S. Cedric - Of Fever and Blood

Leroy thought about it for a few moments.

“She’s up to twenty-six, if we count the twenty-four girls in Ariege and the two we found in Paris. Maybe even up to thirty if the four patients missing from the Raynal Center were actually her first victims.”

“Thirty, that’s a minimum,” Vauvert said. “If the murders did start in the city of Rodez and if she managed to hide them all this time, then it’s possible that the list is a lot longer than that.”

A sign told them that they were arriving in Saint-Affrique. The SUV crossed a bridge, then rushed into a series of narrow deserted streets.

On the dashboard, the clock read 11:47.

Time kept ticking.

“I’m scared,” Eva whispers.

She has shut her eyes, and she is trembling.

Against her, she can feel the reassuring presence of her sister. Whether or not she really exists does not matter any longer. She is there. With her. That is all that counts.

“Don’t be scared,” Justyna whispers in her ear.

“You know she’s going to come back. She’s going to torture me. I won’t be able to stand it.”

“You will have to hold on.”

Tears stream down Eva’s cheeks and onto her dry lips. They’re salty, burning tears.

“I won’t be able to. I know I won’t be able to.”

Her sister snuggles against her, reassuring.

“I’m so sorry, Justyna. I don’t know why he took you and not me.”

“That’s all in the past,” the little girl says softly.

Eva shakes her head.

“I promised you that nothing was going to happen to us.” She gags and spits out blood. “I told you that if we stayed together nothing would happen to us. It was a lie. You died because of me. And the monster, he didn’t even want me.”

“It was never your fault. You couldn’t have known.”

“I should have known. Like I should have known that one day or another the monster would come back, that it would be for me. That time has come, you know. The monster has changed. He’s wearing a mask now, but deep down, he’s the same. He came to finish his job.”

Justyna gives Eva two light and loving kisses on her closed eyes.

She was only six years old.

She does not want to remember any of this.

She has tried so hard to banish what happened from her mind.

But here she is. It never worked. Every time she shuts her eyes, it is as though she’s reliving that day.

The day when everything fell apart.

The very last time Mommy kissed them as she went to work, leaving them with Mrs. Rieux, that kind woman who always had fruit juice and cookies in her house and so many channels on her television. Eva and Justyna spent a good part of the afternoon watching episodes of Captain Harlock. Then they played cops and robbers. Eva insisted on being the cop, as always. She knew that was what she would be when she grew up. A supercop. She would be the one putting all the bad men in prison so that all the moms in the world would not have to be scared anymore. So they would not have to move from one house to another all the time.

Mommy told them, often. It was very difficult to recognize the bad men. You could never go by first impressions. Sometimes, someone who looked very nice could be a bad man in disguise, a man who wanted only one thing, to catch you and do very bad things to you. That is the reason you had to be on your guard and watch out, always. The idea was a bit difficult for little girls to grasp, of course, but what they did understand-and had for a very long time-was that Mommy was very afraid of bad men. That told them more than all the explanations in the world, so they followed Mommy’s instructions to the letter. Never, ever did they talk to strangers. When a man seemed to be looking at them on the street, they immediately tugged Mommy’s sleeve to let her know.

Yet on that day, Mommy did not see it coming.

She did not even look stressed.

Maybe she had made the fatal error of letting her guard down for just a moment. Maybe for that brief moment she had allowed herself to think that the monsters were no longer after them. That was as good as offering their throats to the monsters’ teeth.

In any case, Mommy was late, and the girls were tired of playing. Mrs. Rieux kept looking out the window. She was trying her best to hide it, but she was feeling uneasy.

And the little girls, they were not stupid. They knew that Mommy’s car was parked in front of their house, and she had not come to get them. Why hadn’t she come?

Time passed. Mrs. Rieux was making phone calls.

The alarm in her was growing.

She used the phone in the kitchen, where they could not hear her.

Then they heard the sirens.

Police cars filled the street, their flashing lights discoloring their house. Eva and Justyna watched them through Mrs. Rieux’s living room window. There were men in uniforms putting up barriers. And other men, dressed in white from head to toe, were getting out of a truck with a stretcher.

Something had happened. Something terrible.

“What’s going on?” Eva cried.

“How come Mommy isn’t here yet?” Justyna asked with sudden anguish in her voice.

Mrs. Rieux offered them a large smile and told them that everything was fine. Mommy would be here soon.

Then she went to the front door to speak to a police officer.

The man talked in a low voice. He gestured at their house, down the street. Mrs. Rieux crossed herself several times while listening. Curious, the little girls sneaked up on them.

“How am I supposed to tell them something like that?” Mrs. Rieux whispered.

“You don’t have to, ma’am,” the policeman says. “We called Social Services. They’re sending someone for them. She’s going to take care of everything. Don’t worry. All you have to do is keep them here until that person arrives so that the kids don’t see, well, what’s going on, you understand?”

The little girls did not understand what was happening. But, whatever it was, it was very serious, and it had to do with Mommy, obviously. They went back to the window, trying to see something, anything. People had begun to gather in the street. Everybody in the neighborhood seemed to be very interested in their house all of a sudden.

“Did something happen to Mommy?” Eva asked.

“I want Mommy!” Justyna screamed.

The police officer gave them an uneasy look. He tried to smile, but it was a fake smile. His eyes were sad. Mommy told them to never trust men they didn’t know. Even if they were smiling. Especially if they are smiling.

Then Mrs. Rieux closed the door and came over to the two children. Her face was sad, too. So sad.

“I think we’re going to have to wait a bit longer, my ’lil treasures. Your mom…”

It was as though a ball had formed in her throat. The little girls could see the tears welling in her eyes. They just didn’t understand why.

“I want Mommy,” Justyna whined. “Why doesn’t she come to pick us up? I want to go home!”

“Mommy will be here later,” Mrs. Rieux said, and they both could hear the lie in her broken voice. “You stay here with me for now. Come on, I have some nice juice.”

The two sisters shared a distraught look.

Out in the streets, more sirens wailed.

A quarter past midnight

“So, how long have you two been working together?” Vauvert asked.

The road was plunging in a series of steep switchbacks toward the bottom of the valley, and the SUV was swerving too close to the guardrail each time.

Leroy grabbed the handle above the passenger window.

“Me and Eva? I don’t know. Two years. No, actually, it’s already been three years now. Hey, you sure this car can handle the road all right?”