Free Tapestry by J. Robert Janes

left her children alone, Louis. Classes would have begun at six thirty p.m. Travel from the flat on the rue Saint-Dominique would have taken a good half-hour, more if she stopped in at place de l’Opéra.’
    ‘But did her assailant imagine what she was up to, or had he known of her from before?’
    That was the question but still it had to be asked. ‘A random attack when there’s been so many?’
    ‘Had he been following her, Hermann?’
    ‘There was a fingernail.’
    Pipe in hand, Louis looked at that thing. ‘Dirt, blood and grease, Hermann, this last no doubt the same as I felt on the seats of that taxi and on her shoulders. Big hands. Strong hands.’
    ‘The Drouant attack. It’s not that far a walk from the passage de la Trinité.’
    That attack had taken place at 11.52 p.m. and with plenty of time to have gotten into position from the Trinité. ‘And not random but planned—it must have been, Hermann—the whereabouts of the victims known well beforehand but even more importantly, that M. Gaston Morel would have his driver take his wife’s stepsister home early.’
    ‘And that Morel would accompany Madame Barrault to her flat on the rue Taitbout, eh? She’s not wealthy, but does live near enough to the place de l’Opéra if it was being watched for women like that.’
    ‘Another POW wife, another stolen wedding ring, but condemnation and punishment this time for committing adultery with a Frenchman, the husband of another. I’m certain Madame Morel is convinced of it.’
    ‘As is her friend, Denise Rouget.’
    ‘A social worker.’
    ‘And socialite. A parasite, Madame Barrault called her.’
    ‘From the Secours National?’ The National Help.
    ‘We’ll have to ask her.’ And hadn’t Madame Barrault sat as far as possible from Denise Rouget?
    ‘Stamps or some other item are then stolen at between twenty and thirty minutes past midnight and not likely by the same person or persons but that clay, Hermann. Were the sewers used to get there?’
    It would have to be said. ‘From the passage de la Trinité to that of the Jouffroy isn’t far by the streets, and this must have been known to Madame Guillaumet’s assailant since he damned well knew how to find the Trinité on such a night.’
    Whoever was committing these crimes, and there must be several of them, knew the city as if blindfolded. ‘But before any of these, the police academy.’
    ‘Which we definitely were to have been sent to?’
    ‘Perhaps. And after that killing, a girl who telephones to let the world know about it.’
    A call that had been made from the Lido right across the street from them!
    Louis took a moment to glance around at the clientele who now seemed more at ease. Setting his pipe aside, he leaned closely. ‘Are we to wonder then what this one has done to that girl?’
    Cupped in his palm was the buttonhole silk of a ribbon whose red moiré, a weak shade of scarlet, had definitely been crimped so as to give it a wavelike pattern as always, though now it looked like water spilling down a series of steps.
    ‘Three men, Hermann, at least one of whom wore hobnailed boots.’
    ‘Veterans?’
    ‘Unless we are to be led into believing it.’
    ‘And a dog, Louis.’
    ‘ Ah, oui . Lulu, age seven. Breeder: the Kennels Bouchard at Louveciennes on the edge of the Fôret de Marly-le-Roi, the dog’s owner, Madame Catherine-Élizabeth de Brissac, an old and much venerated family now residing on the avenue de Valois overlooking the Parc Monceau.’
    And if that wasn’t convenient, what was? The remains would have been buried probably in the late afternoon and just before the gates were closed and locked. The police academy victim had been abducted perhaps from the Lido at about 7.30 p.m., killed between 8.30 and 9.30 p.m. ‘But not enough time for any of his assailants to then steal a bicycle taxi, Louis, and ride to the passage de la Trinité.’
    They were up against it. Doubtless there was another victim—the