Read Online This Night's Foul Work by Fred Vargas - Free Book Online

The real Normandy’s the Upper one, here.’
    Anglebert’s gnarled finger pointed to the wooden table. As if Upper Normandy could be reduced to the size of the café in Haroncourt.
    â€˜But you watch out,’ Robert added. ‘Over there in Calvados, they’ll tell you different. But don’t you listen to them.’
    â€˜All right,’ Adamsberg promised.
    â€˜And over there, it rains all the time, poor sods.’
    Adamsberg looked up at the windows, against which the rain was beating continuously.
    â€˜There’s rain and rain,’ Oswald explained. ‘Here, it doesn’t rain, it’s just a bit damp. Don’t you have them where you come from? Outsiders?’
    â€˜Yes,’ Adamsberg agreed. ‘There’s bad feeling between the people in the Gave de Pau valley and the Gave d’Ossau valley.’
    â€˜Yeah, course there is,’ agreed Anglebert, as if he already knew all about that.
    Although he was well used to the ponderous music of the evening male ritual, Adamsberg understood that the Normans, true to their reputation, were more difficult to get through to than other people. They didn’t say much. Here their sentences came out cautiously and suspiciously, as if testing the ground with every word. They didn’t speak loudly, nor did they tackle their subjects head-on. They went round them, as if putting a subject directly on the table was as indelicate as throwing down a piece of raw meat.
    â€˜So why is that crap?’ Adamsberg asked, pointing to the antlers over the door.
    â€˜Because those are
cast
antlers. OK for decoration, to show off. Goand have a look if you don’t believe me. You can see the bump at the base of the bone.’
    â€˜It’s a bone?’
    â€˜Don’t know a thing, do you?’ said Alphonse sadly, sounding regretful that Angelbert had allowed this ignoramus to join them.
    â€˜Yes, it’s a bone,’ the old man confirmed. ‘It grows out of the skull – only the deer family does that.’
    â€˜What if
we
had skulls that bulged out?’ wondered Robert fancifully.
    â€˜With ideas growing on ‘em,’ said Oswald with a thin smile.
    â€˜Wouldn’t be a big bulge in your case, Oswald.’
    â€˜Practical for the cops,’ said Adamsberg. ‘But risky. You’d be able to read people’s thoughts.’
    â€˜Stands to reason.’
    There was a pause for thought and for a third round of drinks.
    â€˜So what
do
you know about? Apart from police stuff?’ asked Oswald.
    â€˜No questions,’ decreed Robert. ‘He knows what he knows. He’s asking you what you know about.’
    â€˜Women,’ said Oswald.
    â€˜So does he. Or he wouldn’t have lost his.’
    â€˜Stands to reason.’
    â€˜There’s knowing about women and knowing about love, and it’s not the same thing. Specially with women.’
    Anglebert sat up as if dispelling a memory.
    â€˜Explain it to him,’ he said, gesturing towards Hilaire and tapping his finger on the photo of the stag that had been slit open.
    â€˜Right. So a red deer stag, he loses his antlers every year.’
    â€˜What for?’
    â€˜â€™Cos they get in the way. The only reason to have antlers is for the rut, to get the hinds. So when the rutting season’s over, they fall off.’
    â€˜What a pity,’ said Adamsberg, ‘when they’re so beautiful.’
    â€˜Like everything beautiful,’ said Anglebert, ‘they’re complicated.They’re heavy, you got to understand, and they catch on the branches. So after the fighting they fall off.’
    â€˜It’s like laying down his arms, if you like. He’s got his females, he drops his weapons.’
    â€˜Females, now, they’re complicated,’ said Robert, still pursuing his train of thought.
    â€˜But beautiful.’
    â€˜Like I said,’ muttered the old man, ‘more