Blood-Red Rivers aka The Crimson Rivers Read online

  "I'm sorry. But I've been waiting for this moment for a long time. I'm onto something big, do you see that?" The lieutenant paused for a moment to get his concentration back. "I've had an idea, too. Do you keep the old class books?"

  "The class books?"

  "In my day, each class had a sort of daily register, where they noted down who was absent, and the homework to be done for the next day."

  "That's what we do here, too."

  "So, do you keep them?"

  "Yes. But they don't contain a list of the pupils."

  "I know, only the ones who were absent."

  The woman's face lit up. Her eyes shone like mirrors.

  "You're hoping that young Jude was absent one day?"

  "What I'm hoping most of all is that our burglars didn't think of that, too."

  Once more, the headmistress opened the glass case which contained the archives. Karim ran his finger along the dark green spines and pulled out the class books corresponding to those two years. Another disappointment: not once did they mention the name of Jude Ithero.

  Maybe he really was barking up the wrong tree. Despite his firm conviction, nothing proved that the boy had been to school there. Still he flicked backward and forward through the pages, looking for a detail that would confirm that he was on the right track.

  It suddenly leapt out in front of him, from the pages of the book which had been numbered in a round, childish hand: some of them were missing. The cop opened wide the book and discovered large scraps of paper sticking up from the binding. The class book of CM2 had had the pages covering the period 8-15 June, 1982 ripped out. These dates seemed like hooks, fishing out a chunk of oblivion. Karim could almost see the child's name, written in that same round hand, on the missing pages…

  The lieutenant mumbled:

  "Get me the phone book."

  A few minutes later, Karim was calling round all the doctors in Sarzac, with this certainty written in his blood: if Jude Ithero had been absent from the 8th to the 15th of June 1982, then he must have been ill. He questioned all of them, asking them to look through their records, spelling out, each time, the child's name. None of them remembered the surname. The cop swore. He tried the neighboring towns: Cailhac, Thiermons, Valuc. It was from Cambuse, a town situated at eighteen miles' distance, that a medic finally replied in a flat voice:

  "Jude Ithero. Yes, of course. I remember him perfectly." Karim could not believe his ears.

  "Fourteen years later? And you remember him that well?"

  "Come to my surgery and I'll explain."

  CHAPTER 19

  Dr Stéphane Macé was an updated and elegant version of the country physician. Distinguished features, long pale hands, a pricy suit; and a perfect specimen of the alert, understanding, refined bourgeois doctor. From the start, Karim detested this cocksure medic. He sometimes frightened himself with his outbursts of fury, which split away from him as though they were icebergs in his own personal Bering Sea.

  Without taking off his leather jacket, he perched on the corner of the chair. A desk of polished wood lay between them. A few vaguely affected knick-knacks, a computer, a dictionary of drugs…The surgery was sober, strict and upmarket.

  "Go on, doctor," Karim demanded point-blank.

  "Perhaps you could tell me what line of investigations you are…”

  "No." Karim softened his brutality with a smile. "Sorry. I can't."

  The doctor tapped his fingers on the edge of his desk, then got to his feet. The sight of this Arab in a woolly hat had obviously taken him aback.

  "It was in June 1982. A call just like any other. For a little boy, who was running a temperature. It was my first tour of duty. I was twenty-eight years old."

  "Is that why you remember the visit so well?"

  The doctor smiled. A grin as wide as a hammock, which exasperated Karim even more.

  "No. You'll see why…I received the call via a central switchboard and noted down the address without knowing where I was going. In fact, it was to a little house, lost in the middle of a rugged plain, about nine miles from here…I still have the address…I'll give it to you."

  The lieutenant quietly nodded.

  "Anyway," the doctor went on, "I came across a completely isolated stone building. The heat was terrible, insects were buzzing in the dried-out shrubbery…When the woman opened the door, I immediately had a strange impression, as though she were out of her place in this rustic decor…"

  "Why?"

  "I don't know. There was a gleaming, polished piano in the main room and…"

  "Aren't yokels allowed to like music?"

  "That's not what I meant…"

  The doctor stopped.

  "You apparently do not find me to your taste."

  Karim looked up.

  "What does that matter?"

  The doctor nodded in agreement, still with an affable air. His smile never left his lips, but there was now fear in his eyes. He had just noticed the grip of the Glock 21, snug in its velcro holster. And perhaps the dried blood-stains on the sleeve of Karim's leather jacket. Increasingly uneasy, he started pacing up and down again.

  "I went into the child's bedroom and that is when things became decidedly odd."

  "Why?"

  The doctor shrugged.

  "The room was empty. No toys. No pictures. Nothing."

  "What did the boy look like?"

  "I don't know."

  "You don't know?"

  "No. That was the oddest part of it. The woman let me into a dark house. All the shutters were down. Not a single light was on. When I went in, my first thought was that she was simply trying to make the place as cool as possible. But there were also sheets over the furniture. It was all…very mysterious."

  "What did she tell you?"

  "That her child was ill. And that the light hurt his eyes."

  "Were you able to examine him…normally?"

  "Yes. In the shadows."

  "What was wrong with him?"

  "A simple throat infection. In fact, I can remember that…"

  The doctor bent over and put his fingers to his lips – a dry, scholarly gesture, no doubt designed to impress his clientele. But it left Karim cold.

  "It was at that moment that I understood…When I got out my pencil light to examine the boy's throat, the woman grabbed my wrist…Extremely violently…She did not want me to see her child's face."

  Karim thought it over. One of his legs was twitching. He was thinking about the empty oval frame, pinned up over the tomb. And the theft of the photos.

  "When you said she was violent, what did you mean?"

  "I should really have said that she was strong. Abnormally strong.

  I must add that she was at least six feet tall. A real colossus."

  "And did you see her face?"

  "No. As I told you, this all happened in semi-darkness."

  "And then?"

  "I wrote out the prescription and left."

  "How did she behave? Toward her son, I mean?"

  "She seemed to be both very attentive and distant at the same time…The more I think about it…the stranger that visit seems."

  "And you've never been back to see them?"

  The doctor was still pacing round the room. He glanced blackly at Karim. Every trace of joviality had vanished from his face. The policeman then realised why he remembered that visit so clearly. Two months later, little Jude was dead. And the doctor must know that.

  "There were the holidays," he went on. "And…then I finally returned to the house at the beginning of September. But it was empty. From a distant neighbor I learnt that they had gone."

  "Gone? Didn't anybody tell you that the boy had died?" The doctor shook his head.

  "No. The neighbors knew nothing about that. I only found out later, quite by chance."

  "How?"

  "In Sarzac cemetery, when attending a funeral."

  "Another one of your patients?"

  "You are starting to become unpleasa
nt, inspector, I…" Karim stood up. The doctor backed off.

  "Ever since then," the cop said, "you've been wondering if you didn't miss the symptoms of a more serious disease that day. Ever since, you've been living with that vague remorse. I suppose you must have looked into the matter yourself. Do you know what the kid died of?"

  The doctor slid his index finger inside his collar and opened a button. His forehead was running with sweat.

  "No, I don't. But you're right…I did try to find out for myself, but I found nothing. I contacted my colleagues, the hospitals…Nothing. I became obsessed by this story, can you understand that?"

  Karim turned on his heel.

  "Then you're still in for a few surprises."

  "What?"

  The doctor was as white as lint.

  "You'll find out soon enough," Karim retorted.

  "For heaven's sake, what have I ever done to you?"

  "Nothing. It's just that I spent my youth stealing cars belonging to guys like you…"

  "Who are you? What's going on? You…You haven't even shown me any official identification, I…"

  Karim grinned.

  "Don't panic. I was only joking."

  He slipped out into the corridor. The waiting-room was crammed with people. The doctor caught up with him.

  "Wait," he panted. "Is there something you know which I do not? I mean…about the cause of death."

  "Sorry, no."

  The cop turned the handle. The doctor shoved his hand against the door. His suit was trembling like a set of sails.

  "What's going on? Why this investigation so long after the event?"

  "Someone broke into the kid's tomb last night. And burgled his school."

  "Who…who do you think did it?"

  The lieutenant declared:

  "I don't know. But one thing's certain. When it comes to yesterday's crimes, we can't see the wood for the trees yet."

  CHAPTER 20

  He drove for a long time, along the deserted roads. In that region, A-roads are like B-roads and B-roads like farm lanes. Under the smooth blue sky, the fields stretched away without crops or livestock. Occasional rocky crags poked up across the landscape, revealing silvery hollows, as welcoming as a mantrap. Crossing this land meant going back through time, to a period when agriculture had not yet been invented.

  Karim had started out with the idea of visiting Jude's family's house, the address of which Macé had given him. It no longer existed. A heap of ruins and stones, scarcely higher than the bed of grayish grasses, lay there where it had stood. He could then have gone to the land register and found the name of its owner, but he decided to press on to Cahors in order to question Jean-Pierre Cau, Jean-Jaurès School's official photographer, who had taken the missing photos.

  He hoped to be able to examine the negatives of the classes that interested him. The boy must be there, among those anonymous faces, and Karim now felt an overwhelming desire to see that face, even if there was no way he would recognise it. He had a secret hope that he would capture something, some obscure hint, a sign, while examining those negatives.

  At about four o'clock in the afternoon, he parked his car by the pedestrian precinct in Cahors. Stone porches, cast-iron balconies and gargoyles. All the aristocratic beauty of an historical town center, enough to make Karim, the suburban kid, want to puke.

  He wandered through the streets and at last found the shop sign of Jean-Pierre Cau, specialist in "weddings and baptisms".

  The photographer was upstairs, in his studio.

  Karim leapt up the staircase. The room was in semi-darkness. All he could make out were large frames hanging on the walls, containing smiling couples in their Sunday best. Standardised happiness on glossy paper. Karim immediately felt bad about the wave of scorn that had passed through him. Was he there to judge people? What did he, the exiled cop, have to offer instead? He had never been able to stare back into a young girl's eyes and now all the love he possessed had turned into a fossilised kernel, isolated from the looks and the warmth of others. For him, sentiment meant the humility and vulnerability he had always rejected, like a proud bird of prey. But, in this domain, pride was a mortal sin. Now, in his lonely shell, he was rapidly drying up.

  "Are you getting married?"

  Karim turned round toward the voice.

  Jean-Pierre was as gray and pock-marked as a pumice stone. He had large curly whiskers, which seemed to be quivering with impatience, in contrast with his tired, baggy eyes. He turned on the light.

  "No," he added, sizing up Karim. "You're not getting married."

  His voice was gravelly, like that of an old smoker. Cau approached him. Behind his glasses, under his withered eyelids, his gaze wandered between world-weariness and distrust. Karim smiled. He had no warrant, nor any authority in this town. He was going to have to play things smoothly.

  "My name's Karim Abdouf," he began. "I'm a police lieutenant. I need some information connected with an investigation…"

  "Are you from Cahors?" the photographer asked, more intrigued than worried.

  "From Sarzac."

  "Do you have a card, or anything?"

  Karim dived into his pocket and handed him his official papers. The photographer examined them for a few seconds. The Arab sighed. He was sure that the man had never seen a police card close up before, but still that did not stop him from acting the wise guy. Cau gave it back with a forced smile. Wrinkles furrowed his forehead.

  "How can I help you?"

  "I'm looking for some class photographs."

  "Which school?"

  "Jean-Jaurès, in Sarzac. I need the class portraits of CM1 in 1981 and of CM2 in 1982, as well as a list of the pupils' names if, by any chance, you have them with the photos. Do you keep that sort of thing?"

  The man smiled again.

  "I keep everything.”

  "Could we take a look?" the policeman asked, in the sweetest voice he could drag up from his throat.

  Cau pointed at 'the adjoining room. A ray of light cut into the shadows.

  "No problem. Step this way."

  The second room was even larger than the studio. A complicated black machine, containing a mess of optical glasses and adjustable instruments, was fixed above a long counter. On the walls were pinned large pictures of baptisms. White, everywhere. Smiles. New-born babies.

  Karim followed him as far as his metallic filing cabinets. The man bent down, reading the labels on the drawers, then pulled one open. He removed a wad of thick brown paper envelopes.

  "Here we are, Jean-Jaurès:"

  Cau extricated one envelope, which contained several folders of translucent paper. He looked through them. Then looked again. The wrinkles on his brow multiplied.

  "You did say CM1 in '81 and CM2 in '82?"

  "That's right."

  His weary eyelids widened.

  "How odd. I can't…They're not here."

  Karim shivered. Could the robbers have had the same idea as him? He asked:

  "Did you notice anything particular when you opened this morning?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "Anything like a burglary?"

  Cau burst out laughing and pointed at the infra-red detectors at each of the four corners of the studio.

  "If anyone tried to break in here, they wouldn't have had an easy time of it, believe you me. I've spent a bit on security…" Karim smiled fleetingly, then declared:

  "Check, all the same. I know plenty of guys who would have no more difficulty with your system than with a doormat. You do keep your negatives, don't you?"

  Can's expression changed.

  "My negatives? Why?"

  "Maybe you still have the ones I'm interested in."

  "Sorry, but that's strictly confidential?”

  The cop noticed a vein twitching in the photographer's neck. It was time to up the tone a bit.

  "Your negatives, grandpa. Or I'll get touchy."

  The man stared back at Karim, hesitated, then backed away and nodded.
They went over to another metal cabinet, this time sealed with a padlock. Cau undid it and opened one of the drawers. His hands were shaking. The lieutenant leant on his elbow and faced him. As the minutes ticked by, he could feel an inexplicable fear and anxiety rising in the man. As though Cau, as he searched, had remembered something which was now bugging him horribly.

  The photographer dived once more into his envelopes. Seconds went by. He finally raised his eyes. His face was a contortion of tics.

  "I…uh, no. I don't seem to have them any more either."

  Karim pushed the drawer violently shut. With his hands caught in the metallic trap, the photographer screamed. Never mind about playing things smoothly. Karim squeezed the man by his throat and lifted him off the floor. His voice was still calm:

  "Be reasonable, now, Cau. Were you burgled, yes or no?"

  "N…no. Honestly?”

  "So what have you done with the fucking pictures?"

  Cau stammered:

  "I…I…I sold them."

  In his amazement, Karim let him drop. The man groaned and massaged his fists. The cop murmured softly:

  "Sold them? But…when?" The man replied:

  "Good God. All that's ancient history…And I can do whatever I like with my…"

  "When did you sell them?"

  "I don't know…maybe fifteen years ago…"

  Karim was reeling from one surprise to another. He pushed the photographer back against the cabinet. Transparent paper folders fluttered around them.

  "Tell it from the beginning, grandpa. Because none of this is very clear?"

  Cau grimaced:

  "It was one evening, during summer…A woman came here…She wanted the photographs…The same ones as you…It's just come back to me…"

  This new information completely threw Karim. So, as early as 1982, "they" had been looking for photos of little Jude.

  "Did she mention Jude? Jude Ithero? Did she give you his name?"

  "No. She just took the photos and the negatives?”

  "Did she give you any money?"

  The man nodded.

  "How much?"

  "Twenty thousand francs…A fortune back then…For a few snapshots of kiddies…"

  "Why did she want the photos?"

  "I don't know. We didn't discuss that?”