Murder in the Sentier

Tuesday Afternoon

RENÉ LOOKED UP as Aimée walked into the office.

“Christian Figeac cancelled your meeting,” he said.

Disappointed, she walked toward her desk. Christian had given her big checks yet reneged on their deal. Was he in more trouble?

René wore a headset while working at his terminal. He pointed to the phone on her desk. The red light blinked; she picked it up.

“Oui?” she said.

“Frésnes Prison visiting hours start at two P.M.,” Morbier said. “Prisoner number 3978. Today.”

Aimée looked at her watch. “But it’s …”

“Up to you,” Morbier interrupted. “The prisoner’s scheduled for transit and my contact’s retiring tomorrow.”

“Give me that number again,” she said, snatching a pen and writing the numbers on her palm.

“I’m taking Marc,” he said. “We’re leaving for Brittany en vacances.”

“Merci,” she said, but Morbier had already hung up.

Apprehensive, she looked past the paperwork on her desk at René. “The phone’s buzzing worries me, René.”

“Maybe it’s time to check for bugs, the wireless kind,” he said, his fingers pausing on the keyboard. “Exterminator is my middle name.”

She grabbed her jacket, tried it on, then threw it on the chair.

René’s eyes narrowed to green slits.

“Problems?”

“What do you wear to prison?”

“Depends how long you’re staying,” René said. “Short-term, the linen works. Long-term, a jumpsuit with stripes. Why?”

“I’m visiting Jutta Hald’s former cell mate,” she said, scanning the faxes. “I’ll knock this out later.”

René gestured toward her linen jacket. “You mean we’re postponing the sushi?”

“Désolée!” She slapped her cheek. Sometimes she forgot to eat. Or that other people did.

“Here’s Christian’s check for fifty thousand francs,” she said. “Should tide us over.”

René whistled.

That should mollify him and take care of some bills. “Don’t forget to deposit it.”

“I suppose you’ll be eternally grateful to me,” René said, pulling off his headset.

“And treat you to sushi every week.”

AIMÉE BOARDED the dark pink Metro line for Porte d’Orleans. She hadn’t had time to ask Morbier who this prisoner was and what she was in for.

She exited on the péripherique side and found bus number 187, the only public transport to Frésnes Prison.

Most of the bus passengers were African or of Arab descent, and female. An older French woman, haggard and bleary-eyed, pounded on the folding bus doors as they closed. With a shrug, the driver let her on. Women clutched babies and prisoners’ laundry bags, as they tried to get past the folding strollers.

The ride wound past turn-of-the-century bungalows interspersed with “affordable” housing. Drab and uniform. A close commute to Paris was the only redeeming feature Aimée could see.

On the way she wondered why her mother had grown enamored of the radicals’ cause and joined them? Had she been on the run for all the years since? She shuddered, wondering if her mother had bombed and murdered innocent people.

Frésnes finally appeared. The grimy hundred-year-old brick structure was forbidding, and encased in multiple walls. As she stepped off the bus, birds twittered in the hedgerows. The leaves of tomato plants and pastel tulips waved in the breeze by the warden’s house.

She walked past the guarded gates in tandem with women lugging toddlers and pushing strollers laden with shopping bags. She felt sorry for those with children who were making this long journey. And she could imagine doing it in the rain.

Miniature vegetable gardens lined the walks of the guards’ accommodations. Prison food was notorious for starch and carbohydrates; most inmates puffed out due to the diet and lack of exercise.

Frésnes was an all-purpose prison that handled mostly inmates serving sentences of under five years as well as those awaiting sentencing. She’d heard it said that seventy to eighty percent of the prisoners were nonwhite.

The visitors shuffled into the central salle d’attente, a large room with gray floor tiles and light yellow walls, lined with lockers that could be rented for one franc each. She filled out her visiting application and sat on one of the hard benches.

Posted on the wall was the list of items forbidden to the prisoners: hardcover books, caps, scarves, ties, work outfits, and blue clothing, since the guards wore blue. No leather gloves. She imagined this was to discourage escape attempts over barbed-wire fences. No ski masks, military fatigues, bathrobes, towels, or peignoirs. She wondered about that. No djellabas, kumaros, or boubous, the colorful African dress. No parkas, ski clothes, or shoes since the prison factory made shoes.

Under the allowed list she read: bags with handles, clothing, and plastic bags.

And then her group lined up to receive their visiting permits. Since this was a weekday, only a forty-five—minute visit was permitted. Each visitor furnished a photo ID to the guard.

One by one they walked through a metal detector. After everyone passed they went through another yellow door and sat down to wait in a dirty banana-colored room, this time for about twenty minutes until guards summoned them to an underground tunnel. The air in it reminded her of her grandmother’s cellar, drafty and laced with mold.

The tunnel, partly painted with a mural by prisoners, was cold and peeling from the damp.

Aimée shivered and not just from the cold. She wondered how she would talk to number 3978, a woman who’d shared Jutta Hald’s cell before her release.

She’d been lucky that Morbier had acted quickly. The permit said number 3978 was still in Centre National d’Observation but due for transfer back to the Clairvaux facility that night. Aimée had no knowledge of her crime. All she knew was that Clairvaux held those serving long-term sentences and lifers.

She was directed toward the CNO section and entered a dim visiting booth. Behind her, the fluorescent strips in the hallway provided the only source of light. She sat on a stool at a small wooden table, the surface of which was gouged and carved by the feel of it. The door closed, leaving her in a space about three feet wide and ten feet long. Her breath caught as the key turned in the lock, a sound that was hard and ominous.

This, she’d been informed, was a “contact” visit, with no screen or barrier between visitor and prisoner, the usual thing since the rules changed in 1980.

A row of women in everyday clothes, escorted by blue-uniformed guards, passed by in single file, silhouetted in the doorway ahead of her. A large-boned woman with short cropped hair paused and looked inside.

Aimée took a deep breath. Her spine tingled.

The woman was an amazon.

“Non, West Coast, next door,” said a guard.

“Too bad,” the woman said, “A visit with her would be worth the mitard, the solitary hole.”

The guard moved the amazon on.

A wave of relief passed over Aimée. But not for long. The stool cut into her thighs and she hadn’t sat on it for more than two minutes.

More figures walked past. From a neighboring booth came muffled laughter, in the distance she heard weeping. What seemed like a dark eternity went by before a lithe figure in worn sweats entered.

The woman, shorter than Aimée, peered at her in the dim light then shoved a creased folder onto the table. “Tiens, if you keep insisting about my mother’s grave, I’ll show you proof I paid.”

Surprised, Aimée rose. Her foot caught the stool, which crashed to the concrete floor. “Pardon, my name is Aimée Leduc,” she said. She extended her hand. “What’s yours?”

“Liane Barolet,” the woman said. Aimée felt a curious grip. “Like I said, the money was paid. Here are the papers.”

What did this woman mean?

“You must think I’m someone else, Madame Barolet. I’m not sure …”

“Mademoiselle would be technically correct,” the woman said.

She remained standing as Aimée righted the stool. “Let me explain why I’ve come, Mademoiselle Barolet,” Aimée said. “It’s nothing to do with your mother. It’s to do with mine.”

“I don’t know you,” the prisoner said, withdrawing toward the locked door. “And my socialist group meeting starts soon.”

“Sorry, but we might as well talk,” Aimée said. “They won’t open the door until visiting time’s over.”

It was hard to tell if Liane Barolet shrugged; her clothes were too big for her.

“I don’t get many visitors,” she said, moving closer and sitting down.

Now Aimée could see more of Liane’s face. Once she’d been very pretty, Aimée imagined. The cheekbones were still prominent, the lips full, but deep lines webbed the cornflower blue eyes, etched the forehead. She had that look Jutta Hald had—wan, doughy skin on a bony frame.

Prison life.

“Jutta Hald told me …”

“That pseudo Marxist?” Liane snorted.

“Wasn’t she in the Haader-Rofmein gang?”

“You came here to ask me that?” Liane pounded her hand on the table.

“Jutta Hald was murdered.” Aimée looked down. She realized Liane Barolet’s hand consisted of a thumb, index finger, and pinkie. The middle and ring fingers were stubs.

“When?” Liane asked, as she leaned back in the shadows.

“The day she got out.”

Aimée couldn’t see her reaction. She decided to get to the point.

Her eyes had grown accustomed to the dimness. “Right before her death, Jutta showed up at my apartment. She said she’d shared a cell with my mother,” Aimée said. “She wanted money to tell me more, then she was shot.” She hoped the trembling of her lips didn’t show. “My mother’s name was Sydney Leduc. Did you know her?”

Liane Barolet’s eyes crinkled in amusement. “Mon petit, guess what? Life is hard. Then you die.”

“Jutta said the same thing.”

“But it’s true.”

“I’m not asking for sympathy,” Aimée said.

“So what do you want?”

This wasn’t going well.

“Look, I’m sorry this is confusing,” Aimée said. She drummed her fingers under the wooden table. They came back sticky. “All I want to know is if Jutta talked about my mother in prison.”

“Why ask me?”

“You shared a cell with Jutta, she was excited about getting out. She might have told you something. You’re in the system, you might have heard things. Or whether someone else knows. Then I can lay it to rest.”

“I doubt that,” Liane said.

Startled, Aimée looked up. “What do you mean?”

“If you wanted to forget about your mother, you’d have ignored Jutta.”

Her astute observation rankled. Maybe because it felt true.

“Is it wrong to want to know what’s happened to her?”

Liane Barolet shook her head. “The only wrong part might be the answer,” she said. “What’s that saying … let sleeping dogs lie?”

“Look, I’ll make it worth your while,” Aimée said. That struck home, she could tell.

“How could you do that … sleep with the warden at Clairvaux?” Liane gave a sneer, then shook her head. “Non, mon petit, I wish that on no one.”

The way she said it gave Aimée a chill.

“But you could help me, they threatened to dig her up,” Liane continued. “Even though I only just found out. I paid right away!”

Aimée realized she was talking about a cemetery. When the grave fees were not paid, the bodies were dug up. No wonder she was upset.

“Parloir terminé!” shouted one of the guards, signaling that visiting time was over.

Aimée stood. “Help me and I’ll help you.” If Liane was desperate enough she’d talk. “Did you know my mother, did you ever hear of her?”

“There was a lightweight, an American woman.” Liane waved her hand dismissively.

Aimée’s hopes soared. Then her fear grew.

“What was this American’s name?”

“Who knows? I just remember her saying things like ‘If I can’t dance, it’s not my revolution.’”

Her mother? “Can you find out her name … what happened?”

“She wasn’t in long,” Liane said. “Well, compared to me, eh?”

“How long?”

“The system moves prisoners around,” Liane said. “I didn’t keep track.”

“You can do better than that,” Aimée said. “What was she in for?”

“That’s the thing.” Liane leaned forward. “She’d been in on some heist with Jutta. But only Jutta was charged.”

“But everyone gets charged who comes …”

Liane shook her head. “They hold people for months, sometimes years, before arraignment. At least they used to. She was one of those.”

“So they use Frésnes like a jail?”

“Only for the special ones,” Liane said. “That pissed Jutta off.”

“Did she write to Jutta in prison?”

Pause. The bell sounded the second and final warning. Chairs and stools scraped over the concrete floor.

“The letters are in my cell,” Liane said.

“Letters from my mother?”

“Reading material’s scarce here,” Liane said. “Jutta left me her books. She used to keep her letters in them.”

Aimée’s hope rekindled. She tried to keep her voice even. “What do these letters say?”

The cubicle door opened.

“Barolet! Visiting time’s over,” said the guard.

“Help me to keep my mother’s bones beside my father’s,” Liane said. “My lawyer’s in contact with me. I’ll give the letters to him if you get me a receipt from the cemetery for the money they say is overdue.”

“D’accord, here’s my address,” Aimée said, glancing at the paperwork she had been handed. “Matter of fact, I’ll go there now. Your deadline’s passed. But I’ll take care of it and send you the receipt.”

Liane stood up slowly. “Do you know what I’m in for?”

Aimée shook her head. “Whatever you’ve done, you’re being punished for it.”

“You should know,” Liane said. “So you don’t think I withheld anything.”

“As I said …”

“Blowing up banks. Terrorism,” Liane said, her eyes gleaming in the light. “I’m proud of that. No one ever called revolution a dainty proposition. My ideology hasn’t changed. It never will.” She stared at Aimée. “We regard these as acts of war. But I’m not proud about the little children who happened to be too near.”

Aimée shuddered. She wondered if explosives had claimed Liane’s fingers. Or had prison?

Aimée said, “Keep your end of the deal and I’ll keep mine.”

HER THOUGHTS roamed helter-skelter on the way back to Paris. Did Liane have letters to Jutta from her mother? Was her mother alive? During the long journey, Aimée made several calls.

When she reached Montmartre cemetery on rue Rachel, she remembered her schoolteacher saying that corpses had been thrown into an old plaster quarry—which was now the cemetery—during the French Revolution. And how the vineyards of Montmartre had produced an astringent wine with such diuretic properties that a seventeenth-century ditty went: “This is the wine of Montmartre, drink a pint, piss a quart.”

The grave digger she finally located tapped his shovel. “The old bird was heavy,” he said. “That’s for sure.”

Aimée groaned inwardly. She’d have to give him a big tip.

He looked pointedly at his watch, sighed, then said, “It’s too late to put her back but you can see her for yourself.”

They wound over the gravel and dirt, past the graves of Zola and Degas. Midway, the grave digger paused and wiped his brow. “Over there.”

The marble mausoleum’s gate hung open. Dead flies, fossilized bees, and dusty plastic flower bouquets were strewn within.

“Doesn’t the Barolet family own this?”

“Leased for a hundred years,” he said, his tone matter-of-fact.

“Surely, it’s more trouble to dispose …”

“Mademoiselle, there’s a long waiting list of people eager for this space.” For the second time he looked at his watch.

“Her daughter paid,” Aimée said. “Here are the receipts.”

“Then she’s been notified. According to my patron, she wasn’t up to date with payments,” he said. “If she disputes this, let her talk to him on Saturday when he returns.”

A lot of good that would do, with Liane in prison.

“Meanwhile what happens?”

“We take what’s left to the boneyard.”

“Boneyard!”

The grave digger shrugged. “That’s standard procedure.” His blue overalls were stained and muddy.

What if this man was lying, trying to make more money.

“Let me see the coffin.”

He gestured to the right. “Over there, behind François Truffaut.”

Aimée walked behind the mausoleum. She saw two coffins, one newer and with tarnished brass handles, the other wooden and water-stained.

“Which one?”

“The fancy model,” he said. “Think of this like an eviction, I tell people.”

“Evicting the dead?”

“What do you want me to do, eh?” he sneered. “Someday you’ll be here too, Mademoiselle high and mighty!”

Burn me first, she almost said. Scatter my ashes from my balcony over the Seine, before a dirty old coot like you can rattle my bones.

Of course it all came down to money.

“How much?”

“Take that up with administration,” he said. “All I do is shovel up the leftovers and leave them for the bone men.”

Aimée hoped he didn’t see her shudder.

The cemetery office was closed. Shadows lengthened over the stone houses of the dead.

“Can’t you put her inside the mausoleum until I straighten this out?” she said, placing a hundred francs in his palm.

He rubbed his arms. “She’s heavy, that one!”

“I’ll make it worth your while,” she said, hating to have to smile and to try to coax the favor from him.

In answer, he wheeled a hydraulic lift from a nearby shed. She stared at the coffin, faded sepia images of her mother crowding her mind. Was her mother crumbling in one of these somewhere?

“If there’s no payment in three days, she’s out. Permanently,” he said. “I don’t do this twice.” The grave digger pumped the lift and pushed the coffin toward the mausoleum.

Aimée watched him. She stood perspiring in the heat, and he hadn’t even broken a sweat. “I thought you said she was heavy.”

“Mais she was!”

“Don’t tell me she lost weight since you moved her.”

He leered. “The other day she was heavy … you think I’m lying?”

“But, look, aren’t coffins supposed to be sealed?”

She pointed to the cracked white chips along the coffin lid ledge.

“I didn’t do that.”

“Why so defensive all of a sudden?”

“Freaks,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “Satan worshippers.” He looked over his shoulder, lowered his voice. “We don’t tell the families but cults break in here some nights. I find candles melted on the stones, even a dead chicken once!”

“Do they rob the coffins?”

He wouldn’t meet her eye, but he swiped his dirty finger across his lips. She took it to mean that he wouldn’t say.

“Open it,” she said. “I’m not paying otherwise and I’ll make a big stink with your boss.”

It was the last thing she wanted to see but Liane Barolet should know if she was being ripped off for an already desecrated coffin.

He handed her the crowbar. “Not my job.”

And he shuffled away over the gravel.

The lid moved easily. Too easily.

As the late afternoon sun slanted through the leaves, a bird swooped up into the hard blue sky. She steeled herself to look in the dark, earthy-smelling interior. Instead of a shrouded, decaying corpse she found an empty coffin.

She pushed the lid up further. The only things inside were a crumpled brown plastic bag with Neufarama written across it and dried leaves that crackled as she touched them. She remembered buying a sweater from a Neufarama store but they’d gone out of business in the seventies.