Alejo Busquet

Alejo Busquet, known throughout the investigation as Bonbon, is a trusted lieutenant of Paul Darac in the Police Judiciaire. Lean and red-headed, with a fox-like face almost invariably creased into a grin, he moves between an easygoing public manner and sharp investigative work. His interventions repeatedly correct assumptions, bring witnesses into the inquiry, and turn scattered observations into a usable chronology—most decisively in the reconstruction of Emil Florian’s arrival at the prayer meeting where he died.

Identity and Introduction

Bonbon first appears at the Rue Verbier prayer room, stepping out to exchange a few words with a uniformed officer while the officer points toward a Mercedes. Darac sees him as one of his trusted lieutenants, but cannot tell from Bonbon’s foxily grinning expression what he is thinking. The grin is a recurring feature of his presence: it makes him difficult to read, even when he is closely observing the scene.

His physical bearing is equally distinctive. When he brings news to Darac, he repeatedly hauls his police armband back up his long, wiry arm. The small gesture recurs as he takes up the floor, giving his conversations an unceremonious rhythm that contrasts with the solemnity and political sensitivity surrounding the investigation.

Correcting the Investigation’s Assumptions

At the prayer room, Bonbon interrupts the prosecutor Jules Frènes before the inquiry can proceed on a false premise. Frènes has emphasized the need for tact toward Muslim worshippers and warned that mishandling the situation could provoke disorder. Bonbon tells him that the dead man was not Muslim. Frènes has already heard enough to be impatient, and sometimes struggles with Bonbon’s Perpignan accent, but the substance of the correction is plain: the identity of the victim undermines the framing that had begun to dominate the scene.

Bonbon also identifies the imam, Abdel Asiz, whom Darac recognizes from the newspaper Nice-Matin. He describes Abdel Asiz as warm, urbane, and cooperative, noting that the imam had asked the congregation to remain and speak with the police. That detail complicates any expectation of hostility from the worshippers and reinforces the difference between evidence gathered at the scene and the suspicions projected onto it.

Later, Bonbon tells Darac that the people involved are eager to meet him. He has also been briefed by Roland Granot about Emil Florian, whom he refers to as the unfortunate man at the centre of the case. His updates keep the investigation connected across its separate lines of inquiry rather than allowing one lead or one suspect to eclipse the rest.

Investigative Work and Witnesses

Bonbon’s work includes following up people whose testimony can clarify the case. At eleven in the morning, he visits Marie Lacroix, introduces himself as Lieutenant Alejo Busquet of the Police Judiciaire, and shows her his identification. Her home is full of light and furnished in pastel colours; Bonbon, who takes an interest in antiques, notices a marble-topped coffee table bearing shells, pebbles, and what appears to be a small bird’s skull. The visit places his formal police role beside his observant, individual manner: he registers not only a witness’s account but also the objects in the room around her.

His questions also track the movement of the investigation beyond the original scene. While discussing Florian with Darac, he asks about Mansoor Narooq and whether Yvonne Flaco has called from the hospital. Darac reports that Narooq has chipped a bone in his shoulder. Bonbon follows up by asking whether Narooq is back at the Caserne. The exchange shows his attention extending to an injured colleague and to the practical status of the people involved, not merely to the central suspect or victim.

A brief exchange with Manou shows the same directness in a different setting. When Bonbon asks whether Manou has spoken to someone on the phone, the sound of clinking weights interrupts the conversation. Bonbon immediately warns, “Don’t touch that!” before repeating his question. Even in a fragmentary exchange, his attention turns quickly from inquiry to a nearby potential hazard.

Reconstructing Florian’s Movements

Bonbon’s most consequential account comes after he interviews Marie Lacroix, the woman who made the original tip-off call from Rue Verbier. From a third-floor balcony opposite the Basilique, Lacroix had watched Florian join the prayer meeting. She also saw the elderly Corinne Delage strike him with her shopping trolley, after which he bent forward as if in prayer and did not get up again.

The crucial addition to that account concerns what happened before the apparent attack. Lacroix had seen Florian arrive on the street before the point at which Lartigue’s CCTV footage begins. That earlier sighting gives the team a wider time frame and allows Bonbon to connect the witness’s observations with the surveillance gap.

He proposes a sequence that accounts for Florian’s movements and for the presence of Armani Tardelli. Florian first saw Armani on Jean Médecin and hid behind a Colonne Morris. When Armani disappeared into a boutique on Rue Verbier, Florian made a run for it, taking advantage of a small crowd between them. The crowd had gathered to watch a living-statue street performer. Armani confirms that he had gone into the shop only to collect a pair of shoes, came back out almost immediately, and noticed the people gathered opposite. Bonbon’s reconstruction thus joins a witness’s elevated view, a missing interval in the CCTV record, Florian’s attempt to conceal himself, and an ordinary street performance into one chronological explanation.

Narrative Role

Bonbon’s function in the investigation is often to puncture a premature story. At the prayer room, he corrects the assumption about the dead man’s religion while Frènes is emphasizing the danger of political unrest. In the later reconstruction, he makes the apparently incidental crowd of onlookers central to explaining how Florian moved through the street. Across both moments, his work shifts attention from charged interpretations to specific people, movements, and observations.

His grin and repeated adjustment of his armband lend the investigative scenes a comic, loose-edged quality, but the substance of his contributions is precise. He identifies cooperation where suspicion might be expected, checks on an injured colleague, pursues the caller whose observation began the inquiry, and supplies the missing prelude to the death at the prayer meeting. The contrast between his casual manner and the importance of his evidence makes him a practical counterweight to the investigation’s institutional tension.