10

Guitar chords. The rhythmic beat of a drum. Nico sat up, startled. He had collapsed in exhaustion. His phone—Bichat Hospital! He thought of his mother’s heart, and his own began beating faster. Freddie Mercury’s voice resounded in the quiet room. “Another one bites the dust… Another one bites the dust.” He felt a hand on his back.

“It’s the ringtone for La Crim’,” Caroline said. Usually, that wasn’t comforting, especially at three in the morning. But in this case, a bloody crime was better than bad news about Anya. “How do you think I’m going to get along,” Freddie sang, as if he could read Nico’s thoughts. He picked up his phone and answered, putting an end to Freddie’s vocals.

“Nico? It’s Claire. I know it’s not the best time.”

Caroline curled against him and wrapped her arms around his belly. She kissed his neck. Nico shivered.

“It’s no problem,” he said.

Her breasts against his back. The stirrings of an erection.

“You would have been furious if we hadn’t told you right away,” Claire said uneasily.

Caroline caressed his torso slowly, then slipped her hand under the sheet and found his penis. Nico clenched his teeth.

“I’m listening, Claire. What is it?”

“There was an attack in the Parc de la Villette. I wanted you to get the news from us before reading about it in the morning paper.”

The investigators were required to alert the police chief or his deputy about any crime that seemed unusual. Nico guessed that Commander Charlotte Maurin had decided to call Claire Le Marec. It could have stopped there. Except it had happened in the Parc de la Villette, where they were already investigating a suspicious death, albeit an old one.

“The security people found a body in the bamboo garden. Around two in the morning.”

“What stage are you at?”

“We’ve started searching the area. The body hasn’t been taken away. I thought you might want to see it yourself.”

“I’ll be there. Give me twenty minutes.”

“We’ll wait for you here. I’ll send someone to the Pavillon Janvier to pick you up and drive you to the garden.”

They ended the call. Nico turned over and stretched out alongside Caroline. He kissed her passionately as she wrapped her leg around him and grabbed his hair. He knew this gesture well, and it redoubled his excitement.

“Come,” she whispered.

He licked her hard nipples and ran his hand over her thigh. Caroline arched, urging him even closer. He thrust himself into her, and at the moment of penetration, his spirit left the real world. His life was nothing more than this woman he held in his arms.

They clung to each other, their muscles taut and their breathing quick. He heard her moan against his cheek, and they peaked at the same time. Their tension finally released, they held on for another minute, drawing out their caresses.

“Get up, lazy boy,” Caroline sighed. She was used to emergencies and early-morning calls. She had them in her own line of work too.

Nico took a quick shower and threw on jeans and a pullover before giving her one last kiss.

“What if I crawled back in bed just for a minute or two?” he asked.

She smiled indolently.

“Duty calls, Chief.”

Nico grabbed his keys and went to the underground garage. Montparnasse Tower loomed, a faithful sentry.

Deep in the Parc de la Villette, Nico and Claire Le Marec stood over a depression nearly twenty feet deep. Within it was a tropical forest. Beams of light swung over the terrain. The police officers summoned to the site looked like an expedition group ready to trek through the dense forests of the Amazon in hopes of finding an isolated tribe. But this wasn’t an expedition. It was a murder investigation. And clues were what they were seeking.

“This is the bamboo garden,” Claire Le Marec said. “Shall we go down?”

They descended a staircase to a Zen universe, where the ground was covered with pebbles arranged in black and white stripes. They hugged the vine- and root-filled walls to reach the team under Charlotte Maurin’s command. Nico nodded to his officers.

“It’s a whole microclimate here,” Le Marec said. “The walls absorb and release heat. Runoff is recovered from the lawns and brought to the garden. Jean-Marie and Charlotte are waiting for us in the sonar cylinder. It’s art by Bernhard Leitner, something about integrating the concepts of space and sound in a natural setting.”

“You’ve done your research,” Nico said.

Two narrow paths led to the concrete cylinder. Despite the acclaimed artist’s goal of creating a life-affirming space within the bamboo garden, it had served as a perfect predator’s trap on this night. The victim was still swimming in his own blood.

“Have you started examining the body?” Nico asked.

Three factors had to be considered: the location, the victim’s clothes, and the condition of the corpse.

“Yes,” said Commander Maurin. She was one of the most organized members of Nico’s team. “The victim died from a knife wound to his torso. We haven’t found the weapon. His name was Mathieu Leroy. He was twenty-three years old. He was studying to be a math teacher. He had a student ID his wallet. And a condom.”

Nico crouched by the body. Mathieu was rather handsome and well-dressed. Nico guessed he had planned to go out and have a good time. But he had come across a monster—maybe more than one. Had a chance encounter gone wrong? Or was it an evening with friends that turned sour? The result was the same either way: he’d been stabbed to death. But there was something else.

“His shoulder’s a mess,” Deputy Chief Jean-Marie Rost said.

“It’s actually been cut up,” Claire Le Marec added. “Some of it’s completely missing.”

His jacket and shirt had been torn away from the neck, and a chunk of muscle and skin had been cut out.

“He pissed his pants,” Rost said. “Scared stiff, apparently.”

“Any clues?”

“Hair,” Le Marec said. “Mathieu probably pulled his aggressor’s hair, so it should be in at least one of his hands.”

Mathieu had struggled, but the murderer hadn’t given him much of a chance. A single thrust into the abdomen. The wound was still fresh. There hadn’t been any hesitation.

“Why would he take a piece of the shoulder?” Le Marec asked.

“Cannibalism?” Rost offered. “Maybe a snack for breakfast.”

“You’re too much,” Maurin said.

Her colleague gave her a dark smile.

“Why not?” Nico said. “There’s no limit to depravity. Have you been in touch with the medical examiner’s office?”

“We have,” Maurin replied.

Nico stood up and scanned the interior of the cylinder.

“The water usually flows down the walls, and there’s electronic music,” Maurin explained. “The park officials turned them off when they found the body.”

Nico nodded.

“The park’s going to be the talk of the town,” he said. “A buried skeleton and now this murder. We’ll have to get the area cordoned off. Kriven can help. We’ll make the arrangements in the morning.”

Nico looked back at Mathieu Leroy. Why had Mathieu been in this isolated place in the middle of the night? Had he come with someone? Maurin’s group would have to go through the victim’s life, interview his family and friends, and put together a timeline of the hours leading up to his visit to the park.

Telling his family would be the worst part.