‘Herr Oberg is determined to punish the boys who stole the girl’s handbag,’ went on Delaroche. ‘Flavien, were either of you able to pin down their identities? I know the bag has been returned by a devious route but it was, I believe, still missing some items.’
The termites had just choked in the darkness of their little tunnel, the one behind on the shit of the one in front. ‘There’s a photo of them in your out-tray, Hubert,’ said Garnier.
‘Get it,’ said Delaroche, ‘and while you’re at it, if Jeannot is in his office, please ask him to join us.’
The building was silent. The lift had made no sound even after M. Jeannot Raymond had left her, but that had been some time ago, Suzette knew, and talking to Teddy simply wasn’t going to help. Indeed, if others knew she did such a thing, they’d think her crazy and she should stop, would have to now anyways, but she wasn’t alone in this. She couldn’t be. Didn’t the Occupation encourage people to retreat into illusion and cultivate their fantasies and daydreams? Wasn’t that just about the only way to counter the terrible loneliness and uncertainty?
‘Look, I’m sorry I didn’t make us a sauce for the noodles. I was still uncertain, still agitated.’
There, she had confessed that much. He paid not the slightest attention, must really be upset with her.
‘The red-lacquered Chinese gate, Teddy. You can’t miss it if you’re in that far corner of the Bois de Vincennes. The gate is at the entrance to the tropical garden and the Institut National d’Agronomie Coloniale and can be seen from a distance, but it … it’s close to something else.’
Even such a hint failed to move him. ‘Very well,’ she said spitefully. ‘I’m going to meet Monsieur Raymond there tomorrow morning at nine.’
Picked at, the noodles were cold and soggy, the slices of carrot like wood. ‘The gate is near the Annamite Temple that is a memorial to the Indochinois who died for France in that other war. The mother of that girl who was murdered downstairs goes there to pray and to introduce her grandson to his ancestors. Monsieur Raymond said that Concierge Louveau told him the dead girl always went there to visit with her mother and little boy early on Sundays just as I go to Charenton on the last Sunday of every month.’
Still there was nothing but an ever-deepening frown from Teddy. ‘Jeannot feels that someone should tell the mother what has happened, that she will have to claim the body from the city’s morgue and that … that funeral arrangements will have to be made. Oh for sure, the daughter was prostituting herself and was the wife of a prisoner of war, but to kill her for betraying her husband was not right, he said. “What is needed is compassion.” There’s a restaurant nearby, on the Ile de la Porte Jaune in Lac des Minimes. He has said he will take me to lunch there afterwards.’
Even this news didn’t move him. He was insisting that he be told everything.
‘Jeannot says there’s a bronze funeral urn in the temple’s courtyard and that perhaps the mother could arrange to have the daughter’s ashes placed there among those of her ancestors. Then her little boy could always visit. The temple, a pagoda,****** was donated to the Colonial Exhibition of 1906 in Marseille and is really called a dinh, he says. A large communal house that was used for worship and where the elders of the village would go to discuss important matters. Frankly, I can’t understand how anyone could let such an important building be taken away but they did, and in 1917 it was moved to the Bois de Vincennes to become the memorial. Is it not good and kind of him to want to see the mother, Teddy, and to offer to help her financially with the funeral? A girl he didn’t even know but whose mother and child shouldn’t be made to suffer more than they already will? He … he thought that if I were with him it might make things easier for the little boy and that … that Colonel Delaroche would insist on our taking something from here. He was certain you could help that little boy.’
Let me have the rest of it then, said Teddy.
‘Look, I’m sorry. Really I am but you’ll see everything I do. There’s a passage, Teddy. Jeannot says it’s well worth a visit. All along its walls are beautiful bas-reliefs that were copied from those at Angkor Wat in Indochina. He’s been there. He really has. He’s seen the ruins of that great temple. He says that among our scholars there were some who at first felt that the temple at Angkor Wat was Buddhist but that there is a magnificent shrine to Vishnu, the Hindu Preserver, another to Brahma, their god of Creation, and yet another to Siva, their destroyer. I … I hadn’t realized he would even know or care about such things. Honestly I hadn’t, but … but people don’t visit those memorials much now, so we and the mother and little boy should have the place much to ourselves.’
Teddy didn’t say anything for the longest time. His feelings had, of course, been hurt and she was going to have to do something about that.
You fool, he said at last. Wasn’t this Jeannot of yours standing inside the door here when you ran back upstairs? Didn’t he stop you from crying out in panic?
‘He … he did grab me from behind, but …’
He clamped a hand over your mouth and held you pinned against the door. You thought you were going to die. You did! You nearly fainted.
Teddy never missed a thing, not even that Jeannot had come back to tell her what had happened to that girl. ‘When he released me, I saw that he had been badly bitten on the left wrist and thought that I’d done it in panic, but … but I’d only pulled the bandage off.’
It was inflamed and you stood helplessly before him in tears.
‘He knew where I’d been, knew I’d followed him.’
Yet didn’t accuse you of it?
‘He was too polite.’
Admit it, you couldn’t face him.
‘All right, all right, I won’t go. I won’t! On Monday, when I get to the office, I’ll tell him I wasn’t feeling well.’
She would clear things away now, thought Suzette. She would turn her back on Teddy, wouldn’t throw anything out. They would just have to eat it tomorrow for supper. ‘He’s not like the others at the agency, Teddy. He’s decent, honest and kind, and keeps to himself. That’s why he insisted we sit in the salle de sejour among all those lovely things, and that I drink the last of his eau-de-vie. He was genuinely worried about his having terrified me and held my hands. I had no need to fear him and said I would help him. I promised, Teddy. He’ll be expecting us-he really will. I’m not to tell Concierge Louveau where we’re going even if that one asks, which he will. It’s … it’s best we don’t.
‘ “Let’s keep it to ourselves,” Jeannot said. His fingers trembled when he kissed me on the cheek and I felt the warmth of him. He said, “Please don’t worry. Everything will be fine. It’s probably best that you’re not here when the coroner and the police come to remove that body.” I can’t have the police asking me any more questions. I can’t. I know too much. I’ll lose my job if they make me tell them things.’
And what about that bite you saw? Did Bob do it or some other dog like that Lulu?
‘Bob wouldn’t have bitten him. Not Bob. I … I don’t know how he got the bite. I wish I did but couldn’t ask.’
10
Plunged into the damp, cold darkness of the rue La Boetie at 2107 hours Berlin Time, they were moving now. They weren’t wasting time, having just left the Agence Vidocq. ‘It’s this house, Louis. This one,’ insisted Kohler.
‘No it isn’t. It’s this one.’
‘Merde, how the hell would you know?’
‘Try me.’
The candle stub had gone out. Uncanny, that’s what Louis was. ‘Why didn’t you tell me they had a photo of the boys?’