Jacques Guillaume – Bank Robbery

 Jacques Guillaume – Bank Robbery

Jacques Guillaume, the elegant Parisian detective (former Sûreté inspector, relies on instinct, conversation, and the city’s rhythms, keeps a small office above a café in the Marais), was called in after a small private bank in the 8th arrondissement was robbed just after closing.

The thieves had known the exact moment the vault’s secondary lock was disabled for maintenance and had left almost no forensic trace. Guillaume spent an evening in the café downstairs listening to staff gossip. One teller mentioned that a regular client—an elderly art dealer—had asked unusually precise questions about the bank’s closing procedures two weeks earlier.

Guillaume visited the dealer’s gallery the next morning, accepted a glass of wine, and casually observed the man’s new assistant. The assistant’s hands showed recent abrasions and his shoes carried traces of the distinctive red dust used on the bank’s service entrance. Under gentle questioning the dealer admitted he had been blackmailed into providing the schedule; the assistant and two others had carried out the robbery. Guillaume made a single call to the Brigade de Répression du Banditisme, finished his wine, and walked back through the Marais as the evening lights came on.