Original subtitles

- No? - No, I wouldn't.

Oh.

Oh, get on with it, Charlie!

I am getting on with it.

A chance to get away, Frankie. I thought you would have jumped at the idea.

Well, you thought wrong.

Our last visit was hardly what you might call an unqualified success.

You enjoyed it all right at the time!

Only because I'd no idea of the trouble you were storing up on our behalf.

- Me? - You.

And who used my Rolls-Royce without so much as a by-your-leave to smuggle...?

Charlie, are you going to play that ball or not?

Yes, [ am.

And I'm going to France. And on me own, if need be.

Well, I miss old Jim.

An awkward cuss, but I always knew where to go to for sympathy and understanding.

That's not so easy to come by...

as you get older.

So I think I'll just drop in on Jim and Danielle at the chateau.

A surprise visit.

Jim!

- Jim! - Yup.

- It's from my cousin, Alain. - Oh, yeah?

An invitation. To a show. Next week.

And then on to the casino.

Oh, do say you'd like to come too. You would, wouldn't you?

What sort of show is it?

Enjoying it?

- Yeah, it's great. - Liar!

- Well.. - Yes?

- Attractive girls. - Very!

Vite! Cing minutes pour changer.

Qu'est-ce que tu mets?

Continuez com me ga! Dépéchez-vous! Quatre minutes, hein? Quatre minutes.

Pascale.

Allez, on y va, vite, vite, vite!

Want me to buy it for you?

Mesdames et messieurs, je ne voudrais pas vous retenir longtemps,

mais j'aimerais vous remercier d'étre Venus tous id ce soir.

I look forward to seeing you all again as my guests at the casino.

- Tu es LA pour longtemps? - Vingt, vingt-cnqg minutes.

Bon, tu fais au plus vite la. Merci.

Merci pour tout.

Appelez un docteur, vite, vite!

- Jim? - I don't know.

You know him better than I do. He's your cousin.

- And as for me... - Yes?

I'm just a private citizen.

How would you feel if you didn't help him?

Deux cafés.

Look, I've given up being a policeman to be with you, yeah?

OK, I'll see what I can do. Are you happy?

I'll be happy if you do what you really want to do.

There's old Charlie.

I'm sorry, Willy.

Coming in to see who he can annoy.

Yeah.

Well, some of us have got it up here and some of us have got it...

Somewhere else?

Nothing to be sorry about, mate.

There's only one sergeant's vacancy going. I hope you get it.

Thank you.

No, I mean it. Anyone rather than that thicky, Ramsden.

What's this? Mothers' meeting?

Er, no, sir.

- No work to do? - Well, actually...

Follow me.

Well?

I've seen Hampstead Heath locking better on a Bank Holiday Monday.

This looks like the municipal rubbish dump.

Last night's coffee cups.

Papers.

Newspapers.

Articles of clothing.

And... this.

Putting in for your sergeant's stripes, I hear.

No, sir.

- No? - Not me. Him. I failed the exam and.-..

Yes?

I am due in court in about 20 minutes, sir.

Then you'd better get your arse over there before you fail again,

hadn't you, DC Pettit?

Yes.- sir.

First thing every morning,

I want this place looking like I could take the Queen round it.

Consider that your personal responsibility, DC Lomas.

Yes, sir.

And there's a civvy wandering about loose downstairs.

That'll be Charlie Hungerford...

Mr Hungerford, sir.

- From the Law and Order Committee... - I know who he is!

If he isn't being paid by the States of Jersey Defence Committee,

he's a visitor.

Visitors do not get past reception unless they are wearing a visitor's ID.

Here...

I don't want to see any old Tom, Dick or terrorist

strolling around looking for an empty desk to park a bomb under.

Fancy yourself in Sergeant Bergerac's job, then?

Well, before he left the island,

Superintendent Crozier said he would put in a good word for me, sir.

Did he, now?

Just let me tell you - and I don't know how Sergeant Bergerac ran this place -

but so far, I don't like anything I've seen.

I'm off this morning, but before I go,

I thought I'd pop in and have a word with your new chap, Deffand.

Inspector Victor Deffand.

Well, you know, Law and Order Committee and all that,

I thought I'd make the new fella welcome, put him at his ease, eh?

Oh, I shall be seeing Jim when I'm over there, so if you and Ben

- have got any messages for him... - Haven't you got a job to do, Pettit?

Yes, sir.

Just one. Tell Jim he's well out of it.

Er, Inspector Deffand?

That's right, Mr Hungerford.

I thought it'd be a good idea if we had a little bit of a chat.

Mr Hungerford, I've got a full day. I can give you two minutes.

At first I thought it was some kind of a joke.

He tomes up behind me, this man, fires a gun over my shoulder,

so then he pushes the gun into my pocket.

You must have seen him?

It was dark. There was no time to see anything.

A tracksuit - black, maybe blue, maybe dark blue.

A scarf here and a woollen hat pulled down.

Alain, are you sure it was a man?

It could have been a woman, a tall woman.

And no-one else saw him or her?

And you can't say why Denise ran away?

She must have seen it was not I who shot Bardet. She must have.

OK. What about this guy, Etienne Bardet?

He has three shops. In Marseilles, Avignon and here in Aix

He values my work.

Every year for the past three years,

he has spent thousands of francs buying my clothes.

- No problems? - No... no.

Monsieur Le Commissaire says...

- your story about the gun... - Yes?

is, and I quote,

"Just what one would expect from a desperate man -

"une idée absurde et banale.”

He says it's a lie.

And what do you say, Monsieur Bergerac?

I say, let's find Denise and then find out why she ran away.

He was insistent. He said, if I was going to help him,

I'd have to give Solange a list of my expenses.

And?

Well, I said I was on holiday, I didn't want his money.

Oh, thank you, Jim.

Look, when you phone your father,

there's no need to tell him what we're doing, all right?

But he's sure to ask how long we're staying.

- Well, it depends. - Will it take a long time?

It's the only way to get things moving - apply a bit of pressure,

make people nervous, then they start to talk.

At least, that is the theory. See you for lunch, OK?

Je n'ai rien a dire au sujet de Monsieur Nicolet.

Oui. Oui, il va bien.

Les affaires vont bien aussi.

Vous pouvez passer jeudi si vous voulez pour...

Non, non. Ca sera aprés jeudi, com me convenu, Madame.

C'est ca. Au revoir.

I'm sorry. I'm late.

- Do you like it? - Hm? Oh, yeah, that's great.

- Not that I know anything about this. - You don't have to know anything.

- Clothes are there to be enjoyed. - Can you give me quarter of an hour?

Five minutes.

Are you going to help Alain?

I'm gonna try.

There's nothing here. As you can see, monsieur.

Was there..

Was there any money trouble?

I had nothing to do with the business side.

Er, Solange...

I'm not going to be able to help him if people hide things from me, OK?

- Alors, c'est la robe de Madame Vidal? - Oui.

Vous voulez la mettre de cité? Elle va passer pour un essay age cet aprés-midi.

D'accord.

Are we going to talk?

Outside.

The very moment Etienne Bardet was shot, something frightened Denise.

- You got any ideas? - No.

It's obvious that Alain's crazy about her.

Yes.

It's also obvious, Solange, that you are not.

I hardly know the girl!

What are you trying to prove?

I'm just trying to make sense of something

which doesn't make any sense at all at the minute.

Oh... You'll learn more from him than from me, Monsieur Bergerac.

- Who's that? - Denise's brother, Gérard.

He used to be Alain's business manager.

And I have given you more than five minutes.

How well do you know Etienne Bardet?

Whenever hie came in, it was always 10 see Alain in the office.

He's a night creature. He hi be mates behind his books.

And his cats.

- You'd better catch him while you can. - I'll catch him.

- Always in the office, Etienne Bardet? - Oh, yes.

Could he have had some hold over Alain?

- Money, women...? - Women?

Well, something maybe that Alain didn't want made public.

Oh, blackmail

Well, that would explain why Alain shot him.

He didn't!

The gun was in his hand, his fingerprints all over it,

no-one else's.

You don't believe him!

- Hey! - Let me go!

You say you want to help Alain, but you really think he did it!

Listen, Solange, if it's any comfort to you,

his story about the gun is so feeble, 1 actually believe it.

- Aix? - Yes, Monsieur.

Where the dickens is Aix?

- Ah, that way. - No, that way.

Oh, well, almost right

Danielle said something about new clothes.

- When do you expect them back, then? - Oh, in a day or two, monsieur.

You know women. But you will stay to lunch, non?

- Ah! - Well, it's kind of you, monsieur,

but I can't stop until we've caught up with Jim.

- Charlie! - Thanks all the same.

A bientét.

- Charlie, you can't possibly refuse. - Why not?

- Well, it'd be horrendously impolite. - Would it?

Besides, I'm starving.

Oh...

- Ah, gentlemen, you will stay? - Of course, delighted!

We couldn't possibly refuse, could we, Charlie?

Well, as it happens, monsieur,

there is something.. something to our mutual advantage

that... I would like to talk to you about.

Merci.

Bonjour, monsieur, madame.

Une table pour deux, s'il vous plait.

Merci.

Merci.

Jim, 200 francs the cheapest!

In that case, we'll just have the soup...

and the croutons.

And a couple of litres of Evian water.

- Jim. - What's that?

- See that fellow over there. - Pardon?

Over your left shoulder.

The one that's getting a bit annoyed.

That's Denise's brother, Gérard.

Solange said I ought to have a word with him.

- Jim... - Nous ne savons pas encore, merd.

- He does look cross, - Who's the other guy?

Jim...

"Dites 3 votre ami de se miler de ses affaires"

"Tell your friend to mind his own business.”

Good!

- Good? - Very good.

It means we've touched a nerve.

Oh, it proves that Alain is telling the truth!

Not necessarily, it doesn't. But it does mean someone is scared.

And the question is who and why?

Do you want soup?

Yes, please.

Avec des croutons et de I'eau, s'il vous plait.

The other night!

Outside the casino.

He was standing next to Etienne Bardet.

You're going to have to eat lunch for two of us. See you.

When I was here last time, I mentioned to Jim -

oh, and to Danielle, of course! -

that I wouldn't mind getting into the wine business.

- Yes, I remember. - You do?

1 assumed it was just a passing fancy. More wine, monsieur?

Oh, thank you.

- Jolly good stuff, this. - Thank you.

- Eh, Charlie? - Very good, very good indeed.

Now, the point is, monsieur, would you welcome

a fresh injection of capital into your business?

I had hoped to arrange a merger with my neighbour.

But that fell through, I understand.

- For a number of reasons. - Well, then?

Well, in principle, yes. Yes, I might be interested.

Splendid! That's the stuff! Now, you can count on me for up to 100,000.

Pounds sterling, monsieur, not francs. And the same goes for old Frank here.

- 100,000? - More if you're game.

Eh?

Of course, we shall have to look at the books beforehand in detail

In very great detail!

D'accord.

But first, gentlemen, I have a more immediate problem.

us d'orange, s'il vous plait.

You've been following me.

Yes.

You had no right, monsieur.

I've had no lunch either. You're a hard man to track down.

What are you, some kind of spy?

Then you're "un flic", a policeman.

No, I'm trying to help Alain Nicolet...

whose girlfriend's your sister, Denise.

- There is nothing I can do. - There may be nothing anybody can do.

Except perhaps Denise.

And you know her better than I do.

I haven't seen her for two or three weeks.

Alain is convinced that the night of the shooting, she was very frightened.

She was so frightened she ran away, abandoned him.

Yes - if you believe his story.

She must have seen something or heard something.

Why ask me?

You say you haven't seen your sister for two or three weeks, yeah?

Solange, Alain's manager,

says you were in the audience of the show last night.

Solange...

Well, were you or weren't you?

Monsieur, I don't have to answer any of your questions.

No, you don', but it would help if you did.

I haven't seen Denise to talk to.

Ask your dear friend, Alain.

If you are naive enough to believe his story,

shouldn't you be out looking for the mysterious man in the tracksuit?

The man no-one else has seen?

I don't know who he is...

yet.

If, monsieur, you want to know where my sister ran off last night,

I will tell you.

You know?

I use my head.

Alain Nicolet shot Bardet.

Denise saw it happen

and she understood at once that she would be forced

to witness against Alain, her lover.

Of course she ran away.

And she's hiding somewhere at this very minute.

I should have thought it was obvious.

Even to the meanest intelligence.

- OK? - OK?

Take care.

He probably only asked us to lunch so he could get some cheap lab our.

Hm. I suppose you're right.

So will you stop messing about, get down and come over to Aix with me?

No, I won't! That field needs ploughing...

What'll Jim say if he finds we've come all this way and missed him?

and I'm going to plough it!

You'll only make a mess of it.

Oh, will I?!

Capsize this thing in a ditch like as not and put paid to our arrangement

- with him. - Charlie!

- What?! - I was brought up on my father's farm.

I've ploughed more fields than you've had hot dinners.

Be careful!

You know your trouble, Charlie?

You've never done a proper job of work in all your life.

Me? Never done a proper job of work?

Only nine years old I was when I had my first paper round! Nine years old!

Merci pour votre patience

He comes past every day at the same time from the same restaurant.

Léon Crouzil has regular habits.

- And long lunches. - He can afford them.

Solange!

Rich, huh?

- Ah, super be! - Un peu trop tongue quand méme.

Very rich?

Oui, il faudra reprendre trots centimétres et ¢a sera parfait!

Is he a friend of Alain's or what?

He was at the show last night. Who invited him?

- Ah, c'est super! - Solange!

Listen,

you know how serious this is for Alain, don't you?

So, please, if you know anything -

anything at all, good, bad, doesn't matter,

but you must tell me. Do you understand?

OK.

OK.

Now, can we start with Léon Crouzil?

Léon put up the capital Alain needed when he started.

They had a contract.

But now... after five years... five hard years,

just as Alain is making a name for himself, and hoping to move to Paris,

when he's most at risk, that man wants his money back!

Can't Alain pay?

It would bankrupt him!

Isn't he prepared to offer him a way out, a compromise?

No.

If... If things go badly for Alain, what happens to all this?

I would try to keep it going.

And if you couldn't?

Who stands to gain?

No-one.

I have a 5% interest in the business.

Is that what you want to know?

But without Alain, there will soon be no business.

Why won't Léon offer Alain a way out?

Well?

Jim...!

Well, Jim, what do you think?

It's great! Who's going to pay for it? Your dad?

No-one. Solange let me try it on just for the pleasure of it.

That's all!

Thank you.

Wait here.

I don't see why you're pestering me.

Well, no-one seems to want to tell me the truth.

Including me.

You used to be Alain Nicolet's business manager, yeah?

You've been talking to that Corbet woman, Solange Corbet.

Why not?

Because she's got a heart like a shrivelled-up toad.

And because she's a liar.

Then you weren't sacked for incompetence and dishonesty?

1 suppose the bitch didn't tell you

it was me who found all Alain's rich, influential clients for him.

In the early days.

When he hadn't got five francs for a bowl of fish soup.

But you were sacked?

My book-keeping was...

unconventional

Oh, I see.

Do you?

I never made a sou out of the business. Everyone else did.

Alain, Denise, Solange Corbet. Everyone,

but not me.

How do you live?

Translations.

Come along, my children.

Plays, poems, novels.

Anything that comes along.

Mainly English into French.

My accent is good, eh, old boy?

It's better than mine.

You do pretty well, do you?

I only ask because Solange says that Denise sends you money.

Solange is a spiteful cow.

I just hear what people are telling me, you know?

But everyone seems to have something to hide.

She wants Alain so much it's destroying her.

- Really? - Oh, yes.

But he sees her as he sees a dummy in his workshop.

An object to be used.

Solange knows it.

But she doesn't know what to do about it.

Try as she might, she can't prise Alain away from Denise.

She doesn't have to now.

I mean, Alain's in prison, and Denise is on the run.

Is that you and Denise?

- After our parents died. - It's pretty.

Beautiful, monsieur.

Here!

The history of an idyllic childhood.

A philosophical question, monsieur.

How does one come to terms with the ending of a tree?

How does any man forsake the purity of childhood

for the malice and greed and deceit of adults?

My children!

She is my favourite.

Have you considered, monsieur,

that maybe someone doesn't want you to find her?

Yes.

You'll have a glass of wine?

No, thanks, not for me.

You know, monsieur,

if only Alain was a better shot...

..he would have hit the right man.

Would he?

You're not as clever as I thought.

Oh, I'm thick, monsieur. You've got to draw a picture for me. Which man?

Why...

- Leon Crouzil. - Who bought lunch for you today?

Don't you know he's infatuated with Denise?

Sends her flowers, money, jewellery,

invitations to fly with him to Paris, Greece, Morocco.

He even offered me money to get her for him.

Did you take it?

Of course.

- Are you sure? - No, thanks.

- I must go. - As you wish.

Someone doesn't like me asking questions.

Snoopers can't expect to be popular, can they?

I do wish I could find out who that someone is.

Everyone has his or her secret, monsieur.

Goodbye, Monsieur.. Bergerac.

Why didn't you tell me?

About Crouzil and Denise?

Are you trying to cover up for somebody? Like yourself?

Me?

Yeah, you. You had time to fire that gun, then slip it into Alain's pocket.

Why? Why?

I don't know why!

I don't know what goes on inside your head unless you tell me.

Like you and Alain, for example.

Look, do you want to help him?

Two, no... Three nights ago...

..Léon Crouzil came in.

He told Alain he would forget about the money...

Alain's whole debt to him...

..if he could have Denise.

I...

I thought Alain was going to kill him.

Léon had to use his stick

to fight Alain off.

After Léon had gone...

Alain made me promise

never to speak about it.

To anyone.

All right, all right.

No, it isn't, monsieur.

I have made it worse for Alain.

Mon Cher ami, vous étes un idiot.

Dans notre intérét, laissez-moi faire les choses.

For a man in my position,

there is always another supplicant,

another beggar looking for a benefaction. Another fool

But one does what one can.

But... "Wise men have more to learn of fools than fools of wise men."

You are familiar, of course, with the writings of Montaigne?

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne.

Er, no.

Oh, pity.

L'anchoiade, I can recommend it - heartily.

If I had known, we could have met in my office.

Oh, anywhere suits me.

But not me, sir.

And I allow nothing to ruin my digestion.

Alain Nicolet

I do know the man.

I should hope you do, all the money you've lent him.

One does what one can for one's fellows.

Nicolet - ambitious, energetic, talented, attractive to women,

but a man of insensate jealousy, sir. Insensate.

- Oh, yeah? - Oh, yeah.

Perhaps you have been misinformed by someone

lacking a strict regard for the truth.

Well, it could be.

It would sadden me to think so, sir.

Yeah, me too.

Look, at the very moment

he's about to become a major international star,

Nicolet gets hold of a gun and, in a very public place,

he shoots down one of his best clients,

and his girlfriend runs away, just at the moment he needs her most.

You find that extraordinary?

- I don't believe a word of it. - Consider, sir,

"No man is so exquisitely honest but that ten times in his life

"he might not lawfully be hanged.”

Montaigne.

Look at it from a different point of view

and the extraordinary becomes ordinary.

Bardet, a younger man, successful, handsome...

and Denise Cossec.

Naturally, the two of them are amusing themselves behind Nicolet's back.

What do you mean, "naturally"?

You are a man of experience.

"There is no animal in the world "as treacherous as man."

- Monsieur Montaigne? - You are learning, sir!

Naturally, Nicolet discovers what is going on,

and you have the classic "crime passionnel",

which we French forgive more readily than you cold, unfeeling English.

- No. - No?

I'm not English, Monsieur - I'm Jersey.

Oh!

Oh, délicieux!

When Etienne Bardet was lying on the steps... bleeding,

and Alain Nicolet was on the other side of the street...

With a gun in his hand! Oh, this is wonderful, wonderful

the nearest person to Etienne Bardet was you.

Now, as between you and Etienne Bardet,

who would you say Alain Nicolet had the better reason to want to kill?

Hm?

Sometimes it is a good choice, sir...

..not to choose at all

Alphonse...

Alphonse!

You have come within a whisker, sir, of ruining my lunch.

Alphonse, Le monsieur a perdu son appétit. Il veut partir tout de suite.

You're dead right. I can't sit round here gossiping.

I've got a busy afternoon.

Yes?

I'm going to bring Denise back to Aix.

Don't choke on the bones, will you?

Lunch time, Charlie. Could try the restaurants.

What, all of them?

We've got to start somewhere.

Hey! This looks a bit special

Why not?

Look at the prices. Last place you'd find old Jim.

- You're better off keeping that moving. - Am I?

Yes. Fatal to rest it. Any fool knows that.

My foot doesn't know that. Charlie, we've got to have something!

Qu'est-ce que vous voulez?

Hey, Jim!

Jim! Over here!

- Hello, Charlie. - I've been looking for you all over.

Are you all right? I... I don't know. I'll tell you later.

You look terrible.

- I won't ask what you're doing here... - Well, actually...

in case I get a silly answer.

- I was hoping to surprise you. - Well, you have.

Charlie!

What happened to you?

Don't ask!

Oh!

He fell out of a tractor.

Look, I'm supposed to be picking up Danielle for lunch.

- Ah! - Are you two married yet?

Oh.

- None of your damn business, Charlie! - Well, I just wondered.

Jim, there's a super restaurant over there. Why don't we all...?

I'm sorry, but if you two wouldn't mind taking Danielle, is that OK?

I've got to see another lady.

- Je suis la pour Denise. - Elle n'est pas la.

Cette fois, Gérard, je ne me laisserais pas faire.

Allez-vous en, je dis!

Denise, une ambulance! Vite, vite!

He failed to kill me the first time.

He could hardly fail this time.

Try and be quiet.

Adorable creature.

Don't talk, don't talk.

There is no hurry.

By the time your ambulance gets here,

I shall be gone.

Now, you hold on, hold on, all right?

You knew of course it was him.

I came here to find out and see who else would tum up. I didn't know anything.

Poor fellow.

He couldn't bear to think of anyone - Alain Nicolet, myself, anyone -

with Denise.

- Anyone? - Anyone at all

A brother, a sister...

That can sometimes be a very particular bond, sir.

So if he'd succeeded that night outside the casino...

I would already be dead.

And Alain Nicolet indicted for murder.

Two birds with one stone, eh?

Indeed, sir.

Montaigne?

Pity.

And as... for her...

..what choice did she have?

Denounce her brother to save her lover?

Or save her brother, eh?

For her, there was no choice.

Now, you hold on, hold on.

- Justice... - What?

Justice...

demands that I compensate you...

for my efforts...

my vain efforts

to prevent you looking into this little affair.

But I hope you would agree, sir...

..that death...

acquits us...

of all obligations.

Mo...

Mo...

Montaigne, hm?

Oh, thank you. We'll work something out, monsieur.

I hope so.

J'y vais.

Don't worry. And don't worry about him either.

He never looks on the bright side of anything, do you, Frank?

Me?!

What were you saying about me being well out of it?

Your friend Willy reckons you're well out of police work.

All that rough stuff.

Thank you.

Jim!

- Monsieur Bergerac. - Hello again.

I owe you everything. Yes, yes.

And you must let me repay you.

As I told you before, no... but thanks.

Jim!

- Are you sure? - Yeah.

Very well

Solange!

Danielle.

Oh, Jim!