The Chalk Circle Man Part 15

'What's wrong is that you might get launched and drink ten beers, and today that won't do.'

'I didn't think that was any of your business. My body, my responsibility, my belly and my beer.'

'Of course. But it's your investigation and you're my inspector. And tomorrow we're going to the country. We have a rendezvous with someone we know, I hope. So I need you, and I need you with a clear head. And a strong stomach, too. Very important, the stomach. I don't know if a settled stomach helps one to think clearly. But I do know that a poor stomach will stop you thinking at all.'

Danglard observed Adamsberg's tense face. It was impossible to guess whether it was because his thread had just knotted, or because of the projected trip to the country.

'Oh d.a.m.n and blast!' said Adamsberg. 'My thread's got a knot. I really hate that. Apparently the golden rule is that you should sew in the same direction as it comes off the reel, otherwise you get a knot. See what I mean? I must have been working the other way without thinking. And now there's a knot.'

'I think you had too long a thread in the first place,' Danglard ventured.

Yes, sewing was a restful kind of occupation.

'No, Danglard, I had the right length, from my hand to my elbow. Tomorrow, at eight o'clock, I'll need eight men, a van and some dogs. And we'd better take the doctor along too.'

He poked the needle into the knot to undo it, broke off the thread, and smoothed down his trousers. Then he went out, without discovering whether Danglard would have a clear head and a strong stomach the next day. Danglard didn't know, either.

XIX.

CHARLES REYER WAS ON HIS WAY HOME. HE WAS FEELING RELAXED and enjoying it while it lasted. His conversations with Adamsberg had brought him some tranquillity, though he didn't know why. All he knew was that for the last two days he had not tried to help anyone else to cross the road.

He had even managed, without having to make much of an effort, to speak sincerely to the commissaire about Clemence, about Mathilde, and about a mult.i.tude of other things, taking his time. Adamsberg had told him things too. Things about himself. Not always very clear. Some were trivial, some were serious, but he wasn't sure that the trivial ones weren't in fact the more serious ones. It was hard to tell with Adamsberg. The wisdom of a child, the philosophy of an old man. As he had said to Mathilde in the restaurant. He had not been wrong about what was conveyed by the commissaire's gentle voice. And then the commissaire had asked him what was going on behind his dark eyes. He had told him, and Adamsberg had listened. All the sounds a blind man hears, all his painful perceptions in the dark, all the visibility that the blackness brings him. When he stopped, Adamsberg would say: 'Go on, Reyer, I'm listening.' Charles imagined that if he had been a woman he could have fallen in love with Adamsberg, while feeling despair that he was so elusive. But he was the kind of man it was probably best not to get too close to. Or else you had to be prepared not to be in despair at his elusiveness. Or something like that.

But Charles was a man, and he liked being a man. What was more, Adamsberg had confirmed the view that he was good-looking. Being a man, therefore, Charles thought he would have liked to be in love with Mathilde.

Since he was after all a man.

But was Mathilde trying to lose herself, under the sea? Was she trying not to have to hear anything of earthly battles? What had happened to Mathilde? n.o.body knew. Why was she so keen on the b.l.o.o.d.y water? Could anyone catch hold of Mathilde? Charles was afraid she would slip away like a mermaid.

He didn't stop at his landing, but went straight up to the Flying Gurnard. He felt for the bell push and rang twice.

'Something wrong?' asked Mathilde, opening the door. 'Or is there any news about the shrew-mouse?'

'Would I know if there was?'

'You've been to see Adamsberg a few times, haven't you? I called him just now. Seems there'll be some news about Clemence tomorrow.'

'Why are you so interested in Clemence?'

'Because I found her. She's my shrew-mouse.'

'No, she found you. Why've you been crying, Mathilde?'

'Crying? Yes, I have a bit. How do you know?'

'Your voice sounds a bit damp still. I can hear it perfectly.'

'Don't worry. It's just that someone I love very much is leaving tomorrow. That makes me cry just now.'

'Can I find out what your face looks like?' asked Charles, stretching out his hands.

'How?'

'Like this. You'll see.'

Charles stretched his fingers out to Mathilde's face, and ran them across it like a pianist on a keyboard. He was concentrating hard. In fact, he knew perfectly well what Mathilde looked like. She probably hadn't changed much from the seminars when he had seen her. But he wanted to touch her. It was the first time they had called each other 'tu'.

XX.

NEXT DAY, ADAMSBERG TOOK THE WHEEL OF THE POLICE CAR AS they headed for Montargis. Danglard sat beside him, Castreau and Deville in the back. The van was following them. Adamsberg bit his lip as he drove. Now and then he glanced across at Danglard, or sometimes, after changing gear, put his hand briefly on the inspector's arm. As if to rea.s.sure himself that Danglard was there, alive, alongside him and that he must stay there, alive.

Mathilde had woken early and hadn't had the heart to follow anyone that morning. The previous day, however, she had been quite entertained by a clandestine couple at the Bra.s.serie Barnkrug. They had obviously not known each other long. But when the man got up in the middle of the meal to make a phone call, the woman had watched him go, with a frown, and then she had s.n.a.t.c.hed some of his chips on to her own plate. Delighted with her booty, she had devoured it, licking her lips after every mouthful. The man had returned and Mathilde had told herself that she knew something essential about the woman that her companion would never find out. Yes, it had been entertaining. A first section.

But this morning she had no interest in anything. Towards the end of a first section, one shouldn't expect too much. She thought that this was the day when Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg was going to catch the shrew-mouse, that she would struggle and make a squeaking noise, and that it was going to be the devil of a day for old Clemence, who had been so good at sorting out the slides with her gloves on, just as she had sorted out her murders. Mathilde wondered for a moment if she ought to feel responsible. If she hadn't been showing off at the Dodin Bouffant, boasting that she knew about the chalk circle man, Clemence wouldn't have come to lodge with her, and wouldn't have been able to seize the opportunity to murder people. Then she told herself, no, wait a minute, the whole idea was just too far-fetched. For a woman to cut the throat of an elderly doctor just because he had once been her fiance, and for pent-up bitterness to have done the rest.

Too far-fetched by half. She should have told Adamsberg that. Mathilde was muttering her sentences to herself as she leaned on her aquarium-table. 'Adamsberg, this murder is just too far-fetched.' A crime of pa.s.sion doesn't take place in cold blood fifty years later, especially with a plan as complicated as that worked out by Clemence. How could Adamsberg be so wrong about the old woman's motive? You'd have to be stupid to believe in a motive as far-fetched as that. And what bothered Mathilde was precisely that she considered Adamsberg to be one of the subtlest people she had ever met. Yet there was obviously something wrong about the motive they were a.s.signing to Clemence. A woman with a blank face. Mathilde had tried to convince herself that Clemence was likeable, in order to try and like her and help her, but in fact everything about the shrew-mouse had set her teeth on edge. Everything or rather nothing: it was as if there was no body inside her body, no expression on her face, no sound in her voice. Just nothingness.

Last night, Charles had felt her face with his fingers. It had been rather nice, she had to admit, those long hands scrupulously exploring all the contours of her face, as if she were printed out in Braille. She had sensed that he might have liked to go further, but she had not given him any encouragement. On the contrary, she had made some coffee. Very good coffee, in fact. That was no subst.i.tute for a caress, of course. But in a way a caress is no subst.i.tute for a good cup of coffee, either. Mathilde shook herself: the comparison was silly, caresses and good cups of coffee were not interchangeable.

'Right,' she sighed out loud. With her finger she was following a two-spot Lepadogaster swimming under the gla.s.s lid. Time to feed the fish. What was she to do with Charles and his caresses? Was it time perhaps for her to go back to the sea, since she didn't feel like following anybody this morning? What had she collected in three months? A policeman who should have been a prost.i.tute, a malicious blind man who caressed her, a Byzantine scholar who drew chalk circles, and an old murderess. Not a bad haul, after all. She shouldn't complain. Rather, she should write it all down. That would be more fun than writing about pectoral fins.

'Yes, but what?' she said out loud, standing up abruptly. 'What could I write? What's the point of writing?'

' To tell the story of your life,' she answered herself.

Stuff and nonsense! At least when you're dealing with pectoral fins you've got something to say that other people don't know. But as for anything else, why bother? Why do anything or write anything? To attract others? Is that it? To seduce people you've never met, as if the ones you have met aren't enough for you? Because you think you can capture the quintessence of the world in a few pages? What quintessence is there, anyway? What emotions are there in the world? What can you say? Even the story of the old shrew-mouse isn't interesting enough to tell anyone. Writing is an admission of failure.

Mathilde sat down again in a dark mood. She decided that her thinking had become muddled. Pectoral fins are absolutely fine, nothing wrong with them.

But it's depressing if all you write about is pectoral fins, because in the end you couldn't give a d.a.m.n about them, any more than you do about Clemence.

Mathilde sat up and pushed her dark hair back with both hands. Right, she thought, I'm just having a little attack of metaphysics and it will pa.s.s. 'Stuff and nonsense,' she muttered again. I wouldn't be so sad if Camille wasn't leaving again tonight. Off again. If only she hadn't met that slippery policeman, she wouldn't be obliged to travel the world. And is it worth writing that down?

No.

Perhaps it really was time to go back to the depths of the ocean. And above all, it was forbidden to ask herself what the point of it all was.

'What is the point of it all?' Mathilde immediately asked herself.

To do you good. To get your feet wet. Yes, that was it. To get your feet wet.

Adamsberg was driving fast. Danglard had gathered they were going to Montargis, but he knew no more than that. The further they travelled, the tenser the commissaire's features became. And the contrasts marking his face became almost unreal. Adamsberg's face was like one of those lamps that have dimmer switches. Very odd. What Danglard did not understand at all was why Adamsberg had put a black tie on over his old white shirt. A tie for a funeral, but knotted any old how. Danglard voiced his concern.

'Yes,' said Adamsberg. 'I did put this tie on. It's a fitting custom, isn't it?'

And that was all. Except for the hand which he sometimes laid on Danglard's arm. More than two hours out of Paris, Adamsberg stopped the car on a forest track. Here the summer heat failed to penetrate. Danglard read a notice: Bertranges Forestry Estate, and Adamsberg said, 'This is it,' as he put on the handbrake.

He got out of the car, took a deep breath and looked around, with a nod. Spreading a map on the bonnet, he called Castreau, Delille and the six men from the van to come over.

'We'll go this way,' he said, pointing. 'We take this track, then this one and the next. Then we'll check all the paths in the southern sector. What we're going to do is search the zone around this lodge in the forest.'

At the same time, his finger described a circle on the map.

'Circles, always circles,' he murmured.

He crumpled the map up clumsily and gave it to Castreau.

'Get the dogs out,' he added.

Six Alsatians on leads jumped out of the van, barking furiously. Danglard, who didn't greatly care for the huge beasts, kept to one side, folding his arms and keeping the folds of his floppy grey jacket pulled tight round him as his only protection.

'All this palaver to track down old Clemence?' he said. 'But how will the dogs manage it, anyway? We don't even have a sc.r.a.p of her clothing for them to sniff.'

'I've got what we need,' said Adamsberg, taking a small packet from the van and putting it down in front of the dogs.

'Ugh, rotten meat,' said Delille, wrinkling his nose.

'Smells of death,' said Castreau.

'Yes,' said Adamsberg.

He jerked his head and they took the first track on the right. The dogs were pulling hard on their leads and barking. One of them had already wolfed down the piece of meat.

'Dumb creature, that dog,' said Castreau.

'I don't like this at all,' said Danglard.

'No, I thought not,' said Adamsberg.

Walking through a forest with dogs is a noisy process. Branches and twigs cracking, little creatures running from underfoot, startled bird-calls, and the constant sound of feet crunching on leaves and dogs crashing through undergrowth.

Adamsberg was wearing his faithful black trousers. He walked along with his hands partly tucked into his belt, the tie flying back over one shoulder, saying nothing, but attending to the slightest deviation by the dogs. Three-quarters of an hour pa.s.sed before two of the dogs simultaneously left the path, taking a sharp left turn. There was no track there, just undergrowth. They had to push under branches and round tree trunks, making slow progress, with the dogs pulling at the lead. A branch snapped back painfully into Danglard's face. The leading dog, Alarm Clock by name but usually known just as 'Clock', stopped after they had gone about sixty metres. He turned round in his tracks, barking and raising his head, then whined and lay on the ground, his head held upright, looking pleased with himself. Adamsberg had frozen, his fingers locked on his belt. He looked at the small patch of ground where Clock was lying, a few square metres between the birches and the oaks. He reached out and touched a branch that had been broken several months earlier. Moss had grown on the broken end.

His mouth twisted, as it always did when he felt a powerful emotion. Danglard had noticed that before.

'Call the others,' Adamsberg said.

Then he watched, as Declerc brought up the bag of tools and signalled that they could start work. Danglard watched apprehensively as Declerc opened the bag and brought out pickaxes and shovels, which he distributed to the others.

For an hour he had been refusing to think that this was what they were looking for. But now he could no longer escape the evidence. This was what they were looking for.

'A rendezvous with someone we know,' Adamsberg had said the day before. The black tie. So the commissaire did not shrink from symbolism, however heavy-handed.

After that, the shovels started to make an infernal noise as metal struck on stone, a sound that Danglard had heard too many times in the past. The pile of earth alongside grew higher. He'd seen that too many times as well. The men were practised at digging. They worked quickly, bending their knees.

Adamsberg, still gazing fixedly at the growing hole, touched Declerc on the arm.

'Take it slower now. Not too hard. Use the smaller shovels.'

They had to move the dogs away they were making too much noise.

'The mutts are getting excited,' Castreau observed. Adamsberg nodded, continuing to stare into the hole. Declerc was directing operations. He was lifting earth gingerly with a light trowel. Suddenly he sprang back as if he had been attacked. He wiped his nose with his sleeve.

'Ah, look,' he said. 'A hand, I think. I think it's a hand.'

Danglard made a prodigious effort to detach himself from the tree trunk against which he was leaning, and approached the pit. Yes, it was a hand. A ghastly, terrible hand.

Now one man was uncovering the arm, another the head, and a third shreds of blue fabric. Danglard felt sick. He moved back, reaching behind him with his hand to find the tree trunk, his solid oak tree. He felt its bark and clung to it, as his eyes continued to see the image he had glimpsed of a horrible corpse, with black slimy skin.

I should never have come, he thought, closing his eyes. And he did not even want to know for the moment whose corpse the ghastly thing could be, or why they had come to look for it, or where they were, and why he didn't understand. All he knew was that the commissaire must be wrong about the rendezvous. That corpse had been there for months. So whoever it was, it couldn't be Clemence.

The men worked on for another hour, with the stench becoming intolerable. Danglard had not shifted an inch from his comforting oak tree. He kept his gaze fixed upwards. Between the trees you could only see a little bit of sky and this corner of the forest was dark. He heard Adamsberg say gently: 'That'll do for now. Let's have a drink.'

The men threw down the tools and Declerc produced a bottle of cognac from the bag.

'It's nothing fancy,' he explained, 'but it'll disinfect us a bit. Just a drop each.'

'Against the rules, but indispensable,' said Adamsberg.

The commissaire walked over to Danglard, holding a plastic cup. He didn't say 'How are you doing?' or 'Feeling better now?' In fact, he said nothing. He knew it would be all right in half an hour, and Danglard would be able to walk again. Everyone knew about his squeamishness, and no one blamed him for it. They were quite busy enough with their own internal struggles around the foul-smelling pit.

The nine men sat a little way from the excavation, near Danglard who remained standing. The doctor, who had been prowling round the pit, came to join them.

'So, Dr Death,' said Castreau, 'what does all this tell you?'

'It tells me that it was a woman, elderly, sixty or seventy perhaps. And she was killed by a wound to the throat, getting on for six months ago, I'd say. It's going to be hard work identifying her, lads.' (The pathologist often said 'lads', as if he were teaching a cla.s.s.) 'The clothes look like ordinary ma.s.s-produced stuff, they won't help us. I don't think we've got any personal items in the grave, either. And there's not much hope the dental records will give us anything. She had perfect teeth, like you and me, no fillings, no dental work at all, as far as I can see. That's what it tells me, lads. So you're going to be hard put to it to find out who she is.'

'She's Clemence Valmont,' Adamsberg said quietly. 'Domiciled in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Aged sixty-four. Let me have another drop of cognac, Declerc. It's not marvellous, you're right, but it hits the spot.'

'No!' said Danglard, more vehemently than they would have expected, though without budging from his tree. 'No! It can't be! The doctor's just told us that this woman's been dead for months. And Clemence only left the rue des Patriarches in Paris a month ago, alive and well. So how can it be her?'