Grand Cru vineyards have moved above five million Francs per hectare in the last few years, and they're continuing to rise. Two square metres of Grand Cru are worth a thousand Francs, a twenty-metre row of vines sits on more than ten thousand Francs worth of land. Centimetres and millimetres count here —"

His thought was interrupted by a gendarme knocking at the door. With him were Loic and Jean-Paul, and minutes later, sitting at the mahogany table in the small salon, they both signed the contracts after a brief read-through. Jean-Paul and Loic had studied viticulture together at Montpellier and had been friends there. They seemed delighted to be working together.

With the formalities over, they started looking through the sketches, plot plans, maps and folders of papers that Catherine had laid out on the table. Loic said the cadastres at the mairie will have all the plots in their records. "Since shortly after the Revolution, 1791 I remember from my studies, the communes have held central records of all property. Napoleon later tightened the system to use for tax purposes."

Jean-Paul added, "The vineyards are in three communes, so we'll have to go to all three of the mairies, Chambolle-Musigny, Morey-Saint-Denis and Gevrey-Chambertin. I can do the one in Gevrey-Chambertin, I know the person who runs the cadastre office in l'hôtel de ville there."

"I won't be able to start until tomorrow morning," Loic said. "There are things this afternoon I promised my mother I —"

"Yes, both of you must have loose ends to tie-up," Catherine interrupted. "When can you start? We hadn't discussed that."

"I can start first thing tomorrow morning," Loic replied. "I'll go to the mairie in Chambolle on the way here."

"Tomorrow is also good for me," Jean-Paul added. "I'll stop in Gevrey-Chambertin on my way here. Whichever of us arrives here first can go down the street to the Morey mairie. Then we can take a tour and assess what needs doing and get at it."

Wednesday 7 May 1986

David was in the cellar, having finished organising Gerrard and Sophie with the continuation of the racking, and now helping them along with it when Lieutenant Grattien came down.

"We are now certain the woman in the photos is involved in this." He nodded to the door. "Can you come outside to talk?"

Confident the new cellar hands knew what they were doing, David motioned Grattien toward the stone stairs and followed him up.

"We've run profiles on the four you've hired," Grattien continued when they reached the courtyard. "They all check out fine, but thank you for thinking to let us know. It saves the possibility of surprises later."

"That was Catherine's idea... Coffee?"

They sat around the kitchen table with their espressos while Grattien showed them a folder of photos. A woman in a dark blue dress was in every picture, many with clear images of her face, some recognisable only by her dress or her brunette hair pulled into a large bun. "She is in so many of the pictures, I have selected only the best twenty or so." He opened another folder. "And here are some blow-ups of her face."

"I don't recognise her," said Catherine. "I don't remember talking with her, but there were so many there that day."

"She is clever. She stayed near me, not you. Look here, here and here." Grattien shuffled through the photos. "She is shown closest to me in every shot where I'm talking with you, but she is in no shots of you when I'm not around."

"She knows you even out of uniform," David added. "Do you recognise her?"

"Not at all, but she is unremarkable, attractive, but not overly, no unusual features, easily forgettable. The profile of an ideal spy, plainly dressed, conservative hair, nothing to attract attention. We've sent out packets to the surrounding brigades, and also to Marseille — frontal and profile blow-ups of her face plus two good body shots."

David updated Grattien on the situation with Vrouwe Catharina, and after the Lieutenant had left, David phoned Michel to get an update on the survey. He left a message with his secretary, then phoned Jean-Luc and left a message on the answering machine there. He phoned Atelier Fluvial and asked if Michel Poirier, the insurance adjuster for AXA was in the yard. They said he had left half an hour ago.

They were leaving the salon when the phone rang. "I've now completed my assessment on Vrouwe Catharina," said Michel's voice on the speaker, after the usual formalities. "I'm back in my office in Dijon and about to start writing my report, but thought I'd contact you first."

"Ignore the message I left with your office, it was just that I was sensing you had something for me."

"The barge is a write-off, worth salvage, scrap metal and a few thousand for the machinery. I'm recommending the claim be settled at your purchase price."

"Can I take the salvage rights?"

"I was going to suggest you might want to do that, she's a very beautiful lady."