An Uncertain Place

have realised that the foot couldn’t have fallen out of someone’s pocket, or been dropped by a bird. But she didn’t want to understand. She probably began to realise only some time later, and then she made the connection right away. The investigation got nowhere – they decided it must have been a bodysnatcher and the affair was buried.’

‘Until the discovery made at Higg-gate. Then she understood right away.’

‘Obviously. Seventeen severed feet outside a cemetery, and she knew where the eighteenth was. If it got out that she had married a man who had cut the feet off nine corpses, her career was shot. Unfortunately, you happened to be on the spot in London. So her next step was to demolish you, as completely as she could. It took her less than a day to find out where Mordent’s pressure point was, and she got her hooks into him. When the Carnot machine gets going, nothing moves faster, and especially not you, commissaire. The Garches affair came to light on the Sunday, and she had linked it to Highgate before you did. How, I don’t know. Perhaps because of the dismemberment. She sabotaged the investigation, she got someone to shoot Emile, she had already told Mordent to engineer the flight of the suspect, and to plant the cartridge case and the pencil shavings in Vaudel junior’s house. She wanted the real culprit to get away, and she wanted you to go down with all hands.’

‘So what is her ex-husband’s name, Weill?’ asked Adamsberg slowly.

‘No idea. The house in Burgundy is in her mother’s name, and has been in the Carnot family for generations. And in the hamlet near it, as they do in the countryside, they give the husband the family name he married into. They used to call him Monsieur Carnot, or Madame Carnot’s husband. He only went there for the hunting anyway.’

‘But for heaven’s sake, there must be a married name somewhere – when she made her statement, for instance.’

‘No, because when she went to the police, she’d already been divorced long before. When she embarked on her legal career, aged twenty-seven, she was using her original name Emma Carnot. So she’s been using her maiden name for twenty-five years now at least. The marriage was a short-lived youthful aberration.’

‘We need her statement, Weill. It’s the only element against her that we have.’

Weill just laughed and asked for a minute or two to baste the lamb.

‘Honestly, Adamsberg, you don’t seem to realise the powers these people have. Of course, there’s no longer any record of the statement. I got it verbatim from the officer in Auxerre who dredged it up. No paper trail left. They do these things thoroughly.’

‘Weill, what about the other witness to the marriage?’

‘Nothing so far. But Emma Carnot’s mother is still alive. She must have known who the young husband was, even if she only met him briefly. That’s Marie-Josee Carnot, and she lives at 17 rue des Ventilles, Bale, Switzerland. I think it would be a good idea to put her under protection.’

‘What, her mother?!’

‘Yes. We’re talking about Emma Carnot here. The witness who was killed in Nantes was her first cousin. Tell your colleague Nolet that, if he dares pursue it.’

‘What is your message, Weill?’

‘Protect the mother.’

‘How would Carnot have known where Emile was headed?’

‘She caught up with him in her own time, and at her own speed, to deal with him.’

‘But the cops in Garches lost track of him.’

‘Adamsberg, you really aren’t cut out for dealing with the hierarchy. They never lost track of him at all, and they knew perfectly well where he was when he took refuge in the hospital. But they had orders from high up to let him go and just follow him, report where he went to ground, and then vanish. Which they did. That’s what they do, they obey orders.’

Adamsberg ended the call and twiddled his phone on the table. He had given the little foam heart to Danica.

‘Danglard, you take the mother, get Retancourt on to protection duty straight away.’

‘Not her own mother?’ said Veyrenc in a horrified whisper.

‘Some people eat wardrobes, Veyrenc.’

Danglard went to phone Retancourt. She was ordered to leave for Switzerland immediately. As soon as they knew she was on her way, the three men sighed with relief and Danglard ordered an armagnac.

‘I’d prefer a rakija after my kafa, like in the kruchema.’

‘How is it, commissaire, that you manage to remember half a dozen words in Serbian, when you can’t be bothered even to remember an easy name like Radstock?’

‘I specially memorised those Kiseljevan words,’ said Adamsberg. ‘No doubt because it was a place of uncertainty, Danglard. Where strange things happen. Hvala, dobro vece, kamak. And in the vault, I was thinking of kobasice. But don’t expect anything lofty, they’re just sausages.’

‘Spicy ones,’ Veyrenc pointed out.

Adamsberg was not surprised that Veyrenc already knew more than he did.

‘Weill seems to be on the level,’ observed Danglard.

‘Yes,’ said Veyrenc, ‘but that doesn’t mean anything. Weill always plays at the top of his game. On the side of the police or not.’

‘But why would he be after Carnot’s guts?’

‘To shoot her down. She makes mistakes, so she’s dangerous.’

‘Weill isn’t Arnold Paole. He can’t be the ex-husband.’

‘Why not?’ said Veyrenc, though he did not sound too sure. ‘The young man of thirty years ago wouldn’t look the same. He could have metamorphosed into what he is today, sophisticated, fat and with a white beard.’

‘I can’t put anyone to spy on Weill officially,’ said Adamsberg, ‘but, Veyrenc…’

‘OK, I see.’

‘Get a gun from Danglard. And please cover up your hair.’

XLIV

A STRIP OF LIGHT WAS SHINING UNDER THE DOOR OF THE tool shed. Lucio was feeding the mother cat. Adamsberg joined him and sat cross-legged on the floor.

‘Ah, you,’ said Lucio, without looking up. ‘You’ve been far away.’

‘Further than you think, Lucio.’

‘Exactly as far as I think, hombre. La muerte.’

‘Yes.’

Adamsberg didn’t dare to ask after the little kitten called Charm. He looked left and right but couldn’t recognise her among the kittens which were wriggling about in the semi-darkness. ‘Killed that kitten. Just one kick did it. Her blood went all over the place.’

‘Any problems?’ he asked, uneasily.

‘Yes.’

‘What?’

‘Maria found my beer hidden under the bush. Have to find a better hiding place.’

One of the kittens tottered towards Adamsberg and bumped into his leg. He picked it up and looked at it. Its eyes were only just open.

‘Is this one Charm?’ he asked.

‘Don’t you recognise her? You brought her into the world, didn’t you?’

‘Yes, of course.’

‘Sometimes I despair of you,’ said Lucio, shaking his head.

‘No, it’s just I was worried about her. I had a dream.’