Chapter Twelve

Day Five, Oscar's Arrival In France

It was still early that morning when Oscar had dropped off the hire car at Leeds-Bradford airport, for this last minute flight on a Budget Airline to La Rochelle, France. This was the best the department could do at short notice.

He was now driving to the Musée National de la Marine de Rochefort, to interview the curator there. Once away from the airport it was a straight drive from La Rochelle to Rochefort and Oscar was enjoining being away from the office. He often took on an investigation himself, for just this reason, to get out for a while. Although he liked his job and was very good at it, it did get a bit tedious just being in the office week after week. When he turned of the motorway though, it was a very uninspiring drive through industrial estates, most of the rest of the way to the river where the museum is situated.

Oscar had an appointment for 16:00 but it was still only 14:00, so he went straight to the hotel he had been given, the Corderie Royale. He checked in and and went up to his room, where looking from the window he had a nice view of the river Charente. He unpacked what he had and went back down to the restaurant for a cup of tea, before walking the short distance to the museum next door.

Oscar spoke very good French and his cover was, that he was a TV producer from the BBC, doing research for a documentary about strange objects recovered from the sea bed. He had to listen to the curator go on and on about pieces of ships, (guns, etc.), recovered from the mouth of the river and around the Île d'Oléron. The curator was quite an authority on the subject and Oscar had to sit through lots of information, making notes as seemed to be appropriate. The coffee pot object wasn't mentioned though, so Oscar had to steer the curator around to it.

Oscar asked "and what was the latest object you have seen?". "That would be a small piece of junk pulled up just this weekend but it was nothing special and it went in the bin, I wasted my weekend going to inspect it as well". "So you put it in the bin and that was the end of it then" asked Oscar." "Well no actually, I was going to put it in the bin but and English man seemed interested in it and he had it when I left the bar". Oscar thanked the curator for all the useful information and asked if he would be available if required at a later date, to help with the program. The curator said he would be pleased to offer any assistance in the future. "One last question, where was the bar, where you last saw this object?"

Oscar decided as it was only twenty miles to the bar, and it was early, he would drive there this evening. He found the bar quite easily, the Sat Nav on his phone was really good and it was a pleasant easy drive, only around twenty miles (or thirty five kilometres if you like that sort of thing).

In the bar Oscar ordered a small beer and sat at the bar, he said to the barman that he had just arrived and was looking for some friends who were already here. He gave the barman the description he had got from the campsite owner. The barman said an English couple had been in over the weekend but had not been back in since. Oscar took a chance and also asked about the object, the barman remembered the fisherman bringing it in and he thought the English man took it away with him, anyway it was not left in the bar.

Back at the hotel and after a very nice meal, Oscar was up in his room on the department computer again. He did the same searches as yesterday but found nothing new. He contacted the department again and arranged to move to the Le, Château, d'Oléron, next day.