The Ghost Riders of Ordebec: A Commissaire Adamsberg Mystery
Page 37
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Besides the picture – and Adamsberg was aware that this was a priceless gift – the Comte de Valleray sent him an invitation to his wedding to Léone Marie Pommereau, five weeks later in Ordebec Church. On his wall calendar, Adamsberg ringed the date with blue felt pen, sending a kiss to his old Léo. He would not forget to inform the doctor in his ‘place at Fleury’, but it was unthinkable that even with the powers of the Comte de Valleray he should be allowed to be present at the festivities for the woman he had resuscitated. Such powers are only to be found in fortresses like that of the Clermonts, where the rathole the commissaire had opened was being blocked up again, irreversibly, with the help of thousands of devoted hands, wiping out acts of infamy, complicities and trails of gunpowder.
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Another three weeks and five days went past before Hellebaud the pigeon reappeared one morning on Adamsberg’s kitchen windowsill. He was warmly welcomed and it was a lively visit. The bird pecked up some seed from the hands of Zerk and Adamsberg, flew round the table a few times and told them the story of his life in many cooings. An hour later, he flew off again, followed by the blank and thoughtful eyes of Adamsberg and his son.
Author’s Note
Many references to the story of Gauchelin, the priest of Bonneval who encountered Hellequin and his ghostly cavalcade, can be found on the Internet. The ancient texts cited in this novel are taken from Claude Lecouteux, Fantômes et revenants au Moyen Age, Image editions, Paris, 1986.
Translator’s Note
There are two police forces in France, the gendarmerie and the Police Nationale, both controlled by the Ministry of the Interior. The gendarmerie, military in origin and normally in uniform, polices the countryside and small towns (fewer than 20,000 inhabitants). In this book, the little town of Ordebec has a station manned by a capitaine and a lower-ranking brigadier. The Police Nationale, operating in larger towns and cities, is the organisation which would employ Adamsberg’s Serious Crime Squad. The military ranks now applied there too do not exactly map on to British or American equivalents. As a commissaire, Adamsberg is roughly the opposite number of a British supertendent, and his colleagues’ ranks in descending order are: commandant, lieutenant, and brigadier. In this book, his squad is exceptionally called in to investigate events in Ordebec at the request of the local gendarmes.