Chapter 11 - TWO BLUE DOTS
“He’s sending us somewhere else,” Lucie said.
Moreau studied the screen.
“Or the watch has been thrown into another car.”
Alexandre zoomed in.
The signal followed a narrow road beside the river.
Then it stopped again.
Lucie remembered Mathéo at breakfast, swinging his feet beneath the kitchen table.
“My watch gets itchy when I sweat.”
He always took it off.
But he clipped it inside his backpack so he wouldn’t lose it.
“His bag,” she said. “He might not be wearing it.”
A second call came.
This time, Valérie’s number.
Moreau answered on speaker.
She had been allowed to contact a lawyer.
Instead, she had used the call to arrange a connection through someone else.
Her voice shook.
“Where is my son?”
Moreau said nothing.
“Tell me where he is.”
Lucie leaned toward the phone.
“You sent Vasseur.”
“No.”
“You told him to collect his son.”
“I told him to get Mathéo somewhere safe.”
“He’s using him to get the evidence.”
A sharp intake of breath.
Then Valérie said, “He wouldn’t.”
Alexandre laughed once, without humor.
“You said the same about yourself.”
“Alex, listen to me. Étienne thinks those records will put him away for the rest of his life.”
“They should.”
“You don’t understand what he does when he’s cornered.”
Claire appeared in the doorway behind them.
She wore a hospital cardigan over her gown.
“I understand.”
Everyone turned.
Valérie heard her voice.
For several seconds, the only sound was the hospital cart rattling down the hall.
Then Claire spoke again.
“Tell them about the boat.”
Valérie said nothing.
“The old freight landing,” Claire said. “You used it to bring me to the house the first time.”
Moreau began writing.
“Where?”
Valérie gave an address.
A disused riverside depot.
Two miles from the watch signal.
Officers moved.
Alexandre tried to follow, but Moreau stopped him.
“You can help by keeping him talking.”
Lucie looked at Claire.
“How do you know he’ll go there?”
Claire’s eyes were steady.
“Because he took me there twice.”
“Why twice?”
“The second time, he told me I wouldn’t be coming back.”
Alexandre’s phone rang.
May you like
Vasseur again.
This time, there was rushing water behind his voice.
