Chapter 6:
The shortest path is not straight.
- Listen What I had just read. The Chichi would gladly give a kick-ball, he tries to be r'tenir. He just forgot to tell anyone ...
- It would have certainly been s'baisser, buddy.
Great laughter escape from Titin, in cadence with backfiring and banging metal gear. In the quiet towns of Biscay that crosses the 203 room, many guests were awakened in the middle of their nap. But what do
So our two heroes on the road 936 county between Sainte-Foy-la-Grande and Castillon-la-Bataille? This is not the direct route from Marseille to Decize!
Agnan Fumerol was immediately told his passenger Mourlon he was in no hurry, he had a series of courtesy calls to make and with his car collection he preferred to take the county, unlike the famous sketch of Jean Yanne, it does not horror, but he absolutely loves.
- First, there is rarely radars on these routes. Deuxio we go slowly and it is perfect for Titin. Thirdly, all my old friends live in corn served only lost by small roads. Finally, I can not tell that unless 60 per hour, beyond which covers Titin is my voice.
- Why did you leave so quickly Fumarola?
- One of my indicators beckoned me, but just on the boat I had another message indication-cons. A Decize, I'll present my indicators. Men valuable, safe and dedicated. Now I have all my time. You too, I presume?
course, Jean-Pierre Mourlon not going to deny it. From Marseille, three days earlier, the two men became best friends and Agnan Fumerol has told both The journalist has the material for a dozen articles. He briefly talked about Joel Lenoir, a youth full of ambition but talented enough, he also recounts his numerous activities, his hobbies, his plans, and even a project that motivates his return to Decize.
The scholar spoke about his past, his long career prefectural, or more precisely odd jobs he has done in the corridors of the prefecture of Nevers as supernumerary bailiff and deputy editor in charge of verifying registration cards confiscated, then storekeeper Departmental Archives. It was during the long hours of idleness as he left the office he has scoured nearly all manuscripts, printed matter, written and graphic material, bound and mimeographed Decize about the past, city of residence. Thus was formed in his brain a huge bank of historical data, anecdotal and journalistic. Follower of a Method of Reading revolutionary Fumerol has stored in forty years of practice thousands of books in his memory. Away from its reputation for intellectual prodigy, a reputation he vigorously denies, attributing His gifts to chance and a perfect lifestyle: one hour of swimming per week, regular walking, gardening, good food and fine wines. Spared by fatigue and medical concerns, for five years he enjoys a more active retirement than their working life, if one may say so.
Agnan Fumerol was more evasive about his family life, merely to list the names of its successive wives and a half-dozen offshoots, scattered across the globe, from Vancouver, Timbuktu, Baden Baden and Brive la Gaillarde. A passenger who compared her to Bebert of Monac ', which spreads its seed princely hill and down dale, Agnan replied firmly: "Not a mistake, please, none of my offspring is a bastard! "Jean-Pierre
Mourlon records all this, he takes notes and several photographic film, it raises some questions. For now, he is content to accompany Agnan Fumerol wandering in a rich teaching experience and winemaking, culinary and cultural ... and mechanical breakdowns.
Leaving the port of Marseilles, Agnan Fumerol set sail on a village in the Luberon, Oppede-le-Vieux, where the son of a of his former master was waiting to send him five old cabalistic books. Lubomir Pluta, a collector of rare books and old, who died two years ago, had slept in his will Fumerol. Oppède not far from Avignon, Fumerol and his passenger then went applaud Robert Peltard, another former stooge of the scholar, who played in Sganarelle staged kitsch of Don Juan. The end of the night and following morning were spent in a wonderful orgy of melon with port and skewered cicadas, with actor and a half of his troops in a hollow near Cavaillon.
Then Titin has begun to show his bad mood. Out of the gimbal end of the path. Fortunately, the nearest garage found a junkyard gypsy who kept a few odd pieces in his jigsaw. The next step was the evening of July 14, a hamlet lost on the Causse de Sauveterre, 20 miles Florac. Agnan Fumerol held in honor of his presence gente Dame Margaret, his third wife, whom he is separated for ten years, but whose birthday fell on the same day as the Bastille. Surrounded by a flock of chickens, ducks and geese, the said Margaret devoted his retirement to make of duffle bags and pillows filled with natural down and decorated with lace craft. His hovel of Coudiette, a half-ruined barn, was supplied with electricity by a wind turbine and solar panel failed, that day, there was no wind, the guests were treated to a dinner and a candlelight vigil. Agnan outdid himself in this romantic: he has given his first lessons Mourlon occult, the new fad.
The next day was marked by an endless zigzag between vineyards, a winery to another, Cahors, Buzet, Gaillac, Bergerac, Monbazillac, with multiple tasting and purchase of stocks "for the road." That's when Titine lacked water, right in the vineyard, in a village called Conne-de-Labarde, nine kilometers south of Bergerac (you can go check readers incredulous). The bitch! The radiator cracked, Titin blowing a vapor of cumulonimbus. Again, the 203 was saved by the ingenuity of a mechanic campaign, Mr. Hippolyte Cussac, Peugeot-Citroen dealership in Beaumont de Perigord, who deserves the eternal gratitude of the two passengers on long voyages.
And this is how our adventurers arrived the county 936, which is why the passenger Mourlon began to comment on the article by Southwest dedicated to importantissime interview with the head of state ...
Is it necessary to follow the two friends in their journey Bacchic ? The narrator is certainly willing to forget every detail of this epic, it is even more respectful of the laws that ban incitement to drunkenness and the advertising of alcoholic products heavily. The vagaries of Titin is also a source of tedium and redundancy (failure of a hub, windshield cracked by hail, loss of a tire in descent ...), let us then to the east entrance of Decize, two and a half days later, ie July 17, 2006, at 19 h 30.
- Light the fire! Light the fire!
The gendarmes did not return: in front of the guard, an old black and 203 white, rickety and anthrax, just stop and two cranks are attached to the doors. They brandish a torch each laser, a gadget they bought in any Farfouille. They keep repeating this stupid chorus Johnny: "Light the fire! "
Chapter 7: Fumerol in its field.
Ticking keyboard mingles with chirping zoziaux small. Installed under an arbor of climbing roses and broom of Spain, Jean-Pierre Mourlon slap its third article: "Wandering with a Phenomenon." This morning, he faxed the first two papers Diaz and thereby received a scathing admonition: "You go astray, Jean-Pierre. I'm still waiting bio Lenoir. If you want to make you repay your reckless spending, dig up their brains! As for your Furemol, you can drop it, it never will interest readers. Too smoky, too phony. "
requirements of drafting Chief Mourlon not care, laughing in his beard (he has not shaved since his departure in Corsica), it summarizes the latest episode of the journey. The previous evening, the police have surrounded the two alleged arsonists, have settled in a drunk tank with, the key three or four fines for driving while intoxicated, disturbance at night (he was only 19 pm 30!), insulting the police officers and intentional arson (the formula given in the manual accessed by Constable Poirier). While Fumerol Mourlon and languishing, the adjutant came suddenly Caillac apologize. The guy has shown martinet with his subordinates, but flat as a flounder before "dear sir Fumerol course was a mistake, we will release you illico, and especially fear not, the fines are removed again forgive us this little misunderstanding! Do not forget to go to the mess of these four, we'll water your back! "
- Say, Jean-Pierre, what would you say to go eat kebabs?
- Ugh, it's yucky! You have nothing better to offer me?
- I admit that the kebabs is gross, but those of us free cloth is even worse, it's disgusting. And if we went to the Cave?
- What cave? Yours? Just down ...
- No, you n'comprends not. Look, in the face, on the other side of the Loire, is a store called the booze cellar. Vintages of first, I tell you no. And, to access the cellar of Bacchus, I know an underground ...
The underground, that's one of the new territories Agnan Fumerol. Under the old city of Decize the rock is littered with several levels of basements, underground, tunnels, stairways and shafts. For almost ten years, the local scholar immersed in the juxtaposed records and raided the basement decizois. Further exploration. Essential to understand the "socio-cultural substratum" of the city. With the tantalizing prospect to do some lifts in the backrooms of bakers, butchers and wine merchants. Because everything communicates, if it is known to raise the flags, break down the doors (open or closed), push the walls, crawling in the dust, face spiders and bats, battle against rats, avoiding the ghosts (the spectrum of Saint-Just is increasingly rare since the Bicentenary of the Revolution).
Descent downhill after these pseudo-catacombs Agnan Fumerol has been a keyring, a comprehensive plan cavities, underground cellars, cul low pit caves, caverns and crevices that pierce the rock decizois; for light, it uses a miner's lamp stolen from Mining Museum of La Machine, and his holding of explorer is a combination of astronaut and man-frog.
same evening, therefore, Jean-Pierre Mourlon his guide accompanies a hike subdecizoise unpublished. The two adventurers, each with a backpack, enter the Kingdom of Hades in the toilets of''Good Kebab Cheux''We, the establishment Gourmet above. After a detour into the inferior vena cava of The Cave (premium wines in bulk and bottled), where they drain on a Mouton-Rothschild 1959 and Corton-Charlemagne 1972, they headed for the third below the Couvent des Minimes, the monument not to be missed when changing to Decize - but a series of inconsistencies municipal prohibits the visit. Agnan Fumerol has no use for prohibited and inaccessible shores:
- Since you can not enter through the door, go through the well! The
mounted grapple and rope knots is exhausting. However, Jean-Pierre Mourlon can suppress a whistle of admiration when he discovers the moonlight amid the medieval cloister. Agnan he noted in passing that the convent has nothing medieval in a famous controversy with Bernard Abel, a specialist in Gothic, Agnan Fumerol has definitively proven that this monastery has been rebuilt from scratch in 1642 or 1643, the scrolls are imprecise.
Exploration in the former convent only lasts half an hour, the last occupants, vandals uneducated, have not been able to preserve the mass of black books, folios, and incunabula palimpsests buried by the monks in their garden in 1790 cubic meters of rubble were dumped on the hiding and Agnan Fumerol, who had slipped into a molehill by chance, could save a few scattered papers in a very sorry state.
A second dip in the bowels of the earth led our two brave cavers into the crypt of the former convent church. A closet cluttered with boards, bricks and cobwebs.
- This is where I had the revelation of désécriture, finding a treaty of occultism, the Epistle of the philosophical fire, Jean Mirus, a must for black magic. And it was - Behave yourself! - September 12, 2001, the day after ...
- The désécriture, what has acco?
- You'll understand soon. This manual has certainly been hidden during the war of 14, or shortly after, as the edition is dated 1908, in Lausanne, home-Niocchi Traitor, a small independent publisher. You do not know there was a military hospital, above us, and then a cinema, and a school and a prison, and a coffee pool, and the tomb of two benefactors of the city, the Count Braised Beef and Mrs. ...
- Braised Beef, funny name for a count! It would best for a restaurant!
- J'plaisante always with Stephen because he s'app'lait Etienne. Cheers, Etienne, proclaims Agnan, deftly leading the Mouton-Rothschild and out of his bag two cups. No, his real name is de Preux-Drèze. Old nobility. A true descendant of a bastard of the Hairy Clodion the side of his father and adopted son of Charles the Bald by his mother. The other ghost of the old convent, Olby is Olga, but I'll be presenting the tomorrow or the next day. It is an indispensable assistant for my future work, you'll see ...
The tour continues crypt crypt of the time greeting Saints Are the protector of the parish, or what remains of his tibia and his skull. Time to cross, stopping his nostrils, two dungeons of the castle, where generations of Decizois zois and have forgotten and relieved without concern for future health. Time to steal a new set of keys in the basement of City Hall, right next to a tiny bar where everything is going to drink municipal employees. The added jokingly, suggests Agnan:
- If they debouched few flasks, they would make a face! But the journalist
claims tired, he continues to rant against the bats get tangled in his beard.
To perk up the two men emerge on the way back in the lab of renowned pastry chef and confectioner barrier, where they swallow a plateful of chocolate blocks, Ramondín patricians, chocolate pralines, truffles Morvan, marzipan and nougatines nivernaises ... What a treat! Back home
Agnan, Jean-Pierre Mourlon collapses on a couch. Sleep prevails in a dream collide tunnels, bottles of fine wine, bones, spiders and kebabs. Around five o'clock in the morning Agnan sleeping in the adjoining room hears yelling
- We forgot to finish the kebabs! Z'étaient not so bad ...
- Well, go get them for my breakfast, advises the scholar who falls asleep on his two ears.
Chapter 8: Scramble.
On the mini-stereo, Boby Lapointe dotted with puns. "Yes, my sweet kitty, mini, yes the mini mania, the mania is Melanie, Melanie's friend Amelia ..."
At the desk, Jean-Pierre Mourlon trying to collect his ideas; taking notes for a future article.
"1 Lenoir should be dropped. Diaz even faxed me two raises yesterday morning. Can not find the writer. Volatilized. Agnan and knows no more, or damn well he hides his game every time I utter the name of the novelist, is Agnan mouth. There is a dispute between them, for sure. But why? Why so much hate? 2 °
Agnan: he leads me day after day in frivolous visits. The day before yesterday in the basement. Tonight in the air. I do not know what he will invent tomorrow. I hear more and more occult. In his study, he showed me the radius of esoteric writings. A real treasure. All these bizarre titles! The Key of Solomon (a booklet that contains formulas for magic operations), the Altus Mutus Liber (Agnan told me about "powder of projection"), The Phil Pseudonomicon Halapatt, The Goetia theurgical (for the evocation evil spirits), the abbot of the Tractatus mysticus Ribotus, The eternal youth of Dr. Gaellicus Crossus, The Wizard's Digest Sir Henry K. Rawlings-Potter ... And even the works connected the Great Albert! What it looks so in the occult? Maybe a way to get revenge, destroy, to destroy something or someone, I do not know yet.
Tomorrow I will prepare a dossier on the "Experiment" of Agnan. It is a word that recurs often in his mouth. He promised me to explain. Previously, he wants me "initiate". I have already spotted the "initiation chamber", an old disused chapel near the station and it appears that a sect assembles there during full moon. That should drop the 25th of the month. If my previously inquest ...
3 ° friends and henchmen Agnan. I presented them at the end of lunch. They came to the orders and they had coffee with us. The two most original are two old boys, twins maybe, former minesweepers if I understood everything. I had already spotted during my first visit to Decize. It is not difficult to notice them and they roam the streets from morning to evening, they watch all the passages. The two brothers Miquet, as he appointed them, are the cause of his sudden departure of Corsica, July 13, they had thought to recognize Joel Lenoir in a camper who had halted at the fairgrounds, this does was a Belgian tourist come to learn Syndicat d'Initiative, the resemblance is uncanny in the photo taken by Dede Miquet with his umbrella-telescopic camera. Not talkative at all, the two apprentices spies. This is not the case with Jeremy Duchemin, a great-looking sausages dépendeur of neo-romantic: a long dark coat in midsummer, sideburns, jockey cap. Still a land of asphalt. A true champion of surveillance, more effective than twenty radars. He knows all the Dealers, their customers, facades and windows of houses, gardens, cats, dogs and raccoons. The fourth robber was nicknamed Zigzag, I failed to know her real surname, it is a little old to approach more hesitant. A pro zinc, the pillar of excellence in cabaret. His job comes down to open his ears and record everything that is said or whispered in the city. Thus qu'Agnan complete his vast knowledge. The four musketeers serve him as CIA, KGB Intelligence Service; I still have some reluctance to use the word "intelligence" ...
Agnan began yelling copiously Miquet Dede, guilty of spreading a false advertisement and have shortened the vacation of the head. After Coffee grows on the third - a Conference pear from his garden - he distributed the tasks is always the greatest discretion, increased surveillance of everything related to Joel Lenoir station and the heat wave! I learned in passing that the novelist has bought with his royalties a small neo-Gothic mansion lurking in the depths of an immense park, just outside of town. I'll go for a walk by there with the voluble Jeremy.
4 ° Titin: it is down since this morning. Agnan wanted to climb a steep street, lane, Mary Magdalene. The 203 stalled midway. In trying to restart, Agnan has burnt the clutch and it is descended at high speed in reverse and finally stamping a portal. Not too much damage, apart from the clutch. Agnan has confidence in his garage, a Cador of the profession, which makes all the settings of Renault in Magny-Cours. 5 °
Olga Olby: Agnan me repeatedly mentioned this trollop. At first I thought it was his girlfriend. And then he read me a brochure about the lady, born in Moldova in 1900 ... Died in 1990. A bequeathed some of his paintings to the city of Decize. And a series of sculptures by his friend Lydie Luzanowski. Agnan promised me he would introduce me both artists! Mystery! And remystère!
6 ° "désécriture": another thing that bothers Agnan. I did not understand his explanations. An "Experiment", the magic can be a recipe unearthed in one of his occult books. I wonder what a penetrating mind as qu'Agnan may well find that nonsense! ... "
- Jean-Pierre, you've got mail!
- Thank factor.
The envelope bears the large format Literary Magazine subscription. Two slips inside. The first, a photocopy of the expense that Mourlon sent to the editor. The summary is crossed out in red, total 3256, € 25 is deleted and the amount of 56.25 € written in the margin, a check of 56.25 € is stapled to this sheet. On the other, a brief letter signed Jacques Diaz informed the reporter that his mission is aborted, the special issue of literary magazine devoted to the season will be great historian Cypriot Yannis Costas Herassopoulos to mark the twentieth anniversary of the excavations of the ancient city of Zébipolis and discovery of the true bottomless pit. Articles about Joel Lenoir are returned at a later date, RV to the next meeting Editorial.
Chapter 9: Ups and downs ...
- This time it Decize by night from the sky.
Perched on his perch, the good Virgin opens their arms. "Another gift from the Earl of Old kiss to his countrymen, irreverently jeers Fumerol; to protest against the separation of church and state, the local squire wanted to show that Our Lady was floating above the rooftops, Standing in an Assumption. "
Agnan Fumerol and Jean-Pierre Mourlon, fresh as Hotusa bath after a good night in the Loire, came to enjoy the sight.
- You see the three towers that we tease: the steeple of the church, that of the Clock Tower and the Minimes. Well, tonight, we'll climb. Large climbers multiply over 8000, we will be more modest. But you're gonna go from one discovery.
Still armed with his mat, Agnan Fumerol entering public buildings and private ... as in a mill. At the top of the steeple of the Minimes, he showed his guest the ingenious antenna that serves as a relay to send messages into the cosmos, a fad that was abandoned last year after waiting in vain for a response of Overseas galaxy. The church tower St. Aré contains only the bells, it is a truism, but what bells! Agnan to none for playing Quasimodo and, that night, the Decizois are taken from their sleep by a rhapsody Carillonneur, started on the air is to drink, drink, drink ... and ended The p'tite by Huguette, anthem law students ... Fumerol adds, cynical
- Such sacrilege unreleased Decize will assuredly cause apoplexy among two or three frogs clam neighbors. Deserting
nimbly church, our two owls locked up in the Clock Tower, where they disturb a nest of wood pigeons. The escalation of the old staircase is a perilous exercise, both steps are rotten and encrottées. From up there, by opening small windows, the view on the position and the town hall is impressive. Two squads of police arrived, alerted by the chime; firefighters are there, too, a small gathering of disgruntled citizens around the mayor out of his sedan, coiled in a flowered pajamas. But
qu'Agnan Fumerol wants to show the journalist is a tiny detail. On one of the bells, close to the edge Internally, the founder has burned - or cast - a small sex scene: two men dressed in long tunics sodomize a dog, another a cow. An inscription erased almost surrounds the drawing: "Evil be to him who evil thinks! The two explorers peaks decizois burst out laughing, evoke the Flowers of Evil and descend to the floor of the clock.
- Tell me, Agnan. As we climbed high into conducive to mystical revelations, I have several questions to ask yourself: Why are you so nervous when I speak of Lenoir? What do you know so scary? What is désécriture this story? Why Lenoir, in his book, ready for you to write a code Olga Olby? And when will you introduce me this Olga? You bring me a boat for almost a week. I want to understand.
- all at once? You do not mean it! I'll just tell you that oppose Joel Lenoir. It's not jealousy. Nor any antipathy, because the zebra is rather funny, and we have a common passion: Sherlock Holmes. But here: Lenoir was daring enough to put me on stage in his fleece. While me, I asked nothing to anybody. He assigned a number of derogatory treatment, I will pass on it ... After all, a writer has every right and if one of his heroes is inspired by a living being, not an exact replica. Vautrin is not Vidocq, Julien Sorel is not Antoine Berthet, therefore Agnan Fumerol Touch of Evil is not me ... I even suspected of having borrowed Lenoir Fumerol to Maupassant ... Moreover, this insolent m has provided three encyclopaedias securities convoluted, I know short. He delights in bawdy puns on my "penetration," the devil! All that these are childish ... Nonsense ... Bagatelles crap ... and company. He has cut and castrated the poor Martineau!
- Martineau is not him.
- How do you know? CRIME Lenoir, who deserves punishment is to have touched the SECRET. Not completely, the unfortunate does not have the means, but it has few doors ajar, and smarter than he may continue until one day the most central mysteries with unpredictable consequences. Jean-Pierre is not joking with the secret treaties. Well, this animal Lenoir me involved in some sort of conspiracy, a secret code CODE OLGA OLBY. If he knew, poor man! He wanted to plagiarize this idiocy Da Vinci Code, as if one could compare the object of my research to a mere bestseller, this film or teen boobies. No, the occult, this is not a game, I'm sure ...
- Drop Da Vinci. Back to your code!
- Ah, Lenoir! After reading his book, I first feared. Then I reasoned. He had touched - it is his word, that it touches many, and not just the daisy! He touched a great mystery, it is far from having understood, fortunately. So I thought about ways to rid the world of the profane. But was it possible to delete Lenoir other than a crime? The dagger was too risky, I would have been quickly spotted and arrested: in contrast, would have been entitled to a real police investigation, not as in these novels gum. I can not shoot a gun or pistol, during military service in Algeria, but I rifleman Sergeant said that I missed an elephant in a hallway, then I poured in the information section. The poison is difficult to prepare and it is never safe to drink to him who is condemned ... An excellent subject for a novel or drama, you know, the cup of poison ingested by another ... I still had a way to eliminate discrete inconceivable. You understand now?
- So you did disappear Lenoir? That's why we can not find ...
- Wait! You're going faster than the music, my dear. Lenoir has made himself disappear. He is afraid. He lifted a lid and he saw that the pot would explode. And then, upon release of his thriller, I sent him a warning letter. Banalities, except the last paragraph contained a magic formula.
- A magic formula? It's a joke. A magician's trick ...
- Ta, ta, ta, ta! My formula is a curse, she announced a horrible death. Of course, for those willing to understand. I think Joel Lenoir understood, or it was explained. In any case, he spun himself into the shade. I have not yet found his hiding place, but this does not delay.
- What will you do? You're not gonna ...
- ... Zigouiller. No, just keep it in fear, flank him the willies for a long time.
- You've talked about a code Olga Olby, what is it? Still a curse?
- There - there - was - not - - code - Ol Ol-by-ga!
Agnan Fumerol hammered the syllables of his response. By the light of the flashlight, Jean-Pierre Mourlon distinguished scholar's face. The features were tense, the look is hard Agnan stands forehead, as if launching a threat to pigeons cooing, the top floor of the tower.
- There is no code Olga Olby. There is a code 0-0. Zero-Zero, not OO, double vowel. Lenoir failed to interpret the signs. He saw me several times to enter - is one of his obsessions, again - Enter, I say, in room-Olga Olby and he confused with OO 0-0. Writers, they take much to amaze the reader!
- Zero-Zero ... Why Not Zero-Zero-Seven?
- "My name is Bond, James Bond! Again, we are not in the literature. Zero-Zero is the annihilation dark, fire without flame, autoconsomption, one of the major goals of medieval alchemy. I read the treaties, I tried some experiments, I have spent hours compiling all those old books you've seen in my attic ... I think I successful. Thanks to Olga Olby, or rather thanks to her friend Lydia Luzanowski. Tomorrow, I'll introduce them
... But I see on the horizon
Goddess Aurora's arms Who
pink color all the bushes
And wakes all finches.
It is time to pause, fast
go back home! This is amazing
tirade launched by Agnan Fumerol towards the statue of Guy Coquille, the famous Decizois standing guard in the face of the clock. Jean-Pierre Mourlon is not certain, but in the glow of dawn, he believes to have seen the great man smiled in his beard.
Chapter 10: Exaltation and skepticism.
The imposing lock Olga Hall-Olby cringe, resists and yields to the form under the nimble fingers of Agnan Fumerol. The two visitors slip into the lobby. Agnan shut the heavy door behind him.
- Here we are in the holy of holies.
- Not so holy as that, your monastery. What's that naked chick?
- A statue of voluptuousness, a sculptor unknown, Parmentier, Carpentier Butcher or I do not remember. Before, she was in the cloister. It was put away because the marble was just spotted the birds were their nests in his thighs and cats piss.
- By the way, how do you manage to get all these keys?
- Very simple, my friend. I stole some. I borrowed from others, such as those of the Office of Tourism. And I took castings; one of my nephews is a locksmith. But I did not come here to talk about locks and master key. I'll introduce you Olga.
Agnan tamper with a few seconds in her trousseau, pulls up a wrench, is eager for a moment a small door.
- is the repository where these ignoramuses have locked the legacy Olga Olby. Local elected officials know nothing about painting, You have seen well in the office of Minister of Culture.
- Decize Because, there is a Minister of Cul ... Ah, yes, the deputy who received me. What's his name again?
- Lesemeur. And I assure you that with what he has sown it will not get the harvest of the century. The drama of Olga Olby is that the scribblers of the Artistic Circle jealous. They were probably afraid not to support the comparison. So they put in Madame darkroom. Ah, well, it opens, it's no picnic their safety lock!
A jumble of frames is stacked in the deposit, in Agnan Fumerol drags ten on the side and all of a sudden he lost his temper:
- Look what those pigs did with my Olga! No respect for the old lady! At least the spiders have mercy, they protect it, they!
Indeed, the painting that depicts the face of a wrinkled granny is more streaked by cobwebs. Table contemplate that the two men is a self-portrait, stained gray-green and rust. A little disappointed, Jean-Pierre Mourlon takes three quick photos and claims:
- You would have nothing more sexy in your museum?
- But it's a masterpiece! You also, you seem an aesthetic to the nuts. You do not know the value of this painting, he was offered at Christie's? Come!
A great strides, the scholar decizois guide his guest at the other end of the room - which is nothing but the old church of the convent of the Minims. Reached in a small side chapel, where there are chairs, brooms and statuettes. Agnan Fumerol is increasingly pissed:
- Second mess, after the paintings, the busts! You see these busts, some plaster, some clay and two or three wood. These are Lydia works Luzanowski. Une amie d'Olga Olby. I know little about it, but I owe him a lot. Look, the little old man with the beret is Uncle Julius ...
- Your uncle?
- Not in mine, that of Olga, finally his uncle by marriage. One of his parents who told me the story of busts one day. He had been sent by the Office of Tourism. Here, Jean Cocteau, this one is Mistinguett, there is the cousin Bertha. And now the bust by Olga Lydia, not bad, eh? Jean-Pierre
Mourlon can not repress a whistle of admiration. Indeed, the young woman depicted is ravishing, high forehead, hair gathered into a chignon twist in the Russian manner, perhaps. Listening to the endless Agnan Fumerol, he learns that Olga was not called Olby, but Hirschanowskaïa, a Jewish name, his nickname in Russian meant flame, she had met Lydia in Warsaw, the two women were come together to Paris and that Lydia had died prematurely, he was still seeking how. But
Agnan Fumerol not come into the room Olga-Olby to give a course of art history. He lifts the bust of Uncle Jules and shows his friend a little paper stuck underneath, almost unreadable.
- c'papelard You see! Number 17 and a signature. The artist or someone else did the inventory. What is most original is the source of the paper. You certainly distinguished lines, letters? Yes ... This label has been cut from a brochure. I bought one of the labels pasted on a bust that these idiots have abused and badly messed up. I studied with a magnifying glass, microscope, paper and the few recognizable signs. The signature may be that of Lydia, it does not matter. The Letters undoubtedly belong to a small manual of occultism which I've already talked the other night. The Epistle of the philosophical fire, Jean Mirus, had been abandoned in the crypt below us. The author of the inventory has torn a few pages to write these labels. I am sure, I checked: missing pages 27, 28 and 41, 42 of the copy I found. I bought another copy via the Internet to see what was cut out, intentionally or not. Not much, something original: a magic formula for replenishing the fire of the spirit. Light the fire! You t'souviens of our trouble with the cops?
- Ah, finally! We return fire. You s'rais not arsonist, sometimes, you? When I mounted the Corsican village, in Furamolla, there was a bush fire ...
- I'm there for nothing. The whole village knows that the old Petrorsu, the goat farmer sets fire in the bush every summer ... Returning to a more serious subject. The Epistle of philosophical fire is exceeded. A vast hoax. But this treaty was rejected by a great master of the occult, the English monk Don Beltramino de Soto, in his Tractatus Occult Ignibus Internal Combustionibusque. And this is one of its chapters that put me on the path of désécriture.
- The désécriture! It happens ...
- Yes, désécriture, a technique of erasing manuscripts and diplomatic documents, the ideal method of lords against espionage and intelligence. CODE 00 if you prefer.
Two hours later, Jean-Pierre Mourlon is perplexed. It does nothing to lengthy just heard. Fumerol expounded with a wealth of detail on sympathetic inks and coded messages; it, the journalist's understanding, he remembers being studied The Gold-Bug in high school. On sympathetic inks, inks Agnan increased antipathy, which disappear from the paper after a few days or hours; technical considerations became more difficult. Mourlon had hardly shone in chemistry while studying: it was difficult to clearly identify the para-xylene, méthyltoluène, various carbonates, to include printing by laser xerography. This is where the scholar fell from chemistry to alchemy, the alchemy of the written word evil, the occult books of curses and cursed at the experiment, it stalled. Nodded without conviction, he tried to follow the reasoning, less and less rational, of Agnan Fumerol.
"Agnan reportedly launched a curse in a form caught in one of his books. And this curse would aim to destroy the literary production of Joel Lenoir. Unbelievable! Or Fumerol lost his head or he is very strong ... And what a bizarre sequence: the former convent's crypt, Hollow-Count Zebra, Olga Olby, Lydia Luzanowski, Uncle Julius, the label the Treaty of magic, fire philosophical, consumption underground, code 00, KGB spies, brothers Miquet the désécriture, all this to lead to Joel Lenoir! If it were a novel, no reader could take until the last chapter. But I did not dream, I attended the wonderful event ... or a staggering hoax. In any case, no way to be initiated ... "
On Sunday, July 23, 2006, after a last feast at Le Charolais, Jean-Pierre Mourlon pack your bags, kiss it three times Agnan Fumerol twice the brothers and Miquet Jérôme Duchemin once (the last gossip, Zigzag, was not found) he takes the way to the station and returned to Paris. His investigation did not follow the path he had planned, but it has a supply of biscuits for the future.
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