Chapter 42

Arriving at the Gare du Nord in Paris, the terminus for Eurostar, I transferred to Gare Montparnasse where the train for La Rochelle left at 3:15 p.m. Three hours later the TGV was pulling into La Rochelle station, where I took a taxi to the hotel we had stayed at on our last visit. Even though it was summer and the height of the tourist season they had space. I booked a room for myself and also one for Willem from the following night. The exact day and time the Belle Diamant arrived would determine how long we would need the rooms. Initially I booked us in until Thursday, but I expected to be gone before then as I was hopeful that we wouldn’t have to wait around for most of the week.

The following morning I phoned the local Hertz office to book a van and have it delivered to the hotel. I ordered a Mercedes Vito V6 panel van, which was the fastest van that they had. It had one way windows that made it ideal as an observation vehicle. We could look out from the inside, but nobody could look in.

The plan that Willem and I had agreed on, was that he would be the one to follow any car or van they used to transfer the diamonds to Rotterdam; however, if anything happened to Willem, I would have to do the tracking. In case of that eventuality, I had to be sure that the van was fast enough to keep up with them. The Mercedes van was the only one Hertz offered that could do the job.

They didn’t have a Mercedes van at the local office, so I had to wait while they had one sent up from their Bordeaux depot. It wouldn’t arrive until the afternoon. In fact, Willem and the van arrived about the same time, around 3:30 p.m.

While I was waiting, I walked over to the Port des Minimes marina just to confirm that nothing had changed since our last visit. The only difference I noticed was that there seemed to be a lot more people about, and there was more activity on the pontoons. It was probably to our advantage that there were more people around as our van wouldn’t look out of place.

While I had the time, I phoned Inspector Baird to bring him up to date.

‘Baird,’ he barked when he answered. It must be one of his off days again.

‘Good morning Inspector, Vince Hamilton here.’

‘Hi Vince. How are things in La Rochelle?’

‘Quiet, I am pleased to say. I am expecting my colleague from Holland this afternoon, and I am also waiting for my ‘observation’ van to be delivered, so I am not active yet.’

‘Do you know where the yacht is?’

‘Unfortunately, they have switched off the transponder, so we can only estimate when it will arrive, and we can’t track it.’

‘Talking of transponders; the one on Casino Royale is working remarkably well and you can give yourself one hundred marks out of one hundred as she is now sitting in a marina in Rotterdam.’

‘So my hunch was right after all.’

‘Yes Vince, and to think that I originally had cold feet about you and your hunch.’

‘Anyway Inspector, if anything happens here you will be the first to know.’

I terminated the call and walked back to the hotel to wait for Willem and my van.

‘Welcome to La Rochelle again Willem,’ I said to him as he pulled up outside the hotel.

‘I am glad to be here Vince. There was a lot of slow moving holiday traffic on the road, and it was a dog of a trip.’

‘I had an extremely comfortable trip on the train yesterday, and it only took me just over six hours to travel the whole way from London to La Rochelle, and that includes changing trains in Paris.’

‘Certainly much easier than driving Vince, I envy you. Have they delivered the van yet?’’

‘No, but it should be here any minute. In fact, I think that must be it,’ I said pointing to the other side of the car park where a van, with a large Hertz sign on the side, had just pulled up.

I walked over to meet the driver who asked me to sign a lot of papers before he handed the keys of the van over to me. He then left in a car that had been waiting for him.

Willem, in the meantime, had come over to me carrying his bag.

‘I’ll just go in and get settled in my room Vince, and then I’ll meet you out here.’ He disappeared into the hotel leaving me to sort the van out.

About fifteen minutes later he appeared again. I was familiarising myself with the controls of the van, making sure that I would be able to drive without writing it off or embarrassing myself.

‘Let’s go down to the old harbour and have a coffee or a beer Vince and we can work out our modus operandi.’

‘Good idea Willem. We will go in your car as I don’t want to try and park this in the confines of La Rochelle?’

‘I have my keys here Vince; are you ready to go?’

‘Yes, I won’t need anything else as it’s quite warm.’

We picked one of the bars that nestled beside the harbour and sat down to have a beer.

‘Well Vince, it is your investigation so what do you suggest that we do?’ Willem asked me once he was settled with beer in hand.

‘We are only going to get one shot at this Willem, so we mustn’t cock it up. I’ll look a bloody fool if I have gotten this far and then blow it.’

‘OK, tell me what to do, and I will do it.’

‘There are two harbours we have to watch, the Port des Maritimes marina and the inner harbour that is off the old harbour in the centre of La Rochelle. During the day all we have to do is keep our eye on the main channel that all boats have to use to get into either of the two harbours. That can be done from Port des Minimes.’

I moved various items around the table to demonstrate what I was saying.

‘We also know that the Belle Diamant can only get through the lock gates into the inner harbour between the hours of 1:00 p.m and 5:00 p.m, and two hours either side of 3:55 a.m tomorrow morning.’

‘So Vince, if I am keeping an eye on the old harbour I will only need to be there for the hours that the gates are open at night,’ Willem commented. ‘During the day we will be able to see what is going on from the breakwater near the lighthouses at the entrance to the marina.’

‘There is also a car park on the west side of the marina, Willem, where it is possible to see the channel, and we would be able to park the van there. It might be a bit conspicuous to hang around the lighthouses all day, and we could get asked some questions.’

‘We need to work out a rota now Vince so we can plan on when we are going to sleep. Both of us will be required at night between 2:00 a.m and 6:00 a.m when we need to cover the two harbours. That means the only time we can sleep is during the day.’

‘How about if one of us sleeps in the morning, between 6:00 a.m and 1:00 p.m, and the other in the evening, between 6:00 p.m and 1:00 a.m? We both have mobile phones so if we need to get hold of each other during these periods we can phone.

‘Which one do you want to go for Vince?’

‘It’s probably better if I take the evening break and you take the morning one Willem. This evening you can take the van to the marina at 6.00 p.m and I will then join you at around midnight with your car. I will watch the marina during the night, and you will go and watch the other harbour. At around 3:40 a.m, when the lock gates close, you can go for your sleep break.’

‘That sounds perfect Vince. Come on; finish up your beer otherwise you will miss your sleep. When we get back to the hotel, you can go to the supermarket and get us some provisions. We are going to get hungry while we wait for the yacht to arrive.’

‘Good idea Willem. I will come and give you some supplies to last you the night before I try and get some sleep.’

I visited the local supermarket and bought a good assortment of chocolate bars, patisseries and drinks. I then drove to the marina to find Willem to stock him up. It was going to be a long night. He had found a spot in the western car park I had mentioned, and he was busy scanning the channel with binoculars from the back of the van.

I left him and returned to the hotel for my sleep break. I didn’t have much success as I was far too pumped up to sleep, and spent the early part of the evening reading before finally falling asleep nearing the end of my break.