Folly Du Jour

Chapter Thirteen

She swept out ahead of him and stood by the car door until he opened it. When they were settled inside she gave him his instructions. ‘Tell the driver I’ll drop you off before he goes on to Fouquet’s. Where would you like to be set down, Commander?’

Without waiting for his answer, she took a velvet bag from the deep pocket of her cape and fished about until she found a small flacon of perfume. ‘Do you mind if I apply something a little fresh? I’m quite sure I must smell of — what was that fluid? Ugh! Formaldehyde, would it be? That stink?’

‘Death and bleach, Lady Somerton,’ said Joe tersely.

He addressed the driver, who was sitting patiently waiting for instructions. ‘Driver — would you take me across the river on to the Left Bank, please? I’m bound for the place de la Contrescarpe. Do you know it? And then, the lady requires to be set down in the Champs-Élysées. She will direct you.’

The big car moved off and Joe reeled at an overenthusiastic application of perfume. Rose and sandalwood? Chanel’s Number 5 was easily recognized. And what had Mademoiselle Chanel saucily said about her creation? ‘Perfume should be applied in the places where a woman expects to be kissed.’ Joe watched in fascination as Catherine Somerton dabbed the contents of her tiny flacon behind her ears, at the base of her throat — and, when she thought he’d turned to look out of the window, he saw, in the reflection in the glass, her forefinger steal down into the hollow between her breasts to lay a seductive trail.

For whose nose? For whose lips? Joe smiled to himself. He hoped Fouquet’s had got the champagne on ice.

The car rolled to a halt, held up by the press of early evening traffic fighting its way across the Pont Neuf on to the island. On an impulse, Joe spoke to the driver again. ‘Look — I’ll get out here. With the traffic as it is, Lady Somerton will find herself late for her assignation in the Champs-Élysées if she makes a detour to drop me off. I’m happy to take a taxi.’

She made no demur, not even noticing his slight reproof, even thanking him for his consideration. Mind elsewhere. Impatient to be off. In the advancing headlights her eyes flashed, her pearls gleamed, and although nothing about her appearance had substantially changed, Joe suddenly saw, where had been the downcast widow in her weeds, a sophisticated woman, elegantly dressed and eagerly looking forward to an adventure.

‘Give my regards to the Duke,’ he called to her before he slammed the door shut. ‘I trust his olfactory powers will be in fine fettle this evening.’ He enjoyed her puzzled expression.

Joe watched the car crawl away again and turned on his heel, trotting back across the bridge to the morgue. Hoping he wasn’t too late.

The lights were still switched on. Moulin was there, putting away instruments and equipment, when Joe burst in. He seemed pleased to see him.

His cheerful voice echoed the length of the room, dispelling the shadows. ‘Oh, hello there! You managed to escape? I’m glad of that! Wouldn’t want to find you on one of my slabs with a mysterious mark on your throat. It can be pretty poisonous, the bite of Latrodectus mactans, I’ve heard. The black widow spider. Its venom is thought to be sixteen times more virulent than the rattlesnake’s.’

‘I leapt out of the car! If I weren’t so exhausted, I’d have been tempted to go along to Fouquet’s, bribe someone to give me a table in a corner, and lurk to see who she’s got caught up in her web.’

Moulin eyed Joe with concern. ‘You do look all in, Commander. Come and have a mug of coffee in my lair. I’ve just put a pot on. Take the weight off your feet. Get your breath back and ask me the question you’ve passed up an evening at Fouquet’s to come back and ask.’

They sat clutching mugs of strong coffee in the small and calculatedly bright study across the corridor from the morgue building. Not so much a study as a retreat, an affirmation of his humanity, Joe thought, looking around with pleasure. And wouldn’t you need one! He’d sunk gratefully into the depths of one of a pair of old-fashioned armchairs piled with cushions and topped off with lace antimacassars. Thoughtfully, Moulin kicked up a footstool for him. The room had probably, in its first use, been some sort of torture chamber, Joe calculated, but no signs of a lugubrious past lingered after the determined application of rich lengths of drapery to the walls, Tiffany shades to the lamps, rows of books, and a gently puttering gas fire warming the room. On a desk and smiling out into the room, the silver-framed photograph of a very pretty dark-haired woman. The ticking of a deep-throated clock soothed Joe to a point where he had to shake himself awake and take a sip or two of his coffee.

Under the influence of the strong brew, the good company and fatigue, Joe recounted his day to a pair of willing ears. But the warm smile, the understanding comments and the ready humour dried up at the mention of Francine Raissac’s flight of fancy. Joe caught the sudden stillness.

‘Yes, that’s what I’ve come to ask. I try not to leave any accusation unchecked however ridiculous it sounds on first hearing. The girl’s theories began to sound less crazy when I heard — from another source — that her brother is a customer of yours. Filed away in a steel drawer, I should think? Fished out of the Canal St Martin.’

‘Alfred? Drawer number 32,’ said Moulin. ‘She hasn’t been in to identify him yet. Poor girl! It’s all deeply unpleasant, I’m afraid. I’ve taken the waxed cobbler’s twine out of the lips so it doesn’t look quite so frightful but I can’t obliterate the wound altogether. The lad was very young. But physically in rather bad shape. Emaciated. Taking drugs, I shouldn’t wonder. And are you saying you see a connection between this poor specimen of humanity and an organization run by some sort of super criminal? A Fantômas reborn?’ Dr Moulin laughed and pointed to a shelf of lurid novels over the desk. ‘I have the whole collection, you see! You’re very welcome to help yourself if you like.’

Joe shivered. ‘I gave up after the second book. Too utterly terrifying for a law enforcer like myself. Fantômas, if I remember rightly, never died,’ he explained. ‘He’s immortal — a god of Evil. Nightmare! But yes, I wouldn’t mind taking a look at the third one in your line-up. Le mort qui tue, I think it’s called.’

Moulin gave him a startled look and counted along the shelf, extracting the book he’d mentioned. ‘Here you are. I shall leave the gap there! I’m going to insist on having it back, then I can be sure you’ll come again and entertain me with a further episode in your horror story. Will you have a little brandy in your coffee? It can strike chill in here in spite of my efforts to dispel the gloom.’ He reached behind a row of leather-backed novels and found a bottle of cognac.

‘I think you can guess what I’m going to ask,’ said Joe seriously. ‘Inspectors each have their own case loads. Three corpses is what Bonnefoye’s got on his books at the moment. They may not have the time to exchange theories with each other, or see anything but their own narrow picture of crime in the city. . You would see it. You examine all — very well, most — of the bodies. They pass through your morgue and under your scalpel for an hour or two — a day possibly — and you move on. But you see the wider landscape of murder. .’

‘I know where you’re going with this. And I know you don’t want to wait while I dig out screeds of notes, sheets of records — all of which are available, by the way — so I’ll ask — will memory be a good enough guide? It will? Let me think then. .’ He got up and wandered to his stove, pouring out more of the liquid inspiration.

‘Over the last four or five years? Is that enough? That’s as far back as my current appointment goes.’

Joe nodded, thankful that his notion hadn’t been dismissed out of hand with a pitying shake of the head.

And then he waited, unwilling to press Moulin, understanding that this was the doctor’s first and alarming overview of the crime pattern.

‘Like your Jack the Ripper — a killer in series — but yet quite unlike him. The victims in his case were all of the same profession, sex and situation. They — and the killer most probably — were living within a few doors of each other. The Paris corpses I have in mind are male and from varied backgrounds, they’re of different nationalities, killed over a period of years and in vastly different scenarios. No one would dream of linking them together as a group because apart from their being male — which the victims of violent death predominantly are — they have only one thing in common — a totally fanciful notion. In Francine Raissac’s head, in yours and now — in mine! Curse you! No, it won’t do, Sandilands.’ He shook his head in an attempt to dismiss ideas too shocking to entertain.

‘And there’s the question of motive,’ he persisted into Joe’s silence. ‘Motive could be guessed at in most of the cases. Or should I say motives? They were varied but run-of-the-mill.’

‘Financial gain, provocation, revenge, hatred. .’ Joe started to list them.

‘Yes, yes. . a bit of everything. And I’m not sure it tells us much in these cases.’

‘Would you like to bring some of them into the daylight again — just as a matter of speculation, of course,’ Joe encouraged.

‘No, I try rather to forget them.’ Moulin stirred uneasily and turned up the fire a notch. ‘Working here, you’d think I’d become — if I wasn’t already — some sort of automaton. I haven’t. I don’t think I could do the job adequately if I had. I feel something for each “customer”, as you call them. And bury a little bit of myself with each one.’ He smiled to see Joe’s eyes flare with concern. ‘Don’t worry! I shall know when to stop.’

Moulin pointed to the row of thrillers. ‘You’re not to think, on the cold winter evenings between post-mortems, I allow my imagination to be fired by these things! Lots of people you might admire enjoy them. Jean Cocteau, René Magritte, Guillaume Apollinaire, Salvador Dali. . Blaise Cendrars called them “the Aeneid of Modern Times”!’

‘And you can add to your list of playwrights, poets and artists: Sandilands of the Yard,’ said Joe comfortably, sensing that the learned doctor was slightly embarrassed to be caught out in his enthusiasm.

‘Very well — you’re prepared, then? To explore a really outlandish idea?’

Joe nodded.

‘Before we start, I must insist — no notes! This is just a chat between two weary men whose brains are ticking over faster perhaps than they should. Agreed?’

‘Agreed,’ said Joe.

‘In 1924, the body of a priest was found. I remember it was the night before All Saints’ Day. Your Hallowe’en, I believe?’

Joe nodded again, saying nothing. He sensed that it would not take much of an interruption to put him off a track he was plainly uncomfortable to be following. The man was a scientist, after all. Rational. Logical. Not given to fervid speculation. Intolerant of ridicule.

‘I wondered later if that was significant. The man was dangling by a noose to the neck on a bell-rope. The rope was the one that hung from the bell tower of the curé’s own church. The tolling started in the early hours of the morning, as the body swayed — in the breeze? It was a windy night. . Or from a push? We don’t know. The sound went unregarded for an hour or so as the good citizens of the well-to-do faubourg huddled deeper into their goose-feather eiderdowns. They might have decided he’d committed suicide — not unknown in the priesthood — had it not been for his other wounds. His robe had been slashed from neck to hem and was heavily bloodstained down the front. His male member had been cut off. Before death.’

‘Revenge for some kind of abuse committed by the priest?’

Moulin shrugged. ‘I would expect so. No one ever came forward with accusations, let alone evidence. Case closed. Unsolved. The Church, in any case, was glad enough to hush it up.

‘And then, later that same year, a rich industrialist whose name I’m certain would be familiar to you died in bed. Not his own bed, but that of a common prostitute in a picturesquely low quarter of the city. The lady was absent and never surfaced again. The corpse of our louche old money-bags was discovered naked, tied up with scarlet velvet ribbons to the bedpost — hands and feet. He’d died from an overdose of hashish. The gentlemen of the press had been alerted before the police and were instantly on the scene with their flash bulbs. Everyone was horrified. Except for the man’s five sons. They were now to inherit his fortune, clear of any fear of premature depletion by the extravagant young actress whose charms had led him, a month or so previously, to propose marriage.’

Joe gave a wry smile. ‘Next?’

‘Last year. Picture the Eiffel Tower. A favourite jumping-off point for the suicidally minded. The body of a young man falls from a crowded viewing platform to splatter itself all over the concourse below. It happens every month. No one sees anything. No one is aware of any suspicious circumstances. The man’s fiancée, the spoiled daughter of one of our prominent politicians, is aghast. “But why the Eiffel Tower?” she sobs. “The very place where he declared his love and asked me to marry him!” She is distraught. She is inconsolable. But her best friend reveals — spitefully perhaps? — that the boy in question had, in fact, changed his mind since the tryst on the Tower and decided to marry her. The first fiancée was, luckily, far away in Nice on holiday with her family at the time of the death and could not possibly be involved in any dirty work.’

‘This is a mixed bunch of motives, I’m hearing,’ said Joe.

‘And here’s one for the connoisseur! I’ve saved the best for last. But, for me, it was the first in the sequence, I suppose. Though it wasn’t for some weeks that I realized I’d had a pretty strange experience. In 1923. Newly appointed to the Institut and rather overawed by the big city, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect — except that everything would be faster, more exciting than I was used to in Normandy. I got a phone call from upstairs telling me to grab my bag, jump into a police car and get over to the Louvre. To the Egyptian rooms on the ground floor. Pandemonium when I got there! And something very odd going on. An American couple alone in one of the galleries had come across a pool of blood at the foot of one of the mummy cases. You know — those great big ornate coffin things. . weigh a ton. .’

‘I know them.’

‘When I got there — ten minutes after receiving the call — the body hadn’t even been discovered. It didn’t strike me as strange until later, mesmerized as I was by the quality of the communications in the city: phone, telegraph, police cars standing at the ready outside. . “So this is the modern pace!” I thought. “Must keep up!” And there was a lot of activity to distract me at the museum. A whole chorus of academics — curators, Egyptologists, students — had assembled to see what was going on. Newsmen weren’t far behind!

‘Luckily, a British official of some sort who happened to be leaving a meeting was collared by the distraught American who’d just avoided putting his foot in something very nasty and this Briton, using the several languages he spoke, backed up by — shall we say — a certain natural authority. .’ Moulin paused and grinned apologetically at Joe.

‘Arrogance, you can say if you wish,’ suggested Joe easily. ‘We learn it on school playing fields — or charging enemy machine-gun nests armed with a swagger-stick and shouting: “Follow me, lads!” But I can imagine what you’re going to say and — I’d have done the same, I’m afraid.’

‘Well, the Englishman took charge. Jack Pollock, his name was, and thank goodness he was there.’

Joe had reached automatically for his notebook but, remembering his promise, he relaxed.

‘He calmed everyone down and sent for all the right people. A policeman was on the spot to see fair play, I remember.’

‘And you found a body in the case? Dripping blood on to the floor? Not very well hidden?’

‘No. I think it was meant to be found. And the finding was timed. . orchestrated, you might say.’

‘Who was in the box?’

‘Two bodies. Below: the rightful occupant, a High Priest of some sort, and on top: an alien presence. A professor of Egyptology. Stabbed. Messily. The killer knew enough about knife work to ensure that the body drained itself of blood. Weapon? A type of butcher’s knife, I wrote in my report. Something capable of stabbing and ripping open. A pig farmer could advise perhaps? It was never found. But we did find, in the throat, and sucked right down into the breathing passages of the deceased, wads of linen bindings. Ancient linen. Taken from the body of some other mummy. He’d been forced to swallow the stuff.’

‘Deeply unpleasant!’ Joe could not contain his revulsion.

‘That wasn’t the worst. I say, you won’t arrest me if I make a confession, will you, Sandilands?’

‘Good Lord! Depends what you’re confessing. If you want to tell me you’re the Mastermind behind all this, I’ll have you in cuffs at once!’

Moulin smiled, got to his feet and went to take a small box from a shelf. ‘I’m going to show you something I stole. From an evidence file. It comes from the scene of the crime.’

He handed the box to Joe who raised his brows in alarm on catching sight of the contents.

‘You can handle it. It’s been sterilized.’

‘Why would you need to do that?’ asked Joe, cautiously.

‘I removed it from the bloodied bandage lodged in the throat of the corpse of Professor Joachim Lebreton. It was sticky with various body fluids and an oil that had been used to ease the descent of the fabric down the tubes.’

‘Charming!’ Joe took the golden object gingerly and held it to the light between finger and thumb. ‘An amulet?’

‘No. Not my job, of course, to establish the provenance of exhibits but no one else seemed interested enough to do it. In the police report it’s listed as “imitation gold medallion, value 5 francs”. It would have been chucked out after a year but I was curious enough to preserve it. Oh, it’s not valuable. It’s not even ancient. A modern copy — gilded. Crudely done. Anyone with a bit of tin, a chisel and a pot of gold paint could produce the equivalent. Any mouleur-plaquiste could churn them out by the hundred. But you’d need to know your Egyptology. This is a bona fide, head and shoulders portrait, you might say.’

‘It’s a disgusting image! Whoever is this fellow? Or is it an animal?’ Joe peered more closely. ‘It seems to be half god, half bad-tempered greyhound. I know just enough to recognize that it’s not the rather stylish jackal-headed god, Anubis.’

‘You’re right. But he is a god all the same. And at one time widely venerated in Egypt. It’s the son of Ra and brother of Osiris.’

Joe shook his head. ‘We’re not acquainted. Don’t particularly wish to be.’

‘You show good taste! His name’s Set. Set murdered his brother and scattered his body parts all over Egypt. He debauched his own nephew Horus. In his capacity as Lord of the Desert, he had the power to stir up terrible storms. For the Ancient Egyptians, Set was utterly terrifying — the embodiment of Evil. The God of Evil.’

Joe put the gilded trinket back into its box. ‘I’m bringing no charge, Moulin. Let’s just keep the lid on him, shall we?’

Moulin, smiling, agreed. ‘And why don’t you take him away with you? I think I was just hanging on to him until someone who knew what he was about took an interest. You know, Sandilands, I think the purpose of that thing was to drop a hint as to motive for the crime. Out of the victim’s mouth came evil? Something on those lines? Again — no suspect was ever arrested. But, bearing in mind the closed circumstances, you’d have to say — an inside job. The man had many enemies. Archaeologist himself, he’d been ruthless in his acquisition of artefacts and had plundered his students’ and his fellows’ learned works for his own glory. He’d wrecked promising careers by his vitriolic criticism, his sly innuendoes. At least fifty academics must have raised a glass on hearing about the circumstances of his death. Now, they couldn’t all have been present at the discovery of the body but, Sandilands, a good many were. It never occurred to anyone pursuing the case to ask why so many experts, all known to the deceased, were right there on the spot.’

The doctor fell silent. Then: ‘There was a moment. . When the amulet emerged, it dropped to the floor. Someone fainted at the sight of it and had to be taken out and I had the strangest sensation. . I was acting in a drama. Onstage. Pushed on into the middle of a scene and left to improvise my part. The crowd — who should never have been allowed to remain — weren’t a crowd. They were. . an audience. An invited audience.’

Moulin took a deep breath, relieved to have unburdened himself. ‘I say, Sandilands, does any of this make sense?’

‘Certainly does. My friend Sir George was himself pushed in, almost literally onstage, last night to perform the same function. And he was actually sent a ticket to the event! But, being an Englishman of a type you recognize, he bustled in rather too actively and got himself arrested for the murder. But, Moulin — four cases, in as many years? Is that all?’ Joe asked. And, tentatively: ‘If this were some sort of syndicate — shall we say? — taking commissions to carry out crimes spectacular to the general public or crimes deeply satisfying to the one who orders them up, well — we are rather assuming a business, I suppose. And businesses exist to make money. Not sure I’d take the enormous risks involved for the return. Are you? What must they charge? One killing per year? Overheads, knifemen, underlings to pay? Hush money! It wouldn’t work.’

Moulin’s expression was grim. ‘There are many more than four possibilities. I didn’t want to over-face you with detail but, if you can give me a week, I’m sure I can make out an expanded list for you. And there might be as many as twenty cases on it. Some less uncertain than others. And that’s just Paris. What do we know of other towns? But I agree with your unstated thought — it’s not just the financial returns, is it? There’s an underlying sense of. . enjoyment?’

‘A sadistic indulgence?’ Joe said. ‘And with an added element of self-forgiveness — a twisted feeling of justification for the crimes. Someone else has paid for this. Someone else supplied the ingenious requirements of the death — the means, the scenario. So — someone else is to blame. The brain which devised the murders, the executive producer if you like, holds himself no more to blame than the dagger that came bloodstained from the heart of the victim. The guilt can be as easily washed away as the blood. Am I being fanciful?’

‘I’ve no training in psychology!’ said Moulin. ‘So you must put your theory to others. But I have to say I’ve travelled that same path, Sandilands.’

‘And the latest victim, congealing in one of your drawers? I wonder who dialled up his death?’ Suddenly decisive, Joe said: ‘I’m going to find out who’s behind the mask, Moulin. Whose hand held the Afghani dagger and whose voice asked for it to be done. I’m going to have ’em both. I can’t go back four years in a foreign country, crusading for belated justice, but I can get to the bottom of this one that’s landed in my lap. And I’ll only get close to the truth by digging up the nastier bits of Somerton’s past. Not much chance the widow will confide but I know a man who I can persuade to cough up some details.’

Sensing that his guest was ready to leave and on the point of exhaustion, Moulin got to his feet. ‘Wait here, Sandilands, while I nip out and whistle up a taxi for you. Oh, and thinking of the rogue Somerton. .’ He tapped the cover of the book Joe was still clutching. ‘Le mort qui tue. Read the title again. That’s le mort, not la mort. Dead man — not Death itself. The corpse that kills. Be warned! Have a care for your friend. We don’t want an innocent man, blundering in on a sorry episode, to pay for his well-meaning interference on the guillotine. I suspect this man, Somerton, has caused enough havoc in his life, I don’t want to think that, from the depths of the morgue, he has the power to kill again.’