Adamsberg took the wheel and Veyrenc did up his seat belt. ‘OK if I smoke?’
‘Go ahead,’ said Adamsberg, starting the engine. ‘I used to smoke for years. All the kids used to smoke secretly in Caldhez. I guess it was the same with you in Laubazac.’
Veyrenc opened the car window.
‘Why did you say “in Laubazac”?’
‘Because that’s where you lived, two kilometres from the Veyrenc de Bilhc vineyard.’
Adamsberg drove slowly, taking the bends without haste.
‘Well, what of it?’
‘Because it was there, in Laubazac, that you were attacked. Not in the vineyard. Why did you lie, Veyrenc?’
‘I don’t tell lies,
‘It was at Laubazac, on the High Meadow, behind the chapel.’
‘Who was attacked, you or me?’
‘You.’
‘So I know what I’m talking about. If I say it was in the vineyard, it was in the vineyard.’
Adamsberg stopped at a traffic light and glanced across at his colleague. Veyrenc was obviously sincere.
‘No, Veyrenc,’ Adamsberg went on as he drove off again. ‘It was in Laubazac, on the High Meadow. That’s where the five boys came to, from the Gave de Pau valley.’
‘The five louts who came from Caldhez.’
‘Precisely. But they never set foot among the vines. They came to the High Meadow and they came over the path through the rocks.’
‘No.’
‘Yes. They had a rendezvous fixed at the chapel. That’s where they attacked you.’
‘I don’t know what you’re trying to do,’ protested Veyrenc. ‘But it was in the vineyard that I passed out, and my father came and fetched me and took me to hospital in Pau.’
‘That was three months earlier. The day you let go of the mare, and she trampled you. You had a broken tibia, and your father picked you up in the vineyard and took you to Pau. The mare was sold after that.’
‘Oh, come on,’ said Veyrenc. ‘How could you know that?’
‘Didn’t you hear about every little thing that happened in Caldhez? When Rene fell off the roof, but by some miracle wasn’t hurt, didn’t you hear about that in Laubazac? And when the grocer’s shop burned down, you heard about that, didn’t you?’
‘Yes, of course.’
‘You see.’
‘But, shit, it
‘No, Veyrenc. The business with the mare and the attack by the boys from Caldhez were two separate incidents, one after another, and you were knocked out both times, but three months apart, with two trips to the hospital in Pau. You’ve mixed them up. Post-traumatic confusion, that’s what the police doctor would say.’
Veyrenc undid his seat belt and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. The car was stuck in a traffic jam.
‘I can’t see what you’re getting at, I can’t at all.’
‘What had you gone to do in the vineyard, when the boys appeared?’
‘I’d gone to see what the grapes were like, because there’d been a storm the night before.’
‘See? It’s impossible. Because the attack was in February, and the grape harvest was over by then. The time with the mare, yes, that was in November, you’d gone to check the grapes for the Christmas harvest.’
‘No,’ repeated Veyrenc. ‘And anyway, what does it matter? What the
‘Yes.’
‘Bashed my head with metal bars and slashed my stomach with a bit of glass?’
‘Yes.’
‘So what does it matter?’
‘So it shows that you don’t remember quite everything.’
‘Well, I can remember their faces very well, nothing you can do about that.’
‘I’m not disputing that, Veyrenc. You remember their faces, but you don’t remember everything. Think about it, we’ll talk about it another day.’
‘Just let me off here,’ said Veyrenc in a dejected voice. ‘I’ll walk the rest of the way.’
‘What would be the point? We’ve got to work together for the next six months, and you wanted it that way. Don’t worry, there’s a fireguard poking through here between us. That will protect us.’
Adamsberg smiled briefly. His mobile rang, interrupting the valley warfare, and he passed it to Veyrenc.
‘It’s Danglard. Can you switch it on and hold it to my ear?’
Danglard briefly told Adamsberg that the three other teams had come back empty-handed. No woman, old or young, had been seen talking to Diala and La Paille.
‘Retancourt found anything?’
‘No, not much. The house is abandoned. There was a burst pipe last month, and there’s ten centimetres of water on the floors.’
‘She didn’t find any clothes?’
‘Nothing so far.’
‘So all that could have waited till tomorrow,
‘It’s this guy, Binet. He’s called you three times urgently this afternoon, according to the switchboard.’
‘Who’s Binet?’
‘Don’t you know him?’
‘No, not at all.’
‘Well, he knows you quite well, it seems. He’s asking for you in person, urgently. He says he’s got something very important to tell you. From the tone of the messages, it sounds serious.’
Adamsberg gave a puzzled glance at Veyrenc, and signed to him to take down the number.
‘Can you call this Binet’s number, Veyrenc, and pass it to me?’
Veyrenc punched in the number and held the phone to the
‘Binet?’
‘Hard to get hold of you, man from the Bearn!’
The man’s booming voice echoed inside the car and Veyrenc raised his eyebrows.
‘Not for you by any chance, is it, Veyrenc?’ Adamsberg said in a whisper.
‘No, don’t know him,’ Veyrenc whispered back, shaking his head.
The
‘Binet, who are you?’
‘Binet, Robert Binet. Oh, for… don’t you remember me?’
‘Sorry, no.’
‘The cafe in Haroncourt, for Chrissake.’
‘OK, Robert. I’ve got you now. How did you find out my name?’
‘The Hotel du Coq, it was Anglebert’s idea. He thought we should tell you right away. And we thought so, too. Of course,’ said Robert, with a touch of pique, ‘if you’re not interested…’
The Norman is quick to recoil, like a snail whose horns are touched.
‘No, no, Robert, of course I’m interested. What is it?’
‘There’s been another one. And you thought it was serious that other time, so we thought you ought to know now.’
‘Another what, Robert?’
‘Another one, just the same, massacred in the woods of Champ de Vigorne, near the old railway track.’
A stag, for crying out loud. Robert had been putting through urgent phone calls to Paris on account of a stag. Adamsberg sighed, feeling tired, dealing with the thick traffic and the headlights in the rain. He didn’t want to upset Robert or the others in the group who had made him welcome that evening, when he had been somewhat
