The Red Collar Read Online Free Page B

when he was a lieutenant. He’d been a punctilious, self-righteous character, always negotiating interpretations of the law in order to do as little as possible. And yet, with the first offensive, he’d climbed out of the trench before the others and was killed within two yards of the parapet.
    â€œI am indeed here to investigate the Morlac case. Do you know the man?”
    â€œSadly for me, Major Lantier, I know everyone in this town, in the whole region, even. That’s what happens with my line of work and my age. I should add that in my family we’ve been exercising the same duty for five generations.”
    Lantier nodded, but, as his rabbit had arrived steaming, he busied himself spooning the meat from the earthenware serving dish, careful not to take too much sauce.
    â€œWhen I saw him go past with his dog in the Bastille Day parade, I would never have imagined . . . ” the attorney said, adopting a cautiously comical expression which could have evolved into indignation or an unabashed smile, depending on the route Lantier adopted. But the latter, who had tucked into his rabbit, chose not to help him out.
    â€œAnd what did you think of what he did?”
    The older man screwed up his eyes and looked at Lantier evasively.
    â€œI was surprised. I wasn’t expecting that from him.”
    â€œWhat do you know of Morlac?”
    â€œBefore the war he was just an ordinary man. I knew the family by sight. The father was a plowman, very pious, very hardworking. He and his wife had eleven children but only two survived, this Jacques who’s in prison and Marie, a sister four years younger. They’re both scrawny things by the looks of them. But don’t pay any attention to that. They’re the ones that survived.”
    â€œDid he have any education?”
    â€œNot much. That’s not the custom in these parts, especially when there aren’t many children in the family. The parish priest gave him lessons, so he could read and count. Then he went out in the fields to help his father.”
    Lantier nodded but was actually mostly preoccupied trying to get shards of shattered bone from his meal out of his mouth. He didn’t like thinking about how the animals he ate had been killed. In this instance, though, he couldn’t help it.
    â€œNo friends? No political leanings?”
    â€œHe knew a few other young men in the area. He’d see them on market days and sometimes at a dance, not that he went very often. As for politics, it’s pretty quiet around here, you know. People vote the same way as their priests. Oh, there’s a handful of agitators, particularly teachers and railroad men, and they get together in a café over by the station. Near your hotel, actually.”
    â€œSo you know which hotel I’m staying in?”
    The attorney shrugged and didn’t bother to give any reply but a smile.
    â€œAnd since he came home from the war?”
    â€œWe hardly knew he was here, except for that infamous day . . . He’d taken furnished lodgings. His sister’s married and he doesn’t really like his brother-in-law, so he hasn’t set foot back on the farm. But that’s hardly surprising. Lots of war veterans have gone completely feral.”
    The officer took this comment personally. After all, he was a war veteran, too. And if he thought about it, he had to admit he hardly saw anyone now and people must have found some of his behavior strange.
    â€œDoes he have a wife?”
    â€œThat’s a mystery. He never lived with anyone. But in a small village not far from here there’s a girl who people claimed, for a while, was his sweetheart. You know what it’s like: people talk, but where’s the truth in that?”
    â€œWhat is her name?”
    â€œValentine. She lives on the edge of the village of Vallenay.”
    â€œDoes she have family?”
    â€œNo, they all died in a measles epidemic. She