… Odette began shaking him like a rag doll.
‘He’s right, darling. We have to do as Maxime says. Afterwards we won’t have to think about it ever again; we just need to do this one little thing … No, no, you’re not going to prison … How should we do this, Maxime?’
‘We’re going to need a tarpaulin or some bin bags to wrap around the head. Then we stick him in the boot and chuck him out over there, in the rubble, and no one’s any the wiser. It’s watertight. No one will suspect us for a minute … As long as we keep this between ourselves, that is. We have to be sure we can trust each other. Isn’t that right, Léa?’
Léa let it go. This man was one of life’s irredeemable idiots, the kind that always have to have the last word. Odette had already made up her mind which side to take. Marlène would be bound to follow suit. As for Nadine …
‘Nadine?’
‘I don’t give a shit! Do what the hell you like; you’re all completely messed up. I should never have set foot in this place. I’ve seen nothing, heard nothing, I just want to go home.’
Léa shrugged her shoulders; Maxime puffed out his chest.
‘Since we’re all agreed, what are we waiting for?’
Odette and Maxime got on with the job with remarkable efficiency. Martial, on the other hand, was incapable of taking the slightest initiative and simply did as he was told. The three other women stood motionless, silently watching the operation unfold. Once the body had been bundled up and crammed into the boot, Maxime got behind the wheel while Martial and Odette leant against one another in the back. Léa, Nadine and Marlènestepped back to let the car turn round, then watched it take off down the road and disappear into the night. Léa shook her head with a sigh.
‘This is utter madness … Come on, Marlène, we can all wait together at my place. Nadine, are you coming? What is it?’
Nadine was pointing at a corner of the lawn. Monsieur Flesh’s right eye lay untroubled, carrying on its staring contest with the moon.
The car came back a good three-quarters of an hour later. The three women awaiting its return – one biting her nails and staring into space, another making gallons of tea nobody wanted to drink and the third sucking a hastily rolled spliff in the bathroom – hurried out to see it pulling up outside the Sudres’. Martial still seemed to be away with the fairies. He was smiling like a village idiot, which jarred with the crestfallen looks on Maxime’s and Odette’s faces. Marlène leapt towards her husband.
‘Is it over then?’
‘No … we couldn’t do it.’
‘But … I thought you said it was the best thing to do?’
‘I didn’t say we’d changed our minds! We just couldn’t do it. Just before we reached the camp, I turned down a track on the left, heading towards that dumping ground. Obviously I had switched my lights off. At the end of the track, there was a big heap of rubble. It seemed like a suitable place to do it. I tried to turn the car round so that we’d be ready to go as soon as we were finished, only … while I was reversing, the back wheel got stuck in a rut, in a hole I hadn’t seen. Martial and I tried as hard as we could to push the car out, but there was no shifting it …’
‘So, how did you do it?’
Maxime hunched his shoulders, dug his hands into his dressing-gown pockets and kicked the tyre angrily. It was Odette who replied.
‘The gypsies … We couldn’t just stand there. Who else could we ask for help? They were a bit taken aback at first, and then they started giggling. The whole lot of them came over, women, children … so much noise, so much laughter! In no time at all they had us back on all four wheels, without expecting anything in return. It just goes to show, the things people say about them … Well … Anyway, then we came back here.’
‘Does that mean “he” is still in the boot?’
‘Well, obviously!’
All six of them stared in solemn silence
‘He’s right, darling. We have to do as Maxime says. Afterwards we won’t have to think about it ever again; we just need to do this one little thing … No, no, you’re not going to prison … How should we do this, Maxime?’
‘We’re going to need a tarpaulin or some bin bags to wrap around the head. Then we stick him in the boot and chuck him out over there, in the rubble, and no one’s any the wiser. It’s watertight. No one will suspect us for a minute … As long as we keep this between ourselves, that is. We have to be sure we can trust each other. Isn’t that right, Léa?’
Léa let it go. This man was one of life’s irredeemable idiots, the kind that always have to have the last word. Odette had already made up her mind which side to take. Marlène would be bound to follow suit. As for Nadine …
‘Nadine?’
‘I don’t give a shit! Do what the hell you like; you’re all completely messed up. I should never have set foot in this place. I’ve seen nothing, heard nothing, I just want to go home.’
Léa shrugged her shoulders; Maxime puffed out his chest.
‘Since we’re all agreed, what are we waiting for?’
Odette and Maxime got on with the job with remarkable efficiency. Martial, on the other hand, was incapable of taking the slightest initiative and simply did as he was told. The three other women stood motionless, silently watching the operation unfold. Once the body had been bundled up and crammed into the boot, Maxime got behind the wheel while Martial and Odette leant against one another in the back. Léa, Nadine and Marlènestepped back to let the car turn round, then watched it take off down the road and disappear into the night. Léa shook her head with a sigh.
‘This is utter madness … Come on, Marlène, we can all wait together at my place. Nadine, are you coming? What is it?’
Nadine was pointing at a corner of the lawn. Monsieur Flesh’s right eye lay untroubled, carrying on its staring contest with the moon.
The car came back a good three-quarters of an hour later. The three women awaiting its return – one biting her nails and staring into space, another making gallons of tea nobody wanted to drink and the third sucking a hastily rolled spliff in the bathroom – hurried out to see it pulling up outside the Sudres’. Martial still seemed to be away with the fairies. He was smiling like a village idiot, which jarred with the crestfallen looks on Maxime’s and Odette’s faces. Marlène leapt towards her husband.
‘Is it over then?’
‘No … we couldn’t do it.’
‘But … I thought you said it was the best thing to do?’
‘I didn’t say we’d changed our minds! We just couldn’t do it. Just before we reached the camp, I turned down a track on the left, heading towards that dumping ground. Obviously I had switched my lights off. At the end of the track, there was a big heap of rubble. It seemed like a suitable place to do it. I tried to turn the car round so that we’d be ready to go as soon as we were finished, only … while I was reversing, the back wheel got stuck in a rut, in a hole I hadn’t seen. Martial and I tried as hard as we could to push the car out, but there was no shifting it …’
‘So, how did you do it?’
Maxime hunched his shoulders, dug his hands into his dressing-gown pockets and kicked the tyre angrily. It was Odette who replied.
‘The gypsies … We couldn’t just stand there. Who else could we ask for help? They were a bit taken aback at first, and then they started giggling. The whole lot of them came over, women, children … so much noise, so much laughter! In no time at all they had us back on all four wheels, without expecting anything in return. It just goes to show, the things people say about them … Well … Anyway, then we came back here.’
‘Does that mean “he” is still in the boot?’
‘Well, obviously!’
All six of them stared in solemn silence
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