Patrick Modiano - The Night Watch

A burst of laughter in the darkness. The Khedive looked up.

‘So you played mah-jongg while you waited for us?’

And he scatters the ivory tiles across the desk.

‘Alone?’ asks Monsieur Philibert.

‘Have you been waiting for us long, my boy?’

Their voices are punctuated by whispers and grave inflections. Monsieur Philibert smiles and gives a vague wave of his hand. The Khedive tilts his head to the left and stands, his cheek almost touching his shoulder. Like a stork.

In the middle of the living room, a grand piano. Purple wallpaper and drapes. Large vases filled with dahlias and orchids. The light from the chandeliers is hazy, as in a bad dream.

‘How about some music to relax us?’ suggests Monsieur Philibert.

‘Sweet music, we need sweet music,’ announces Lionel de Zieff.

‘“Zwischen heute und morgen?”’ offers Count Baruzzi. ‘It’s a fox trot.’

‘I’d rather have a tango,’ says Frau Sultana.

‘Oh, yes, yes, please,’ pleads Baroness Lydia Stahl.

‘“Du, du gehst an mir vorbei”,’ Violette Morris murmurs plaintively.

The Khedive cuts it short: ‘Make it “Zwischen heute und morgen”.’

The women have too much make-up. The men are dressed in garish colours. Lionel de Zieff is wearing an orange suit and an ochre-striped shirt. Pols de Helder a yellow jacket and sky-blue trousers, Count Baruzzi a dusty-green tuxedo. Several couples start to dance. Costachesco with Jean-Farouk de Méthode, Gaetan de Lussatz with Odicharvi, Simone Bouquereau with Irène de Tranze. . Monsieur Philibert stands off to one side, leaning against the window on the left. He shrugs when one of the Chapochnikoff brothers asks him to dance. Sitting at the desk, the Khedive whistles softly and beats time.

‘Not dancing, mon petit ?’ he asks. ‘Nervous? Don’t worry, you have all the time in the world. All the time in the world.’

‘You know,’ says Monsieur Philibert, ‘police work is just endless patience.’ He goes over to the console table and picks up the pale-green leather-bound book lying there: Anthology of Traitors from Alcibiades to Captain Dreyfus . He leafs through it, and lays whatever he finds between the pages — letters, telegrams, calling cards, pressed flowers — on the desk. The Khedive seems intently interested in this investigation.

‘Your bedside reading, mon petit ?’

Monsieur Philibert hands him a photograph. The Khedive stares at it for a long moment. Monsieur Philibert has moved behind him. ‘His mother,’ the Khedive murmurs, gesturing to the photograph. ‘Isn’t that right, my boy? Madame your mother?’ The boy echoes: ‘Madame your mother. .’ and two tears trickle down his cheeks, trickle to the corners of his mouth. Monsieur Philibert has taken off his glasses. His eyes are wide. He, too, is crying.

Just then, the first bars of ‘Bei zärtlicher Musik’ ring out. A tango, and there is not enough room for the dancers to move about. They jostle each other, some stumble and slip on the parquet floor. ‘Don’t you want to dance?’ inquires Baroness Lydia Stahl. ‘Go on, save me the next rumba.’ ‘Leave him alone,’ mutters the Khedive. ‘The boy doesn’t feel like dancing.’ ‘One rumba, just one rumba,’ pleads the Baroness. ‘One rumba, one rumba!’ shrieks Violette Morris. Beneath the glow of the chandeliers, they flush, turning blue in the face, flushing to deep purple. Beads of perspiration trickle down their temples, their eyes grow wide. Pols de Helder’s face grows black as if it were burning up. Count Baruzzi’s cheeks are sunken, the bags under Rachid von Rosenheim’s eyes puff bloated. Lionel de Zieff brings one hand to his heart. Costachesco and Odicharvi seem stupefied. The women’s make-up begins to crack, their hair turning ever more garish colours. They are all putrefying and will surely rot right where they stand. Do they stink already?

‘Let’s make it brief and to the point, mon petit ,’ whispers the Khedive. ‘Have you contacted the man they call “La Princesse de Lamballe”? Who is he? Where is he?’

‘Do you understand?’ murmurs Monsieur Philibert. ‘Henri wants information about the man they call “La Princesse de Lamballe”’

The record has stopped. They flop down on sofas, on pouffes, into wing chairs. Méthode uncorks a bottle of cognac. The Chapochnikoff brothers leave the room and reappear with trays of glasses. Lussatz fills them to the brim. ‘A toast, my friends,’ suggests Hayakawa. ‘To the health of the Khedive!’ cries Costachesco. ‘To the health of Inspector Philibert,’ says Mickey de Voisins. ‘To Madame de Pompadour,’ shrills Baroness Lydia Stahl. Their glasses chink. They drain them in one gulp.

‘Lamballe’s address,’ murmurs the Khedive. ‘Be a good fellow, mon petit . Let’s have Lamballe’s address.’

‘You know we have the whip hand,’ whispers Monsieur Philibert.

The others are conferring in low voices. The light from the chandeliers dims, wavering between blue and deep purple. Faces are blurred. ‘The Hotel Blitz is getting more diffcult every day.’ ‘Don’t worry, as long as I’m around you’ll have the full backing of the embassy.’ ‘One word from Count Grafkreuz, my dear, and the Blitz’s eyes are closed for good.’ ‘I’ll ask Otto to help.’ ‘I’m a close personal friend of Dr Best. Would you like me to speak to him?’ ‘A call to Delfanne will settle everything.’ ‘We have to be firm with our agents, otherwise they take advantage.’ ‘No quarter!’ ‘Especially since we’re covering for them!’ ‘They should to be grateful.’ ‘We’re the ones who’ll have to do the explaining, not they!’ ‘They’ll get away scot free, you’ll see! As for us. .!’ ‘They haven’t heard the last of us.’ ‘The news from the front is excellent. EXCELLENT!’

‘Henri wants Lamballe’s address,’ Monsieur Philibert repeats. ‘Make a real effort, mon petit .’

‘I understand your reticence,’ says the Khedive. ‘So this is what I propose: to start with, you tell us where we can find and arrest every member of the ring tonight.’

‘Just a little warm up,’ Monsieur Philibert adds. ‘Then you’ll find it easier to cough up Lamballe’s address.’

‘The raid is set for tonight,’ whispers the Khedive. ‘We’re waiting, mon petit .’

A yellow notebook bought on the Rue Réaumur. Are you a student? the sales girl asked. (Everyone is interested in young people. The future is theirs; everyone wants to know their plans, bombards them with questions.) You would need a flashlight to find the page. He cannot see a thing in this light. Thumbs through the notebook, nose all but grazing the pages. The first address is in capital letters: the address of the Lieutenant, the ring-leader. Try to forget his blue-black eyes, the warmth in his voice as he says: ‘Everything OK, mon petit ?’ You wish the Lieutenant were rotten to the core, wish he were petty, pretentious, two-faced. It would make things easier. But there is not a single flaw in that rough diamond. As a last resort, he thinks of the Lieutenant’s ears. Just thinking about this piece of cartilage is enough to make him want to vomit. How can human beings possess such monstrous excrescences? He imagines the Lieutenant’s ears, there, on the desk, larger than life, scarlet and criss-crossed with veins. And suddenly, in a rushed voice, he tells them where the lieutenant will be tonight: Place du Châtelet. After that, it comes easily. He reels off a dozen names and addresses without even opening the notebook. He speaks in the earnest voice of a good little schoolboy from a fable by La Fontaine.