"You must have looked at those photos…Was there a kid with some special distinguishing feature? Something she wanted to hide?"
"No. I didn't notice anything…I don't know…I just don't know…"
"What about the woman? What was she like? Was she big and strong? Was she his mother?"
The old man suddenly froze, then burst out laughing. A long deep laugh, from the pit of his stomach. He smirked:
"No chance of that."
Karim grabbed the man with both hands, shoving him back against the filing cabinet.
"WHY NOT?"
Cau's eyes rolled beneath their withered lids. "She was a nun. A goddam Catholic nun!"
CHAPTER 21
Sarzac had three churches. One was being renovated, the second was run by an old priest with one foot in the grave, while the third had a young minister, about whom the strangest rumors were circulating. People said that he drank in secret with his mother in the presbytery.
The lieutenant, who had a general dislike for the entire population of Sarzac, and in particular for their taste for gossip, did have to admit that this time they were right. He himself had been called in once to separate the mother and the son, who were in the throes of an incredibly violent drunken brawl.
But it was this priest that Karim chose to question.
He braked in front of the presbytery. A charmless bungalow made of cement, abutting a modern church with asymmetric stained-glass windows. The small sign on the door said: "My Parish". Brambles and nettles sprawled over the steps. He rang the doorbell. Several minutes went by. Karim heard muffled cries. He swore to himself. This was all he needed.
Finally, the door opened.
Karim felt as though he was contemplating a shipwreck. It was midafternoon, but the priest already stank of booze. His thin features were covered by a shaggy beard and wiry hair, as though sprinkled with ashes. His eyes were nicotine colored. His jacket collar was threadbare, his shirt front gleaming with assorted stains. As a priest, he was finished, used up, burnt out. His religious destiny had lasted no longer than a leaf of smouldering incense, with its stubborn heady odor.
"What can I do for you, my son?"
His voice was cracked, but steady.
"Police Lieutenant Karim Abdouf. We've met before?”
The man readjusted his gray collar.
"Ah yes, I seem to…" He glanced round with a hunted expression. "Was it the neighbors who called you out?"
Karim smiled.
"No. I need your help. For a police investigation."
"Oh. Really? Then, come on in?”
The policeman entered the house. His soles stuck to the floor as he went. He looked down and saw that the linoleum was marked with long, shining traces.
"It's my mother.” the priest whispered. "She doesn't do anything any more, except mess the place up with her jam." He scratched his uncombed hair. "It's strange, but it's all she will eat?”
The decor was chaotic. Scraps of plastic, stuck up anyhow, imitated wood, ceramics and cloth. Through a half-open door, the policeman noticed rectangles of yellow polystyrene, sliced up with a carpet cutter, and ill-matching cushions, which gave an idea of the character of the living-room. A heap of gardening tools lay on the floor. In front of him, another room contained a formica table, covered with dirty plates, and an unmade bed.
The priest staggered toward the living-room. He tripped, then steadied himself. Karim said:
"Why don't you have a drink? We'll save time that way?” The man turned round, with a hostile stare.
"Look who's talking, my son. You're shaking from your head to your toes?”
Karim gulped. He was still in a state of shock. He had not stopped to think, or collect his wits, since slapping the photographer around a bit. All he could hear was a buzzing in his head, and he felt a hammering in his chest. Absent-mindedly, he wiped his face with his sleeve, like a snotty kid.
The priest poured out a glass of spirits.
"Care for a drop?" he asked, with an unpleasant grin. "Never touch the stuff."
The man in black downed his shot. Blood surged across his haggard face. His fevered eyes shone like sulphur. He sniggered: "Islam, is it?"
"No. I like to keep my wits about me for my job. That's all." The priest raised his glass.
"Here's to your job, then."
Karim then spotted the mother, who was coming and going in the corridor. She was hunched over, almost doubled up, and carrying a pot of jam. He thought of the open vault, the skinheads, the nun who had bought the school photographs, and now these two ghouls from a ghost-train. He had opened a Pandora's box, which seemed to be producing an endless stream of nightmares.
The priest intercepted his gaze.
"Leave her, my son. She's all right." He sat down on one of the foam mattresses. "Now, what can I do for you?"
Karim slowly raised a hand.
"Just one thing first. Please, stop calling me ‘my son’."
"Sorry.” the man answered with a smirk. "It's force of habit."
With an ironic gesture, the priest took another sip. He had recovered his world-weary expression.
"What sort of investigation are you working on?"
Karim was pleased. The priest obviously had not yet heard about the profanation of the cemetery. So Crozier had managed to hush the whole thing up.
"I'm sorry, but it's highly confidential. All I can tell you is that I'm looking for a convent. Near Sarzac, or Cahors. Or even elsewhere in the region. I'm hoping you will help me find it."
"Which order would that be?"
"I don't know?”
The man poured himself another shot. His little glass glinted merrily.
"There are several of them around here." He smirked again.
"This region must lend itself to seclusion…"
"How many?"
"At least ten, just in this départements."
Karim made a rapid mental calculation. Going round all these convents, which were no doubt scattered across the region, would take at least an entire day. But it was now already gone four o'clock. He had only two hours left. He was stuck.
The priest stood up and started rummaging through a cupboard. "Ah, here it is."
He flicked over the pages of a sort of directory, printed on Bible paper. The mother walked into the room and tiptoed over to the bottle. Without looking at Karim, she poured herself a glass. She had eyes only for her son. Eagle-eyes, like triggers, brimming with hatred. As he read through the directory, the priest barked:
"Leave us, mother"
The woman did not respond. She clutched her glass in both hands. Her bony fingers jutted out. Suddenly she noticed Karim. Her dry, bitter voice piped up:
"Who are you?"
"Leave us." The priest turned toward Karim. "I've marked the pages with the ten convents in question, if you'd like to jot them down…But they're quite a long way away from one other."
Karim had a look. He vaguely recognised the names of the villages. He got out his notebook and wrote them down.
"Who are you?" the mother repeated.
"Go back to your bedroom, mother!" the priest shouted. He went over to Karim.
"What are you looking for exactly? I might be able to help you…"
Karim raised his pen and stared at this man of the cloth. "I'm looking for a nun. A nun who's interested in photos?”
"What sort of photos?"
Karim noticed a gleam fleetingly light up the priest's eyes. "Have you ever heard of anything along those lines?"
The man scratched his head.
"Urn…no."
Karim asked:
"How old are you?"
"Me? I'm…I'm twenty-five."
The mother poured herself another drink. She was listening intently. Karim went on:
"Were you born in Sarzac?"
"Yes, I was"
"And did you go to school here?"
The priest shrugged.
"Yes, until secondary school. I then went to…
"
"Which school? Jean-Jaurès?"
"Yes, but…"
He suddenly saw the link.
"She's been here."
"What?"
"The nun. The nun I'm looking for…She came here and bought your class photographs. That's it! She's been round all the houses, collecting as many school photos as she could find. Were you in the same class as Jude Ithero? Does that name mean anything to you?"
The priest had gone white.
"I…I've no idea what you're talking about."
The mother's voice broke in:
"What is all this?"
Karim wiped his face with his hands, as though he were turning over a fresh page in his features.
"I'll start again. If you had a normal education, then you were in CM2 in 1982, weren't you?"
"But that's almost fifteen years ago!"
"And in CM1 in 1981."
Shoulders bent, the priest stiffened. His fingers grasped the back of a chair. Despite his age, his hands now looked like those of his mother. Old and knotted with blue veins.
"Yes…that must be about right…"
"So, you were in the same class as a little boy called Ithero. Jude Ithero. An unusual name. Think it over. This is extremely important"
"No, really, I don't think…"
Karim took a step forward.
"But you can remember a nun who was looking for school photographs, can't you?"
The mother was lapping it all up.
"Is this Arab telling the truth, you little shit?" she asked.
Then she swung round and hopped off toward the door. Karim grabbed the chance. He seized the priest by his shoulders and whispered into his ear:
"Out with it, for Christ's sake!"
The priest slumped down onto a corner of the foam mattress. "That evening still remains a mystery to me…"
Karim knelt down. The priest was articulating slowly: "She came here…one summer evening."
"In July 1982?"
He nodded.
"She knocked at the door…It was so hot…stifling…As if the last hours of daylight were baking the stones…I don't know why, but I was on my own…I opened the door…Heaven help me…Just imagine it! I was about ten years old, and that nun appeared in the half-light, in her black-and-white veil…"
"What did she say?"
"She began by speaking about school, the marks I had got, my favorite subjects. She had an extremely soothing voice…Then she asked to see my school friends…" The priest wiped his face, which was dripping with sweat. "I…I went and fetched my school photograph…The one with all of us on it…I felt very proud about showing her my pals, you see? And that's when I realised that she was after something. She took a long look at the picture, then asked me if she could keep it…As a souvenir, she said…"
"Did she ask you for any other photos?"
The priest nodded. His voice thickened.
"She also wanted the portrait of CM1, of the previous year."
Karim was now certain that, if he asked round the parents of the children in those classes, not a single one would still be in possession of those group photographs. But why had that nun made off with all these photos? Karim felt as though a stone jungle was closing around him, cutting off the view.
The mother reappeared in the doorway. She was clutching a shoebox against her chest.
"You little shit. You gave our photographs away. Your school portraits. And you used to be such a good little kid…"
"Shut up, mother!" The priest fixed his eyes on Karim's. "I'd already had the call, you see? That huge woman practically hypnotised me…"
"Huge? She was big, was she?"
"No…Oh, I don't know…I was ten…But I can still see her, with her black hood. She had such a sweet voice…She wanted the photos, and I gave them to her, without a moment's hesitation. She blessed me, then disappeared. It felt like a sign, a…"
"You shit!"
Karim glanced round at the mother. She was furious. He looked back at the priest and realised that he was now locked away in his memories. He adopted his sweetest tone:
"Did she tell you why she wanted those pictures?"
"No."
"Did she mention Jude?"
"No."
"Did she give you any money?"
The priest grimaced.
"No, of course not! She asked me for the photos, and I gave them to her, that's all! Good Lord! I…I thought that visit was a sign, you follow me? Of divine recognition!"
He was sobbing.
"I didn't yet know that I was a failure. A useless alcoholic. A pickled idiot. The son of this…How can one give what one hasn't got?" Clutching onto Karim's leather jacket, he was now imploring him. "How can one shed light, when one is drowning in darkness? How? How?"
The mother dropped the box. Photos spilled across the floor. She threw herself at him violently, raining blows on his back and shoulders.
Terrified, Karim retreated. The entire room was shaking. He realised that he would have to leave. Or else go crazy himself. But he did not have all the answers he needed. He pushed the woman away and leant back over the priest.
"In two seconds, I'll be out of here. And it'll all be over. You've seen that nun since, haven't you?"
Racked with sobs, he nodded.
"What's her name?"
The priest sniffed. The mother was pacing up and down, muttering incomprehensible curses.
"What's her name?"
"Sister Andrée."
"Her convent?"
"Saint-Jean-de-la-Croix. They're Carmelites."
"Where is it?"
The man held his head in his hands. Karim pulled him up by his shoulder.
"Where is it?"
"Between…between Sète and Cap d'Agde, just by the sea. I go and see her sometimes, when I doubt my faith. She's my succour, you see that? A help…I…"
The door was already flapping in the wind. The cop was running toward his car.
PART V
CHAPTER 22
The sky had darkened once more. Beneath the clouds, the Grand Pic de Belledonne rose up in a huge black wave, its rocky sides frozen rigid. Its slopes, dotted with minuscule trees, seemed to fade away as they ascended into a hazy white mist. The lines of the cable cars stretched downwards, like tiny wires across the snow.
"I reckon that the killer went up there with Remy Caillois, while his victim was still alive." Niémans smiled. "I think they took a cable car. An experienced climber could easily switch the system on, at any time of the day or night."
"Why are you so sure that they went up there?"
Fanny Ferreira, the young geology lecturer, was looking splendid. Beneath her hood, her face was vibrantly fresh and youthful. Her hair fluttered round her temples and her eyes shone out from the darkness of her skin. Niémans felt a terrible urge to bite into that pure living flesh. He answered:
"We have proof that the body passed through a glacier in one of the mountains. My instinct tells me that the mountain in question was the Grand Pic, and the glacier the amphitheater of Vallernes. Because this is the peak which overlooks the university and the town. And that is the glacier which turns into the river which runs down to the campus. I think that the killer then descended into the valley on the stream, in a dinghy or something of that sort, with his victim on board. He then wedged him in the rocks, so that his reflection appeared in the river…"
Fanny looked uneasily around. Gendarmes were bustling about the cable cars. There were weapons, uniforms, tension. She declared, obtusely:
"All of which still doesn't explain what the hell I'm doing here."
The superintendent grinned. The clouds were drifting across the sky, like a funeral procession on its way to bury the sun. He, too, was wearing a Gore-Tex jacket and waterproof kevlar-tec leggings, which were strapped up round his ankles, above his climbing boots.
"That's simple. I want to go up there, to look for evidence. And I need a guide."
"What?"
"I'
m going to explore the amphitheater of Vallernes, until I find something. So I need an experienced guide, and so I quite naturally thought of you." Niémans grinned again. "Didn't you tell me that you knew this mountain like the back of your hand?"
"No way."
"Come on, now. I could demand your presence as a material witness. Or I could quite simply requisition you as a guide. I've heard that you have got your official climbing certificate. So, no arguing. We're just going to fly over the summit and the amphitheatre in a helicopter. It will only take a couple of hours."
Niémans gestured over to the gendarmes who were waiting beside a van. Alongside it, they were laying out large waterproof canvas bags on the slope.
"I've had some equipment brought up. For our expedition. If you'd just like to check…"
"Why me?" she persisted, as stubborn as a mule. "One of these gendarmes could easily do it…" She pointed at the men who were busying themselves behind her. "They're the mountain rescue guys, aren't they?"
The policeman leant toward her.
"Put it this way, I'm trying to pick you up."
Fanny glared at him.
"Superintendent, less than twenty-four hours ago, I discovered a corpse wedged into a cliff. I've undergone repeated questioning and spent ages in the police station. If I were you, I'd keep the macho chat-up lines to yourself!"
Niémans looked at her. Despite the murder, despite this gloomy atmosphere, he was totally under the charm of this wild, muscular woman. Crossing her arms, Fanny repeated:
"So, I'll ask you again: why me?"
The officer picked up a dead branch, which was lined with lichen, and bent it to and fro nervously.
"Because you're a geologist?”
Fanny frowned. Her expression had changed. Niémans explained:
"Analysis has shown that the traces of water we found on the victim's body date back to a period before the 1960s. They contain residues of a form of pollution that no longer exists. Rain that fell in this region over thirty-five years ago. You realise what that means, don't you?"
The young woman looked intrigued, but said nothing. Niémans knelt down and, with his stick, drew some parallel lines on the ground.
"I've done a bit of finding out. Each year's rainfall becomes compressed into an eight inch thick stratum on the ice-caps of the highest glaciers, those which never thaw?” He pointed at the various layers in his drawing. "These strata are preserved up there eternally, like a crystal archive. Therefore, the body spent some time in one of these glaciers, where it picked up this water from the past."
Blood-Red Rivers aka The Crimson Rivers Page 13