The Woman in the Fifth (38 page)

I scrambled through the debris. I found my suitcase. Amid the torn clothes, I discovered a pair of jeans, a shirt, underwear and socks that had not been shredded. I reached into the shower stall and grabbed soap and shampoo and a toothbrush and toothpaste from the medicine cabinet. My portable radio – though badly dented by having been tossed from my bedside table – still worked. Along with everything else I'd rounded up, I dumped it into the suitcase, stuffed the cash and my passport into my jacket pocket, and slammed the broken door on my
chambre de bonne
, thinking,
I'm never coming back here again.

Out in the street, I scanned the rue de Paradis to see if anyone was on the lookout for me. It seemed clear. I wheeled my bag down to the faubourg Saint-Martin. Five minutes and several turns later, I walked into the
commissariat de police.
I asked to see Inspector Coutard. The man on the desk told me he was out of the building. I asked to see Inspector Leclerc. A phone call was made. I was told to take a seat. Leclerc came downstairs ten minutes later. He nodded hello and immediately noticed my suitcase.

'Planning to move back into your cell?' he asked.

'Very funny,' I said.

'Leaving Paris then?'

'A short break to London,' I said. 'And I need my laptop computer.'

'What laptop computer?'

'The one you confiscated when you raided the office.'

'I wasn't part of that assignment. It was another division. If they have the laptop—'

'Inspector Coutard told me they
did
have the laptop—'

'Then you should speak to Inspector Coutard.'

'But he's not here now.'

'He should be back tomorrow—'

The man on the desk came in here.

'No, he's taking four days off.'

'He didn't bother to tell me,' Leclerc said.

'Is there any chance
you
might still be able to locate the laptop?' I asked.

'If it is part of an ongoing investigation . . .
no
. I cannot interfere with evidence. And as the inspector in charge is not here to approve its return to its alleged owner—'

'I
am
the owner.'

'So you say. But without Inspector Coutard here to verify—'

'Couldn't you phone him on his cellphone?'

'While he is on his
vacances
? Impossible. More to the point, he would tell you the same thing. If the computer is part of an investigation, it stays with us until we have finished the investigation.'

'But couldn't I copy something off the hard disk?'

'That would be tampering with evidence.'

'It's just my novel.'

'Your novel could be part of the evidence.'

'But how?'

'As it is not my investigation—'

'I need a copy of my novel so I can continue writing it.'

'You didn't make a backup copy?'

'I lost it,' I said, not wanting to tell Leclerc about my trashed room, which might lead to more questions and him insisting that I stay around for a few more days in Paris . . . which I simply wasn't prepared to do.

'Too bad,' he said. 'Surely a
proper
novelist makes more than one copy of his work in progress.'

'I'm just a goddamn amateur.'

'No need to get touchy,
monsieur
. And if you don't mind me saying so, you are looking very unwell and smelling rather ripe.'

'You didn't exactly provide me with an en-suite bathroom.'

'Be pleased that you were released . . .
with
your passport. The inspector could still be legally detaining you.'

'You could watch me make the copy.'

'It would still be tampering with evidence.'

'That novel is my life.'

'Then I can't understand why you didn't duplicate "your life" many times over.'

And he turned and walked back toward his office.

I sat slumped in a chair, trying to figure out my next move. The cop behind the desk spoke.

'
Monsieur
, if you have no further business here, I must ask you to leave.'

'OK, OK,' I said, standing up. 'Any chance I could leave my bag here for a couple of hours?'

The cop looked at me as if I had lost all reason.

'
Monsieur
, this is a
commissariat de police
, not a
vestiaire
.'

'Sorry, sorry,' I said as I wheeled my suitcase toward the door.

Outside I checked my watch: 1.23 p.m. Just under four hours to go before I could cross the threshold again at rue Linné. I needed shelter before then. So I walked down the first side street to my left and saw a cheap hotel – Le Normandie – directly in front of me. It looked shabby from the outside and had a one-star rating pasted on to its doorway. It looked shabby on the inside. The lobby was narrow, with peeling paint, scuffed linoleum, fluorescent lighting. I rang the bell on the desk. No answer. I rang it again. An elderly African man came out, rubbing his eyes.

'I need a room, please,' I said.

'Check-in is at three.'

'Is there any chance . . . ?'

'Three p.m.,
monsieur
.'

'I'm not well. I'm . . .'

He studied me for a moment, trying to see if I was telling the truth or just trying to get an extra ninety minutes free of charge.

'How many nights?' he asked.

'Just one.'

'With shower?'

'Absolutely.'

He turned to the box of keys and pulled out one. It had a wooden tag on it marked '7'.

'Forty-five euros, payable now.'

I handed him the cash.

'Second floor, turn right.'

'Thank you.'

He just shrugged and disappeared back through the door behind the front desk.

The room was a dump. I didn't care. It was shelter. I stripped off my filthy clothes. I dug out the soap and shampoo and stood under the drizzle that passed for a shower. I dried myself off with the tiny towel that had been provided, amazed that it was clean. I set the clock on my radio to wake me up in two hours. I climbed between the sheets. I shut my eyes. I felt as if I was falling. Within seconds the bed was drenched with sweat. My teeth were chattering, and I clutched the pillow as if it was a life preserver. I blacked out. I woke up again to the sound of France Musique playing Berlioz. The
Symphonie fantastique.
3.45 p.m. Back into the shower. Clean clothes. My body still ached with fatigue, but the fever had broken. I put my jacket back on, tapping the pocket where my money and passport were stored. A voice in my head whispered,
Just leave now. You can get the laptop back from the cops some other time. You can walk away from all the questions about Margit and write it off as . . .

As what? My insanity. A four-month delusion which I sleepwalked through?

Call it whatever you like. Quit while you're ahead
.

I will quit – as soon as I've confronted her and found out what I need to know.

And what is that?

Am I insane?

No comment.

Down the crumbling stairs of the hotel, out into the street, a left turn, and an abrupt stop at an Internet café on the boulevard de Sébastopol. I checked my watch again: 4.07 p.m. I had to be out the door and on the
métro
toward the Fifth in under ten minutes. I was going to check the local Ohio papers to find out more about the alleged downfall of my nemesis . . . but first I opened my mailbox. There was only one email waiting for me – from my former colleague, Doug Stanley. It explained the entire scandal breaking around Robson; how the Dean's computer crashed last week and a technician was called in to remedy the problem and discovered:

. . . something like two thousand pornographic images of children on his hard drive. The technician informed the college authorities, the authorities called the cops, the cops called the Feds, and Robson is now being held in a slammer near Cleveland, trying to raise the $1 million bail that has been set. Ever since this went down, he's been protesting his innocence, saying that somebody 'planted' these images on to his computer. But the Feds released a statement yesterday, saying their experts had conclusive evidence that he had downloaded all this stuff himself.

The man is in total shit – of the type that simply won't wash away. The college has dismissed him, the scandal has been picked up by all the usual tabloid media, and rumor has it that he's under suicide watch in jail. The prosecutor on the case has announced that he plans to make an example of Robson – 'horrible breach of public trust, especially for an educationalist' – and demand a minimum twenty years . . . as Robson was trading these images with other likeminded perverts. Unlike trading baseball cards, trading in child pornography can be classified as 'trafficking in obscene material' which is a Federal offense. The DA also stated that he had proof that Robson was the ringleader for this ring of kiddy porn collectors, as they also found some credit card account he'd set up for collecting payment for this stuff. It's unbelievable . . . and further proof that you can never really know the dark side of other people.

There has been another victim of Robson's downfall, and that is Susan. In studying every document on the hard drive of Robson's computer, the Feds found a sequence of emails he sent her several months before he drove you out of your job. The emails were love letters – and, I hate to tell you this (but you need to know), very graphic when it came to intimate stuff between them. This has provoked a subsidiary scandal, which has just broken in the press. And the college has suspended Susan without pay while it conducts an investigation into whether she received tenure because she was Robson's mistress.

I called Susan last night. She sounded terrible – appalled about the revelations about Robson and pretty convinced that it was just a matter of time before the college permanently dismissed her. She was also worried about how Megan would take all this, and how she was going to meet the bills, since the scandal was also going to make her unemployable as a professor. I'm going over to see her this afternoon. Without wanting to unsettle you any further, Susan really struck me as shaky – and on the verge of some sort of breakdown. I'll report back by email later.

As you can well imagine, the entire college is reeling. In the wake of all these revelations, many faculty members have told me that they now felt guilty about voting for your dismissal. Because among the 'love letters' he sent Susan, they also found ones in which he talked about how he was going to 'go public' on your affair with Shelley, and decimate you. I'm afraid that Susan's email reply was not pretty: 'Let him have it' or words to that effect.

Sorry to have to lay this all at your feet . . . but I did think you should hear it from a friend rather than read about it or get a call from some hack journalist, wanting to know how you were taking the news.

Be grateful you're in Paris, and away from this shabby Peyton Place. I'll be at home this evening if you want an update.