(3 of 5)
Paul came into Champmesle late, around 10, but didn't drink anything there. He didn't have time. He had just got a call on his cell phone and announced, "Gotta go to work. See you later." He jumped into his black Austin Mini and headed to the Ritz. Surveillance-camera videotape released last week shows Paul's car pulling up in front of the Ritz. Though there was enough space there to park a couple of moving vans, Paul curiously executed several unnecessary back-and-forth maneuvers. It was then about 10:08. Exactly what he did during the more than two hours it took Di and Dodi to finish their meal is unclear. The French daily Liberation last week quoted an unnamed Ritz employee saying Paul cooled his heels in the hotel's Hemingway bar drinking pastis. When Paul got up to go, says the paper, he staggered and "knocked into a customer." The article also said Paul often drank in the Hemingway bar.
But employees in the Hemingway bar tell TIME and CNN that the Liberation account was "exaggerated." Echoing barkeeps in Paul's neighborhood, they describe Paul as a moderate drinker. "Often?" says one. "He came in maybe once or twice every three weeks or so for a drink or two." Another employee at the Hemingway agrees. "Occasionally he would have a special cocktail I prepared for him, and at hotel staff parties he would drink," he recalls. "But he was not a big boozer." In the private Ritz Club downstairs, an employee says, "everyone here knows what really happened, but we're afraid to talk." He adds, "Monsieur Paul was not responsible. He just took orders."
Who actually gave the orders remains a mystery--and on that could hinge liability on the part of the Ritz. Paul's immediate supervisor was away that night. But why bring in Paul to drive? "Because Dodi trusted him," explains a Ritz staff member. In fact Dodi had trusted him all summer, with Paul personally overseeing security for Dodi, Diana and her sons during their July vacation in St.-Tropez. Ritz staff members suggest it was Paul who persuaded Dodi to let him drive and do what he thought he did best: shield the couple from the paparazzi.
But could he do his best if he was drinking? A second set of analyses of his blood had confirmed the original tests taken on Aug. 31: Paul had between 1.75 and 1.87 grams of alcohol per liter of blood, nearly four times the legal blood-alcohol limit of 0.5. To that, last week, were added explosive toxicology results: Paul's blood also contained "therapeutic" amounts of fluoxetine (the generic name for the antidepressant Prozac) and trace amounts of tiapride, a drug used to treat various conditions and is sometimes prescribed to quiet symptoms of agitation and aggressiveness in patients being treated for alcoholism. Alcohol (in Paul's case, equal to eight or nine shots of straight whiskey) combined with the antidepressants would greatly intensify the side effects of drowsiness, impairing reflexes and vision. Paul's physician, Dr. Diane Beaulieu-d'Ivernois, says his last visit was only two days before the accident; she refuses to discuss his medical records or say why he received the prescriptions.