Jérôme Collet

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Lieutenant Jérôme Collet is a fictional character in the popular 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code and the 2006 film based on it. In the film, he was portrayed by Etienne Chicot.

[edit] Story

Collet is a lieutenant in France's Direction Centrale Police Judiciaire (DCPJ). He is Captain Bezu Fache's second-in-command. It is he who visits Robert Langdon in the beginning of the story, whom Fache highly suspects is the murderer of Jacques Saunière. Collet secretly slips a GPS transmitter in Langdon's pocket to track him before taking him to the scene of the murder at the Louvre Museum. However, after being informed by Saunière's granddaughter Sophie Neveu, Langdon later realizes all this and flees with Sophie.

After this we discover that Fache doesn't think too highly about Collet and Collet desperately wants to do some good work to impress Fache. Later, the French police track Langdon and Sophie at the Depository Bank of Zurich. André Vernet, president of the bank, attempts to help Langdon and Sophie escape by disguising himself as a truck driver and transporting them in an armored truck. Collet stops the truck and questions Vernet. Although Collet is slightly suspicious of the truck driver wearing an expensive Rolex watch, Vernet manages to deceive Collet and leaves successfully.

Later, Vernet regrets his actions and tries to turn Langdon and Sophie in, but he is defeated and the two escape with the truck. Vernet, knowing that there is a homing beacon on every armored truck, informs the police, and Collet leads the team to Château Villette where Langdon and Sophie are under the homage of Sir Leigh Teabing. He then realizes he had been deceived upon seeing the armored truck. After hearing a gunshot (fired by albino monk Silas) in the château, Collet hesitates whether to take action or wait for Fache to come – he wants to gain glory but also fears of risking his career. Finally, he decides to enter the château, but the people inside have already escaped.

Collet stations at Château Villette for a period of time, and discovers a secret spying base, which Teabing (actually the evil Teacher) used to spy on Jacques Saunière and other members of the Priory of Sion. He also receives a phone call from André Vernet, whom he later recognizes to be the truck driver.

By the end of the investigation, Collet manages to share the spotlight with and to save Fache from embarrassment by crediting him on television for the arrest of Leigh Teabing while also claiming that his misguided intent to arrest Langdon and Sophie was a ruse to draw out the real killer. Watching Collet on the screen with Bishop Aringarosa, Fache remarks: "A good man, that Collet."