The Red Collar Read Online Free

a pardon, I’m sure of it.”
    Morlac straightened and hurled his cigarette against the wall at the far end of the cell. He looked furious. The war, which had deprived him of the softer facial expressions associated with joy and pleasure, had clearly developed his capacity to express anger and even loathing. The officer was familiar with reactions like this from soldiers but he hadn’t expected it in this instance and, more significantly, couldn’t work out the grounds for it.
    â€œI don’t want you to write that, do you hear me!” Morlac shouted. “It’s not true, it’s just not true.”
    â€œEasy, easy! What’s gotten into you?” Lantier asked with an ill-tempered sigh.
    â€œI didn’t do what I did because I love my dog. Exactly the opposite in fact.”
    â€œDon’t you love him?”
    â€œThis isn’t about whether or not I love him. I didn’t do it for him, I tell you.”
    â€œWho for, then?” Lantier looked him in the eye.
    â€œWho for? Well, for you, how about that, for the officers, the politicians, the profiteers. And for all the idiots who follow them, who send others off to war, and also for the ones who actually go. I did it for everyone who believes in that claptrap: Heroism! Bravery! Patriotism!”
    He’d risen to his feet as he shouted these last few words. The blanket had fallen to the floor and he was just in his underwear as he stood there yelling, scowling at the officer. He looked ridiculous and pathetic but also worrisome, because there was a palpable sense that his anger could drive him to extreme acts, and nothing and no one could stop him from completing them.
    After a brief stunned silence, Lantier recovered his officer’s instincts. He snapped the file shut, stood up very straight and, with all the authority readily available to a clothed man—and, what’s more, in uniform—before a naked man, he said forcefully, “Calm down, Morlac! You’re overstepping the line. Don’t overestimate my good nature. It has its limits.”
    â€œYou want me to talk, I’m talking.”
    â€œAnd what you’re saying is unacceptable. You’re aggravating your situation. Not only have you failed to mitigate the gesture that brought you here, but you’re compounding it with insults to an officer and dishonor to the nation.”
    â€œI’ve already sacrificed too much for it, for the nation. That gives me the right to tell it a few home truths.”
    He wasn’t backing down. Disheveled as he was, Morlac was squaring up to the investigating officer and answering him back. That was what four years of war had produced: men who were no longer afraid, who’d survived so many horrors that nothing and no one could make them look away. Luckily, there weren’t too many of them. Lantier knew it was better to cut this short than continue a discussion that undermined the authority he represented.
    â€œYou pull yourself together, old boy. We’ll leave it at that for today.”
    Dujeux, the jailer, must have come over when he heard raised voices. He popped out from behind the door, threw a thunderous look at Morlac, and escorted the officer away, clanking his keys along the metal doors as he walked.
    Outside, the dog had started baying again.
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    * * *
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    Lantier du Grez had offices in Bourges, right in the town center in the Louis XIV building that the locals called the Condé Barracks. He liked it well enough, until something better came along. His wife had stayed in Paris with their two children, and he was hoping for a transfer so he could go home to them at last.
    Until he had finished investigating the Morlac case, there was unfortunately no question of him returning, either to Bourges or to Paris. For the duration of his inquiry he had taken lodgings in a modest hotel for traveling salesmen, near the station. The brass bed creaked and the towels were