‘So, is it your wish to imprison me, Inspector, for someone else’s crime?’ she asked.
Collaborator! she silently screamed. Resigned to such accusations these days, St-Cyr sadly shook his head. ‘No. No, of course not. But your mother’s contact in Cannes or Bayonne? Is it that she had a falling out with him and was killed because of this?’
She felt her brow. ‘If so, monsieur, then why was she killed in these hills? Why not in the streets of Cannes or at the villa my father wanted so much to sell? Mother did not use the villa – it was shut up on the day of the Defeat – but she wanted it kept for me and my sister and so would often check on it, I suppose.’
‘Ah! the sister,’ said St-Cyr, deeply concerned. ‘Someone will have to notify her of what has happened.’
‘Could you?’ she asked, clasping her shoulders now for warmth, so much so that Kohler got up to find her a shawl. A magnificent thing of vibrant colours and designs. Sudden slashes of crimson, great swaths of yellow on a russet background, green … green everywhere, even in the flecks.
Trembling, the girl wrapped the thing about her shoulders but appeared as if to hate the very touch of it. Fear? he wondered.
He tucked the shawl about her neck and gave her a fatherly pat on the back. No bites this time. He let his hand linger just to see if everything was all right.
Louis cleared his throat as if embarrassed by the need to press on with things. ‘The address of your sister, mademoiselle, and her name?’
She would look steadily at him. Yes, yes, that would be best. ‘The address I do not know, Inspector. Me, I never knew it. My sister and I, we were very close – inseparable – until … until the sickness came upon me. Then Josette, she went away to school and me, I stayed here in these hills.’
‘Why? In God’s name, why?’ Both of them had spoken at the same time, the one in German she could not understand, the other in French, but the consternation, it was equal and very sincere. Ah yes.
This pleased her immensely but did not wash away the sadness. ‘Because, messieurs, to be taken with fits was considered to be demented. A shame for any family to bear, so me, I was hidden away, while Josette, she was given everything.’
‘Louis, let me at the father. I’ll kill him.’
‘Me, too, my old one. Josette, mademoiselle? Surely you must have some idea of where we might find her?’
‘An actress, a dancer, a fashion-designer’s mannequin when she cannot get work, and an artist’s model, of course, at such times also. My sister, she has become everything that I ever wanted and that, messieurs, is why she does not come to see me and never writes.’
Good God Almighty! stormed Kohler inwardly. How could such a thing have happened? ‘You must have been taken to doctors, to a clinic perhaps?’
‘In Chamonix, yes. Yes, once I went there when I was sixteen …’ The one called Hermann tossed his friend a look of alarm. ‘But … but the treatment, it was unsatisfactory and my father, he … he insisted that I come home.’
‘To the villa in Cannes?’ asked the Surete.
‘In Le Cannet, yes. Yes, to the Villa of the Golden Oracle. I loved its garden. I was so happy there. Better … yes, yes, much better, but now … now the Germans they have come and I have had to leave. Is it true that they kill those who are sick like me, sick in the head or so poor in health they cannot survive for long?’
They were both silent as she studied them, both with lowered eyes, so yes, yes, it was all too true.
They looked at each other – looked about the cottage quickly as if in guilt. There was nothing … nothing much. It was all so very plain except for the woven things. A stone table, a hearth, a double bed, an unpainted chest of drawers and an armoire to match. Bits of pottery, a few flowerpots and glass things, the mirror … the mirror …
The shawl she was wearing.
‘Surely someone here must know of your sister’s whereabouts?’ asked St-Cyr.
The girl shook her head and gave it a little toss. ‘My mother and sister were estranged – separated. Mother wanted nothing more to do with Josette-Louise.’
Ah Mon Dieu, the family crisis! ‘Is your sister living with one of the Occupying Force?’ asked Hermann who could never remain patient when needed!
Again Josianne-Michele Buemondi shrugged, a little nonchalantly this time. ‘Me, I never knew the reason for their parting, only feared it had something to do with myself.’
‘And your father?’ asked St-Cyr gently.
Again the girl shook her head but did not offer any explanation, just remained quietly pensive.
‘Have you any idea who would want to kill your mother?’ asked the Gestapo, uncomfortably clasping his big hands on the table in front of him.
‘Or where he would get such a weapon?’ asked the one from the Surete.
Tears then, messieurs, to mist my tragic eyes! ‘The villa, for the weapon. My father, he had one he always kept by the fireplace in the grand salon. Italian, something from one of his family’s estates near Torino. Nothing special. A hunting bow, he always called it, but with the beaten silver engraved with wild game birds of all kinds, just to show people that once upon a time, the Buemondis were somebody.’
‘Fifteenth-century?’ asked St-Cyr.
‘Seventeenth, and used for hunting, monsieur, not for war.’
‘Then why the barbed iron tip and the leather flights?’ asked the Surete. ‘Dedou Fratani was positive on this.’
‘Dedou … he is the garde champetre among so many other things, Inspector. That one, he has the imagination but the type of bolt, it does not matter so much, does it? One for hunting could just as easily have killed her.’
‘From sixty metres, Louis. Probably from where I found this.’
Kohler set the carving on the table before him. The gasp the girl gave was real enough. Pale … she had become so very pale. Trembling, she waited but could not seem to take her eyes from the figure.
‘A santon, Hermann. A local custom. There are seventy or so of them, each depicting a traditional occupation in the village. The baker, the woodcutter, et cetera, et cetera.’
‘The herbalist,’ breathed Kohler. ‘Was he treating your epilepsy on the side, mademoiselle, and were you paying him with this?’
Vehemently she shook her head but still could not take her eyes from that thing. ‘For epilepsy there is no cure, and the herbs, they are not sufficient,’ she whispered sadly.
‘Then did you leave it among the rocks?’ he asked.
Again she shook her head. They waited. They gave her time – were genuinely afraid they might well bring on another seizure.
When she got up to leave them, the black beret was tilted to the left. The shepherd’s black, rough cape was linked below her chin and thrown back over the left shoulder.
St-Cyr noted the way she stood before them, defiant, proud but quivering. The rough grey trousers were obviously far too big for her. The black turtleneck pullover was someone else’s too.
He noted the heavy leather belt that could well have held a pistol, a captured Luger or Mauser. Hermann saw it too, but said nothing. Only half stood with sadness, his hands still resting on the table.
‘Messieurs,’ she said. ‘Until we meet again.’
They watched her leave. ‘Jesus!’ exploded Kohler. ‘What the hell was that all about?’
‘A lover, Hermann. In the maquis perhaps, but then … Ah it is far too soon to know.’
St-Cyr stood in the tiny courtyard next to the shorter piece of wall. No place was quite out of the mistral but here the sun was captured so that the soul was warmed.
Weighted under boulders was his laundry. Socks, trousers, underpants, vest and shirt. If anyone should come along – ah, Mon Dieu, they would most certainly wonder what had happened to the Surete.