the world, so they followed Mommy’s instructions to the letter. Never, ever did they talk to strangers. When a man seemed to be looking at them on the street, they immediately tugged Mommy’s sleeve to let her know.
Yet on that day, Mommy did not see it coming.
She did not even look stressed.
Maybe she had made the fatal error of letting her guard down for just a moment. Maybe for that brief moment she had allowed herself to think that the monsters were no longer after them. That was as good as offering their throats to the monsters’ teeth.
In any case, Mommy was late, and the girls were tired of playing. Mrs. Rieux kept looking out the window. She was trying her best to hide it, but she was feeling uneasy.
And the little girls, they were not stupid. They knew that Mommy’s car was parked in front of their house, and she had not come to get them. Why hadn’t she come?
Time passed. Mrs. Rieux was making phone calls.
The alarm in her was growing.
She used the phone in the kitchen, where they could not hear her.
Then they heard the sirens.
Police cars filled the street, their flashing lights discoloring their house. Eva and Justyna watched them through Mrs. Rieux’s living room window. There were men in uniforms putting up barriers. And other men, dressed in white from head to toe, were getting out of a truck with a stretcher.
Something had happened. Something terrible.
“What’s going on?” Eva cried.
“How come Mommy isn’t here yet?” Justyna asked with sudden anguish in her voice.
Mrs. Rieux offered them a large smile and told them that everything was fine. Mommy would be here soon.
Then she went to the front door to speak to a police officer.
The man talked in a low voice. He gestured at their house, down the street. Mrs. Rieux crossed herself several times while listening. Curious, the little girls sneaked up on them.
“How am I supposed to tell them something like that?” Mrs. Rieux whispered.
“You don’t have to, ma’am,” the policeman says. “We called Social Services. They’re sending someone for them. She’s going to take care of everything. Don’t worry. All you have to do is keep them here until that person arrives so that the kids don’t see, well, what’s going on, you understand?”
The little girls did not understand what was happening. But, whatever it was, it was very serious, and it had to do with Mommy, obviously. They went back to the window, trying to see something, anything. People had begun to gather in the street. Everybody in the neighborhood seemed to be very interested in their house all of a sudden.
“Did something happen to Mommy?” Eva asked.
“I want Mommy!” Justyna screamed.
The police officer gave them an uneasy look. He tried to smile, but it was a fake smile. His eyes were sad. Mommy told them to never trust men they didn’t know. Even if they were smiling. Especially if they are smiling.
Then Mrs. Rieux closed the door and came over to the two children. Her face was sad, too. So sad.
“I think we’re going to have to wait a bit longer, my ’lil treasures. Your mom…”
It was as though a ball had formed in her throat. The little girls could see the tears welling in her eyes. They just didn’t understand why.
“I want Mommy,” Justyna whined. “Why doesn’t she come to pick us up? I want to go home!”
“Mommy will be here later,” Mrs. Rieux said, and they both could hear the lie in her broken voice. “You stay here with me for now. Come on, I have some nice juice.”
The two sisters shared a distraught look.
Out in the streets, more sirens wailed.
53
“So, how long have you two been working together?” Vauvert asked.
The road was plunging in a series of steep switchbacks toward the bottom of the valley, and the SUV was swerving too close to the guardrail each time.
Leroy grabbed the handle above the passenger window.
“Me and Eva? I don’t know. Two years. No, actually, it’s already been three years now. Hey, you sure this car can handle the road all right?”
“Sure it can. So, you guys never talked about her past?” Vauvert went on. “What happened when she was a child, and when that killer kidnapped her? The Night Scourge?”
“I told you, she never talks about herself. I think she put that part of her life behind her.”
Vauvert had a hard time believing that. You could not erase such a thing from your existence. You could fake it maybe, pretend it was all in the past, but it would keep crushing and shaping you. He knew that all too well.
“And so you think she has never taken advantage of her job to try to find the identity of the man who killed her mother and sister? Give me a break, Erwan.”
Entering a small village with high beams glaring, he shot full-speed through back-to-back traffic circles.
“You really should be more careful,” Leroy said. “You’re going to get us killed.”
“Don’t worry. There’s nobody else on the road.”
Leroy closed the book on his lap and slipped it into his leather bag. There was no way he could keep reading.
He grabbed the handle once again.
“Okay, listen. I really don’t know any more. When I first got to Homicide, some of the guys told me the story. I tried to find out more about it, as you can imagine. It’s not every day that you work with the victim of a serial killer. And well, I guess I was also trying to find out more about Eva. I admit that. People were saying so many things about her.”
“And?”
“And nothing. Nobody ever knew the details. All we know is that the Night Scourge held the two girls in a basement and that he slit the throat of Eva’s sister, probably right in front of her eyes. Her name was Justyna. I remember it because it’s not a name you see every day.”
“Yeah,” Vauvert responded. “But we never found out who he was? Not even a guess?”
“Nothing at all,” Leroy said. “He stopped killing overnight.”
“After that one night,” Vauvert said. “Just like that.”
“Exactly. Those were his last known murders. It’s possible that the man killed himself. It happens. Or maybe he died in an accident. We’ll never know.”
“You don’t think it’s a bit odd? That a killer would take so many risks to abduct two kids, going as far as staying in an area swarming with cops, only to spare one of them while he had her in his grasp?”
“We’re talking about a psychopath. Who knows what goes on in a mind like that? Anyway, no one has ever figured out why he attacked all those girls in the first place.”
“Yeah.”
Up ahead, an overpass appeared. It was a simple and massive structure, lined with red and blue lights. It looked like something out of a sci-fi movie.
“Almost there.”
The SUV shot past the road sign, cut through yet another rotary and ended up on a street decorated with holiday lights.
“For Christ’s sake, slow down. We’re there already,” Leroy implored.
Dr. Fabre-Renault’s house was on a drab gray avenue. Across from it was a car dealership. Vauvert parked in front of the dealership. He was so tired, his head was spinning.
