In 2002, Alastair Rockwell fell ill and passed away. I remembered meeting him a few weeks before 9/11 on the forty-ninth floor of one of the towers of the World Trade Center, where he had his New York offices. He told me that Vinca had often talked to him about me, that she described me as a kind, generous, sensitive boy. Three adjectives that, on the old man’s lips, did not sound like compliments. I felt like telling him that I was so sensitive that I had beaten a man half to death with a crowbar, but I bit my tongue. I had asked to meet with him to find out whether the private detective he had hired had come up with any new leads about the whereabouts of his granddaughter. He said no, although I never knew whether this was the truth.

Time passed, and, with the years, almost everyone stopped worrying about what had become of Vinca Rockwell. I was one of the few people unable to move on. Because I knew the official story was a lie. And because one question had haunted me ever since: Was Vinca’s hasty departure connected to the death of Alexis Clément? Was I to blame for the disappearance of the girl I’d loved so much?

For twenty years, I had been trying to shed some light on this mystery. And I still did not have the faintest idea.

Different from Other Boys

7

The Streets of Antibes

1.

When I arrived in Antibes, I drove to the parking lot of Port Vauban, where some of the most beautiful yachts in the world are moored. It was in this parking lot in July 1990—just before I turned sixteen—that I had my first summer job. Not much of a job, to be honest. I raised the barrier after relieving tourists of thirty francs so they could park out of the blazing sun. This was the summer that I read Swann’s Way—the Folio paperback edition, with Monet’s painting of the Rouen cathedral on the cover—the summer I fell dreamily in love with a Parisian girl with wavy blond hair cut in a bob who went by the glorious name of Bérénice. On her way to the beach, she would always stop off at the sentry box for a little chat, though I quickly realized she was more interested in Glenn Medeiros and New Kids on the Block than she was in Charles Swann and Odette de Crécy.