“You gave up everything for her, to please her. You gave up everything that made you who you were. All the things that made you different from other boys.”

This was the first time I’d ever seen Fanny lose control. I stood there and took the punches, perhaps because I knew there was some truth in what she was saying, because I felt I deserved it. When I decided I had been punished enough, I gently took her wrists.

“Calm down, Fanny.”

She pulled away from me and buried her face in her hands. Her legs were shaking. She looked utterly defeated.

“I agreed to take the photos because I wanted to show them to you, to show you what Vinca was really like.”

“So why didn’t you?”

“Because back then, it would have completely destroyed you. I was terrified you’d do something stupid. To yourself, to her, to your father. I didn’t want to take that risk.”

She leaned against the door of the car. I bent down and picked up her bag, carefully avoiding being bitten by the snake. The contents were scattered on the ground—a diary, a bunch of keys, a lipstick. As I was putting everything into the bag, I noticed a folded piece of paper, a photocopy of the article from Nice-Matin that had been sent to me and to Maxime. Scrawled across it in red marker was the same word: Revenge.

“What’s this?” I said, straightening up.

She took it from me. “An anonymous note. I found it in my pigeonhole earlier this week.”

Suddenly, the air became heavier, and I realized that the danger threatening Maxime and me was more insidious than I had thought. “Have you any idea why someone sent you this?”

Fanny slumped against the car. She was at a breaking point. I couldn’t understand why she had been sent this note. She had had nothing to do with Alexis Clément’s murder; why would whoever was stalking me and Maxime blame her?

I gently laid a hand on her shoulder. “Tell me, Fanny, please—do you have any idea why you were sent this?”

She looked up, and I stared at her crumpled, ashen face.

“Of course I fucking know!” she snapped.

Now I was the one who was confused. “Well…why?”

“Because there’s a corpse walled up inside the gym.”

4.

For a long moment, I stood there, speechless. Everything was unraveling. I was paralyzed.

“How long have you known?”

She looked punch-drunk, as though she had given up fighting and was simply waiting to fall.

“Since the day it happened,” she whispered wearily.

Then she collapsed. Literally. She slid off the car and crumpled into a sobbing heap on the pavement. I rushed to help her to her feet.

“You had nothing to do with Clément’s death, Fanny. It was me and Maxime, we’re the ones to blame.”