Bezu Fache is captain of the French Judicial Police

Bezu Fache, captain of the Direction Centrale Police Judiciaire (DCPJ), is the formidable and relentless law-enforcement figure who drives the investigation into Jacques Saunière's murder. Known by the epithet "Le Taureau" (the Bull), he is a stern, imposing, and deeply religious man whose aggressive tactics and personal convictions shape the night's events, leading him to fixate on Robert Langdon as the prime suspect before the truth unravels his case.

Identity and Authority

Fache is introduced as the captain of the DCPJ, France's equivalent of the FBI. He is described as stocky and dark, almost Neanderthal, with a wide-shouldered, powerful frame that strains his dark double-breasted suit. He carries himself with unmistakable authority on squat, powerful legs, and his voice is a guttural rumble like a gathering storm. His dark hair is slicked back with oil, accentuating an arrow-like widow's peak that divides his jutting brow, and his ebony eyes seem to scorch the earth before him, radiating a fiery clarity that forecasts his reputation for unblinking severity. His handshake is crushing. His subordinates call him "le Taureau" (the Bull), a nickname Langdon immediately understands from his zodiac iconography. Fache's authority is absolute within the Louvre that night; he has taken over museum security, quarantined the regular night wardens in the Sully Wing for questioning, and posted armed Judicial Police guards with machine guns at the pyramid's entrance, making clear that nobody goes in or out without his blessing.

Investigation and Interrogation

Fache personally summons Langdon to the Louvre in the middle of the night, using the pretext of needing his expertise as a symbologist. He conducts a "surveillance cachée"—a covert observation—recording their entire conversation with a hidden microphone and tracking Langdon via a GPS dot slipped into his jacket pocket. During their walk through the darkened Grand Gallery, Fache questions Langdon about his relationship with Saunière, the nature of their planned meeting, and Langdon's manuscript on goddess worship. He reveals the cryptic message Saunière left on the floor—the Fibonacci sequence, the phrases "O, Draconian devil!" and "Oh, lame saint!"—and uses a black light to show the full message, including the circle that completes the Vitruvian Man pose. Throughout, Fache's demeanor is cold and calculating, and he deliberately withholds the final line of Saunière's message—"P.S. Find Robert Langdon"—which would directly implicate Langdon.

Religious Zeal and Personal Motives

Fache is a devout Catholic who attends mass and confession with zealous regularity, far more than the requisite holiday attendance. He obtained an audience with the Pope during a visit to Paris and keeps a photo of the event in his office, earning him the secret nickname "the Papal Bull" among his agents. He wears a crux gemmata tie clip—a silver crucifix with thirteen embedded pieces of black onyx, a Christian ideogram for Christ and His twelve apostles—which Langdon finds surprising for a police captain to broadcast so openly. Fache has been outspoken about the Catholic pedophilia scandal, declaring that priests should be hanged twice: once for their crimes against children and once for shaming the good name of the Catholic Church. His personal financial situation is strained; he is rumored to have invested his entire savings in the technology craze and lost everything, making his need for a high-profile arrest to secure his pension all the more urgent.

Conflict with Sophie Neveu

Fache has a strained relationship with Sophie Neveu, a young cryptographer who was foisted on his department two years ago as part of a ministry initiative to incorporate more women into the police force. He believes women lack the physicality necessary for police work and that their presence poses a dangerous distraction to men in the field. When Sophie interrupts his interrogation of Langdon, claiming to have deciphered the numeric code and insisting on speaking to Langdon about a message from the U.S. Embassy, Fache is livid. He later discovers that Sophie is Saunière's granddaughter and that she has been actively helping Langdon escape, which he views as a profound betrayal. He orders her flagged alongside Langdon in the Interpol broadcast, declaring that her actions will cost her far more than her job.

Change and Ending

Fache's certainty in Langdon's guilt is absolute until the final confrontation in the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey. There, he arrives with British police to find Leigh Teabing—the true mastermind—helpless on the floor, having been outwitted by Langdon and Sophie. Fache holsters his Manurhin sidearm and expresses relief that Langdon and Sophie are safe, acknowledging that he made a mistake. He later tells Bishop Aringarosa that he suspects he will be retiring early, and Aringarosa offers him a measure of faith. In a final act of pragmatism, Fache's lieutenant, Collet, publicly spins the manhunt as a deliberate ruse to lure out the real killer, protecting Fache's reputation.