Read Online Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand by Fred Vargas - Free Book Online Page B

was the case when my brother’s girlfriend, Lise Autan, was killed, and I know the judge used the trident then: 16.9 with a space of 4.7 centimetres between the first wound and the second, and 5 between the second and the third. Look at the other victims. Number 4, Julien Soubise, killed with a knife: 5.4 centimetres and 4.8, in a total length of 10.8 centimetres. Number 8, Jeanne Lessard, murdered with a chisel, 4.5 centimetres and 4.8 centimetres, total length 16.2. The longest totals are when the weapon was a chisel or a long screwdriver, and the shortest with a knife, because the blade is thin. But the total is never greater than 16.9 centimetres. Now how do you explain that, Danglard? Eight different murderers, each killing the victim with three blows, in a straightline never longer than 16.9 centimetres? Since when has there been a mathematical maximum limit for stabbing someone in the stomach?’
    Danglard frowned, without speaking.
    ‘As for the other type of variation,’ Adamsberg went on, ‘the width of the tines, that’s even smaller, never more than 4 millimetres, even when the weapon was a knife, and less if it was some kind of pointed tool. The widest perforation is 0.9 centimetres. Not more, never any more. That was the width of each wound in the case of Lise. How do you explain that? By the use of a ruler? By some sort of agreement among killers? These suspects were all roaring drunk, what’s more, so wouldn’t you think their hands would be unsteady? And they suffered from amnesia. And all of them were confused. Yet not one of them contrived to stab outside a thin rectangle 16.9 centimetres by 0.9 centimetres. Is that some kind of miracle, Danglard?’
    Danglard reflected quickly, and conceded that the commissaire ’s argument was persuasive. But he still couldn’t see how all the murders were perpetrated with a single weapon.
    ‘Well, look,’ said Adamsberg doing a rapid sketch. ‘Take a three-pronged agricultural fork. Here’s the handle, here’s the reinforced crossbar and here are the three prongs. The handle and the crossbar stay the same, but the prongs change. Do you get it, Danglard? The prongs were changed . But of course they couldn’t exceed the extent of the crossbar, 16.9 centimetres long, and the perforations 0.9 centimetres across in this case.’
    ‘You mean to say that our man takes off the metal prongs every time, and solders some other blades on?’
    ‘Yes, you’ve got it, capitaine . He can’t change the original implement. He’s neurotically attached to it, as serial killers often are, and that attachment is the clearest proof that we’re dealing with a psychopath. The weapon has to be the same one, for him that’s an absolute necessity. The handle and the crossbar are the soul and spirit of the weapon. But to evade detection, the judge modifies the prongs every time, by fixing on blades from knives or screwdrivers or whatever.’
    ‘That’s not so easy, to solder blades.’
    ‘Yes it is, Danglard, it’s quite simple. And even if the solder isn’t all that firm, the weapon is only going to be used once. To penetrate vertically, not to dig the earth.’
    ‘Well, in that case, if you’re right, the murderer would have to get hold of four knives or something similar for every killing: three to take off the points and attach them to the trident, and one to put in the hands of the poor sod who’s going to take the rap.’
    ‘Exactly. And that isn’t so complicated either. That’s why in virtually every case, the weapon found on the spot was an ordinary everyday one, and above all brand new. A brand new implement, belonging to a tramp, is that likely?’
    Danglard rubbed his chin reflectively.
    ‘He didn’t do it that way for your brother’s girlfriend, did he? According to you, he stabbed her with the fork, then pushed the screwdriver into the wounds.’
    ‘Same thing for case number 4, where the scapegoat was another teenager, also in a small village.