Read Online Bred to Kill by Franck Thilliez - Free Book Online

and neon lights giving off late autumn hues. Not to mention an odor of dead game that, over time, impregnated even your chest hairs. Levallois was leaning against a wall just behind the inspector, looking a bit pale: before going in, he’d confessed that autopsies weren’t really his thing. The opposite would have been worrisome.
    Paul Chénaix, the medical examiner, had seen some weird stuff in his day, but this was the first time he’d had a chimpanzee on his table. The unconscious animal was lying on its back, arms and legs splayed. Its huge fingers were slightly bent, as if clutching an invisible apple. To the right, the nude body of Eva Louts was devoured by the interrogating light of the scialytic lamp, the same kind they used in operating theaters, which had the peculiar property of creating no shadows.
    Sharko rubbed his chin without a word, impressed by the sight of the two inert bodies lying side by side, in more or less identical positions, and showing distinct morphological similarities.
Ninety-eight percent of our DNA is chimpanzee DNA
, the primatologist had said.
    Just as the two cops arrived, Chénaix had been finishing the external examination of the human subject. Her skull had been shaved, very clearly revealing a fracture and a large hematoma at the occipital level. Rudely splayed on the steel surface, poor Eva Louts had lost the little bit of humanity left to her.
    â€œIt’s anything but an accident. If you don’t mind my horning in on your territory, Cheetah here had nothing to do with it.”
    First good news of the day. Clémentine Jaspar would get back her chimpanzee, her “baby,” safe and sound. On the other hand, it meant there had indeed been a murder, announcing what looked to be a diabolical case.
    â€œCause of death was the blow to the skull. The victim was probably struck, and blood loss from the scalp wound did the rest. Death occurred between eight p.m. and midnight. Lividity on the shoulder blades and around the buttocks suggests the body was not moved postmortem. As for the bite, hard to tell if it was made before or after death.”
    In fifteen years, Chénaix had carved up several tons of cold meat. Neatly trimmed goatee, small round glasses, tough exterior: in his white lab coat, he could easily have been mistaken for a university professor, especially since his knowledge of various spheres of medicine was staggering. The man was a fount of science and had an answer for everything. He and Sharko knew each other well.
    In silence, the inspector walked around the table, studying the victim from every angle. After the first contact, which was always hard, he now saw not the body of a nude woman but an investigatory landscape, from which clues jutted like little flags to be plucked.
    â€œDid they show you the paperweight?”
    â€œYes—it matches.”
    â€œAnd why rule out the monkey right off the bat? There’s still the bite mark. And just before coming here, we learned it had handled the paperweight. Couldn’t it have picked it up and hit her?”
    â€œIt might have handled it postmortem. In any case, the size of the bite mark doesn’t correspond to what the chimp could have left. The traces are very clear. The diastema, the gap between the upper incisors, is different. Same for the spread of the jaws. Besides, the chimp’s molars don’t show any traces of blood. And the blood on her limbs and fur is no doubt from touching the victim after death. The killer tried to commit a perfect murder and he was very sly but not enough to fool us.”
    Chénaix turned toward the anesthetized chimpanzee.
    â€œShery, my
chérie
, I’m happy to report you’ll be eating bananas for some time to come.”
    His comment lightened the atmosphere for a few seconds, before they got back to business.
    â€œSo in that case, who or what caused the bite?”
    â€œSomething a bit bigger than this critter. The