Kaleidoscope (36 page)

They ran. They made it across the little amphitheatre and in among the columns. Blood marked their trail.

Even as they scrambled up to her, Josette-Louise sighted along the crossbow. The lead dog was huge. It would throw itself at the wall. It would tear at their trouser legs …

Kohler couldn't manage it. Loss of blood perhaps, or pain in the head from the bullet-graze Delphane had given him. ‘Louis,' he managed. ‘
Gott im Himmel
, Frog,
pull me up
!'

The girl fired. The Alsatian caught the bolt squarely in the chest and was carried back by it. ‘
Verdammt
…' muttered Kohler as the thing hit the ground below them. ‘
Verdammt
, Louis, I'm done for.'

The kid was working the windlass like a trooper. Round and round the handles went, her foot jammed solidly into the stirrup. Then the arrow in the slot. She gave a satisfied gasp and said, ‘Now this way,' even as the other two dogs threw themselves at the wall in a rage.

Kohler hesitated. Louis and the girl pelted along the wall, slipping, stumbling once while he held the dogs here. ‘Louis …' he managed. ‘Louis … what was it the herbalist gave me?'

The greyish-red powder was very fine. Kohler clenched a fistful. He got down on his knees and deliberately let the dogs leap at him.

Louis was yelling for him to join them. ‘Their SS handlers, Hermann. They will be coming!'

The dust stung the dogs' eyes. It burned their nostrils and reached far down into their throats. It only drove them to a madness that alarmed. Flinging the last of the bottle at them, Kohler ran but by then Louis and the girl had vanished.
Ah merde
! Where had they gone?

There was a cistern deep in the rocks below the ruins. As he peered doubtfully past the girl, St-Cyr saw that the steep and narrow staircase disappeared uncomfortably into inky darkness below. ‘
Ah Nom de Dieu
,' he whispered, giving a troubled sigh. ‘We must wait for Hermann, mademoiselle. This I cannot undertake myself.'

‘But we must, monsieur. The dogs, isn't that correct? There is a narrow bridge to cross. Once there, I will come back for your friend.'

‘Leave an arrow for him. Place it up high, in sunlight if possible. That will have to do.'
Merde
, this place! Ruin piled upon ruin; passageways and passageways.

As she stepped past him, they brushed against each other precariously. His back was to the wall; she had nothing but the abyss to guide her steps.

He watched as she found a slender patch of sunlight high on the wall and placed the arrow there; he hoped Hermann would not be too busy with the dogs to notice it.

‘The dogs …?' he asked, and wondered what had happened to them.

‘Hurry,' she said, her voice a hush, and stepping quickly past him, went down the steps. ‘Come,' she urged. ‘Don't hesitate. It's quite safe but stay close to me.'

‘Josette-Louise … your voice, mademoiselle? You have used the voice of your sister.'

‘Have I?' she asked, flashing a smile. ‘She is with me, Inspector. Can't you feel her presence? It was she who discovered this place and who found the beaker you have in your pocket.'

‘Ah yes. “Drink and live for ever”.'

‘Let us drink then, when we reach the water. Let us drink to her.'

Ah Nom de J
é
sus-Christ
, Hermann, he shouted to himself. With what are we dealing? Two people; two voices. The one from the world beyond. Both calling to each other …

Down in the darkness there was nothing but the sound of trickling water as it spilled over the cistern's lip. And he had to wonder how it was that the village had never discovered this ready source, just as he had to wonder where Jean-Paul was hiding. ‘Mademoiselle …?' he began hesitantly, only to find that she had left him.

Immediately a cold sweat broke out all over him. ‘Chamonix again!' he cursed. Jean-Paul, he was so near, so near …

Feeling with a toe, he hazarded a step – felt all around him with a hand. A bridge, she'd said. A narrow walkway.

Listen as he did, the sound of the water was not near or far, or from the left or right, but coming from everywhere. It echoed too. And the musty damp of the ages was there as well. Ah yes. And the stale pipesmoke and tobacco of the present. That, too, of small cigars. Dutch cigarillos.

Getting down on his hands and knees, St-Cyr found the narrow slab of stone that formed the bridge, and crossed over what must be a chasm filled with water. Now the ground was flagged and he could feel the edges of each stone. He went on for perhaps twenty metres, perhaps a little more. A narrow fissure forced him to stand and squeeze sideways and only then did he realize a wall or several layers of rock must have slid sideways to all but close the passage. An earthquake perhaps. In Aegean times, or Roman.

Here time really had no meaning.

The fissure ended. St-Cyr sucked in a breath. Josette-Louise was standing on some rocks in the centre of a circular pool whose rim was only slightly raised. Sunlight fell on her from a hole high in the roof above, but all around her there was darkness.

Jean-Paul would be waiting for him. Then why … why did he feel he was so near?

Kohler dragged in a ragged breath and brought the stone down with all the force he could muster. The dog's skull cracked. Blood shot from its eyes. ‘There …' he gasped, too tired to fling the boulder from him in disgust. ‘I
like
dogs, damn it! Good dogs. I always had one when a boy.'

Kneeling still, he let his hands fall between his legs as he bowed his head in utter exhaustion. First one and then the other of the dogs had come at him. Unsteady … yes, yes, perhaps, but how was he to have known for sure?

Dragging himself up, he leaned against the wall and tried to still the aching in his head. Jesus, it was as if all the fireworks in China were going off inside him.

Blood still seeped from the damage Delphane had inflicted. Must he bear the scars of
every
investigation Louis and he got into? He wanted to rage aloud at the injustice of it all. He wanted to curse Himmler and the Führer but knew it would serve no purpose. ‘Louis …' he muttered. ‘Must get to Louis before that bastard does him in.'

‘Monsieur …?'

It was the weaver but she had not come alone. Two burly SS with Schmeissers stood on either side of her, and neither of them looked happy about the dogs.

Kohler raised a tired hand to signal that he'd seen them, and when she walked on ahead, he thought that maybe they might shoot her. The walls confined. There was a cleared space where blocks of stone had perhaps been quarried by one of the villagers to finish off a house or build one. She crossed this and then, suddenly, came up three simple steps and was standing before him.

He asked what had happened and she said, ‘I know the ruins, though not as well as my daughter. Jean-Paul might just be able to escape. Herr Munk has offered to let Josette go free if I will see that her father is stopped.'

‘Have they killed the boy?'

She shook her head and saw him nod – understood at once that this one had not wanted Bébert or any of them to have been taken. ‘Carlo's dead. He tried to snatch a gun from one of the SS. Herr Munk could not have let him live.'

Kohler nodded grimly. ‘Questions … there'd have always been questions about the villa and who really owned it.'

‘Yes,' she said. ‘Yes, that's so, isn't it?'

‘Come on. We'd better find them. Those two can follow if they want.'

He took her by the wrist and she let him do so, was glad of the gesture, but when they saw the arrow, she had to follow him down the steps. They were so steep. Darker, darker, and darker …

‘Ssh!' he said. ‘Listen!'

The girls were calling to each other. ‘Josianne, why didn't you tell me you'd found this place?'

‘Josette, I wanted to but then I could not control myself. I went all to pieces. A terrible fit. The worst one ever.'

‘That's why you took your things up to the ruins and sat at the Window of the Gods. I just
knew
there had to be a reason for your sitting there like that so quietly.'

And from elsewhere, echoing also, ‘I would
never
have given you epilepsy, Josette. I would have shared Alain with you, just as we shared everything.'

‘Yes, yes, my sister, this I know. He loved us both. Hey, I found the beaker, Josianne! The Inspector has it in his pocket.'

‘It's beautiful, Josette. It was to be a present for you but I could not dig it up again … again … She … she …'

Kohler felt for the weaver's arm and gently tugged on it, signalling to follow him. The voices came from everywhere. Now, too, the sound of trickling water.

‘I've never been here,' she whispered anxiously.

They crossed the chasm and came to the fissure. ‘Sideways,' he said. ‘You after me. Don't stay behind … behind … behind …'
Ah merde, merde
, even whispers echoed! A loose rock fell. The sound of it was canyon-loud, and after it, there was the sound of someone running and then only that of the water.

‘Louis …?' he whispered. ‘Louis …? Louis …?' came the echoes.

‘
Ah Nom de Dieu
, Hermann. He has the revolver again pressed to my head!'

‘Don't move, Kohler!' shouted Delphane. ‘Josette, stop this at once. Josianne is dead.'

‘But I did not push her, did I?'

Ah no, breathed Kohler inwardly. Son of a bitch, the kid had cracked the ice of time. The weaver held her breath and he could feel her heart pounding against him.

‘Of course you pushed her,' snorted Delphane and this echoed too.

‘Then why did you come up to the ruins, Uncle Jean? Josianne had had the bad convulsions. Terrible ones, don't you remember? Anne-Marie said my sister, she would
never
get better. You … you came with her.'

Kohler tapped the weaver's arm twice. Stay put – she knew that's what he meant. Then he was gone from her and Josette was saying, ‘Anne-Marie walked on ahead of you, Uncle Jean –
father
, should I call you father? You knew what she was going to do and
you let her
!'

St-Cyr heard the weaver's cry. It began deep within her and was ripped right from her. ‘
No, Josette! No!
'

‘Mother, it's
true
! She pushed Josianne-Michèle from the Window of the Gods and then she hit me and hit me and hit me until …'

Kohler wrapped a hand about the Lebel and bent it away from Louis, turning it towards Delphane until pressed against that one's temple. ‘Go on, my fine. Pull the trigger. Don't make me do it for you.'

‘Hermann …'

‘
Louis, shut up
!'

The bang was very loud. Flecks of blood and brains flew about and Kohler felt them hit his face and hands. The one from Bayonne collapsed. The gun fell and clattered on the stones.

‘There are two SS back there somewhere, Louis. It's a pity this one couldn't have told them what he knew.'

St-Cyr let a breath escape. ‘
Merci
, my old one.
Merci
. His contacts in the Resistance are safe.'

‘Don't let it go to your head, Louis. I'm still on the other side, remember? This one's yours. Now you owe me one.'

‘Of course.'

The war – the ‘Occupation' – could only get worse and both of them knew it. The next time there could well be maquis in the hills, or Resistants hiding out in a place like this. Ah yes. Hermann the prisoner and his partner the what? asked St-Cyr. The moment of final decision.

‘Delphane killed the Buemondi woman, Louis. Don't argue about it. Sure the boy will say it wasn't so, but you know how these villagers are. One murder deserves another. Besides, it was a matter of the water rights and anyway, it must have been the dead girl who fired the arrow.'

‘Ah yes, Hermann. Without water there can be no life. “Drink and live for ever”, it's on the beaker.'

‘Beaker …? What's this about a beaker? Louis, the weaver and her daughter will have to come to Paris with us. Boemelburg won't have it any other way. I'm going to insist on it.'

Good for Hermann. Having the last word again, as nearly always. Grumpy too, but, then, he had his reasons. But what of a detective's duty? Must the girl be brought to justice for a crime she did commit? Everything in him said that it was not his job to ask such questions, but only to bring the assailant in. Yet the law of the hills tugged at him fiercely. The villagers would need to see their own brand of justice done.

‘With luck, the kid won't lose the villa, Louis. Maybe she'll have to lease it to Munk and he'll have to be satisfied.'

For the Duration? Ah, one would wish to say such a thing but not to Hermann, and especially not at a time like this.

‘The parish records will have been burned, Louis. Madame Buemondi and that husband of hers adopted the girls, and under the law, Josette-Louise is legal heir no matter what anyone says. So, come on, my old one, I need a drink.'

Still there could be no answer from the French side. Matters were often best left that way but … Ah, what the hell. ‘Me, also, Hermann. Two I think, and then a meal.'

‘You're buying. You've got all the cash and Munk's not getting one franc of it!'

‘Then you'd better ask him for the motorcycle. It's stolen.'

‘That thing? Hey, I requisitioned it on sight, but we're going to need a better set of wheels and I know just the place. A Bentley or a Rolls, and I'm driving.'

Boemelburg, who was looking out of the windows of his office, was quite taken with the Rolls which was parked in the courtyard behind Gestapo HQ Paris, on the rue des Saussaies. ‘For Christmas, Sturmbannführer,' said Kohler quietly from his chair before the Chief's desk. ‘Louis and I thought you might like to have it.'