He hung up and the rain got even heavier. It quickly turned into hail, which pelted the trees so hard it sounded like machine-gun fire. At that point he panicked. Everything was catching up with him at once: fear, the thunderstorm, his anger at the bastards’ escape, and worry that something might have happened to the dog.

The men offered him a rag when they arrived, a kind of old tea towel, and Franck dried himself with the dubious cloth. He was drenched. There were two cages on the back of the pickup with the two big dogs inside. They were the ones he had seen the other day, but now they were twisting and turning, either excited by the prospect of the mission or on edge because of the storm.

‘Right, what are you looking for?’

‘Men. Two of them.’

Maurice and Julien looked at each other, suspicious and disbelieving.

‘Sorry, we don’t do that kind of thing.’

‘Oh, come on, we’ve all got our little schemes; you’ve got yours with the cage, and I’ve got mine. You think yours are more noble than mine?’

‘Do you have a piece of clothing?’

‘What kind of clothing?’

‘Something that belongs to them, something with their scent, so the dogs can track them.’

Franck didn’t have even a handkerchief or a sock. Then he thought of the contracts. He got out the copies he had left with them yesterday.

‘Take these. I’m sure their fingers will have been all over them. They held them; probably even sweated on them …’

‘That’ll work.’

July 1915

July 1915

When Joséphine left the village La Bûche could not stand the thought of her living up there. Not just because he was attracted to her, but because he used to spy on her every summer. He would quite openly watch her when she went to bathe on her own in the river or the Lauzès pond. Everyone knew what La Bûche was like, that he enjoyed eyeing up women, but everyone took a benevolent view and did not want to believe that he meant any harm. Women did not like to be stared at and he ogled them for pleasure, but people found it sad rather than dangerous. He was not only the blacksmith but also the farrier. As was often the case when faced with bad behaviour, people in the village said that he would not hurt a fly, although, like everyone, he killed flies.