Dark Summer in Bordeaux by Allan Massie Read Free Book Online Page B

look as if you are working late.’
    ‘I have to get home,’ Léon said, ‘the curfew . . . ’ The man slapped his cheek hard, open-palmed.
    ‘Sit down,’ he said.
    Léon obeyed and the man took the seat occupied so recently by Alain. Léon’s cheek smarted and he felt tears filling his eyes.
    ‘Who are you?’ he said again.
    ‘You don’t need to know who I am. You can call me Félix, which isn’t naturally my name. I don’t like your sort, Léon. You’re a Jewboy and a pervert who goes with older men, a little tart, aren’t you, and I daresay you think of yourself as an intellectual – all this, these books – and I don’t like intellectuals either. I’d quite enjoy beating you up which is what you’re afraid of, so afraid that you’re near pissing your pants, aren’t you? But you’re lucky. I need you and I need you for all the reasons that make me despise you. What do you say to that? Lost your tongue, have you?’
    He leaned across the table, took hold of Léon’s hair and tugged his head down so that his nose was being pushed against the wood.
    ‘If I’d followed my instincts I’d have slammed your face down hard, but we don’t want to spoil your pretty pussy-boy looks, do we now? They’re your only asset, remember that. And remember this too: I could have you sent to an internment camp, Jewboy, as easily as I could bang your face down hard. Do you follow me? Answer.’
    Léon said, ‘I follow.’
    The man who called himself Félix relaxed his grip on Léon’s hair and Léon .lifted his head.
    ‘Are you a patriot, Léon? Would you call yourself that?’
    Léon nodded.
    ‘So you are ready to serve France . . . like an obedient little Jewboy? Lieutenant Schussmann now, he fancies you, doesn’t he, not knowing of course that you’re a Jewboy. He doesn’t know that, does he, but we both know what he does want, don’t we? And you’re going to oblige him, that’s what you’re going to do. He’s no beauty, I grant you, but you’ll go with him – for France, you understand. And I daresay that being the little pervert you are, you’ll enjoy it.’
    ‘I . . . I can’t . . . ’
    ‘Oh yes, you can, and you will. Close your eyes and think of the internment camp, for yourself, and your mother and your Aunt Miriam. You see. There’s no real choice, Léon, is there? Get up now.’
    Léon obeyed. Félix came up close to him, looked him in the eyes, kissed him hard on the mouth and spat in his face.
    ‘You’re mine,’ he said. ‘Mine. Don’t forget that. So you’ll do as I say.’
    He seized Léon by the hair again, swung him round and threw him over the table. He took off his scarf and tied it round Léon’s face, forcing it to his mouth and gagging him.
    ‘We don’t want the old drunk upstairs to hear us, do we now?’
    Holding Léon’s head with one hand, he tore his trousers and pants down, gave him two stinging blows on the buttocks, and raped him.
    He was only panting a little when adjusting his own trousers he said, ‘That’s what you wanted, isn’t it, and now you’ll do just whatever Lieutenant Schussmann wants too, won’t you, and you’ll say nothing of this to your policeman friend. Oh yes, I know all about him too. I think that’s everything. I’ll give you a fortnight to be in Schussmann’s bed. Worse things would happen to you in that camp. And to your mother and your aunt. Just remember, Léon, I’m the only real friend you have now.’

XI
    ‘So,’ Bracal said, ‘there’s really no progress? It sounds to me as if the case is a dead one.’
    Was there a note of satisfaction in his voice?
    Lannes said, ‘I’m never willing to write a case off.’
    ‘But you know nothing of what the victim was doing back in Bordeaux, where he was living or who he was associating with. Really, superintendent, from your own account you have learned nothing, or nothing of any significance since we last talked about the matter. Isn’t that so?’
    He sounded not only