Have Mercy On Us All by Fred Vargas Read Free Book Online Page B

Joss had to break off to growl “Later on, at the Viking”. The arm went down in embarrassment as fast as it had shot up.
    “Six,” Joss resumed.
    I don’t do meat. Seven: Wanted: pizza van with wrap-around window, usable with ordinary driver’s licence, six-pizza-capacity oven. Eight: Hey, you kids with the drum set, next time I’ll call the
flics
. Nine …
    Decambrais wasn’t concentrating on the regular messages since all his attention was focused on catching the Pedant’s next missive. Lizbeth had jotted down some Mediterranean herbs for sale, and it was nearly time for the shipping forecast. Decambrais twiddled the pencil in his hand into note-taking position.
    … force 7 to 8 weakening gradually 5 to 6 then backing west 3 to 5 during the afternoon. Heavy; rain or showers, decreasing steadily.
    Joss got to item 16 and Decambrais knew what it was from the first word:
    And by and by did go down by water to dot dot dot and then down further and so landed at the lower end of the town; and it being dark there did privately
entrer en la maison de la femme de
dot dot dot and there I had
sa compagnie
, though with a great deal of difficulty;
néanmoins je avais ma volonté d’elle
. And being sated therewith, I walked home.
    A stunned silence followed, which Joss quickly brought to an end by launching into more comprehensible messages and then that day’s chapter of
Everyman’s History of France
. Decambrais scowled, because the text was too long and he couldn’t get it all down. He pricked up his ears to hear the fate of
Rights of Man
, French warship, seventy-four guns, on January 14, 1797, making for home port after an unsuccessful engagement off Ireland, with 1,350 men on board.
    … pursued by two English vessels,
Indefatigable
and
Amazon
. After a night exchanging fire,
Rights of Man
ran aground off the beach of Canté.
    Joss packed his papers back into his pea-jacket.
    “Hey, Joss!” someone yelled out. “How many were saved?”
    Joss jumped down from his soapbox.
    “You can’t always know the whole story,” he said somewhat pompously.
    Before stashing his gear at Damascus’s place, Joss’s glance met Decambrais’s. He was about to take a step towards the old man but decided to leave off until after the noon newscast. Downing a
calva
beforehand would strengthen his arm for what lay ahead.
    At 1245 Decambrais used lots of abbreviations to scribble down the following as he heard Joss bawl it out:
    Twelve: Conftables shall draw up the rules to be obferved and shall have them pofted on thoroughfares and at gathering places so that none shall know them not dot dot dot. That no swine dogs cats homing birds or conies be suffered to be kept within any part of the city, and that dogs be killed by the dogkillers expressly appointed. That every householder do cause the street to be daily prepared before his door, and that the fweepings and filth of houfes be daily carried away by the rakers. That the layftalls be removed as far as may be out of the city and that no nightman or other be suffered to empty a vault into any garden near about the city dot dot dot
    Joss was already berthed in the Viking for lunch when Decambrais made up his mind to speak to him. As he opened the door of the bar, Bertin drew a beer for him and put it on one of the mats decorated with the two yellow lions rampant of Normandy, specially made for the house. The call to lunch took the form of Bertin’s fist hitting a large brass plate hanging over the counter. Bertin banged his gong twice a day, for lunch and for dinner, and the effect of the thunder-roll was to make all the pigeons in the square flap their wings and take off at once, while the hungry, in a parallel but inverse movement, flocked into the Viking. Bertin’s gesture effectively reminded people that is was time to eat, but it was also an allusion to his own fearful ascendancy, which was supposed to be common knowledge. For Bertin’s mother’s maiden name was
Toutin
,