We walked into an interview room. A big glass window faced out to an empty and large open-plan area with desks. It was a squad room, and looked like it had never been used. A big table was in the direct center of the interview room. Chairs around it. Grouse motioned me to give him my bag. I didn’t give it to him. I said, “Grouse, you’re rubbing me the wrong way. I’m taking a disliking to you already and we just met. Let’s start over by you trying out the word ‘please’.”

Grouse said, “Please.”

So I gave it to him.

He dumped out the contents of my pack on the table. He went through it systematically. Torn blue designer shirt, Gore-Tex jacket. Toothbrush. Toothpaste. US Passport. Two pairs of underwear briefs. Two extra t-shirts. Four pairs of socks. No junk, nothing extraneous. He looked at me suspiciously, said, “Where are the rest of your possessions?” I didn’t answer. Just locked eyes with him. The bearded cop whispered in his ear. Grouse broke the eye contact, said, “Please wait here.” They walked out of the room and closed the door.

I sat down in a chair facing the big window. I looked through it into the squad room and saw Grouse and the beard reappear there. The beard stepped through a doorway off to the side. He came back out with two new plainclothes cops and a uniformed officer. The plainclothes were an older woman and an enormous man around my age.

Chapter Seven

The uniformed guy entered the interview room first. Up close he was all prim and proper with an erect posture and tightly knotted tie. I smelled French aftershave. He held out a hand and I took it. “Alain Rigalle, Director of the Municipal Police.” Rigalle had a dry and firm grip. His wrist was encircled by an expensive-looking watch. The plainclothes cops lurked behind him. The woman had a grim smile, the giant’s mouth hung slack.

Rigalle was the type who made a point of staring into your eyes. Like he’d read about that as a technique. I met his gaze. “Thank you for coming in, Monsieur Keeler. We take these kinds of inquiries extremely seriously. In particular, my colleagues here are investigating recent acts of violence in and around Alencourt. Unlike some other communities we are not habituated to violent attacks on our streets. I would appreciate if you could take the time to confirm some details with these investigators. We don’t know if the episode this morning is connected to other ongoing investigations, but it is possible.”