Tapestry (34 page)

‘A prisoner of war,’ said Delaroche with a sigh, sadly shaking his head. ‘Far too many of their wives are simply taking advantage of their absences. Is it any wonder there has been both outcry and retaliation, especially since our boys can’t defend their property or even have the use of it?’

‘They’re all making sluts of themselves,’ said Quevillon. ‘
Chatte
is so common these days, one can get it for a half a cigarette the hour and more if one insists.’

The
salaud
! ‘But had anyone else gone to that priest with a similar inquiry?’ asked Louis, patently ignoring the use of ‘property’ and all the rest.

‘I had no need to ask,’ went on Garnier. ‘Father Marescot offered the information as was his duty as a concerned citizen. Tell them, Hubert.’

‘With pleasure. We weren’t alone, Inspectors. “A woman comes,” he said. “She is older than that one by a good twenty years and doesn’t have to drag around an eight-year-old daughter.” ’

‘Madame Morel?’ asked the termite, as startled by the news as was his partner.

‘Gaston is known for his affairs,’ said Delaroche amicably. ‘Before this Defeat of ours he employed the Barrault subject’s husband as a lorry driver, clearly putting the woman in debt to him. What better a conquest than the stepsister of one’s wife, especially when poverty and loneliness cause such women to do things they might not otherwise agree to.’

Like getting down on their knees for hire, was that it, eh? wondered Kohler. Sûreté that he was, Louis glanced at that wristwatch of his whose crystal had been cracked in that other war but would never be replaced, for it was at once a shining example of French frugality and constant reminder of what he had survived when so many others hadn’t.

‘
Ah, bon
, Colonel, for now the wrap-up, I think. Attacks are being committed all over the city. The wives and fiancées of prisoners of war, though not the only victims, are being singled out, wedding rings demanded, handbags stolen, et cetera, et cetera. Gestapo Boemelburg, at our briefing this afternoon, told us that he feels certain there is a gang at work, that the attacks are being planned and carried out with military precision backed by exceptional sources of information and that the violence is being deliberately escalated because the defeat at Stalingrad has made such criminals bolder, but with the result that Berlin has been constantly on the line demanding an immediate end to the crimes and a return to safety on the streets.’

Ach du lieber Gott,
how had Louis got it all out in one breath? wondered Kohler. A cigar had best be taken, one for him too, the colonel’s cigar cutter borrowed indefinitely.

These two, thought Delaroche, each was so very different yet they were the same. ‘And that is why the Höherer SS Oberg has engaged the Agence Vidocq in the matter,
mes amis
, and wishes you to join us when we meet with him at 1000 hours Monday, the avenue Foch.’

‘Head Office, Louis,’ breathed Hermann. ‘I told you but you never listen, do you? That’s why I went there right away.’

‘But
what
did you find and
when
did you visit Herr Oberg’s office? Come, come, Inspector,’ demanded Delaroche. ‘Is it not time you let us in on what must have happened to Élène Artur? If we are to work together, and I am certain that is what the Standartenführer Langbehn will insist on, then it is best we know everything.’

‘The Standartenführer?’ blurted Louis.

St-Cyr had just been kicked in
les joyeuses
but surprise had best be registered. ‘
Ah, mon Dieu
, is it that you have already met?’

‘Briefly. Colonel, who, exactly, is to be at that meeting?’

Such caution was admirable, but why had Jeannot not returned? Had the Dunand girl given trouble? ‘Myself, my partner, Jeannot Raymond, Flavien, of course, and Hubert, yourselves also and I believe a translator, a
Blitzmädel,
Sonja Remer, who was, apparently, a victim also of this tidal wave of street violence and crime.’

Oh-oh, here it comes, thought Kohler, sighing inwardly.

‘Herr Oberg is determined to punish the boys who stole the girl’s handbag,’ went on Delaroche. ‘Flavien, were either of you able to pin down their identities? I know the bag has been returned by a devious route but it was, I believe, still missing some items.’

The termites had just choked in the darkness of their little tunnel, the one behind on the shit of the one in front. ‘There’s a photo of them in your out-tray, Hubert,’ said Garnier.

‘Get it,’ said Delaroche, ‘and while you’re at it, if Jeannot is in his office, please ask him to join us.’

The building was silent. The lift had made no sound even after M. Jeannot Raymond had left her, but that had been some time ago, Suzette knew, and talking to Teddy simply wasn’t going to help. Indeed, if others knew she did such a thing, they’d think her crazy and she should stop, would have to now anyways, but she wasn’t alone in this. She couldn’t be. Didn’t the Occupation encourage people to retreat into illusion and cultivate their fantasies and daydreams? Wasn’t that just about the only way to counter the terrible loneliness and uncertainty?

‘Look, I’m sorry I didn’t make us a sauce for the noodles. I was still uncertain, still agitated.’

There, she had confessed that much. He paid not the slightest attention, must really be upset with her.

‘The red-lacquered Chinese gate, Teddy. You can’t miss it if you’re in that far corner of the Bois de Vincennes. The gate is at the entrance to the tropical garden and the Institut National d’Agronomie Coloniale and can be seen from a distance, but it … it’s close to something else.’

Even such a hint failed to move him. ‘Very well,’ she said spitefully. ‘I’m going to meet Monsieur Raymond there tomorrow morning at nine.’

Picked at, the noodles were cold and soggy, the slices of carrot like wood. ‘The gate is near the Annamite Temple that is a memorial to the
Indochinois
who died for France in that other war. The mother of that girl who was murdered downstairs goes there to pray and to introduce her grandson to his ancestors. Monsieur Raymond said that Concierge Louveau told him the dead girl always went there to visit with her mother and little boy early on Sundays just as I go to Charenton on the last Sunday of every month.’

Still there was nothing but an ever-deepening frown from Teddy. ‘Jeannot feels that someone should tell the mother what has happened, that she will have to claim the body from the city’s morgue and that … that funeral arrangements will have to be made. Oh for sure, the daughter was prostituting herself and was the wife of a prisoner of war, but to kill her for betraying her husband was not right, he said. “What is needed is compassion.” There’s a restaurant nearby, on the Île de la Porte Jaune in Lac des Minimes. He has said he will take me to lunch there afterwards.’

Even this news didn’t move him. He was insisting that he be told everything.

‘Jeannot says there’s a bronze funeral urn in the temple’s courtyard and that perhaps the mother could arrange to have the daughter’s ashes placed there among those of her ancestors. Then her little boy could always visit. The temple, a pagoda,
******
was donated to the Colonial Exhibition of 1906 in Marseille and is really called a
dinh
, he says. A large communal house that was used for worship and where the elders of the village would go to discuss important matters. Frankly, I can’t understand how anyone could let such an important building be taken away but they did, and in 1917 it was moved to the Bois de Vincennes to become the memorial. Is it not good and kind of him to want to see the mother, Teddy, and to offer to help her financially with the funeral? A girl he didn’t even know but whose mother and child shouldn’t be made to suffer more than they already will? He … he thought that if I were with him it might make things easier for the little boy and that … that Colonel Delaroche would insist on our taking something from here. He was certain you could help that little boy.’

Let me have the rest of it then
, said Teddy.

‘Look, I’m sorry. Really I am but you’ll see everything I do. There’s a
passage
, Teddy. Jeannot says it’s well worth a visit. All along its walls are beautiful bas-reliefs that were copied from those at Angkor Wat in Indochina. He’s been there. He really has. He’s seen the ruins of that great temple. He says that among our scholars there were some who at first felt that the temple at Angkor Wat was Buddhist but that there is a magnificent shrine to Vishnu, the Hindu Preserver, another to Brahma, their god of Creation, and yet another to Siva, their destroyer. I … I hadn’t realized he would even know or care about such things. Honestly I hadn’t, but … but people don’t visit those memorials much now, so we and the mother and little boy should have the place much to ourselves.’

Teddy didn’t say anything for the longest time. His feelings had, of course, been hurt and she was going to have to do something about that.

You fool
, he said at last.
Wasn’t this Jeannot of yours standing inside the door here when you ran back upstairs? Didn’t he stop you from crying out in panic?

‘He … he did grab me from behind, but …’

He clamped a hand over your mouth and held you pinned against the door. You thought you were going to die. You did! You nearly fainted.

Teddy never missed a thing, not even that Jeannot had come back to tell her what had happened to that girl. ‘When he released me, I saw that he had been badly bitten on the left wrist and thought that I’d done it in panic, but … but I’d only pulled the bandage off.’

It was inflamed and you stood helplessly before him in tears.

‘He knew where I’d been, knew I’d followed him.’

Yet didn’t accuse you of it?

‘He was too polite.’

Admit it, you couldn’t face him.

‘All right, all right, I won’t go. I won’t! On Monday, when I get to the office, I’ll tell him I wasn’t feeling well.’

She would clear things away now, thought Suzette. She would turn her back on Teddy, wouldn’t throw anything out. They would just have to eat it tomorrow for supper. ‘He’s not like the others at the agency, Teddy. He’s decent, honest and kind, and keeps to himself. That’s why he insisted we sit in the
salle de séjour
among all those lovely things, and that I drink the last of his
eau-de-vie
. He was genuinely worried about his having terrified me and held my hands. I had no need to fear him and said I would help him. I
promised
, Teddy. He’ll be expecting us—he really will. I’m not to tell Concierge Louveau where we’re going even if that one asks, which he will. It’s … it’s best we don’t.

‘ “Let’s keep it to ourselves,” Jeannot said. His fingers trembled when he kissed me on the cheek and I felt the warmth of him. He said, “Please don’t worry. Everything will be fine. It’s probably best that you’re not here when the coroner and the police come to remove that body.” I can’t have the police asking me any more questions. I can’t. I know too much. I’ll lose my job if they make me tell them things.’

And what about that bite you saw? Did Bob do it or some other dog like that Lulu?

‘Bob wouldn’t have bitten him. Not Bob. I … I don’t know how he got the bite. I wish I did but couldn’t ask.’

Plunged into the damp, cold darkness of the rue La Boétie at 2107 hours Berlin Time, they were moving now. They weren’t wasting time, having just left the Agence Vidocq. ‘It’s this house, Louis. This one,’ insisted Kohler.

‘No it isn’t. It’s this one.’

‘
Merde,
how the hell would you know?’

‘Try me.’

The candle stub had gone out. Uncanny, that’s what Louis was. ‘Why
didn’t
you tell me they had a photo of the boys?’

‘I couldn’t. There wasn’t a chance.’

Jeannot Raymond hadn’t been in his office. ‘Have they got Giselle?’

‘Later … We can discuss it later.’

‘Garnier and Quevillon took Élène Artur. I’m certain of it.’

‘Did I not say “later”?’

The door was locked. Fist to it, Louis summoned the concierge. ‘Louveau?’ he demanded. ‘Sûreté and Kripo.’

‘Messieurs …’

‘The flat of Judge Rouget and hurry!’ They didn’t take the lift. They went up the spiralling main staircase two and three steps at a time, Louveau soon falling far behind.

‘Armand Tremblay hasn’t been in yet,’ said Louis when they got to the flat. ‘The seals haven’t been broken. If Jeannot Raymond paid this a visit, he must have only wanted to confirm that you had found her.’

‘That still doesn’t explain why he didn’t come back to the agency.’

Collectively the seals were examined. Nothing could have been disturbed since Hermann’s departure. Nothing.

‘Boemelburg can’t have let our coroner know of the body, Louis.’

‘And that can only mean Oberg didn’t want him to. Oberg, Hermann. Monsieur, was Jeannot Raymond here to examine these?’

The seals were indicated, Louveau taken aback. ‘M. Raymond? Whatever for? He simply brought the Mademoiselle Dunand home and stayed with her awhile.’

‘
Ah, Jésus,
Louis …’

‘
Vite, vite,
monsieur, her flat!’

They took the side stairs this time.
Ach,
why hadn’t they considered that the girl might live in the same building?

Louveau knocked on the door of a fifth-floor flat nearest to that staircase. ‘Mademoiselle Dunand?’ he quavered. Impatiently they waited. Would the detectives insist on entry? ‘Monsieur Raymond told me the girl had been upset over the murder and that he had thought it best to stay to calm her, Inspectors, and to reassure her that my building was absolutely safe otherwise and that she had no need to concern herself further. He said he told her he would see her Monday morning at the office and that she was to enjoy her day off.’

‘He actually came downstairs to tell you all of that?’ asked Kohler.

‘But certainly.’

‘Your passkey, monsieur. Don’t argue,’ said Louis, nodding curtly at the door.

‘Mademoiselle Dunand,’ sang out Louveau. ‘
C’est moi,
your concierge. Are you all right?’