AL02 - Murder in Belleville

by Cara Black

  “I can’t—”

  The garbage truck’s horn blared.

  “Hurry up, we need to talk,” Aimée said.

  Samia looked for an escape. The rain beat harder. Her only option was the passage she’d emerged from.

  “Now!” Aimée yelled.

  Either the rain or Aimée’s voice convinced her to get in and slam the door. They took off down Jean Timbaud. Aimée reached Passage de la Fonderie, a narrow ivy-walled lane, and pulled in. She parked and turned off the ignition.

  “You don’t look too good,” Samia said.

  “Smart girl,” Aimée said, reaching for Samia’s bag. She turned the beaded pink bag upside down. “Considering I got shot, I don’t think I look half bad.”

  Samia’s eyes widened.

  “Smart girls don’t betray their friends.”

  “You’re not my friend,” Samia said, but she winced when she spoke. She brushed her shoulders, sending a wet spray over the upholstery.

  “Even for an acquaintance, that’s not very nice.”

  Samia looked down, “I’m sorry. They just said … well, you weren’t supposed to get hurt.”

  “Why do I have a hard time believing you?”

  “Just warn you off, they said,” she said, her voice sullen.

  “Who?”

  “Let me out.”

  The passage was quiet except for occasional footsteps. The fogged Citroen’s windows shielded them from prying eyes.

  Aimée had to get Samia to talk.

  “What does bent al haram mean?”

  “Bent al haram?” Samia said, closing her eyes as if in deep thought.” ‘Interfering slut’ comes pretty close.”

  Great.

  “Doesn’t the General like me?”

  Samia reached for the door handle, but Aimée pulled out her Beretta.

  “It’s been a rough afternoon, Samia,” she said. “Time for you to brighten my day.” With her other hand she poked around the strewn items from Samia’s bag. A package of pink condoms, hotel keys, an illustrated ten-franc pocket romance, and a pearl hair clip. Aimée shook the bag again, and a hand of Fat’ma tumbled out. Just like Eugénie/Sylvie’s.

  “Where did you get this?”

  “The Fat’ma?” Samia asked.

  Aimée nodded.

  “Belonged to my mother,” she said. “Lots of people have them.”

  “Like who?” Aimée asked.

  “You probably can’t even use that,” Samia said, looking in the visor mirror at the Beretta, and ignoring the question.

  “Even if my aim was bad, it’d be hard to miss with you so close,” Aimée cocked the trigger. “Want to find out?”

  Samia flinched.

  “Some flic taped us talking,” Aimée lied. Anything to get Samia to talk. “He’s watching you on video surveillance. He wants my hide, but I think he’s nailed yours already. He’s just waiting, Samia.”

  Samia’s bravado shriveled.

  “Sergeant Martaud?”

  Aimée nodded. The stale air inside the car and Samia’s perfume were getting to her.

  “Is the General’s number in here?” Aimée asked, holding up a pink fur address book. “I’ll deal directly with him.”

  Samia blinked in fear. “They’re big—”

  “Who?”

  “Leave it alone,” she said.

  “Samia, don’t you see my finger’s still on the trigger?” she said.

  “You don’t know about—” she stopped.

  “About what?”

  Samia’s lips tightened.

  “Fine, I’ll let Martaud know Zdanine supplies the plastique” Aimée sighed, pocketing the address book. “That will get me off his hook.” She turned the ignition key. “Since Zdanine’s claiming sanctuary in the church, you’re the perfect connection.”

  It was a guess, but by the look on Samia’s face it hit home.

  “Attends,” Samia said. “I called a number. That’s all.” Her chest heaved. She faced Aimée, her eye makeup smeared. “You leave my kid out of it, comprisl”

  Aimée wondered why Samia would say that—was her young son used to keep her in line? A pang of remorse hit her for using Samia, a mother who couldn’t have been more than eighteen.

  “Zdanine used you, didn’t he?”

  “Only two times,” she said. “That’s why I didn’t believe you.”

  “You want to believe Zdanine instead of me …” Aimée let that trail in the air.

  Silence except for the steady thrum of rain on the windshield.

  “Something’s about to happen, isn’t it?”

  Samia shrugged.

  “What’s Eugénie’s connection?”

  Samia rubbed the foggy window and turned away. “What time is it?”

  “For a moment you were so helpful,” Aimée said. She leaned over, the Beretta still in one hand. “Who murdered Sylvie?”

  “Sylvie … who’s that?”

  Anger flared in Aimée, then died. Why would Samia know about her double life?

  Aimée turned Samia’s chin toward her.

  “Was it the General?” she asked.

  “Who’s Sylvie?” Samia blinked several times.

  Exasperated, Aimée pounded the steering wheel.

  “What does Eugénie have to do with it?”

  “She stayed at the apartment.” Tears streamed down her cheeks.

  “Who met her there?” Aimée said, knowing she had to pull information from Samia. Bit by painful bit.

  “People dropped things off,” Samia said, wiping her face. “I’ve told you nothing. Nothing.”

  “Of course you haven’t,” Aimée said soothingly. “Is someone making you afraid to tell me what you know?”

  “The Maghrébins used that place. They scare me,” she said. “I told Zdanine, I don’t want to mix with them. He does.”

  “What for?”

  “They have places like that,” Samia said. “You know, all over. Like an octopus.”

  Aimée remembered the flyer with “Youssef’ written on it. She felt as if she were grasping for straws.

  “Did Eugénie mention Youssef?” she asked.

  “Youssef? I think so: Someone called Zdanine while I was there. But I only met Eugénie once,” Samia said. “That’s all.”

  “Did Eugénie give you this?” Aimée asked, holding up the pearl hair clip.

  “I owe her a hundred francs,” Samia said, her voice contrite. “Look, it’s Marcus’s birthday. He’ll be hurt if I don’t make the school party. Didn’t even have time to buy him a present.”

  Samia looked as if the world had fallen on her shoulders.

  Aimée slipped the Beretta into her bag. She looked at her watch.

  “Here,” she said, unstrapping the happy-face watch. “This suits you more than me. Give it to your son.”

  Samia blinked and looked unsure.

  “Take it,” she said. “Just don’t set me up again.”

  “Chouette!” Samia’s face burst into a big smile. A big-kid smile, happy with a new toy, putting it on eagerly. “Merci!”

  Aimée was amazed how childlike Samia seemed when her defenses were down. For a moment Aimée saw the young girl whose mother probably worked horizontak, who’d grown up in a housing project and then hooked up with a maggot like Zdanine. It reminded her of what Moliere had said about writing: First you do it because you like it, then you do it for some friends, then you do it for money.

  Samia had pulled the visor down and begun wiping off her makeup in the mirror.

  “I need to get to Gare du Nord,” she said. “Catch the 1:30 train for Marcus’s party.”

  Of all the things Samia had told her, she believed this 100 percent.

  “Tell me more en route to the station,” she said, turning on the ignition. “What’s your connection to Morbier?”

  “Who?”

  Surprised, Aimée kept driving. She decided to describe him, so if Samia had seen him she wouldn’t necessarily know he was a flic.

/>   “Morbier’s an old mec, salt-and-pepper hair, moustache, and he wears suspenders over his big gut.”

  “Sounds like one of my mother’s friends,” Samia said. “She knew lots of old farts.”

  Aimée picked up on the past tense.

  “Knew?”

  “Passed away,” Samia said.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  Curious, she wanted to explore more. At least find out why Morbier wanted her to protect Samia. She circled Place de la République, then gunned up boulevard de Magenta.

  “What was your mother’s name?” she asked.

  “Fouaz, like mine,” Samia said, her mouth crinkling in a sad smile.

  Aimée was about to ask more when Samia turned to her.

  “Keep this between us, but fifty thousand francs buys a hostage situation.”

  Aimée’s heart skipped. Her fingers clenched the steering wheel. “Go on.”

  Samia’s face, now scrubbed clean of makeup, made her look younger than she probably was. A demure peach skirt and twinset emerged from under the black coat. Aimée wondered how Samia placated her conscience, if she had one.

  “Who orders this plastique?”

  “Zdanine says it’s Balkan crazies who like to blow each other up,” Samia said. “They do that shit all the time anyway.”

  Aimée nodded. Too bad it wasn’t true in her case.

  “Was it Duplo last time?” Aimée asked, hoping against hope that Samia knew.

  “Semtex duds out sometimes, unreliable. The fundamentalists don’t seem to mind,” Samia said matter-of-factly. “Zdanine uses Duplo—only quality, he says.”

  “What about the General?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “But why pick Eugénie?”

  “That was a one-off.” Samia’s eyes slit in suspicion. “He sells to outsiders. No locals.” She shook her head. “Don’t look at me. Zdanine was in the church—he couldn’t have blown her up.”

  Rain coursed down the windshield in silvered rivulets, like mercury. Aimée flipped the wipers faster. Samia’s casual tone made her angry. But she had to play it cool or Samia would bolt.

  “It’s scary,” Aimée said, staring meaningfully at her. “I mean, look what can happen.”

  “Just don’t rub anyone the wrong way,” Samia said, but her lip quivered. She looked uneasy. “I called a pager number—that’s all I did.”

  “When?”

  “They said, ‘Call in four hours—if no answer, try in another two hours.’ Someone called back with a delivery location.”

  Aimée pulled in to the taxi line. She had an idea.

  “Contact Zdanine before you go.”

  Samia took Aimée’s phone and called Zdanine.

  Samia’s voice changed; not just the cloying, soothing line to a pimp but an earnest overtone as if convincing him. For a full two minutes she argued, her words a mix of gutter French, verlan, and Arabic.

  Abruptly she snapped Aimée’s phone shut.

  “What happened?” Aimée asked.

  “He’ll come around,” she said.

  Aimée didn’t care about Zdanine’s list of potential clients; she wanted the suppliers who’d been at the Cirque d’Hiver.

  “Zdanine says it’s too dangerous, doesn’t he?”

  Samia shook her head.

  “What then?”

  “He thinks your cut’s too big,” she said. “It should be split so he gets a nice slice. After all, he says, he’s Khalil’s cousin, and the contacts are his.”

  Spoken like a true pimp, Aimée thought. If Samia translated correctly. Outside in Place Napoleon III, people emerged from Gare du Nord, opened their umbrellas, and ran to the taxi line.

  “Nothing happens until I wire Khalil to front the money,” Aimée said. “How do I know your people can deliver the plastique?

  “They’re not my people,” Samia said, “I told you, I don’t like them. Zdanine does the connection.”

  “Until you give me the supplier’s name, I don’t cough up the front money.”

  Samia shrugged. She buttoned her coat and gripped the door handle before she turned back.

  “What’s the number?”

  Samia opened the car door. A sheet of rain sprayed in. “Marc’s school is outside Paris, not far. I’ll be back soon.” Samia slammed the door shut and disappeared toward the train platforms in the cavernous station.

  Aimée lowered her forehead onto the steering wheel. This stank. Samia had made a deal. Aimée felt it in her bones.

  Here she sat at a taxi line outside Gare du Nord, the windows fogged, and no closer to Eugénie or the explosive suppliers than before.

  Her gloom matched the gray sheeting rain whipping across the square. Extraordinary—she couldn’t remember when April had been this wet. It had rained incessantly all week. She took several deep breaths and thought. If those men were the explosive suppliers, why wait for Samia to get back?

  She switched on the ignition and took off back down boulevard de Magenta. In record time, she parked in Cite de Crussol, on one of the passages branching from behind Cirque d’Hiver.

  She punched in Morbier’s number. He answered after several rings.

  “Morbier, call it intuition, but Samia’s playing me,” she said. “Your little friend got me shot!”

  “Shot?”

  “I pulled the shrapnel out but—”

  “She’s young, Leduc,” he said. “And the young don’t know left from right.”

  “No conscience, more like it,” she said.

  “Bien sûr,” he said. “Tell me about it.”

  She explained about Cirque d’Hiver and her abrupt departure at Gare du Nord. “I didn’t like the big guys in the circus.”

  “Nice groundwork and setup,” he said.

  She paused, surprised at his comment. He rarely said anything complimentary. “But I’m still in the dark. Samia became helpful too quickly.”

  “She’ll come through,” he said.

  She wondered why he kept excusing her.

  “Why do you let her off the hook so easily?”

  “No questions, remember?” he said. “Marcus must be six or seven, eh?”

  His comment didn’t surprise her. Morbier had an immense memory, like her father and those of his generation possessed. No computer files or central storage systems; they kept it all in their head: a mec’s street record, an unsolved murder in their arrondissement years back, whose palm oiled the important palms, a pimp’s harem, and their children’s names.

  “Where are you going now?” Morbier asked.

  “To church,” she said. “Zdanine might be more helpful.”

  “Will he talk to you?”

  “I won’t know until I try.”

  Saturday Afternoon

  A LIGHT DRIZZLE BEADED Aimée’s glasses. The smell of wet wool rose from the damp pavement in front of Notre-Dame de la Croix.

  In the midst of the rain, the noise, and pushing bodies, she felt someone staring at her.

  Aimée’s throat tightened. Had someone followed her from the circus or was she some street mec’s target?

  She looked up.

  Yves stared across the barricade, his navy anorak glistening with rain droplets.

  His gaze pulled her in as if it were a homing signal. Caught in his magnetic field, she was powerless to resist.

  And then she was next to him.

  “New perfume?” he muttered, as the police pointed them toward the barricade’s end.

  “Does this have to do with the way I change the air?”

  “The other night you wore lemon verbena,” he said, nodding at the other reporters.

  “Quite a memory you’ve got,” she said.

  “You’d be amazed,” he said, “at what I remember.”

  She turned away.

  “Slumming or trying to meet me?”

  “Working,” she said.

  “You ought to charge your cell phone,” he said, flashing his press pass at the barric
ade. “Makes it easier for people to reach you. I’ve been trying since this morning.”

  “Other people can reach me, why not you?”

  Dumb. Why let him know it bothered her?

  She felt his hot breath on her earlobe, and his bristly chin brushed her neck as he turned back to a policeman. He smelled the same. The dusky Yves scent.

  She had no time for someone who popped in and out of her life when it suited him. Most of all she didn’t want these feelings; couldn’t deal with them at the best of times.

  But he could help her.

  “Look, I need to get into the church,” she said. “Say I’m with you, just for now.”

  “You want to use me,” he said. He didn’t wait for her to answer. “Make sure you abuse me later.”

  “If you’re lucky,” she said, trying not to smile.

  “Let me do the talking. Nice touch.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked, pushing her feelings aside.

  “The glasses,” he said.

  She frowned and briefly felt disappointed.

  He leaned over and whispered, “The police think you’re Martine’s assistant. Keep it that way for now.”

  She followed him, threading past an old woman with ill-fitting dentures who yelled at a reporter waving a microphone. Shouts of “Let the sans-papiers stay!” arose from the swaying crowd contrasting with the CRS riot squad: silent impassive faces behind clear, shatterproof visors, hands clutching billy clubs. Legitimized by the press credentials and with Yves escorting her, Aimée crossed the wooden police barricades.

  Once inside the church, Yves motioned for her to wait. He approached a bearded man guarding the confessional. Apprehensive, Aimée crouched by the marble holy water font. What if she couldn’t find Zdanine?

  Incense mingled with sweat. Obsidian-faced men in bright pastel polyester shirts sprawled in the wooden pews. The whites of their eyes caught the gleam from dripping wax candles. Murmured conversations echoed off vaulting pillars. A plump, honey-colored woman in a maroon djelfoba wrote on a chalkboard. Teenagers in tracksuits sat before her on the stone floor. She admonished them in Arabic, and several raised their hands.

  Aimée felt a tug at her elbow and turned. A longhaired man in a priest’s collar, corduroy pants, and worn loafers smiled at her.

  “I’m Abbé Geoffroy,” he said. “My hope is that you report on the plight of these people.” He gestured around the gothic church.