Blood-Red Rivers aka The Crimson Rivers Read online

  "What?"

  "Another break-in. I've never seen anything like it…"

  "Where?"

  Sélier hesitated, looking at his colleagues. He was panting under his moustache.

  "In…In the cemetery. They broke into a tomb." The tombs and crosses lay on a slight slope, a mixture of grays and greens, like engraved lichen glistening in the sunlight. Behind the gate, the young Arab breathed in a scent of dew and withered flowers.

  "Wait for me here," he mumbled to the others.

  While slipping on his latex gloves, Karim said to himself that Sarzac would long remember a Monday such as this one.

  This time, he had dropped back into his bed-sitter to pick up his "scientific" equipment: a kit containing powdered aluminum and granite, adhesives and nynhidrine for revealing hidden fingerprints, as well as elastomers to make moulds of possible footprints…He had decided to collect the slightest possible clue.

  He followed the gravel footpaths leading to the desecrated tomb, the position of which had been indicated to him. His first fear was that there had been a genuine profanation. Of the sort that seemed to have become a macabre fashion in France over the last few years. Skulls and mutilated corpses. Not this time. Everything was apparently in perfect order. The desecrators had obviously not touched anything, except for the vault. Karim reached the foot of the granite block: a monument shaped like a chapel.

  The door was slightly ajar. He knelt down and examined the lock. As at the primary school, the burglars had been extremely careful about opening the vault. The lieutenant stroked the edge of the wall and observed to himself that this had, once again, been done by professionals. The same ones?

  He opened the door a little wider and tried to imagine the scene. Why had the intruders taken such pains to open a tomb and then left without closing up the wall again? The lieutenant pushed in the stone block several times, then understood: some scraps of gravel had slipped under the edge and warped the jamb. It was now impossible to lock the vault. These little chips of stone had given the desecrators away.

  The cop now examined the stone aspergillums which made up the lock. A strange structure, presumably typical of this sort of construction, and which only a specialist would know. A specialist? The policeman held back a shiver. Once more, he wondered if this had really been done by the same team that had broken into the primary school. What could be the connection between the two crimes?

  The inscription provided him with part of the answer. It read: "Jude Ithero. 23 May 1972 – 14 August 1982". Karim thought it over. Perhaps this little boy had gone to Jean-Jaurès School. He looked at the plaque again: no epitaph, no prayer. Just a small oval frame, made of old silver, had been nailed onto the marble. But there was no picture inside.

  "That's a girl's name, isn't it?"

  Karim turned around. Sélier was standing there with his beetle-crushers and panic-struck eyes.

  "No, a boy's name."

  "But it's English, no?"

  "No, Jewish."

  Sélier wiped his forehead.

  "Jesus Christ, is this a desecration like the one at Carpentras? Some extreme right-wing nutters?"

  Karim stood up and wiped his gloved hands together.

  "No, I don't think so. Do me a favor and go and wait for me at the gate with the rest."

  Grumbling, Sélier went off with his cap pointing skywards. Karim watched him as he walked away, then looked back at the slightly opened door.

  He decided to do a little caving. He went in, crouching under the roof, and lit his torch. Down the steps he crept, the gravel creaking under his boots. He felt as though he was breaking an ancestral taboo. He reflected on how he had no religious beliefs and, just then, congratulated himself on that fact. The beam of light was already piercing the gloom. Karim went on, then stopped in his tracks. The little wooden coffin, positioned on two trestles, stood out clearly in the beam from his torch.

  His throat like sandpaper, Karim went over and examined the coffin. It measured about six feet. Its corners were topped with mouldings and silver arabesques. Despite possible leakages, the whole thing looked in good condition. He felt its joints and said to himself that, without his gloves, he would never have dared touch that coffin. This sensation of fear irritated him. At first sight, the lid had apparently not been taken off.

  He gripped his torch between his teeth and set about a close examination of the screws. But a voice boomed out above him: "Whatcha think you're doing here?"

  Karim jumped. He opened his mouth, the torch fell out and rolled onto the coffin lid. As he turned round, the shadows fluttered over him. A man – with low shoulders and a woolly hat – was leaning down through the entrance. The Arab felt for his torch on the ground. He panted:

  "Police. I'm a police lieutenant."

  The man said nothing, then growled:

  "You've no right to be here."

  The policeman found his torch and made his way back to the staircase. He stared up at this big sullen character, standing in a frame of light. He must be the cemetery keeper. Karim knew that he was trespassing. Even in such a context, he still needed a written authorisation, signed by the family, or else a special search warrant for tombs. He climbed the steps and said:

  "Watch out. I'm coming back up."

  The man stood to one side. Karim drank in the sunlight as though it were nectar. He presented his tricolor card and announced:

  "Karim Abdouf. From the Sarzac station. Was it you who discovered the profanation?"

  The man remained silent. With his colorless eyes, like bubbles in gray water, he observed the Arab.

  "You've no right to be here."

  Karim nodded absent-mindedly. The morning air was sweeping away his fears.

  All right, old pal. Don't make a scene. Policemen are always right."

  The old man licked his lips, which were surrounded by stubble. He stank of booze and damp mud. Karim tried again:

  "OK, tell me everything you know. What time did you make your discovery?"

  The old man sighed:

  "I came here at six this morning. There's to be a burial."

  "When was the last time you were here?"

  "Friday."

  "So the vault could have been opened any time during the weekend?"

  "Yup. 'Cept, I reckon it was last night"

  "Why?”

  "Cos it rained Sunday afternoon and there's no trace of dampness inside the vault. So the door must still have been closed." Karim asked:

  "Do you live near here?"

  "Nobody lives near here."

  The Arab glanced round the little cemetery, a paradise of peace and quiet.

  "Do you ever get kids hanging out round here?" he pressed on. "No."

  "Never any suspicious visitors? Vandalism? Occult ceremonies?"

  "No."

  "Tell me about this grave."

  The keeper spat on the gravel.

  "There's nothing to tell."

  "It's a bit odd having a vault just for one child, isn't it?"

  "Yup, pretty odd."

  "Do you know the parents?"

  "No. Never seen them."

  "You weren't here in 1982?"

  "No. And the guy before me's dead." He sniggered. "Even we have to go sooner or later."

  "The vault looks well looked after."

  "I didn't say no one ever came here. I said I hadn't seen them. I'm experienced. I know how fast stones get worn away. I know how long flowers survive, even plastic ones. I know how the weeds and brambles and all that mess starts growing. So I can tell you that this vault is looked after regularly. Only I've never seen a soul."

  Karim had another think. He knelt down and looked at the little frame, shaped like a cameo. Without lifting his eyes, he said to the keeper:

  "I've got the impression that the grave robbers stole the photo of the kid."

  "Eh? Yeah, maybe they did."

  "Do you remember what the kid looked like?"

  "No."

  Karim stoo
d up, took his gloves off and concluded:

  "A team of specialists will be along later today to take fingerprints, and pick up any clues. So, cancel this morning's funeral. Tell them there's work going on, flooding, whatever you like. I don't want anybody in here today, got it? And definitely no journalists."

  The old man nodded his head, but Karim was already on his way to the gate. In the distance, a piercing bell was chiming nine o'clock.

  CHAPTER 9

  Before going back to the station and writing up his report, Karim decided to drop back in at the school. The sun was now dousing the crests of the houses with its yellow rays. Once again, he said to himself that it looked as if it was going to be a lovely day, and the banality of the thought made him retch.

  Upon reaching the school, he asked the headmistress:

  "Did a little boy called Jude Ithero come to school here during the 1980s?"

  Playing with the ample sleeves of her cardigan, the woman simpered:

  "Do you already have a lead, inspector?"

  "Just answer my question, please."

  "Well…We'll have to go and look through the archives."

  "Come on then, let's go."

  The headmistress led Karim once again to the little office full of plants.

  "During the 1980s, you say?" she asked, while running her index finger along the line of registers behind the glass doors.

  "1982, 1981, and so on," Karim replied.

  He suddenly noticed that she was hesitating.

  "What's wrong?"

  "How odd. I didn't notice that this morning…"

  "What?"

  "The registers…The ones for 1981 and 1982…They're missing."

  Karim pushed her aside and examined the spines of the brown volumes, piled up vertically. Each one bore a date. 1979, 1980…the next two were indeed missing.

  "What do these books contain exactly?" Karim asked, while flicking through the pages of one of them.

  "The pupils in each class. Teachers' comments. They're the school's logbooks…"

  "If a child was eight in 1980, what class would he have been in?"

  "fours élémentaire 2. Or even Moyen 1."

  Karim read through the corresponding lists. No Jude Ithero. He asked: "Does the school keep any other documents concerning the years 1981 and 1982?"

  The headmistress thought for a second.

  "Well…We'd have to look upstairs…The school canteen records, for example. Or the medical reports. They're all kept up in the attic. Follow me. Nobody ever goes up there."

  They leapt up the linoleum-covered steps four at a time. The woman seemed highly excited by all this business. They went down a narrow corridor and reached an iron door. The headmistress stopped in front of it in amazement.

  "I…I just don't believe it," she said. "This door's been forced open, too…

  Karim examined the lock. Broken, but with the same extreme caution. The policeman went inside. It was a large gabled room without any windows, except for a barred-off skylight. Bundles of documents and files were stacked up on metal cases. Karim was struck by the smell of dry, dusty paper.

  "Where are the files for 1981 and 1982?" he asked.

  Without a word, the headmistress strode off toward some shelving and started rummaging through the heavy bundles and bulging files. Her search took only a few minutes, but her conclusion was categorical:

  "They're missing, too."

  Karim's skin tingled. The school. The cemetery. The years 1981 and 1982. The name of a little boy: Jude Ithero. All parts of the same puzzle. He asked:

  "Were you already here in 1981?"

  She giggled flirtatiously:

  "Well really, inspector. I was still a student then…"

  "Did anything strange happen in the school at that time? Anything serious you might have heard about?"

  "No. What sort of thing do you mean?"

  "The death of a pupil."

  "No. I've never heard of anything like that. But I could find out."

  "Where?"

  "From the local education authority. I'll…"

  "Could you find out if a little boy called Jude Ithero was at this school during those particular two years?"

  The headmistress was now breathing heavily.

  "Yes…No problem, inspector. I'll…"

  "And quick about it. I'll be back later."

  Karim ran down the stairs, then stopped halfway and turned round:

  "Just one other thing, for your information. Nowadays, in France, you don't say ‘inspector’ any more, you say ‘lieutenant’. Just like in America."

  The headmistress gaped after the rapidly receding figure.

  Of all the cops in the station, Police Chief Crozier was the one Karim detested the least. Not because he was his boss, but because he had plenty of genuine experience and often showed signs of having a true cop's flair.

  Henri Crozier came from the Lot, was an ex-soldier and had been on the force for the last twenty-odd years. With his potato nose and his greased-down hair, looking as if it had been combed with a rake, he oozed rigor and severity, but in the right mood he could also be disconcertingly jovial. Crozier was a lone wolf. He had neither a wife, nor any children, and imagining him at the center of a cosy family life was like picturing a slice of the craziest science fiction. This solitude attracted Karim, but it was their only point in common. Apart from that, the Chief was every inch a narrow-minded, chauvinistic policeman. The sort of bloodhound who would like to be reincarnated as a pit-bull.

  Karim knocked and entered his office. An iron filing cabinet. The smell of scented tobacco. Posters to the glory of the French police force containing stiff, badly photographed figures. The Arab felt vaguely sick once more.

  "What the hell's going on then?" Crozier asked from behind his desk.

  "A break-in and a profanation. Two professional, discreet and very strange crimes."

  Crozier grimaced.

  "What was stolen?"

  "From the school, a few files from the archives. From the cemetery, I don't know. We'll have to conduct a detailed search of the vault where…

  "You reckon that the two crimes are connected?"

  "It's an obvious conclusion. Two break-ins, the same weekend, in Sarzac. We're going to end up in the record books."

  "But have you discovered what the connection is?"

  Crozier cleaned out the tip of his blackened pipe. Karim grinned to himself: a caricature of the police commissioner in 1950s cop shows.

  "I might have a connection, yes," he mumbled. "The link's tenuous, but…"

  "I'm listening"

  "The vault that was desecrated contains a little kid with a weird name: Jude Ithero. He died when he was ten, in 1982. Perhaps you remember something about that?"

  "No. Go on."

  "Well, the records the burglars lifted were for the years 1981 and 1982. So, I couldn't help wondering if young Jude didn't go to this particular school during those very years and…"

  "Do you have any supporting evidence for this supposition?"

  "No."

  "Have you checked the other schools?"

  "Not yet"

  Crozier blew into his pipe, like Popeye. Karim went over to him and adopted his sweetest tone:

  "Let me lead this investigation, superintendent. I just know there's something strange about all this. A link between the various elements. It sounds incredible, but I'm sure that this was a professional job. They were looking for something. Let's start by finding the kid's parents, then I'll give the vault a thorough search. I…you agree?"

  The superintendent kept his eyes down and set about filling the dark bowl of his pipe. He murmured:

  "It was a gang of skins."

  "What?"

  Crozier looked up at Karim.

  "I said, the cemetery job was done by a gang of skinheads."

  "What skinheads?"

  The superintendent burst out laughing and crossed his arms.

  "See? You still have plenty to lear
n about our little region. There are a good thirty of them. They live in a disused warehouse near Caylus. An old mineral water depot. About twelve miles from here."

  As he stared at Crozier, Abdouf thought it over. The sun was shining on the superintendent's oily hair.

  "I think you're wrong about that."

  "Sélier told me it was a Jewish grave."

  "No, it wasn't! I just told him that Jude was originally a Jewish name. That doesn't mean a thing. The vault has no Judaic symbols on it, and Jews prefer to be buried alongside the rest of their family. Superintendent, this child died at the age of ten. In cases like that, Jewish graves always have a design, or pattern, to illustrate this broken destiny. Such as an unfinished pillar, or a felled tree. This tomb is a Christian one."

  "Quite a specialist. How come you know all that?"

  "I read about it."

  But Crozier simply repeated:

  "It was a gang of skins."

  "But that's ridiculous. This wasn't an act of racism. It wasn't even a piece of vandalism. The grave robbers were looking for something…"

  "Karim," Crozier cut him off, in a friendly but slightly tense tone of voice. "I always appreciate your judgment and advice. But I'm still the boss here. Trust an old timer. The skins are the ones to question. I reckon if you paid them a little call, then we might learn a thing or two."

  Karim stood up and swallowed hard.

  "Alone?"

  "You're not telling me you're scared of a few kids with short hair, are you?"

  Karim did not reply. Crozier liked this sort of test. To his way of thinking, it was playing the bastard, but also a sign of respect. The lieutenant grabbed the edges of the desk. If Crozier wanted to play, then he was willing to play along.

  "Let's make a deal, superintendent."

  "What kind of deal?"

  "I'll grill the skinheads, all on my own. Shake them up a bit and give you a written report by one p.m. In return, you'll get me a warrant to search that vault. All above-board. I also want to question the kid's parents. Today."

  "And what if it was the skins?"

  "It wasn't the skins."

  Crozier lit up. His tobacco crackled like straw.

  "It's a deal," Crozier wheezed.

  "After checking Caylus, I lead the investigation?"

  "Only if I have your report by one o'clock. In any case, we'll soon have the regional crime squad on our backs."