Vauvert took the handle again and opened the right door wide before doing the same with the left door. Light poured into the barn, illuminating every corner.
His weapon in hand, Vauvert took position in the entryway, trying to determine the cause of the stench.
The barn looked deserted. The shelves were empty. The chains hanging from the beams were gone, as were the butcher hooks and bloody buckets. It had all been taken away, tagged, and filed as evidence.
All what was left was a vast space, the ground layered with moldy hay, and the leprous stone walls.
So where was this pestilential smell coming from?
He stepped into the barn and saw the small black mounds all over the ground. That was the source of the stink: feces. Just excrement. Animals had made their home in the barn and had done their business all over the place.
Whatever they were, it didn’t seem that they were there any longer.
His gun still raised, Alexandre Vauvert surveyed the rest of the barn.
The walls were still covered with nonsensical inscriptions, faded memories that time was slowly erasing from the stone.
Except for the wall on the far end.
There, the words were perfectly legible.
The blood the words were written in was still red and wet.
Vauvert froze.
Still wielding his gun with his right hand, he took out his cell phone to call this in. On the screen, a series of letters were scrolling.
“What the fuck?”
He turned the phone off and then turned it back on again. The letters were gone, but there was still no signal.
“Shit.”
He used it anyway to take a picture of the inscription on the wall. Then he turned around and took more pictures of the piles of excrement. It was all he could do for now.
His stomach was churning.
He turned around to leave, still on the lookout.
Outside, the light was declining. Thick black clouds were gathering in the sky. A storm would break soon, and it would probably be as violent as the one the night before.
Vauvert jogged across the yard toward the house.
Then he saw the back door. It, too, was ajar. The police tape looked like it had been ripped off a good while ago.
Vauvert raised his weapon. He pushed the door open with his foot.
The inside of the house lay in darkness.
A flash of lightning crossed the sky, followed by thunder-rolling, heavy, distant, like a demon approaching.
Vauvert stepped inside.
The smell assailed him. The stink of shit.
The house seemed deserted.
Turn around. Right now, before it is too late.
He unsnapped the flashlight from his belt and pointed the ray of light at the floor. Black droppings were all over the tiles.
There was something else, something underneath the stench.
“Can’t you smell it? The smell of blood.”
Those were Eva’s words last year.
But now? Was he really smelling blood? Or was his mind playing tricks?
He didn’t know anymore.
He wasn’t sure of anything.
Outside, it thundered again.
He focused, pointing the flashlight at the walls. The inscriptions were still there, overlapping each other. He recognized some of the names that had been frenetically scribbled on the wallpaper. Sekhmet, Adonai and other names borrowed from all religions. And in the middle, the large circle drawn in blood. He guessed it more than he could see it, brown and faded now, in the beam of light.
He swept the walls with the flashlight, looking for more recent marks. He found none.
At frequent intervals, he glanced at his phone.
Still no signal.
He carefully scanned the living room. No movement, just the dust particles dancing in the waning light. This was where Eva had discovered the girl with the knife planted in her vagina.
On that sofa, still in the center of the room.
Vauvert aimed his light on it, taking a step forward.
And stopped in his tracks.
A figure was curled on the sofa. A slender form covered with some sort of fur blanket.
“Police,” Vauvert shouted, pointing the flashlight with one hand and his gun with the other.
The form moved.
“Police! Show me your hands!”
The figure turned and stretched.
On its four legs.
The fur was not a blanket.
It was a wolf. A black wolf, with eyes that gleamed like mirrors.
“Oh shit,” Vauvert grunted, stepping back.
Then, through the other door, a gaunt second figure slipped into the room.
Vauvert stared at one and then the other. He realized he must be exuding fear. Did they smell it on him? If he fired at one, would the other have time to leap on him?
He did not feel like taking the chance. He just wanted to get out of this place. Quick.
He took another step back.
He turned off his flashlight. And yet he could still see the animals’ eyes. Four small red flames burning in the darkness. Were wolves’ eyes supposed to glow like that?
No, wolves’ eyes were not supposed to glow, and they were not red. Not outside nightmares.
Then, with terror, he placed that feeling of deja-vu.
He was facing the wolves from his dream.
He was descending into his own fucking nightmare.
Finally he felt the door against his back.
The two wolves lunged at him.
He threw himself through the doorway and slammed the door shut.
27
Alexandre Vauvert ran across the yard.
Whatever it was that was going on in there, it was far from normal.
He had to call for backup.
As he reached the iron gates, he pulled out his cell phone. Once again, the screen was filled the impenetrable text:
He didn’t have time to think about its meaning. The shutters on a window flew open, and one of the wolves leaped out, its red eyes locked on him. The second wolf followed on its tail.
The two black beasts separated and took positions on both sides of the gate, cutting off Vauvert’s escape.
Vauvert dropped the phone and gripped his gun with both hands, aiming it at the two animals. Why weren’t they just running away?
He shot at the closest wolf. The wolf crouched and sprang to the side as he fired. The bullet hit the mud, heaving up dark muddy matter.
The two beasts began to move together, as if they were of one mind.
They came at him.
Vauvert fired again.
He missed and fired again.
Then he fired a burst of shots.
His sixth or seventh-Vauvert didn’t know-hit one of the animals in the breast. The wolf fell back and emitted a howl like the scream of dozens of babies, blood seeping from its jaws.
Still, it got back up. In its eyes was the fiery glow of pure hatred.
It lunged at the man, its bloody jaws open wide, its fangs like razors.
Vauvert fired one last time. He hit the beast in the head. The wolf stiffened, as though electrocuted, and crashed at the inspector’s feet.
He raised his gun toward the other beast.
It was not there.
Vauvert pressed his back against the side of the house. He whirled his gun from one side to the other, covering all the space in front of him. No wolf. Somehow it had bolted off.
But where? The wolf had been at least thirty feet from the gate. He would have seen it heading in that direction.
So where had the animal run off to? And how could it have just slipped away?
The inspector blinked. He wondered whether he could trust his senses. Was he seeing things? Nothing like this had ever happened before.
He turned to the animal that he’d shot down.
It was gone too.