Frankie Lejeune

Frankie Lejeune is a captain in the police service and an expert in sex crime whose investigative judgment becomes central to Paul Darac’s inquiries. Introduced through her professional dealings and later drawn into the poisoning and kidnapping investigations, she contributes not simply specialist knowledge but a disciplined skepticism about explanations that do not fit the evidence. Her composure with people and her readiness to lead make her one of Darac’s most trusted colleagues.

Identity and Professional Approach

Darac calls Frankie in from Vice after learning that a trusted member of staff had been carrying something of investigative importance. He describes her as an exceptionally capable officer and singles out her particular skill when children may be involved. The endorsement establishes her standing before she appears in the case: she is brought in because her expertise answers a specific need, not as a ceremonial addition to the team.

Frankie’s work at Lycée Mossette shows a different dimension of that expertise. Principal André Volpini presents a proposed questionnaire as a standard feedback exercise, to be emailed to every student and family member and to cover what he calls the whole school experience. Frankie has heard the kind of account he gives before, yet responds with a sympathetic smile. Her manner is neither credulous nor openly confrontational; she can listen to an institutional explanation without confusing courteous reception with agreement. When the meeting ends, she leaves Volpini with an additional, less welcome thought, suggesting that her intervention has consequences beyond the formal discussion.

Investigation of Emil Florian’s Death

Frankie joins Darac’s investigation into Emil Florian’s death and supplies a clear test of the emerging theory. The circumstances are unusual: Florian kneels and prostrates himself with the other worshippers, then fails to rise. He appears to have died peacefully, with no obvious signs of the violent physical reaction that might accompany some forms of poisoning. Deanna Bianchi considers injection the likeliest route and a powerful muscle relaxant a possible substance, while warning that the drug may already be undetectable. A minute sample of straw-coloured liquid recovered from cut-up underwear offers a chance of further evidence, but not certainty.

Against that background, Frankie questions whether the proposed offender’s method makes sense. She argues that a parent bent on revenge would be more likely to attack Florian directly than to wait on a street with a syringe-mounted rucksack, hoping that he would happen to run past. Her point is not that revenge is impossible, but that the means described are too elaborate and contingent to make a convincing account of it. By separating the emotional plausibility of a motive from the practical plausibility of a method, she helps keep the investigation from treating an arresting story as a proven one.

Work with Darac and the Wider Inquiry

Frankie’s relationship with Darac is marked by professional trust and shared responsibility. At a meeting in Building K, where the conference room is arranged to seat forty, she is present as the team weighs the form a limited threat might take. Darac later asks her to lead a proposed operation scheduled provisionally for the following day. His request places her in charge of an important next step and reflects the confidence he has already expressed in her abilities.

She also works across the boundaries of the investigation. After a telephone call, Darac sees her emerge from the sister building across the street from La Marguerite with an elderly man on her arm; she calls Darac over. The brief scene shows Frankie bringing a person into the inquiry through direct contact, rather than keeping the investigation confined to meetings and files. Her role thus includes both analytical work and the practical business of finding and engaging people who may help move the case forward.

From Evidence to Action

As the investigation develops, Darac assembles a chain of facts implicating Corinne Delage: she was present when Florian was injected and later when he died; the seventy-year-old had recently bought a van for €9,500 with money supplied by another person, apparently to conceal who was really purchasing it; and the van is believed to be the one used in the kidnapping of Agnès and Vincent Dantier. Darac says that new information about Delage has emerged and turns to Frankie as the person best placed to help with it. The evidence does not make Frankie the source of every discovery, but it establishes her as a crucial specialist in interpreting what the case reveals about Delage.

The inquiry also uncovers a method for defeating the timing system on surveillance camera footage. The proposed explanation is deliberately simple: a van driver photographed the view from the exact position of Camera One on Thursday evening, enabling later deception without appearing to touch the camera. The account links the driver’s speed and the handling of his gloves to that explanation. In the raid sequence that follows, Frankie turns to Yvonne Flaco as the party prepares to move. Later, when the view of the intended target is cut off, Frankie grips Darac’s face and makes him look into her imploring eyes. These actions place her at both thresholds of the operation: preparing the team to act and responding at close range when the situation becomes urgent.

Judgment, Empathy, and Narrative Role

Frankie’s conduct repeatedly joins firmness to consideration. She can question a theory sharply without claiming more than the evidence permits, and she meets Volpini’s familiar explanations with a sympathetic rather than dismissive response. Her intervention in the school meeting and her role in the investigations both show an officer attentive to the human stakes of institutional and criminal cases, while remaining focused on what can be established.

Her standing is confirmed in small exchanges as well as operational decisions. At one point she identifies herself to others as Darac’s colleague and Captain Lejeune, a concise assertion of both professional rank and partnership. Elsewhere, an elderly resident recognizes her identity card as Francine’s, a fuller form of her name, and addresses Darac by his own rank and first name. The detail underscores how her official identity accompanies her into encounters outside formal police settings. Across the novel’s inquiries, Frankie functions as a trusted counterpart to Darac: her expertise tests the logic of the case, her practical initiative helps carry it forward, and her presence makes the transition from suspicion to action a shared responsibility.