I’ll know if I need any further information by then.

Typing bubbles.

Tuesday.

And then I close down the video and pull up my Word document. My article. Because now I know what to write.

I know not only what Agnès has been doing and how she’s been doing it, but I understand her. Why her image matters so much to her. Why she’s such a stickler for privacy. So terrified of scandal.

Because scandal attracts attention.

And if you’re a criminal, the last thing you want is attention.

Chapitre Trente et un

Chapitre trente et un

The sound of the upstairs neighbour drilling into a wall rips me from sleep. I pull my eye mask from my face and glare up at the ceiling: I couldn’t sleep last night and it’s a fucking Sunday. Even the church bells have the decency not to ring until just before 11 am on Sundays. But the drilling continues and I turn my gaze to the sky beyond the window. It’s blue with a wisp of apricot and the air is Antarctic. What a beautiful day to become a criminal. I roll over, reach for my phone and squint at it through heavy lids. The screen is full of notifications but there’s one right in the middle. A news notification. I blink hard and focus on it, translating in my head.

My breath catches in the back of my throat.

Noah X arrested over Sabine Roux murder.

I sit up, the walls pulsing in towards me as I tap through to the article and pull it into Reverso.

Noah Parker, 32, otherwise known as Noah X, has this morning been taken into police custody over the murder of Sabine Roux on 15 October. An informed source revealed this came after a white sheet of fabric traced back to Mr Parker was found near the crime scene… tip-off to police from the public… seen entering the woodland at le Bois de Boulogne in the early hours of Saturday 16 October.

Shit.

I scan the article again: the white sheet of fabric. The ones Noah used to cover his work. I saw those in both his studio and at Le Voltage. How easily his wife could have planted that as evidence. And a tip-off from the public. Please. My bet is that call originated with Agnès Bisset or one of her cohort. But what made her frame Noah? Did she see me there on Friday afternoon? Was I followed after all? Was she worried about what he’d told me? And what does this mean she has in store for me?

Shit. Shit. Shit.