The Unspeakable Crimes of Dr. Petiot (32 page)

Her reputation was, at best, uncertain. During interrogations she had spoken at length about her Resistance activity, but this activity had fallen into two categories: that preceding March 1944, and that following the rue Le Sueur discovery, when she was hiding from the police and needed a good story. In the earlier period, Eryane claimed to have done impressive things, but when the police asked about them, she couldn't remember the name of a single person who could support her statements—they were all as elusive as Petiot's Fly-Tox comrades. After March 1944, she really had furnished a few unimportant bits of information to peripheral Resistance members; she remembered not only the names of these people, but their exact addresses. This seemed suspiciously convenient. Moreover, shortly before his execution Henri Lafont identified a photograph of Eryane Kahan, gave accurate details about her life, and said she had given information to the Gestapo and had even denounced Jews. Lafont had no reason to lie; in fact he seemed intent on cleansing his conscience before he died and had become scrupulous about telling the truth.

DUPIN
[to Kahan] All the information concerning you in the dossier is quite favorable.

FLORIOT
Monsieur l'Avocat Général, you said a little while ago that she had papers identifying her as a member of the Resistance. It says here in the dossier that she is an adventuress who lies easily and consistently.

DUPIN
You will have your chance to summarize the case later, Maître.

FLORIOT
Madame Kahan, were you paid for sending people to Petiot?

KAHAN
No, never.

FLORIOT
Several other witnesses, and a number of your friends, have said you told them you had been.

KAHAN
I never said that.

FLORIOT
Then they are all liars?

KAHAN
I don't know anything about it.

FLORIOT
The honesty of this witness, as Dr. Paul might say, floats by in bits and pieces. Madame Kahan, didn't you have a German lover?

KAHAN
He wasn't German. He was Austrian.

FLORIOT
That's what Hitler said.

KAHAN
It's not the same thing.

She went on to explain that her Austrian lover had given her information she passed on to the Resistance.

FLORIOT
It seems that four Germans regularly visited your building, and that one of them was your landlady's lover.

KAHAN
He was only her friend.

During that interchange, Floriot and Eryane Kahan alternately removed and polished their glasses in what seemed like a comedy routine. Dupin was not pleased with the way Floriot was discrediting a prize witness, and he changed the subject.

DUPIN
I should mention that Inspector Poirier came to see me in my chambers and told me that some of the things he said on the witness stand were not altogether exact.

FLORIOT
There is a dossier that gives us all the facts we need. I don't understand why you want to make an issue out of minor details. They don't change the facts.

DUPIN
I don't allow myself to speak to you that way. Don't force me to answer you. You play quite a different role from mine.

FLORIOT
Obviously. I am your adversary.

DUPIN
Your position is an ignoble one. I won't tell you what I think of your attitude.

FLORIOT
I—

LESER
Why don't you just ask another question, Maître?

FLORIOT
I would like to reply to Monsieur l'Avocat Général's attack.

DUPIN
I demand a recess!

FLORIOT
That's too easy.

LESER
Court is recessed. Madame Kahan, we will take up where we left off.

They returned a few minutes later with tempers cooled.

DUPIN
I would like to apologize for the harsh words I said a few minutes ago, and which may have offended the defense.

FLORIOT
Madame Kahan, did you ever go to a Gestapo office in a German truck?

KAHAN
It's possible.

FLORIOT
With a German officer?

KAHAN
Never.

FLORIOT
Did you greet a group of German soldiers in the street?

KAHAN
My Austrian friend was with them.

FLORIOT
Could you tell us what happened to the dossier indicting you for intelligence with the enemy?

KAHAN
I have never heard of such a dossier.

DUPIN
If there were charges against Madame Kahan, she would not be here.

FLORIOT
It is dossier number one-six-five-eight-two.

Dupin copied down the number with bad grace. Presumably he never found the dossier since, despite strong suspicions about her, it does not appear she ever had been indicted, but for the moment the court, spectators, and press had the distinct impression that the prosecution was protecting Eryane Kahan.

PETIOT
Did I ever have dirty hands, as Monsieur Cadoret has said?

Eryane Kahan did not answer.

PETIOT
Perhaps I did. I didn't feel very safe in the rue Pasquier, as you can well understand. My bicycle had a manual gearshift, and before I came I moved the chain by hand to the larger gear so that I could go more quickly if I needed to escape.

The audience laughed.

PETIOT
At least my hands weren't dirty because I raised them in allegiance to Pétain!

LESER
Don't be insolent.

PETIOT
Toward whom? Toward Pétain?

LESER
You know very well that magistrates had to swear allegiance. There were unusual circumstances.

PETIOT
I know a magistrate who didn't.

LESER
Madame Kahan, you may step down.

Charles Beretta was brought from Fresnes to testify. Floriot described the role he had played and the various Resistance groups he had denounced. Beretta was terrified by this image of himself—one which would shortly be presented at his own trial.

BERETTA
But I couldn't do anything else!

FLORIOT
Don't tire yourself, old man, we understand perfectly well.

Jean Guélin was also brought from Fresnes, where he was being held for collaboration. The only charge against him stemmed from his activity in the Dreyfus case, and his only interest now was to defend himself.
*

GUÉLIN
I have been in prison for eighteen months and have been questioned only twice. Each day, I dreamed of this moment when I could explain myself before you. Monsieur le Président, you have the advantage of still being on the other side of the stand. I beg you to hear me out.

Guélin told them of the difficulties he had experienced in negotiating Dreyfus's release. He had done it all out of sheer patriotism and respect for Yvan Dreyfus, whom he praised endlessly as a Resistant and a handsome man. Never had he dealt with the Germans, whom he loathed and despised, except when it helped the noble cause of France. He wept.

GUÉLIN
I, who was such a patriot, who did everything I could for the Jews, look what has become of me. After all that I went through, it wasn't the Germans who prosecuted me, but the French. And now that, for once, they have a man of the world in prison, they don't want to let him go! Petiot, dare to look at me!

PETIOT
You little bastard.

But Guélin's fury was mainly directed toward Floriot, who effectively destroyed the former lawyer's defense.

GUÉLIN
Even if you are still on the right side of the stand, you can't stop me from telling you that I—I never received exorbitant fees from collaborators, and if there is someone here who has earned millions from traitors, collaborators, and members of the Gestapo, it is not I, Maître Floriot. You are the collaborators' lawyer!

FLORIOT
Is that why you asked me to defend you?

GUÉLIN
[bursting into tears] I'm
not
a collaborator!

FLORIOT
Article eleven fifty-four of the dossier shows that you had a Gestapo identity card and a license to bear arms, and that the Germans protected you. I don't think we need hear any more from you. Thank you.

Pierre Péhu, the friend and employee of Guélin who had helped negotiate with Dreyfus, was the first witness on the eleventh day of the trial. He, too, was brought from the Fresnes prison to appear.

PÉHU
Guélin asked me to help him out. As a service to a countryman, I went to Compiègne to see what was going on. Dreyfus was so conspicuously a patriot that I didn't hesitate. He signed a certain paper I had been instructed to bring. Guélin took me to the rue des Saussaies, where he concluded the transaction. A month later, Guélin told me that Dreyfus was going to be liberated that evening. And, in fact, I did see him that evening, and I never saw him afterward. But a month later I was called to the rue des Saussaies, and they asked me what I had done with Dreyfus. Guélin had just told me that he was in South America, but, as we had agreed, I told them that Dreyfus had not left Paris yet and was still in hiding. The Germans asked Guélin to swear that this was true. He gave them a paper accepting full responsibility for Dreyfus's disappearance, and the Germans never bothered me again.

VÉRON
You were able to talk to Dreyfus at Compiègne. That proves you had connections somewhere.

PÉHU
I had a little piece of paper.

FLORIOT
Didn't you make a report to the German police?

PÉHU
Me? I used to be a police commissaire and was thrown out of my job by Vichy! I was a Resistant! I, make a report to the German police?

PETIOT
This is the man who fractured my sternum at the rue des Saussaies.

PÉHU
I am a Resistant!

FLORIOT
This is very serious. If one can believe the last few witnesses, we have mistakenly locked up nothing but Resistants at Fresnes.

Three witnesses who had known Yvan Dreyfus testified that he had been utterly dedicated to the Resistance. Véron read a telegram from Pierre Mendès-France, one of de Gaulle's ministers:
I LEARN WITH STUPEFACTION PETIOT DARES SULLY MEMORY YVAN DREYFUS
.

Of all the witnesses, Madame Dreyfus was the most pathetic. She seemed a broken woman and never glanced at Petiot, who, for once, remained silent throughout a witness's entire testimony. Painfully, she told of her long negotiations with Guélin and Dequeker and the repeated demands for more money.

DREYFUS
When I learned that Yvan had signed two letters, I was horrified.

FLORIOT
One of them promised that he would help expose a certain escape organization?

DREYFUS
Yes, that was the condition. Yvan never would have done such a thing, and I begged Guélin not to use the letter. He told me it was purely a formality, and that Yvan could tear the letters up himself.

VÉRON
You felt yourself at the mercy of Guélin and Dequeker?

DREYFUS
They profited from my inexperience.

FLORIOT
How much did it all cost you?

DREYFUS
Over four million francs. My husband returned, and we were going to leave Paris together, but then Guélin told me that there was one last formality that had to be taken care of at the rue des Saussaies. Yvan went the next day, and I never saw him again.

FLORIOT
Did he take any luggage?

DREYFUS
No, Guélin loaned it to him.

Fernand Lavie, Madame Khaït's son, explained the circumstances of his mother's disappearance. He told about the bizarre letters that reported she had fled to the free zone.

LAVIE
My mother never mentioned wanting to leave.

VÉRON
The night that your mother left, she was coming to see me. Do you know where else she may have gone?

LAVIE
My mother had seen her doctor recently and told him that Petiot had given her false injections. I believe that her doctor advised her to go to the police. The evening she left, she did not take any money or luggage.

FLORIOT
Your father-in-law [David Khaït] is deceased?

LAVIE
I don't know.

FLORIOT
He was deported in June 1944 and never returned. When he first spoke with the police he said that it could only have been your mother who delivered the letter to the house on the day after her “disappearance,” and he gave very good reasons for believing this. And do you know that three people, including a railroad employee, believe they saw your mother in the free zone in June 1943—that is to say, over a year after her disappearance?

LAVIE
No, I didn't know that.

DUPIN
Those three people had never met Madame Khaït. They identified her from a photograph.

FLORIOT
Which is more than I can say for some people. Monsieur Lavie, didn't your mother also deliver a letter to your family's lawyer the day after her disappearance? The lawyer in question has said: “It was certainly Madame Khaït who came, my maid recognized her.”

VÉRON
Let's call the maid to the stand!

FLORIOT
Surely you do not doubt the word of this lawyer!

VÉRON
Let's hear my maid.

FLORIOT
Where is Raymonde Baudet, who is one of the most important witnesses in this case?

DUPIN
Isn't she in Poitiers?

LAVIE
I haven't heard from her. I only know that she is in the country.

DUPIN
She must be aware that we are discussing her at the Assize Court of the Seine and that her presence would be quite welcome.