Blood-Red Rivers aka The Crimson Rivers Read online

  He went through each room. Nobody. His sixth sense told him that she had taken off. For good. He started to search the place more thoroughly. He examined the strange pictures on the walls – black-and-white photos hung up on hooks depicting Nazi athletes running round a stadium. He went through the furniture, pulled out the drawers. Nothing. Sophie Caillois had left no message, no clear sign that she had gone – yet Karim sensed that she was gone for good. And also that he could not yet leave. Some mysterious detail was holding him back. He paced around, staring up and down in an attempt to identify what was bugging him.

  At last, he found it.

  There was a strong smell of glue in the air. Wallpaper paste, only just dry. Karim hurriedly examined each of the walls. Had both the Caillois simply been redecorating a few days before all this violence had broken out? Was this just a coincidence? Karim rejected that hypothesis. In this case, there were no coincidences. Every single element was a part of the overall nightmare.

  Impulsively, he pushed aside some of the furniture and stripped away a section of the wallpaper. Nothing. He stopped for a moment. He was outside his jurisdiction. He had no search warrant. And here he was vandalising the flat of a woman who was about to become a prime suspect. He hesitated, swallowed hard, then ripped away a second section. Nothing. Karim spun round and attacked a different part of the wall. As he pulled, the paper peeled off easily, revealing a large area of the previous layer.

  On the wall, he could make out the end of an inscription written in brown. The only word he could read was "RIVERS". He stripped away the section that lay to the left. Under the smeared paste, the message appeared in its entirety:

  I SHALL REACH THE SOURCE

  OF THE BLOOD-RED RIVERS

  JUDITH

  The handwriting belonged to a child, and it was written in blood. The inscription was engraved into the plaster, as if it had been dug out with a knife. Rémy Caillois's murder. The "blood-red rivers” Judith. It was no longer a matter of connections, of vague relationships, of echoes. The two cases had now become one.

  Suddenly, he heard a slight shuffling behind him. In a reflex action, Karim wheeled round holding his Glock in both hands. He just had time to see a figure disappear through the half-open door. He cursed and dived after it.

  The form had just vanished round a corner of the corridor. The sound of running had already roused the neighbors, as though they had been on the qui vive, ready for the slightest sign of danger. Doors were opening to reveal frightened faces.

  The cop sped along to the first turning, then leapt forward, sprinting down the next straight. He could already hear footsteps echoing down the hanging staircase.

  He, too, started down the well. The metal slats quivered as the shadow rapidly descended the granite steps. Karim was in full pursuit. His metal-studded shoes touched down only once per flight.

  The floors shot by. Karim was gaining. He was now only a few paces from his prey. They were going down the same storey, on either side of the barrier of metal slats. In the darkness, the cop could just make out the gleaming black of an oil-skin jacket. He shot one of his hands in between the symmetrical iron blades and seized a shadowy sleeve, just under the shoulder. Not firmly enough. His arm was thrown away, becoming stuck in among the metal slats. The figure made off. Karim accelerated again. He had lost a few seconds.

  He reached the massive hall. It was completely deserted. Utterly silent. Karim noticed the guard who was still outside. He sprinted toward the side entrance, through which he had come in. Nobody. A sheet of rain obscured the exterior scene.

  Karim swore. He went out through the smashed pane and stared across the campus, hazed over by the gray glints of the downpour. Not a sign of life. No cars. Only the din from the plastic sheeting, which was making a furious slapping noise. Karim lowered his gun and turned back. There was now one hope left: the shadow might still be inside.

  Suddenly, a tidal wave hit the glass panes of the door. In a moment of confusion, he dropped his weapon. An icy torrent had engulfed him. Crouching on the ground, Karim glanced upwards and realised that the plastic sheeting over the porch had just given way under the weight of the rain.

  A simple accident.

  But then, behind the plastic sheet, still suspended from the roof by two cords, he saw a gleaming dark shape. A black oilskin, poly-carbonate leggings,' a face masked by a balaclava and topped by a cyclist's helmet, gleaming like the head of a massive bumble bee, the shadow was holding Karim's Glock in both hands, and aiming it toward his face.

  The cop opened his mouth, but not a word emerged.

  The shadow abruptly pressed the trigger, emptying the magazine with a cascade of breaking glass. Karim curled into a ball, protecting his face with his hands. He screamed out in a cracked voice, as the din from the shots mingled with the smashing of glass and the thundering downpour. Karim mechanically counted the sixteen bullets and dared to look up only when the last cartridge cases had flopped out onto the ground. He just had time to see a naked hand drop the gun, before vanishing behind the curtain of rain. It was a dark hand, with knotted muscles, scratched and covered with plasters, and with short clipped nails.

  A woman's hand.

  The cop looked down for a few seconds at his Glock, which was still smoking through its breech. Then he stared at its grip, crisscrossed with tiny diamond shapes. His mind was still jolting in time with the gun blasts. His nostrils were full of the pungent smell of cordite. A few seconds later, the policeman who was guarding the main entrance arrived, gun in hand.

  But Karim was oblivious to his warnings and panic-stricken yells.

  Amid this apocalypse, he had acquired two vital pieces of evidence.

  First: the murderer was a woman and she had spared his life.

  Second: he had her fingerprints.

  CHAPTER 43

  "What were you doing in Sophie Caillois's flat? You're outside your jurisdiction, you've infringed the most basic rules, we could…"

  Karim watched Captain Vermont as he worked himself up. Head bare, his face was going puce. Karim nodded and did his best to look contrite. He said:

  "I've already explained everything to Captain Barnes. The Guernon murders are linked to a case I'm investigating…Crimes that were committed in my town, Sarzac, in the Lot."

  "Very interesting. But it doesn't explain your presence in the flat belonging to one of our principal witnesses, nor the violation of property."

  "I had an agreement with Superintendent Niémans to…"

  "Forget Niémans. He's been taken off the case." Vermont flung the official mandate down onto the desk. "The boys from the Grenoble brigade have just arrived."

  "Really?"

  "Superintendent Niémans is in a lot of trouble. The other night, he beat up an English football hooligan after the match at the Parc des Princes. Things are starting to look nasty. He's been called back to Paris."

  Karim now understood why Niémans was working in this little town. He must have been trying to lie low, after an umpteenth piece of brutality. One of his trademarks. But he could not imagine him going back to Paris that night. Not at all. And he could not imagine him dropping this case – and certainly not if it was to go and stand before a disciplinary board. Pierre Niémans would unmask the killer, having first uncovered a motive. And Karim would be there by his side. However, he played at following the gendarme's drift:

  "So are the Grenoble boys on the case already?"

  "Not yet," Vermont replied. "We'll have to give them the lowdown first."

  "It doesn't sound as though you're going to miss Niémans."

  "Oh yes I am. He might be a head case, but at least he knows the world of crime. It's his backyard. With the Grenoble brigade, we're going to have to start all over again from scratch. And where will that get us, I wonder?" Karim stuck his fists down onto the desk and leant across toward Vermont.

  "Give Superintendent Henri Crozier a ring, at the Sarzac police station. He'll confirm my story. Jurisdiction, or no j
urisdiction, my enquiries are linked to the Guernon murders. Philippe Sertys, one of the victims, desecrated a cemetery on my patch. Last night. Just before he was murdered."

  Vermont pouted skeptically.

  "Then write up a report. Victims desecrating a cemetery. Policemen cropping up from nowhere. Don't you reckon this story is already complicated enough as it is…"

  "I uh,…"

  "The murderer has struck again."

  Karim turned round. Niémans was standing in the door frame. His face was livid and strained. It reminded the Arab of the graveyard sculptures he had encountered in the last few hours.

  "Edmond Chernecé," Niémans went on. "An ophthalmologist in Annecy." He walked over to the desk, staring at Karim, then at Vermont. "Strangled with a cable. Eyes gone. Hands gone. The series has only just begun."

  Vermont pushed his chair back against the wall. After a moment's pause, he murmured plaintively:

  "I told you so…Everyone told you so…"

  "What? What did you tell me?" Niémans yelled.

  "That it's a serial killer. A psychopath. Like in the States! We'll have to use the same methods as they do. Call in some specialists. Draw up a psychological profile…That sort of thing…Even a provincial cop like me knows that…"

  Niémans bellowed:

  "This is a series, but not with a serial killer! Our murderer's no madman. This is revenge. He has a perfectly rational motive for killing his victims. There is a link between those three men, which explains their deaths. That's what we should be looking for, for fuck's sake!"

  Vermont was silent. He gestured wearily. Karim butted in:

  "Superintendent, may I…"

  "Not now."

  Niémans stretched and, with twitching hands, pressed out the creases in his coat. This concern for his appearance sat uneasily with the cop's inscrutable expression. Karim tried again:

  "Sophie Caillois's taken off."

  The metal-framed eyes turned round toward him.

  "What? Wasn't someone watching her?"

  "He didn't see anything. And, if you want my opinion, she's already long gone."

  Niémans weighed up Karim, as though he was a strange, genetically improbable animal.

  "What the fuck's all this about now?" he asked. "Why would she have run away?"

  "Because you've been right all along." Karim was speaking to the superintendent, but staring at Vermont. "The victims share a secret. And this secret is linked to the murders. Sophie Caillois has split because she knows that secret. She might even be the murderer's next victim."

  "Jesus Christ…"

  Niémans readjusted his glasses. He stopped to think for a few seconds, then motioned with his chin, like a boxer, for Karim to go on.

  "I've got something new, superintendent. In the Caillois's flat, I discovered an inscription scratched into one of the walls. It's signed `Judith' and mentions `the blood-red rivers'. You were looking for a common factor between the victims. I can at least suggest one between Caillois and Sertys: Judith. My little girl. My missing face. Sertys desecrated her tomb. And Caillois received a message signed with her name."

  The superintendent headed for the door.

  "Come with me." Vermont stood up in anger.

  "That's right, get lost, both of you! You and your mysteries!" Niémans was already pushing Karim out into the corridor. The captain's voice roared on:

  "You're off the case, Niémans! It's official! Don't you understand that? You're nothing any more…Nothing! You don't count for shit! So go and listen to your darky's ranting…A bent cop and a thug! The two of you are made for each other! I’ll…"

  Niémans burst into an empty office, a few doors down the corridor. He shoved Karim inside, turned on the light and closed the door, cutting short the gendarme's speech. He grabbed a chair, handed it to the Arab, then whispered simply:

  "I'm listening."

  CHAPTER 44

  Still standing, Karim launched into his explanations:

  "The inscription on the wall reads: `I shall reach the source of the blood-red rivers. It's written in blood and was scratched into the plaster with a blade. It's enough to scare the shit right out of you. Specially since the message is signed `Judith, in other words, `Judith Hérault'. Who's dead, superintendent. She died in 1982."

  "I don't get it."

  "Neither do I," Karim sighed. "But I can imagine some of the events of that weekend."

  Niémans, too, remained on his feet. He slowly nodded his head. The Arab went on:

  "Right. So the killer starts by knocking off Rémy Caillois, probably some time on Saturday, then mutilates the body and wedges it up into that rock face. But Christ knows what lies behind all that elaborate staging. The next day, our murderer goes on the look-out somewhere on the campus so as to keep an eye on Sophie Caillois. At first, she stays put. But she finally makes a move, let's say around mid-morning. Perhaps she goes up into the mountains to look for her husband, for example. Meanwhile, the killer breaks into the flat and inscribes a signed confession into the wall: `I shall reach the source of the blood-red rivers'."

  "Go on."

  "Later, Sophie Caillois comes back home and finds the message. She immediately understands what it means. The past has come back to haunt them, and her husband has obviously been murdered. She panics, breaks the code of secrecy and phones up Philippe Sertys who is, or was, Rémy Caillois's accomplice."

  "What's your evidence for all this?"

  Karim leant over and whispered:

  "My notion is that the Caillois couple and Sertys were childhood friends and that they committed some crime or other together when they were kids. A crime that is linked to the expression `blood-red rivers', and Judith's family."

  "Karim, I've already told you that in the early 1980s, Caillois and Sertys were about ten, how can you imagine that they…?"

  "Let me finish. Philippe Sertys arrives at the Caillois's flat. He, too, reads the inscription and understands the reference to "the blood-red rivers": It's now total panic stations. But the first thing to do is hide the inscription which refers to some secret that they absolutely have to conceal. That much I'm sure of – despite Caillois's death and the threat of a killer who's using the name `Judith, Sertys and Sophie Caillois's initial reaction is to cover up this message which reveals their own guilt. The auxiliary nurse then rushes off to get some wallpaper, which he pastes over the words. Which is why there's a strong smell of glue in the place."

  Niémans's eyes were shining. Karim realised that the superintendent had obviously noticed that detail, too, presumably while questioning the woman. He went on:

  "They spend all Sunday waiting, or perhaps search for Rémy again. I don't know. Finally, at the end of the afternoon, Sophie Caillois decides to inform the police. At that very moment, the body is discovered in the cliff."

  "And then?"

  "Then, that night, Philippe Sertys heads off for Sarzac."

  "Why?"

  "Because Rémy Caillois's murder was signed `Judith, and Sertys knows that Judith has been dead and buried in Sarzac for the last fifteen years."

  "Sounds a bit far-fetched"

  "Maybe it is. But Sertys was certainly in my town last night, with an accomplice who might well be our third victim, Edmond Chernecé. They searched through the archives of the primary school. They went to the cemetery and opened Judith's tomb. Where do you look for a dead person? In the grave."

  "Go on"

  "Now, I don't know what Sertys and his friend find out in Sarzac. I don't know if they open the coffin. I wasn't allowed to carry out a thorough search of the tomb. But I figure that they were not particularly reassured by their discoveries. So, with panic in their guts, they go back to Guernon. Jesus, can you just imagine it? A ghost is on the prowl, who's all set to wipe out the people who once harmed it…"

  "You haven't got a shred of evidence for all this."

  Karim ignored this remark.

  "It's now dawn on Monday, Niémans. As he goes home, Serty
s gets jumped by our ghost. No torture session, no third degree. The killer already knows the truth and is simply carrying out a program of revenge. So the phantom takes a cable car and places the body up in the mountains. Everything has been premeditated: a first clue was left on the first victim and a second one will be left on the second victim. And so on. Your vengeance hypothesis is starting to take off, Niémans."

  The superintendent slumped down onto the chair. He was glistening with sweat.

  "But vengeance for what? Who is the killer?"

  "Judith Hérault. Or, rather, someone who's acting on her behalf."

  Head down, the superintendent remained silent. Karim leant over further:

  "I found Sylvain Hérault's memorial in the town crematorium, Niémans. There's nothing particularly suspicious about his death. He was killed by a hit-and-run driver. Though maybe that is worth looking into, I don't know…But it was the urn itself which taught me something of interest. There was a wreath of fresh flowers in front of it. So I asked who put them there. And who do you think has been bringing flowers for the last few years? Sophie Caillois."

  Niémans was now shaking his head, as though in a fit of dizziness.

  "And what's your theory about that?"

  "I reckon it's because she feels guilty."

  The superintendent did not bother to respond. Abdouf raised himself up and yelled:

  "But it all fits, for Christ's sake! I can't imagine Sophie Caillois as a real criminal, but she shared her husband's secret and kept quiet about it, because she loved him, or was frightened of him, one or the other. Meanwhile, she discreetly carried on putting flowers in front of Sylvain Hérault's urn, out of respect for the family which her guy had persecuted."

  Karim knelt down. His dreadlocks were almost brushing against the superintendent.