Memory of Flames (19 page)

He then added firmly: ‘So make sure that we’re not stabbed in the back while confronting the Allies.’
 

THE policeman said nothing as he took Margont to the Marais, not far from Place des Vosges. He marched sullenly ahead without looking back once; perhaps he was hoping to lose him ‘accidentally’. He was so put out by having to look after this officious parallel investigator that when they arrived and Margont asked him to go to find Medical Officer Jean-Quenin Brémond at the hospital Hotel-Dieu, he replied with disarming indolence, ‘I’m afraid I won’t be able to find him.’

The words were like flints rubbing together in Margont’s mind, causing sparks of fury to light his eyes. The man quickly changed his mind and hurriedly set off to find the doctor.

Behind its sober facade, the house harboured a stunning luxurious interior. There was a Mazarin desk covered in brass marquetry, a gold table with a white marble top, silver candle-sticks, Dutch paintings, Gobelins tapestries of mythological scenes ... Margont felt as if he had opened an oyster apparently like all the

others, only to find pearls rolling in every direction at his feet. Count Kevlokine did not seem to have led the difficult wandering life of the leaders of the Swords of the King. What’s more, he ran far fewer risks. Had he been picked up by the police half an hour earlier Monsieur de Talleyrand and Joseph would have received him in the Tuileries Palace. Rat-ridden cellars for the ultras, palaces for the moderates.

A man came over to Margont. He was twenty-five or twenty-six, well turned out and fresh-faced with an impatient, slightly aggressive manner. ‘I’m Inspector Martial Sausson.’

‘Delighted to meet you,’ replied Margont without introducing himself.

‘I’ve been told not to ask who you are, why you are investigating or whether you have any information that I don’t—’

‘Exactly.’

Margont thought he could almost see black clouds of anger emanating from Sausson.

‘Here’s my report, Monsieur Unknown. This morning a servant by the name of Keberk comes to work for his employers Monsieur and Madame Gunans, a rich bourgeois couple, well, not so rich now that the Emperor has imposed a blockade on England. The Gunans made a fortune in maritime trading. Keberk tries to open the servants’ door with his key. It doesn’t open, which is very unusual. At night his employers bar the entrance, but early in the morning they remove the bar so that Monsieur Keberk can enter using his key when he arrives. It is the first time he has encountered such a problem in all his fifteen years of service. Keberk is alarmed and knocks at the door, shouts through the windows then runs off to tell the police that his masters have been murdered. As the house is in my area of jurisdiction, I come in person, accompanied by two of my men. I look about and discover that a shutter at the back has been forced open. I take the decision to enter the house with Monsieur Keberk. I find no sign of the Gunans. But I do discover the body of a man whom Monsieur Keberk says was called Monsieur Melansi, a friend of his masters. I use that word “masters” because that’s the word Keberk used. But I recognise

immediately that the victim is Count Kevlokine, who everyone has been searching for and whose description had been circulated to all the police stations in Paris. Monsieur Keberk seems not to understand when I tell him this. I think he was fooled by his employers about the man’s real identity. I follow the procedure required when Count Kevlokine is spotted - I immediately inform the King of Spain, His Majesty Joseph I.’

He finally drew breath. Lord knows he had spoken quickly!

‘Up until that point everything had passed off normally. But then an investigator named Palenier suddenly bursts into my police station. He hands me a letter signed by His Majesty Joseph I himself, giving me the most peculiar orders ...’

He tried to find a more diplomatic way of putting it. The most astonishing orders I have ever received. In summary: I must touch nothing, I must await a mysterious unknown man - you! - whom I must tell everything I know without asking any questions! And -the bitter cherry on the cake - Palenier then takes the letter back out of my hand. When you have gone I am to - by order! - forget everything, as if you never existed!’

Margont could well understand Sausson’s fury; he had felt the same way at his first meeting with Joseph and Talleyrand. It was like looking in a mirror and seeing his image of ten days ago.

The policeman went on even more hurriedly: ‘I interrogated Monsieur Keberk while I was waiting for you. His employers received many visitors: society contacts, friends, clients, relatives, debtors, creditors ... He claims not to know whether the Cunans were in contact with royalists or not. But I’m sure they were; why else would Count Kevlokine be at their house? He had been staying here for a week, never went out, but had streams of visitors. It was a good hiding place. He would have been expected to find refuge with monarchists, or aristocrats ... not with an apparently unobtrusive bourgeois couple. I’m going to do my best to find out who all those visitors were, but it’s not going to be easy. There were several people every day and Monsieur Keberk is giving nothing away. I’m waiting for reinforcements from the Minister of Civilian Police, to help me find out more. My two theories are as follows.

The first is that the Cunans woke up this morning and found that Monsieur Kevlokine had been murdered by someone who had broken into their house during the night. They then took fright, and feared they would be accused of the crime or arrested by the police for consorting with an enemy agent. They fled in disarray, taking their housekeeper and a servant who both lived with them. My second theory is that for some reason I don’t know they were the ones who killed Count Kevlokine. Whatever the case, they are no longer here and nor are their two servants. Some personal belongings are missing: clothes, combs, jewellery, little things the couple were fond of... If you would like to follow me ...’

He led Margont into a large bedroom of unbelievable luxury with paintings in massive golden frames, marquetry furniture, Sevres or Dresden porcelain, and Persian carpets. The count’s body lay near the fireplace, not far from a four-poster bed. He looked about forty-five and had been gagged. He was very fat with reddened cheeks that contrasted with the pallor of his skin. His hair was so grey it was almost luminous. The man’s appearance corresponded closely to Talleyrand’s description of Count Kevlokine. In the heavenly setting, with its gold and other bright colours, his burnt arms formed two horrifying lines of red and black. His hands had been bound with one of the curtain ties, which had in its turn been burnt. He was wearing a nightshirt, a long, white quilted goose-down housecoat and breeches - normally the outfit of a man first thing in the morning, but also used to sleep in by men who worked all the time. It was comfortable enough for sleep, but allowed one to leap out of bed if awoken suddenly in the night, all ready for work without having to get dressed. His feet were bare. Margont went over to get a closer look at Kevlokine’s face. Unlike Colonel Berle’s, it was unscathed. Margont turned round and saw that Sausson was watching him attentively, trying to work out what he was thinking from his gestures.

They forgot to give me the order to close his eyes,’ said the policeman sardonically.

Without asking him to leave, Margont went on with his investigation. The badge of the Swords of the King was pinned to the

count’s nightshirt, on his chest, like a decoration. It was exactly the same as the symbol that Margont had noticed on Colonel Berle. The count’s serene face contrasted with the state of his arms, devoured by fire. Margont could not, however, see any mortal wound.

A brouhaha broke out in the street - there were cries and exclamations. Margont recognised one of the voices and hurried over to the window, completely forgetting he was supposed to keep himself hidden. Jean-Quenin Brémond and the policeman who had gone to find him were surrounded by four men. Jean-Quenin was showering them with invective. Although extremely kind to his patients, colleagues and friends, he was often impatient with everyone else. His guide had been obliged to raise his voice to explain to him that he was from the civilian police. At that point several people who had been lying in wait surged out of the adjacent little streets to come and surround them.

‘Imbeciles! What’re those political oafs getting involved for?’ Sausson cursed. ‘And that other idiot, who came in the front instead of using the back door as usual!’

He opened the window with such force that a pane smashed on the hook for the curtain tie - but it looked as if the glass had been shattered solely by the force of the policeman’s fury.

‘Let them through!’ he yelled.

The assailants scattered like cockroaches surprised by a light. The next instant there was not a sign of them. But Jean-Quenin continued to shout insults: they were cads, louts, yet again they were treating the Health Service disrespectfully, they were lucky he was in a hurry, the Minister of Civilian Police would certainly be hearing all about this ... When they vanished inside the house, he could still be heard uttering imprecations. Sausson forestalled Margont’s question.

‘They’re policemen like me, but we’re not from the same force. Oh, no! I take care of criminal investigations, they look after political matters and I’ve no idea where you fit in ... They work for Joseph I, I work for the people of Paris, and that’s not the same thing at all. This one murder has set off a triple investigation. And

to think that when a washerwoman is stabbed, my superiors complain I spend too much time looking for the culprit! All those fellows arrived with Monsieur Palenier. And all because I mentioned the name Kevlokine. They’re grabbing everyone who tries to come in to the Gunans’ house. But there are so many visitors that by the end of the day they will have arrested the whole of Paris.’

‘Very clever. The real royalists will be lost in the crowd; it will be hard to separate them out. Every one of them must have taken care to concoct his cover.’

Jean-Quenin arrived in a fury, scarlet-faced, his case in hand, his uniform hidden under a light-coloured overcoat. He opened his mouth to speak but his friend gestured that he should stay silent. This is Inspector Sausson, and he must not know anything about me,’ Margont explained. ‘Perhaps he will leave us ...’

He would pay for saying that. Sausson tensed. His lips folded and disappeared with the words he swallowed down. He turned abruptly and left the room, banging the door.

Jean-Quenin stared at the victim. ‘What wasps’ nest have you stirred up now, Quentin?’ His weary, despairing expression spoke volumes.

‘Could you examine the body, please, Jean-Quenin? I won’t tell you anything about it so as not to influence you.’

As the medical officer did so, Margont went over to the fireplace. Here the smell of charred flesh was almost unbearable. Crease spots stained the stones of the hearth and there were shreds of burnt clothing. The count must have fallen asleep while the fire was still burning. Had the murderer killed him as he slept and then dragged the body over to the hearth?

Jean-Quenin undressed the corpse.

‘I don’t understand this. Here again the man was burnt after having been killed. But I can’t see how he was killed! It’s the first time I’ve come across a crime like this. Perhaps he was poisoned ... by a slow-acting poison, which he swallowed at dinner, or drank in a tisane before going to sleep, and which took effect while he slept. But that doesn’t really make sense ... That would mean that the poisoner would have had to come in at least twice: once to pour

out the poison, then to mutilate the body, and he would have had to hide himself for hours in the house. As you know, I’m interested in criminal cases and I owe my interest to you. I can tell you that, very often, murderers who use poison choose it so that they don’t have to touch their victims, because they find them repulsive!’

Margont was puzzled. ‘Can we really be certain that this man was murdered by the same person as Colonel Berle?’ he wondered. ‘Now I think so, now I think not ... There are manifest similarities between the murders, but also differences.’

‘Wait, I mentioned poison, but let’s not be too hasty! It’s only a theory, because that’s the only weapon I know that can kill a man whilst leaving the body apparently unscathed. But it’s also possible that this person was awoken by a noise, that he noticed an intruder in his room, and that his heart, weakened by age and excess, was not strong enough to withstand the sudden shock. Or perhaps his heart gave out with the pain of the first burns, but the murderer went on inflicting them.’ ‘But the expression on his face is tranquil - doesn’t that mean that he was also mutilated after being killed, like Berle? Perhaps he was even killed as he slept; he seems so peaceful with his eyes closed. Then the murderer could have gagged him and bound his hands, to make it look as if the burns were inflicted before death.’

‘It’s true that the man’s relaxed expression does argue in favour of your hypothesis. But that’s all it is - a hypothesis; we can’t prove it. It doesn’t eliminate the second theory that I suggested, which at least explains how the man might have died. A brief intense terror would not necessarily make its mark on the man’s face, because death would be very sudden.’

‘Would you be able to do an autopsy?’

‘If the cause of death were obvious, as in the case of Colonel Berle, I would have refused, because we’re so busy dealing with the wounded every day. But this case is different. A doctor should never leave the cause of death unexplained. Otherwise, one of these days, he will miss the signs of that unexplained cause ...’ Thank you! I will undertake to get agreement from Inspector