This Night’s Foul Work

sadly accompanying Camille to the concert. But he had had very little sleep these last nights, and simply wanted to eat and get to bed. He drove in under the entrance to the Crime Squad headquarters, and indicated by a shrug to his colleague that it wasn’t anything important and he could go off home now. But Veyrenc, who seemed sunk in his own disturbed thoughts, did not move.

‘Give me the details, Robert,’ said Adamsberg in a resigned voice, as he parked the car. ‘I’m taking notes,’ he said, but without taking out a pen.

‘Like I said. Massacred. Demolished.’

‘What does Anglebert say?’

‘You know Anglebert, he’s got his own ideas about it. He thinks it’s some young nutter who’s got a bit older but no wiser. The thing is, he’s moved from Bretilly, he’s over our way now. Anglebert’s not sure it’s a weirdo from Paris any more. He said it could be some local weirdo.’

‘And the heart?’ Adamsberg asked. Veyrenc frowned.

‘Cut out, thrown away, all chopped up. Same thing all over again, listen what I’m telling you. Except it’s a ten-pointer. Oswald, of course, he thinks it’s a niner, not that he can’t count, but he always has to be different. So are you going to do something about it?’

‘I guess so, Robert,’ Adamsberg lied.

‘Can you get over here? We’ll buy your supper, we’re waiting for you. What’ll it take you? Hour and a half?’

‘I can’t come just now, I’m dealing with a double murder.’

‘Ha, so are we. If you don’t call this a double murder, then I don’t know what is.’

‘Have you told the gendarmes?’

‘They couldn’t give a shit. Thick as two short planks. They didn’t even stir themselves to take a look.’

‘And you did?’

‘Yeah, this time we did. The Champ de Vigorne, that’s close to us, understand?’

‘So is it a tenner or a niner?’

‘A tenner, of course. Oswald, he just talks a lot of rubbish to annoy. His mother was from Opportune, just by where they found the stag. So, of course, he’s showing off about it. But come on, dammit, are you coming up here for a drink or not? We can’t wait for ever.’

Adamsberg was trying to think of the best way to wriggle out of the situation, which was difficult, since Robert considered the slaughter of the stags as weighing the same in the balance as two men who’d had their throats cut. In the obstinacy stakes, it seemed that Normans – these ones, at any rate – were as bad as the Bearnais, at least the ones from the Gave de Pau and Ossau valleys.

‘I can’t, Robert, I’ve got a ghost on my hands.’

‘Well, Oswald’s got one too, and that doesn’t stop him coming out for a drink.’

‘He’s what? Oswald?’

‘He’s got a ghost on his hands, like I said. In the graveyard at Opportune-la-Haute. Well, it was his nephew that saw it. He’s been going on about it for a month now.’

‘Put Oswald on the line.’

‘Can’t, he’s gone out. But if you come, he’ll be back here. He wants to see you too.’

‘Why?’

‘Because his sister’s asked him to see you, about the thing in the graveyard. Maybe she’s right, ‘cos the police in Evreux, they don’t want to know.’

‘But what was it, this thing, Robert?’

‘Don’t ask me, I don’t know.’

Adamsberg consulted his watches. Almost seven o’clock.

‘I’ll see what I can do, Robert.’

The commissaire put the mobile back in his pocket, and gazed ahead of him. Veyrenc was still sitting in the car.

‘Something urgent?’

Adamsberg leaned his head against the glass of the window.

‘No, it’s nothing.’

‘But he was talking about a heart being torn out.’

‘It’s a stag, lieutenant. Up there, they’ve got someone who gets his kicks cutting up stags, and that’s got them all in a sweat.’

‘A poacher?’

‘No, not at all, someone who just likes killing stags. And they’ve got a ghost too, a Shade, up there in Normandy.’

‘Nothing to do with us, though, is it?’

‘Nope, not at all.’

‘So why are you going?’

‘I’m not going, Veyrenc. I can’t do anything about it.’

‘I thought you seemed like you wanted to go.’

‘Too tired and it’s of no importance,’ said Adamsberg, opening his door. ‘I’d end up smashing the car and me with it. I’ll call Robert later.’

The car’s doors slammed. Adamsberg locked it. The two men prepared to separate a few yards further on, in front of the Brasserie des Philosophes.

‘If you want,’ Veyrenc said, ‘I could drive and you could sleep. We could get up there and back in the evening.’

Adamsberg, his mind a blank, stared at the car keys he was still holding.

XXII

COMING IN THROUGH THE RAIN, ADAMSBERG PUSHED OPEN THE DOOR of the cafe in Haroncourt. Anglebert had risen to greet him, standing stiffly, a posture immediately adopted by the rest of the tribe.

‘Sit down, man from the Bearn,’ said the old man, shaking his hand. ‘We kept some food warm for you.’

‘Two of you?’ asked Robert.

Adamsberg introduced Veyrenc as a colleague, an event which occasioned another round of handshakes, with a little more suspicion, and the arrival of an extra chair. All of them cast quick glances at the striking hair of the newcomer. But there was no risk here of questions about this phenomenon, however unusual. That did not prevent the men from pondering the strange apparition, and working out ways to find out more about the disciple whom the commissaire had brought along. Anglebert was examining the similarities in appearance of the two policemen, and drawing his own conclusions.

‘A cousin a few times removed,’ he said, filling up the glasses.

Adamsberg was beginning to understand the way the Norman mind worked: in a sly and crafty fashion, contriving to put a question without ever asking directly. The intonation would drop at the end of the sentence, as if for a false statement.

‘Removed?’ asked Adamsberg, since, being from the Pyrenees, he was entitled to ask questions.

‘Further off than a first cousin,’ explained Hilaire. ‘Anglebert’s my cousin four times removed. As for this one,’ he said, pointing to Veyrenc, ‘you’re about six or seven times removed.’

‘Could be,’ Adamsberg conceded.

‘Anyway, he’s from your part of the country.’

‘Not far off, true.’

‘Police is full of guys from the south-west, then,’ Alphonse asked, without seeming to ask.

‘Before him, I was the only one.’

‘Veyrenc de Bilhc’, the New Recruit said, presenting himself.

‘Veyrenc will do,’ said Robert, simplifying.

There were several nods to signify that this proposal was accepted. It still didn’t enlighten anyone about