‘Are extra favours then offered?’
How polite of him to shield the sister’s ears. ‘By some perhaps.’
‘But not by Jill Faber?’
One must be firm with this one. ‘That I didn’t say, Inspector. That one did, however, speak of the Senegalese in terms that would burn the ears of a saint. She doesn’t wonder what sexual intercourse with such would be like. She describes it in vivid detail for the others. Caroline and I, from behind our screen, would often hear them whispering and tittering at night, especially after someone down the corridor had cried out in ecstasy or begged for more. The things I have been forced to overhear and accidentally witness. . ’
‘Yes, yes, so when Caroline took up with Jennifer Hamilton of Room 3-54 you were upset.’
‘Wouldn’t you have been had you the responsibility of keeping that child safe and pure? Wicked is what I think of such behaviour. Wicked, I tell you.’
‘But you were asleep. The light was off.’
‘At first, yes. Earlier the Faber girl had been flashing around in the nude with her towel, having just come from the bath. Mocking me. Warming her cul at the stove and then her nénés and her chatte. Telling the others that she was going to ask that. . that Parker woman to request the Kommandant to have the swimming pool filled this coming summer. “Oh là, là,” she said, snapping the towel away. “No bathing suits, eh?” Their French is terrible, Inspector. Every day and night the ears are assaulted.’
‘When they weren’t speaking English?’
‘Oui. I understand it too, just as well as they.’
‘And they know this?’
Ah, bon, she had struck a nerve. ‘They are still uncertain. Me, I never speak it to them, nor did Caroline. We were in France, therefore we spoke a civilized language. Jill was always leaving her laundry under that cot of hers for days, Inspector. Days. The smell.
‘Farting. . Enjoying the sound of it, knowing she would cause me to cringe and shout at her. Never enough food. Always taking more than allowed. Borrowing things without asking. I tell you, I have lived in hell. No privacy. Always someone watching. No peace, no quiet, no pause in the corridor traffic or exploration of the room, the overt, shameful promiscuity of girls with girls. . ’
‘Yes, yes, the laundry. Mademoiselle Caroline’s brassiere. Ah, I have it here.’
Merde! ‘She. . she had left it in Room 3-54, Inspector. I. . I made her wash it.’
‘Yes, but who returned it and when?’
‘On Friday early. The. . the Hamilton girl. Jennifer.’
‘And how long had it been missing? Come, come, madame, it’s necessary that you answer.’
It would have to be said. ‘Since. . since a week ago last night.’
‘Ah, bon, so on the evening of Mary-Lynn Allan’s death, Caroline Lacy was not in Room 3-38 but with Jennifer Hamilton in Room 3-54-is this what you are saying?’
Some things must choose their time and place. ‘Oui.’
‘Until when, exactly?’
‘That I don’t know. I had gone to bed. At my age. . ’
‘Madame, she had disobeyed you?’
‘And had slammed the door of that room in my face, Inspector. My face!’
‘You weren’t asleep, were you?’
‘I was, and that is the truth. I was emotionally exhausted.’
‘Her heart, Inspector,’ managed Sister Jane.
‘Later I did hear Caroline struggling for breath but she had done it so often, I. . All right, I let her search for the cigarettes and matches that I had left out for her.’
‘But not in their usual place?’
‘The room light was finally turned on.’
The screen would have been drawn, but in her panic, the girl might not have realized Madame’s bed could well have been empty, and neither would any of the others. ‘The datura, madame. The others have said that you insisted the girl’s asthma was but a state of mind yet you demanded that Brother Étienne give you not only the dried leaves and stems, which are usually quite sufficient, but far more of the seeds than he felt prudent.’
The little box was found in a pocket and placed on the bed before her.
She would snap her fingers, thought Irène. She would demand what was necessary as was her right. ‘The warrant, Inspector. Even here we are still under French law, and to have searched that suitcase of mine or that of Caroline, you must first consult the magistrate who reviews the evidence and only then decides if such a document is necessary.’
‘Hermann gave me the OK.’
‘The Gestapo?’
‘That is correct. Now, please, the datura.’
‘Perhaps it is that you had best ask the brother, since not only was he treating my Caroline but Jennifer Hamilton, though not for the same condition.’
Were the seeds to have then taken care of that one? he wondered. Not only had there been Caroline’s outright disobedience, there must have been hatred and jealousy.
‘And on the afternoon of Caroline’s death, madame?’
‘The touch of a cold. One has to be careful at my age. The girl wished to take the air and I. . I foolishly agreed to let her and must blame myself.’
‘Yes, but had she arranged to meet someone?’
‘That Jennifer Hamilton, is this what you have discovered, that my Caroline had been going to meet her to end their affair?’
‘Why would she have done that?’
‘Because on the night the other one died, she and that. . that Hamilton girl had been arguing. My Caroline had been very upset and in tears.’
‘Yet she had slammed the door in your face?’
‘That is correct.’
‘Only to then come back to Room 3-38 in tears before the mademoiselle Mary-Lynn Allan fell?’
‘Oui.’
‘Jennifer and Caroline having had much more than a simple lover’s tiff?’
‘Oui. Both were. . were in tears. I’m sure of it. Why else would she have killed my Caroline?’
‘And before your ward left the room on Friday?’
‘I asked, as was my duty. She said, “It’s not what you think,” and I. . why, I left it at that.’
‘But must have known her coat pockets were full of things to trade.’
‘I needed aspirins. None had come in our latest parcels. My headaches. . The neuralgia, the migraines. . Caroline said she would see what she could do. A breath of her former kindness and love for me. I was encouraged. It is a memory that will stay with me.’
Yet Jill Faber was the room’s trader. ‘One of the Senegalese?’
‘Inspector, she would not have gone to one of those, not after what that. . that Faber woman had said of them. “Une sacrée bonne baise.”’
A damned good fuck.
‘“Une grosse bitte.”’
A big cock.
‘“Endless staying power that lasts until a woman is satisfied”? Is it any wonder I find it degrading to have to share a room with such people?’
‘Forgive me, madame, but I’ve been given to understand that some of the Americans don’t like the Senegalese and consider them “fresh.”’
‘The blacks, that’s what they call them, but men are men and savages all the better, it would seem, for certain things.’
Like cutting firewood. ‘And when, please, did Caroline leave the room to go outside?’
‘Late. At about 1530 hours. She was withdrawn, had been upset and worried for days-terribly hurt, I think, ever since the night of that other one’s having fallen, and when I asked what was wrong, she said I would know soon enough.’
But had the upset been because of what had happened with Jennifer or with Mary-Lynn or both? ‘And did you find out?’
‘Of course not!’
‘Who else was in the room?’
‘So as to be a witness? That Jill Faber and that Marni Huntington. Nora Arnarson was out somewhere by herself-she’s a loner, that one.’
‘And Becky Torrence?’