Granot

Granot is Paul Darac’s partner in the investigation of the Dantiers’ kidnapping, a lieutenant whose work joins the practical organization of a search to the slower task of recognizing what its clues mean. He helps convert a neighbor’s report of a white van into a lead, directs people and inquiries as the deadline closes in, and later spots the connection between David Jarret and a face already present on Astrid’s flyer. His contribution is not a solitary breakthrough so much as a sequence of judgments made under pressure—and the recognition that a clue can sit in plain sight until the right name gives it meaning.

Identity and Investigative Role

Granot works closely with Darac in the Nice investigation. When a neighbor, Eric Taglier, reports that a white, unmarked, long-wheelbase Mercedes van was parked in Vincent Dantier’s drive on a Friday evening when the house seemed quiet and no one answered the door, Granot supplies Darac with the observation. Taglier’s account is tentative: he regularly visited Vincent, and the van’s presence struck him as unexplained. Darac nevertheless treats it as a valuable opening, asking when Taglier saw it and whether he noticed anything else. Granot’s role begins with getting such a fragment into the investigation; the team’s task is to test whether it can lead anywhere.

The van report matters because the kidnappers have also left a note for Vincent, using the same wording as the one connected to Agnès but changing the reference from “hers” to “his”. The second abduction widens the urgency of the case, while Taglier’s observation offers a possible link to the Dantiers’ home. Granot’s information does not solve the mystery, but it gives Darac a concrete object and location around which to organize the next stage of the search.

Coordinating the Search

With just over twenty-four hours remaining before the deadline, Darac proposes beginning with local outlets and expanding the search outward only if necessary. He assigns Yvonne Flaco to coordinate telephone searches and pairs her with Max Perand to lead teams. Granot’s work forms part of the larger deployment: Darac also sends people door to door, circulates the van’s limited description, and has officers approach homes lower down the hill. The plan is deliberately incremental, making use of local knowledge before broadening the net.

As the inquiry develops, Granot reports the size and shape of the work still to be done. The team has assembled twenty-four names of people who might hold, or have actually held, a grudge against the Dantiers; Armani Tardelli is leading interviews with those people. At the same time, the search for van sales and rentals has produced roughly twenty times as many names. The contrast suggests the strain of turning leads into manageable lines of inquiry: a list of possible motives is already substantial, while a search based on a vehicle’s ownership or hire history threatens to overwhelm the investigators. Granot and Darac agree that they must get into the field themselves and leave only a reduced number of people behind to keep the trawl moving.

From a Terrorist Threat to Revenge

A new alarm interrupts the investigation, and Darac tells Granot to abandon his post and return to Caserne Auvare. He explains his theory that the threat may be an act of revenge rather than terrorism and asks Granot to review cases that Darac and Vincent worked on together, especially those that led to long prison sentences. Darac notes that there is not much overlap between their cases, making the review feasible. Granot responds that the theory feels right and says he can think of possible connections. The exchange captures their investigative partnership: Darac sets a changed direction, while Granot helps turn that interpretation into a search through prior cases.

The move reframes the investigation without yet identifying the culprit. The threat’s language could encourage the police to treat the case as terrorism, but Darac’s working theory asks instead who might be exacting personal revenge on the Dantiers. Granot’s task is to help establish whether their professional histories have left someone with a motive. The review therefore connects the abduction not only to the van and the ransom note, but also to the consequences of past police work.

Clues, Recognition, and Jarret

Granot also brings Darac a financial detail concerning Corinne Delage and the van. On January 17, €9,500 was deposited in Delage’s savings account—the same amount for which she bought the van the following week. The money did not come from a corresponding withdrawal from any of her other accounts. Darac and Bonbon immediately understand the implication: Delage was acting as a front for someone else. The significance lies in the timing and exact match between deposit and purchase, which make the van’s apparent connection to Delage less straightforward and point toward a hidden purchaser or sponsor.

Later, as the investigation turns toward the Tour de France, Granot recalls that David Jarret had been assigned a position warning the approaching peloton of obstacles. Jarret had spoken with the officers in Monaco and had been pleased with the assignment, describing it as a prime spot. Darac considers whether Jarret could be Djourescu under a Francophone makeover, and Granot observes that the same possibility could apply to Jarret’s section leader, Dauresse. He cautions, however, that this line does not seem fruitful, describing the officers as clean-cut and among the best. His response shows both his willingness to test an identification and his reluctance to treat resemblance alone as proof.

The decisive recognition comes when Adèle reads out the name David Henri Jarret. Granot has been anxiously searching through papers on his desk. He finds Astrid’s flyer, lays it down, and arranges his hands over it to conceal the beard in the drawing. His face changes; he crumples the sheet and throws it onto the desk. Jarret has met both Darac’s boss and Vincent at a briefing and even shaken their hands. Granot realizes that the drawing had been sitting on his desk for hours without prompting the connection. The moment turns an overlooked image into a link between the disguised face and a suspect already present in the police’s orbit.

Partnership and Continuing Search

After the team prints Jarret’s photograph, Darac announces that he is going to Gambetta to search the streets. He tells officers with finite tasks to finish and update the others, then join him; those with continuing work should decide whether they can carry it out while moving. He also asks Flaco for the paperwork on the white van and a list of rented lock-ups. Granot is part of the investigative effort that has led to this mobilization: the van remains a live lead even after the inquiry has generated a suspect, and the team is still looking for places where it might have been kept.

At 1:36 p.m., Darac finds Granot on the telephone. Granot’s brief reactions convey that the call brings consequential news; after he hangs up, he tells Darac that Jean Florian has been staying for three months in intensive care at the Clinique Rendflore near Porte de Montreuil in Paris. The revelation adds a further strand to the case, but the supplied scenes do not show Granot’s subsequent actions or the investigation’s resolution. His established contribution is instead visible in the way he keeps multiple possibilities in play: witnesses, vehicle records, old cases, the flyer, and new information from a phone call.

Narrative Significance

Granot’s scenes emphasize the collaborative and cumulative nature of police work. The case advances through material that initially appears slight or disconnected: a neighbor’s observation, a precisely timed bank deposit, a remembered assignment, a paper flyer, and a name spoken aloud. Granot helps move these details between stages of the investigation, but his most revealing moment is also a moment of self-reproach. The flyer was not missing; it had been on his desk for hours. What changes is his ability to connect it to Jarret after the name is read.

That delayed recognition gives his investigative role a productive tension. He is capable of supplying a sound lead and coordinating with Darac, yet the Jarret clue demonstrates how evidence can remain visible without being legible. Granot’s value lies not in infallibility but in returning to the material, revising his understanding, and acting once the pieces align. The shift from a suspected terrorist threat to a revenge inquiry, and from an anonymous van to a suspect already known to the police, depends on that collective process of noticing and reinterpreting.