The Beast of the Camargue (45 page)

He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. The air that came from
the vastness of the sea made him feel better and unknotted his stomach.

The day before, he had received in his letterbox a light envelope marked “By Air.” The postmark showed that it had been sent from the central post office of Annaba, Algeria, on October 26.

The letter it contained was brief; it was a man's handwriting, fine and harmonious.

Michel

I shall keep, as a memory of you, a pistol bullet. The odd farewell gift that you gave me on our last meeting at the farmhouse of Clary. A surgeon friend of mine told me that it was an 11.43 shell and that I was lucky to be still alive
.

You nearly killed me, Michel. And I'm almost sorry that you did not succeed. But that is the way things go. Do you know that, at William's funeral, I was standing behind Ingrid and our eyes met?

I know that you have been seeking your truth for some time by investigating the murky world of real estate in Provence. That was a good idea, but it made no sense, even if it might have seemed to …

The story reads differently
.

There were twelve who served the Tarasque. Twelve who seemed to form a single person and whom the war was to separate. Some did their duty as men, others were like crows on carrion. I saw my lands change hands, my lands burn. My father destroyed
.

Ai jamai descata lou plat davans moun paire
*
…
As we say in Provençal. And my father died of grief and misery descended upon us
.

When the smallest parcel of our Provence began to cost millions, I saw yesterday's swine sell the land of the immortals. After the death of my father, I was compelled to sell the fields that my family had tilled forever so as to pay the death duty. On the death of my mother, our house will be sold for the same reason. Thus does our eternity change hands
.

William was my friend, the best I had. Perhaps you remember the poem that Ingrid read over his grave:

Ich hatt' einen Kameraden,
Einen bessern findst du nit,
Er ging an meiner Seite
In gleichem Schritt und Tritt …

William did not want that vengeance. Not like that. He never knew about what I was planning. What I did, I did for the honor of our two families and that of my master Bérard
.

I owed you this fragment of confessions. The rest has no importance and I have trust in your intelligence
.

The first white spoonbills arrived yesterday. They are magnificent, aren't they?

Vincent

Soubeyrand had enclosed with his letter two photographs of spoonbills taken during a mating display. The big birds had their wings spread and their necks were intertwined.

The Baron stood up, crumpled the letter into a ball and threw it to the wind that lurked between the hillocks. He thought of Isabelle Mercier and looked for her image of innocence. Beyond the dunes, there was only the blur of the foam that the sea was stirring.

*
De Palma is relating the conclusion of his previous investigation in
The First Fingerprint
.

*
“Let the old witch go by, let her go so she can dance …”

†
“The Tarasque of the castle …”

*
“… Thirsty
for human blood and corpses,
In our woods and our ravines
Roams a monster, a scourge of the gods … Have mercy!”

†
Service de Traitement de l'Information Criminelle.

*
I had a friend, You will never find a better one, He walked by my side, step by step
. (Ludwig Uhland)

*
“
O beautiful, sovereign saints/Of the plain of bitterness,/You fill, when you so wish, our nets with fish;/But for the crowd of sinners/Who lament at your door,/ O white flowers of our salt moors,/If it is peace they need, then fill them with peace!”
—Frédéric Mistral,
Mireille
, Canto XII.

*
Brigade de Répression du Banditisme
.

*
I never looked at my food before my father.