Blood-Red Rivers aka The Crimson Rivers

CHAPTER 17

At one o'clock in the afternoon, Karim Abdouf entered Henri Crozier's office and placed his report in front of him. The Chief, who was concentrating on a letter he was writing, did not even glance at the papers and just asked:

"Well?"

"The skins didn't do it. But they saw two figures coming out of the vault. That very night"

"Could they describe them?"

"No. It was too dark."

Crozier deigned to raise his eyes.

"Maybe they're lying."

"Oh no they're not. They did not desecrate that tomb."

Karim paused. The silence between the two men lengthened. Then he went on:

"You had a witness, superintendent." He aimed his index finger at the seated figure. "You had a witness and you didn't tell me. Somebody told you that the skinheads had been seen hanging round the cemetery that night, and you concluded that they had done it. But the truth of the matter is more complex. And if you'd let me question your witness, then I…"

Crozier slowly lifted his hand in a sign of peace.

"Calm down, kid. People round here talk to the old brigade. To locals like them. You wouldn't have got a tenth of what I was told without even having to ask. Is that all you learnt from the shaven heads?"

Karim examined the posters to the glory of the "guardians of the peace." On one of the metal cabinets shone the cups which Crozier had won in various shooting competitions. He announced:

"The skins also saw a white car drive off from the area at about two o'clock in the morning. It took the D143."

"What sort of car?"

"A Lada. Or some other East European make. We'll have to put somebody onto that. There can't be that many motors of that sort round here and…"

"Why not you?"

"You know what I want, superintendent. I questioned the skins. Now I want to make a thorough search of the vault."

"The cemetery keeper told me that you'd already been inside." Karim let the remark pass.

"How are investigations in the cemetery going?"

"Zero. No fingerprints. Not the slightest piece of evidence. We're going to continue searching in a larger radius. If it was vandals, then they were extremely cautious ones."

"They weren't vandals. They were professionals. Or, in any case, people who knew what they were looking for. That vault conceals a secret which they wanted to unravel. Have you told the family? What did the parents say? Do they agree to us…"

Karim came to a halt. Crozier was looking decidedly uneasy. The lieutenant leant both of his hands on the desk and waited for the superintendent's answers. The man mumbled:

"We haven't found the family. There's nobody by that name in the town. Nor in the rest of the département."

"The funeral was in 1982, there must be some record of it somewhere"

"So far, we've drawn a blank."

"What about the death certificate?"

"There's no death certificate. Not in Sarzac."

Karim's face brightened up. He stood up and paced round the room.

"There's something wrong about that grave and about that kid.

I'm sure of it. And this something is linked to the burglary at the primary school."

"You're letting your imagination run away with you, Karim. There are umpteen possible explanations for this mystery. Perhaps little Jude died in a car accident. Maybe he was hospitalised in a nearby town, then buried here, because that was the simplest solution. Perhaps his mother still lives here, but has a different surname. Maybe…"

"I spoke to the cemetery keeper. The vault has been well looked after, but he's never seen anybody visit it."

Crozier did not respond. He opened a metal drawer and pulled out a bottle of bronze-colored spirits. He rapidly poured himself a shot.

"If we can't find the family," Karim went on, "Then maybe we can get permission to enter the vault?"

"No."

"So let me look for his parents."

"What about the white car? And the search for clues around the cemetery?"

"Reinforcements are on their way. The regional boys can take care of that. Give me a few hours, superintendent. To manage this part of the investigation. On my own."

Crozier raised his glass in front of Karim.

"You don't fancy a drop, I suppose?"

Karim shook his head. Crozier downed his glass in one and clicked his tongue.

"You've got until six this evening. Written report included." The Arab was gone with a rustling of leather.

CHAPTER 18

Karim phoned back the headmistress of Jean-Jaurès School to see if she had obtained any information about Jude Ithero from the education board. She had made a request, but received nothing.

Not a single file. Not a single mention. Not a trace in any of the area's archives.

"Perhaps you're barking up the wrong tree," she volunteered. "The child you're looking for maybe didn't live in this region."

Karim hung up and looked at his watch. Half past one. He allotted himself two hours to check the archives of the other schools and look through the composition of the classes which matched the boy's age.

In less than an hour, he had completed his tour of the local educational establishments and had found no trace of Jude Ithero. He went back once more to Jean-Jaurès. An idea had occurred to him while rummaging through the other archives. The saucer-eyed woman welcomed him eagerly.

"I've done some more work for you, lieutenant."

"Oh yes?"

"I looked out the names and addresses of the teachers who were working here at that time."

"And?"

"And bad luck. The previous headmistress is now retired."

"Jude was nine in 1981 and ten in 1982. Could we find who his teachers were?"

The woman looked through her notes.

"Indeed. In fact chance would have it that the 1981 CM1 and the 1982 CM2 classes both had the same teacher. It is quite common for a teacher to 'jump' up a class, from one year to the next…"

"Where is she now?"

"I don't know. She left this school at the end of the 1981-1982 academic year."

Karim groaned. The headmistress pulled a serious face.

"I've been thinking about that, too. There is one thing we haven't looked at yet."

"What's that?"

"The school photographs. We keep one copy of each class portrait, you know."

The lieutenant bit his lip. Why had he not thought of that?

The headmistress went on:

"I went through our photographic records. And the portraits of CM1 and CM2 that interest us have also vanished. It's quite incredible."

This revelation filtered slowly into the policeman's mind, like a ray of light. He thought of the oval frame, stuck up on the plaque of the vault. He realised that someone had "obliterated" the little boy, taking away his name, his face. The woman interrupted his train of 'thought:

"Why are you smiling?"

Karim answered:

"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 unpleasant, 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?”

"You must have looked at those photos…Was there a kid with some special distinguishing feature? Something she wanted to hide?"

"No. I didn't notice anything…I don't know…I just don't know…"

"What about the woman? What was she like? Was she big and strong? Was she his mother?"

The old man suddenly froze, then burst out laughing. A long deep laugh, from the pit of his stomach. He smirked:

"No chance of that."

Karim grabbed the man with both hands, shoving him back against the filing cabinet.

"WHY NOT?"

Cau's eyes rolled beneath their withered lids. "She was a nun. A goddam Catholic nun!"

CHAPTER 21

Sarzac had three churches. One was being renovated, the second was run by an old priest with one foot in the grave, while the third had a young minister, about whom the strangest rumors were circulating. People said that he drank in secret with his mother in the presbytery.

The lieutenant, who had a general dislike for the entire population of Sarzac, and in particular for their taste for gossip, did have to admit that this time they were right. He himself had been called in once to separate the mother and the son, who were in the throes of an incredibly violent drunken brawl.

But it was this priest that Karim chose to question.

He braked in front of the presbytery. A charmless bungalow made of cement, abutting a modern church with asymmetric stained-glass windows. The small sign on the door said: "My Parish". Brambles and nettles sprawled over the steps. He rang the doorbell. Several minutes went by. Karim heard muffled cries. He swore to himself. This was all he needed.

Finally, the door opened.

Karim felt as though he was contemplating a shipwreck. It was midafternoon, but the priest already stank of booze. His thin features were covered by a shaggy beard and wiry hair, as though sprinkled with ashes. His eyes were nicotine colored. His jacket collar was threadbare, his shirt front gleaming with assorted stains. As a priest, he was finished, used up, burnt out. His religious destiny had lasted no longer than a leaf of smouldering incense, with its stubborn heady odor.

"What can I do for you, my son?"

His voice was cracked, but steady.

"Police Lieutenant Karim Abdouf. We've met before?”

The man readjusted his gray collar.

"Ah yes, I seem to…" He glanced round with a hunted expression. "Was it the neighbors who called you out?"

Karim smiled.

"No. I need your help. For a police investigation."

"Oh. Really? Then, come on in?”

The policeman entered the house. His soles stuck to the floor as he went. He looked down and saw that the linoleum was marked with long, shining traces.

"It's my mother.” the priest whispered. "She doesn't do anything any more, except mess the place up with her jam." He scratched his uncombed hair. "It's strange, but it's all she will eat?”

The decor was chaotic. Scraps of plastic, stuck up anyhow, imitated wood, ceramics and cloth. Through a half-open door, the policeman noticed rectangles of yellow polystyrene, sliced up with a carpet cutter, and ill-matching cushions, which gave an idea of the character of the living-room. A heap of gardening tools lay on the floor. In front of him, another room contained a formica table, covered with dirty plates, and an unmade bed.

The priest staggered toward the living-room. He tripped, then steadied himself. Karim said:

"Why don't you have a drink? We'll save time that way?” The man turned round, with a hostile stare.

"Look who's talking, my son. You're shaking from your head to your toes?”

Karim gulped. He was still in a state of shock. He had not stopped to think, or collect his wits, since slapping the photographer around a bit. All he could hear was a buzzing in his head, and he felt a hammering in his chest. Absent-mindedly, he wiped his face with his sleeve, like a snotty kid.

The priest poured out a glass of spirits.

"Care for a drop?" he asked, with an unpleasant grin. "Never touch the stuff."

The man in black downed his shot. Blood surged across his haggard face. His fevered eyes shone like sulphur. He sniggered: "Islam, is it?"

"No. I like to keep my wits about me for my job. That's all." The priest raised his glass.

"Here's to your job, then."

Karim then spotted the mother, who was coming and going in the corridor. She was hunched over, almost doubled up, and carrying a pot of jam. He thought of the open vault, the skinheads, the nun who had bought the school photographs, and now these two ghouls from a ghost-train. He had opened a Pandora's box, which seemed to be producing an endless stream of nightmares.

The priest intercepted his gaze.

"Leave her, my son. She's all right." He sat down on one of the foam mattresses. "Now, what can I do for you?"

Karim slowly raised a hand.

"Just one thing first. Please, stop calling me ‘my son’."

"Sorry.” the man answered with a smirk. "It's force of habit."

With an ironic gesture, the priest took another sip. He had recovered his world-weary expression.

"What sort of investigation are you working on?"

Karim was pleased. The priest obviously had not yet heard about the profanation of the cemetery. So Crozier had managed to hush the whole thing up.

"I'm sorry, but it's highly confidential. All I can tell you is that I'm looking for a convent. Near Sarzac, or Cahors. Or even elsewhere in the region. I'm hoping you will help me find it."

"Which order would that be?"

"I don't know?”

The man poured himself another shot. His little glass glinted merrily.

"There are several of them around here." He smirked again.

"This region must lend itself to seclusion…"

"How many?"

"At least ten, just in this départements."

Karim made a rapid mental calculation. Going round all these convents, which were no doubt scattered across the region, would take at least an entire day. But it was now already gone four o'clock. He had only two hours left. He was stuck.

The priest stood up and started rummaging through a cupboard. "Ah, here it is."

He flicked over the pages of a sort of directory, printed on Bible paper. The mother walked into the room and tiptoed over to the bottle. Without looking at Karim, she poured herself a glass. She had eyes only for her son. Eagle-eyes, like triggers, brimming with hatred. As he read through the directory, the priest barked:

"Leave us, mother"

The woman did not respond. She clutched her glass in both hands. Her bony fingers jutted out. Suddenly she noticed Karim. Her dry, bitter voice piped up:

"Who are you?"

"Leave us." The priest turned toward Karim. "I've marked the pages with the ten convents in question, if you'd like to jot them down…But they're quite a long way away from one other."

Karim had a look. He vaguely recognised the names of the villages. He got out his notebook and wrote them down.

"Who are you?" the mother repeated.

"Go back to your bedroom, mother!" the priest shouted. He went over to Karim.

"What are you looking for exactly? I might be able to help you…"

Karim raised his pen and stared at this man of the cloth. "I'm looking for a nun. A nun who's interested in photos?”

"What sort of photos?"

Karim noticed a gleam fleetingly light up the priest's eyes. "Have you ever heard of anything along those lines?"

The man scratched his head.

"Urn…no."

Karim asked:

"How old are you?"

"Me? I'm…I'm twenty-five."

The mother poured herself another drink. She was listening intently. Karim went on:

"Were you born in Sarzac?"

"Yes, I was"

"And did you go to school here?"

The priest shrugged.

"Yes, until secondary school. I then went to…"

"Which school? Jean-Jaurès?"

"Yes, but…"

He suddenly saw the link.

"She's been here."

"What?"

"The nun. The nun I'm looking for…She came here and bought your class photographs. That's it! She's been round all the houses, collecting as many school photos as she could find. Were you in the same class as Jude Ithero? Does that name mean anything to you?"

The priest had gone white.

"I…I've no idea what you're talking about."

The mother's voice broke in:

"What is all this?"

Karim wiped his face with his hands, as though he were turning over a fresh page in his features.

"I'll start again. If you had a normal education, then you were in CM2 in 1982, weren't you?"

"But that's almost fifteen years ago!"

"And in CM1 in 1981."

Shoulders bent, the priest stiffened. His fingers grasped the back of a chair. Despite his age, his hands now looked like those of his mother. Old and knotted with blue veins.

"Yes…that must be about right…"

"So, you were in the same class as a little boy called Ithero. Jude Ithero. An unusual name. Think it over. This is extremely important"

"No, really, I don't think…"

Karim took a step forward.

"But you can remember a nun who was looking for school photographs, can't you?"

The mother was lapping it all up.

"Is this Arab telling the truth, you little shit?" she asked.

Then she swung round and hopped off toward the door. Karim grabbed the chance. He seized the priest by his shoulders and whispered into his ear:

"Out with it, for Christ's sake!"

The priest slumped down onto a corner of the foam mattress. "That evening still remains a mystery to me…"

Karim knelt down. The priest was articulating slowly: "She came here…one summer evening."

"In July 1982?"

He nodded.

"She knocked at the door…It was so hot…stifling…As if the last hours of daylight were baking the stones…I don't know why, but I was on my own…I opened the door…Heaven help me…Just imagine it! I was about ten years old, and that nun appeared in the half-light, in her black-and-white veil…"

"What did she say?"

"She began by speaking about school, the marks I had got, my favorite subjects. She had an extremely soothing voice…Then she asked to see my school friends…" The priest wiped his face, which was dripping with sweat. "I…I went and fetched my school photograph…The one with all of us on it…I felt very proud about showing her my pals, you see? And that's when I realised that she was after something. She took a long look at the picture, then asked me if she could keep it…As a souvenir, she said…"

"Did she ask you for any other photos?"

The priest nodded. His voice thickened.

"She also wanted the portrait of CM1, of the previous year."

Karim was now certain that, if he asked round the parents of the children in those classes, not a single one would still be in possession of those group photographs. But why had that nun made off with all these photos? Karim felt as though a stone jungle was closing around him, cutting off the view.

The mother reappeared in the doorway. She was clutching a shoebox against her chest.

"You little shit. You gave our photographs away. Your school portraits. And you used to be such a good little kid…"

"Shut up, mother!" The priest fixed his eyes on Karim's. "I'd already had the call, you see? That huge woman practically hypnotised me…"

"Huge? She was big, was she?"

"No…Oh, I don't know…I was ten…But I can still see her, with her black hood. She had such a sweet voice…She wanted the photos, and I gave them to her, without a moment's hesitation. She blessed me, then disappeared. It felt like a sign, a…"

"You shit!"

Karim glanced round at the mother. She was furious. He looked back at the priest and realised that he was now locked away in his memories. He adopted his sweetest tone:

"Did she tell you why she wanted those pictures?"

"No."

"Did she mention Jude?"

"No."

"Did she give you any money?"

The priest grimaced.

"No, of course not! She asked me for the photos, and I gave them to her, that's all! Good Lord! I…I thought that visit was a sign, you follow me? Of divine recognition!"

He was sobbing.

"I didn't yet know that I was a failure. A useless alcoholic. A pickled idiot. The son of this…How can one give what one hasn't got?" Clutching onto Karim's leather jacket, he was now imploring him. "How can one shed light, when one is drowning in darkness? How? How?"

The mother dropped the box. Photos spilled across the floor. She threw herself at him violently, raining blows on his back and shoulders.

Terrified, Karim retreated. The entire room was shaking. He realised that he would have to leave. Or else go crazy himself. But he did not have all the answers he needed. He pushed the woman away and leant back over the priest.

"In two seconds, I'll be out of here. And it'll all be over. You've seen that nun since, haven't you?"

Racked with sobs, he nodded.

"What's her name?"

The priest sniffed. The mother was pacing up and down, muttering incomprehensible curses.

"What's her name?"

"Sister Andrée."

"Her convent?"

"Saint-Jean-de-la-Croix. They're Carmelites."

"Where is it?"

The man held his head in his hands. Karim pulled him up by his shoulder.

"Where is it?"

"Between…between Sète and Cap d'Agde, just by the sea. I go and see her sometimes, when I doubt my faith. She's my succour, you see that? A help…I…"

The door was already flapping in the wind. The cop was running toward his car.