Blood-Red Rivers aka The Crimson Rivers Read online

  He then rapidly completed his hand movement, waving his tricolor police card in front of him. Niémans cautiously put his gun away. He drank in the young Arab's extraordinary appearance. He could now make out the glinting of assorted ear-rings amid the dreadlocks.

  "You're not from the Annecy brigade?" he asked incredulously. "No. I'm here from Sarzac. In the Lot."

  "Never heard of it."

  Karim pocketed his card.

  "We keep ourselves pretty much to ourselves."

  Niémans smiled and peered once more at this apparition. "So, what sort of a cop are you?"

  The sphinx slapped his hand on the bonnet of the saloon. "The sort of cop you need."

  CHAPTER 38

  The two officers drank a coffee in a small lorry drivers' café on the way back. In the distance could be seen the lights from a roadblock and the glittering of cars braking in front of the barriers.

  Niémans listened attentively to Abdouf's hastily told story, this cop who had sprung out of nowhere and whose investigations had quite suddenly become linked to the murders in Guernon. But his tale seemed incomprehensible. He told of a mysterious mother and her life on the run, of a little girl transformed into a little boy, of demons trying to destroy the child's face, because they considered it to be a piece of incriminating evidence…It would all have sounded like the ravings of a madman, had the lieutenant from Sarzac not produced, amidst this deluge of information, formal proof that Philippe Sertys had desecrated a grave in a small town in the Lot, on Sunday night.

  And this was vital evidence.

  Philippe Sertys 'was, clearly, the desecrator of the tomb. Of course, it would still be necessary to compare the scraps of rubber found near the cemetery of Sarzac with the tires on his Lada. But, if this did check out, then it would mean that Niémans now had proof of the guilt of his second victim.

  On the other hand, the superintendent could not see how to fit the other elements Karim Abdouf produced into his own investigations. All that nonsense about a mother and her little girl being pursued by "demons".

  Niémans asked Karim:

  "What's your conclusion?"

  The young Arab fiddled nervously with a lump of sugar.

  "I think that the demons were reawoken last night, for a reason that is unknown to me, and that Sertys went to the school and the cemetery in Sarzac to check something. Something to do with what happened in 1982."

  "So, Sertys was one of your demons?"

  "Exactly."

  "But that's ridiculous," Niémans riposted. "In 1982, Philippe Sertys was only twelve. Do you really reckon a little kid like that terrified some mother and then chased her halfway across France?"

  Karim Abdouf frowned.

  "Yeah, I know. It doesn't all quite fit together yet."

  Niémans smiled and ordered another coffee. He was not yet sure whether or not to believe everything Karim Abdouf had told him. Nor was he sure whether or not to trust an Arab who measured six foot two, had dreadlocks, carried an unauthorised automatic weapon, and was driving what was clearly a stolen Audi. But this tale was no crazier than his own hypothesis: the guilt of the victims. And the gutsy enthusiasm of this young Arab was highly contagious.

  He finally decided to trust him. He gave him the key to his personal office, in the university, where Karim could take a look at the entire case and explain its arcane sides to him.

  In hushed tones, the superintendent revealed his own deeply rooted convictions: the victims were guilty; the murderer was revenging one, or several criminal acts. He summed up the flimsy evidence at his disposal. Rémy Caillois's schizophrenia and brutality. Philippe Sertys's isolated warehouse and exercise book. Niémans also spoke of the "blood-red rivers'; but without being able to explain this curious expression. Then he filled him in concerning the current situation: they were waiting for the results of the autopsy. Perhaps the body contained another message.

  There was also the vague hope that all the enquiries being conducted in the region might produce something concrete. Finally, his voice dropped a tone. He mentioned Eric Joisneau, and how worried he was.

  Abdouf asked several precise questions about the lieutenant's disappearance, which he seemed to find extremely interesting. So, Niémans asked him:

  "What's your opinion about all this?"

  The young cop smiled wearily.

  "The same as yours, superintendent. I think your kid's in trouble. He must have turned up something important, then tried to go it alone so as to prove himself to you. I reckon he discovered something vital, then that vital something exploded on him. I hope I'm wrong, but your Joisneau may well have unmasked the murderer and this may well have cost him his life."

  There was a pause. Niémans observed the lights from the distant road-block. He had not wanted to admit it to himself but, since waking up in the library, that was precisely what he had suspected. Karim went on:

  "Don't think I'm a cynic, or anything, superintendent. Since this morning, I've been going from one nightmare to another. Now here I am in Guernon, up against a killer who rips his victims' eyes out. And sitting in front of you, Pierre Niémans, one of the stars of the French police force, who seems about as lost as I am in this dump of a town…So, I'm not going to be surprised by anything any more. I reckon these murders are directly related to my own investigations and I'm ready to see it all through to the end."

  The two policemen left.

  It was midnight. A slight drizzle was filling the air. In the distance, the gendarmerie road-blocks lingered there in the rain. The drivers were waiting patiently to go through. Some of them were looking out through their wound-down windows, staring cautiously at the officers' machine-guns, which glistened in the damp air.

  The superintendent instinctively glanced at his pager. There was a message from Costes. He called him at once.

  "What is it? Have you finished the autopsy?"

  "Not quite. But there's something I'd like to show you. Here at the hospital."

  "Can't you tell me on the phone?"

  "No, not really. Also, I'm waiting for the results of some tests. They should be here any minute. I'll be ready by the time you get here."

  Niémans hung up.

  "Anything new?" Karim asked him.

  "Maybe. I've got to go and see the forensic pathologist. What about you?"

  "I came here to question Philippe Sertys. Sertys is dead. So, I'll go on to the next stage."

  "Which is?"

  "To find out the circumstances of Judith's father's death. He died here in Guernon, and I'm pretty sure that my demons had a hand in it."

  "What? You think they murdered him?"

  "Yes, maybe."

  Niémans shook his head.

  "I've been all through the records in the gendarmerie and all the local police stations covering the last twenty-five years. There's no trace of anything like that happening…And, as I just said, Philippe Sertys was only a kid at the time."

  "We'll see. Anyway, I'm certain I'll find a link between that death and the name of one or other of your victims."

  "Where are you going to start?"

  "In the cemetery." Karim smiled. "It's becoming my specialty. A second nature. I want to be sure that Sylvain Hérault was really buried in Guernon. I've already contacted Taverlay and traced Judith Hérault's birth certificate. The only child of Fabienne and Sylvain Hérault, born in 1972, here in the University Hospital of Guernon. Now what I need is the father's death certificate."

  Niémans handed him the numbers of his cell phone and pager.

  "For confidential messages, use the pager."

  Karim Abdouf pocketed the scrap of paper and declared, in a semi-professorial, semi-ironic tone:

  "'In an investigation, each fact, each witness is a mirror, in which part of the truth behind a crime is reflected'…"

  "What?"

  "I attended one of your lectures, superintendent, while I was at the police academy."

  "And?"

  Karim turned up the
collar of his jacket.

  "And, as far as mirrors are concerned, our two investigations go together like this."

  He put out his two palms and pointed them slowly toward each other.

  "They're mirror reflections, get me? And in one of the dead angles, Jesus, I'll bet on it, the murderer is lurking."

  "And how can I get in touch with you?"

  "I'll call you. I asked for a cell phone, but the 1997 Sarzac budget wouldn't run to that."

  The cop bowed an Arabian farewell and disappeared into the night. Niémans, too, went back to his car. He took a last look at the brand-new Audi as it pulled off into the drizzle. He suddenly felt older, wearier, as though oppressed by the night, the years, the uncertainty. A taste of oblivion rose up in his throat. But he also felt stronger. He now had an ally.

  One hell of an ally.

  CHAPTER 39

  The crystals glittered with a rainbow profusion of pinks, blues, greens and yellows. Multi-colored prisms. Shattered light, kaleidoscopic, under the transparent slides. Niémans raised his eye from the microscope and asked Costes:

  "What are they?"

  The doctor replied incredulously:

  "It's glass, superintendent. This time, the killer left behind some pieces of glass."

  "In which part of the body?"

  "In the eye-sockets again. Just under the lids. They were stuck there, like little petrified tears."

  The two men were in the hospital morgue. The doctor was wearing a blood-stained white coat. It was the first time that Niémans had seen him dressed like that, standing stock still like a porcelain statue. The clothes and the place gave him a sort of icy authority. Behind his glasses, the forensic pathologist was smiling.

  "Water, ice, glass. There's an obvious link between these substances."

  "I can still spot the obvious, thank you," Niémans grumbled, as he went over to the body, which was laid out under a sheet in the center of the room. "But what does it mean? Or rather, where does it point us next? Is there anything special about this glass?"

  "I'm still waiting for Astier's results. He rushed off back to his lab to carry out an in-depth study of the glass and try to work out where it comes from. He should also be bringing the results of the tests on the wire meshes and white powder you found in the warehouse. He's already analysed the ink in the exercise book, and his findings are disappointing. It's just common-or-garden stuff. Nothing more. As for the pages of figures, we can do nothing until we have something more to go on. But we did check the handwriting, and it certainly belongs to Sertys."

  Niémans ran his hand through his brush of hair; he had almost forgotten about the evidence found in the warehouse. Silence descended. The policeman glanced up and noticed how Costes's face was sparkling with intelligence, as if a solved mathematical equation was gleaming in the pupils of his eyes. Irritated, the superintendent asked:

  "What's up?"

  "Nothing…It's just…Water, ice, glass. Each time, it's a crystal."

  "As I just told you, that much is obvious, but…"

  …but one that corresponds to a different temperature."

  "I'm sorry?"

  Costes slapped his hands together.

  The structures of these substances exist at different levels of temperature, superintendent. The coldness of ice, the room temperature of water, and the burning of sand at an extreme heat to turn it into glass."

  Niémans dismissed the idea with an angry gesture.

  "So what? What can that tell us about the murders?"

  Costes hunched his shoulders, as though drawing back into his shell.

  "Nothing. I was just thinking aloud…"

  "I'd rather you told me about the mutilations on the body." 'Apart from the fact that the hands have been amputated, the body is identical to Caillois's. Minus the signs of torture."

  "Sertys wasn't tortured?"

  "No. I suppose the killer already knew what he wanted to know. And so got straight down to business. Mutilation of the eyes and hands. Then strangulation. But the pain must still have been intolerable. Because it looks as if he started with the mutilations. He cut off the hands, extracted the eyes and only then finished off his prey."

  "How was he strangled?"

  "In the same way. The killer used a metal wire. First he strapped him up with it, just like last time. The weals on the limbs are identical."

  "What about the hands? How were they amputated?"

  "Hard to say. It looks to me as if the same cable was used. Something like a cheese wire, which the killer must have tied round the wrists, then tightened with extraordinary force. We're looking for a monster, superintendent. Someone with almost superhuman strength."

  Niémans thought for a moment. Despite these new details, he just could not picture the murderer. Not even his physique. Something was holding him back. All he could see was an entity, a force, a field of energy.

  "And the time of death?" he asked.

  "Forget it. He was frozen into the ice. There's absolutely no chance of drawing even the vaguest conclusion about that."

  The door of the morgue flew open. A bean-pole with an anemic face, squashed nose and a bright stare burst through it. His eyes were like saucers. Costes took care of the introductions. Patrick Astier, Pierre Niémans. The chemist put down a small plastic bag onto the bench, and went straight to the heart of the matter:

  "I've got the composition of the glass. Fontainebleau sand, soda, lead, potassium and borax. The exact composition allows us to deduce where it comes from. It is the sort used for sculpted blocks of glass. You know, like in swimming pools, or in houses from the 1930s. The killer must be pointing us toward some place of that sort, covered with thick panes of glass…"

  Niémans turned on his heels. An image had flashed into his mind of the walls and ceiling in that oculist's surgery. He swore to himself. This could not just be a coincidence. Edmond Chernecé must be the third victim.

  Marc Costes called him back when he was already half out of the door.

  "Where are you going?"

  Niémans answered over his shoulder:

  "I might have worked out where the killer's going to strike next. If it's not already too late."

  The policeman set off down the corridor. Astier ran after him and grabbed him by the sleeve.

  "Superintendent, I also have the composition of that white dust in the warehouse…"

  Pierre Niémans peered at the chemist through his glasses, which were beaded with sweat.

  "What?"

  "You know, the samples you picked up in that warehouse."

  "And?"

  "They're bones, superintendent. Animal bones."

  "What sort of animal?"

  "Probably rats. I know it sounds crazy, but Sertys must have been breeding rats and…"

  Another shiver. More pinpricks.

  "Later," Niémans panted. "Later. I'll be back."

  Niémans wrenched convulsively at his steering wheel. He was driving at more than ninety miles per hour.

  If Dr Edmond Chernecé was the third victim, then he was also a culprit.

  After Rémy Caillois.

  After Philippe Sertys.

  And if Chernecé was guilty, then it also meant that he had murdered young Eric Joisneau.

  Jesus fucking Christ. The superintendent bit his lips to stop himself from screaming out loud. He ran through all the mistakes he had made since the outset. And drew up a report of his own incompetence. He had not wanted to go to that home for the blind because of all that crap about dogs. And so he had missed out on the first real lead.

  After that, he had gone right off the rails.

  While he had been inching forward in his investigations, playing the apprentice mountaineer in the glaciers, or questioning Sertys's mother, Eric Joisneau had gone straight to the home for the blind and found out something important. Something which had then led him to Dr Chernecé. But the young lieutenant was now over-extending himself. He had been incapable of evaluating the gravity of his
own discoveries. The kid had not been sufficiently wary of the doctor, had questioned him about some vital aspect of the case, some element of the truth which personally threatened the oculist. So, Chernecé must have killed him.

  In Niémans's mind, another terrifying certainty began to crystallise itself, even though he had not a scrap of supporting evidence, apart from his own instinct: Caillois, Sertys and Chernecé had committed some crime together. They shared a common responsibility.

  A deadly one.

  WE ARE THE MASTERS, WE ARE THE SLAVES.

  WE ARE EVERYWHERE, WE ARE NOWHERE.

  WE ARE THE SURVEYORS.

  WE CONTROL THE BLOOD-RED RIVERS.

  Could that we refer to those three men? Was it possible that Caillois, Sertys and Chernecé controlled the "blood-red rivers"? That they had been behind some plot against the entire town, and that this conspiracy was the motive for the murders?

  CHAPTER 40

  This time, the front door was ajar. Niémans forked straight off to his right and entered the glass veranda. Shadows. Silence. Optical instruments glinting arrogantly. The policeman drew his revolver and walked round the room, gun in hand. Nobody. Only the patterns of the trees, still dancing on the floor, filtered through the thick panes of glass.

  He went back into the house. He glanced round the darkened waiting-room then paced across the marble hall, where walking sticks with ivory or horn handles stood in an umbrella rack. He found a sitting-room crammed with cumbersome furnishings and hung with tapestries, then some old-fashioned bedrooms with large beds made of varnished wood. Nobody. No trace of a struggle. No trace of a sudden departure.

  Still holding his MR73, Niémans went up the staircase to the first floor. He entered a small office, which smelt of bees' wax and cigars. He found some luggage made of fine leather, with gold-plated locks, laid out on a worn Turkish rug.

  He explored further. The entire place stank of danger. Of death. Through an oval window he saw the high tips of the trees, still being shaken by the wind. After a second's thought, he realised that this window looked down over the glass ceiling of the veranda. He shoved it open and gazed down at that transparent covering.