Now she is standing in front of her.
Justyna, her sister, is staring at her with a solemn expression in her small red eyes.
“Go away,” Eva whispers, a sob in the back of her throat.
The little girl comes closer. She opens her arms and snuggles against her, against her naked body. And even though Eva knows that this is only an illusion, a strange mirage, she can feel the warmth coming from her twin sister, a relic of her past, like some bitter joke made by Fate.
“Don’t be scared. I’m here,” the little girl says.
For the first time, Eva knows that Justyna has not come to bother her. Maybe that was never her intention. She has come as a sister to keep her company, to offer her the comfort of her little arms around her shivering body. The little girl’s hug, loving and reassuring, actually warms her.
“Everything’s going to be all right. If we stay together, the monster will not come,” her sister tells her.
“No, that’s not true. It didn’t work. He did come, do you remember? We thought it would be enough, but no. He took you, Justyna. And now he’s back. The monster’s back, and this time it’s for me. This time I won’t make it.”
“Shh,” the little girl says. “Don’t think about that. Not yet.”
Eva does not realize that tears are streaming down her cheeks and that her chest is heaving with uncontrollable sobs.
She knows that she does not have much time to live.
50
So little time. And even less of it with every passing minute.
Once the plane had landed at the Toulouse-Blagnac International Airport, they picked up the SUV in the parking lot. Vauvert took the Toulouse beltway and stomped on the gas pedal.
Leroy turned on his cell, and this time he managed to reach Doctor Fabre-Renault on his private number. He told him that he was a homicide officer and that he needed to pay him a visit. The doctor asked why, and Leroy explained that it was a matter of life and death. They needed his cooperation right away.
“This has to do with Raynal, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, it has to do with the incidents that took place at the Raynal Center. The missing girls.”
“It’s a long story. But I don’t know what I could tell you that isn’t already in the reports.”
“Still, can you meet with us? We are on our way already.”
“Sure. I’m home right now, and I’m not going anywhere. Do you have my address?”
“Yes, I do. Thank you very much, doctor.”
An icy wind invaded the vehicle as Vauvert opened his window to toss the coins into the toll booth basket. The gate lifted. The next moment, they were rushing down the highway. The sign read “ALBI 66 KM.”
We’ll be in Millau in two hours,” Vauvert said.
As he drove past an automatic speed camera the flashing light went off.
“Shit,” he growled.
Meanwhile, Leroy checked his voice mail. He listened to several messages, then glumly turned off his phone.
“Trouble?”
“What did you expect? Deveraux is unleashing hell to nail you. And me, by the way. The boss is going to hang me by my balls if I don’t come up with one hell of a good justification for what happened tonight. This was out-and-out desertion for the both of us. We could, at least, have tried to tell them what we came up with.”
“Sure, we could have tried,” Vauvert said. “And we’d still be in custody in Paris, in the hands of those Internal Affairs clowns. We’re running out of time already.”
Leroy knew his colleague was right.
He reached for the two books he had brought along. The first was an academic work on Countess Bathory’s crimes, which he still had not had time to look through. As for the second, it was an essay on the Dacian religion and its legacy in Medieval Europe. One way or the other, the two had to be connected. He just had to find out in what way. Leroy turned on the dome light and opened the book on the Dacians.
So little time.
51
Leroy poured over the book, flipping page after page, as they drove down a country road that snaked endlessly around the mountainside. He knew he would soon have to put it down, because the dome light and Vauvert’s impatient driving were starting to make him sick.
Outside, the night was black as ink. The temperature was plummeting. The SUV’s headlights splashed the tall fir trees on both sides of the road. The locals did not seem to know about roadside reflectors, so Vauvert had to stomp on the breaks periodically to navigate a sudden curve. Occasionally, they passed though a tiny village-the streets empty and the houses’ shutters closed-before winding through more fir trees and more darkness.
Minutes flew by.
They had passed the town of Villefranche-d’Albigeois when Vauvert’s phone rang. Mira’s name was on the screen.
“Yes, Damien.”
“Holy mother of Christ, what the fuck are you doing?” his anxious colleague exclaimed. “Everyone is talking about you now!”
“You know how it is. Let them talk. I’ll deal with the paperwork later on.”
“No shit, man! I don’t think you realize how deep in the shit you’ve gotten yourself. There’s a warrant for your arrest. The word from Paris is you attacked a colleague. Is that true?”
“The guy’s a cunt, and I’ll have my own version of events to tell when the time comes.”
“You’d better. The boss is on the fucking warpath. If he ever finds out I talked to you, he’ll have my ass, too. Do you understand that you’re wanted just like a criminal now?”
“I swear I had no choice. We don’t have time for this bullshit. Eva is in mortal danger.”
“I understand. And I guess I would have done the same thing. I just wanted to let you know about the warrant. And that Leila came to see me. The DNA test you requested freaked the shit out of her, you know that?”
“Don’t tell me she told the boss?”
“No, not yet. But she’s going to have to, at some point.”
“Please ask her to wait just a bit longer.”
“I will. Anything I can do to help?”
“Thanks for the offer. There’s something I have to check out first. Then I’ll call you. I promise.” Vauvert paused, then added, in a softer tone, “Don’t worry about me, okay?”
“I’m the one who showed you the ropes when you got here. I’ll always have your back, so let me worry about you if I want to. Where are you right now?”
“Where am I?”
Vauvert paused for a second. Illuminated by the headlights, a sign ahead read: “MILLAU 70 KM.”
“I’m still in Paris. But I’m in the Metro. I’m going to have to call you back, okay?”
He hung up, a look of fierce determination on his face.
“Interesting,” Leroy said.
“What?”
