Free This Night's Foul Work by Fred Vargas Page B

dead aren’t going to quibble over a couple of hours. My appointment with Ariane isn’t until four o’clock. She sleeps in all morning. Be careful not to forget that.’
    â€˜It’s nothing to do with the deaths. It’s the New Recruit. He’s been waiting for you for two hours. This is the third time he’s made an appointment to see you. And when he turns up, he’s left sitting on a chair as if you couldn’t care less.’
    â€˜Sorry, Danglard, I had an important rendezvous that was fixed a year ago.’
    â€˜With?’
    â€˜With the Spring. She’s touchy. If you forget her, she’s liable to go off and sulk. Then it’s no good trying to catch her. But the New Recruit will be back. Anyway, which New Recruit are we talking about?’
    â€˜Oh for God’s sake, the one who’s replacing Favre. Two hours he waited.’
    â€˜What’s he like?’
    â€˜Red-haired.’
    â€˜Good, that makes a change.’
    â€˜Actually his hair’s dark, but it has ginger stripes in it, sort of black-and-tan effect. Odd-looking, I’ve never seen anything like it before.’
    â€˜All the better,’ said Adamsberg, putting his last flower on the desk belonging to Violette Retancourt. ‘If we have to have New Recruits, best they should be
really
new, out of the ordinary.’
    Danglard thrust his gangling arms into the pockets of his elegant jacket and watched as the massive
Lieutenant
Retancourt put the little yellow flower in her buttonhole.
    â€˜This one seems rather
too
out of the ordinary, perhaps,’ he said. ‘Have you read his file?’
    â€˜Dipped into it. At any rate he’s here on probation for six months, whether we like it or not.’
    Before Adamsberg could open his office door, Danglard held him back.
    â€˜He’s not there any longer, he’s gone off on duty to the broom cupboard.’
    â€˜He’s guarding Camille? Why’s that? I asked for experienced officers.’
    â€˜Because he’s the only one who will put up with that damn cubbyhole on the landing. The others are all fed up with it.’
    â€˜And since he’s new, the others have landed him with it.’
    â€˜Correct.’
    â€˜Since when?’
    â€˜Since three weeks ago.’
    â€˜Send Retancourt. To protect Camille. She can stand anything, even the broom cupboard.’
    â€˜She did offer. But there’s a problem.’
    â€˜I don’t see any problem that would hold Retancourt up.’
    â€˜Just the one. She can’t turn round in the space.’
    â€˜Ah, too big,’ said Adamsberg pensively.
    â€˜Too big,’ Danglard confirmed.
    â€˜It was her magical size that saved my life, Danglard.’
    â€˜Maybe so, but she can’t fit into that cupboard and that’s that. So she can’t take over from the New Recruit.’
    â€˜OK,
capitaine
, I get it. How old is he, this New Recruit?’
    â€˜Forty-three.’
    â€˜What’s he like?’
    â€˜From what point of view?’
    â€˜Aesthetic, seductional.’
    â€˜There’s no such word as “seductional”.’
    The
commandant
ran his hand over the back of his neck, showing his embarrassment. Sophisticated as Danglard’s mental processes were, he was, like all men, reluctant to comment on the physical appearanceof other men, pretending he hadn’t noticed anything. Adamsberg, on the other hand, really wanted to know what the man looked like who had been allowed to sit for three weeks on Camille’s landing.
    â€˜What’s he look like?’ Adamsberg persisted.
    â€˜Quite good-looking,’ Danglard admitted reluctantly.
    â€˜Not my lucky day, then.’
    â€˜You could say that. It’s not Camille that I’m worried about, though, it’s Retancourt.’
    â€˜She’s susceptible?’
    â€˜So they say.’
    â€˜Quite good-looking in what