At that moment a bolt of lightning sent a silver vein across the night sky and lit the room with incandescence. Chavigny braced himself for what would come, since it seemed to him that Heaven itself had underscored his master’s words.
‘I am afraid,’ Chavigny told him, truthfully. ‘Where will I take it?’
‘Go to the descendants of Raymond de Parella. Centuries ago this family owned Montsegur, the fortress of the Cathars, now they have become the lords of Perillos, in Roussillon. They are the only ones who can be trusted. They will hide it and I will secret the knowledge of it in one of my quatrains – it will say that the treasure can be found with the twin infants from the illustrious and ancient line of a warrior monk.’
‘Twin infants?’
‘The townships of Perillos and Opoul.’
‘And the ancient line of a warrior monk?’
‘Templars! Hurry – to Perillos!’
36
One Mystery Reveals Another
‘The facts that I am about to reveal to you are incredible!’ Emile Gaboriau, The Lerouge Case
Rennes-le-Château, 1938
‘We need you to be honest with us, Madame Dénarnaud. The life of a friend might just depend on it – and we’re running out of time!’
She raised her brows but said nothing. She seemed to find his words amusing.
‘Saunière found it, didn’t he?’ Rahn pressed. ‘That’s what those antiquarian booksellers from London were looking for when they came here to search his library after he died. But you made certain that it wasn’t there!’
‘Found what?’
‘You tell us.’
‘Me? You give me too much importance, monsieur, I was just a housekeeper.’
Eva cut in: ‘But you were more than a housekeeper, madame! You inherited everything . . . perhaps it is more accurate to call you an accomplice?’
The old face changed, almost imperceptibly – it became hard, cunning. ‘Accomplice to what?’
‘Rituals,’ Rahn said.
‘What rituals?’
‘Rituals of black magic, right here beneath the church, in the crypt of Marie de Blanchefort.’
She laughed then, a guttural laugh. ‘You have been reading too many mystery novels!’
‘You warned me about ravens and then we find one hanging in the church this morning. Did you do it?’ Rahn said.
‘Did I hang the raven from the crucifix? Of course not!’
‘But you were in the church last night – the abbé saw you,’ Eva remarked.
‘Are you asking me who tried to kill you? Why don’t you go look for him – you will find that he’s long gone, with whatever you told him tucked away in his heart!’
‘What?’ Rahn said.
‘Monsieur Rahn, for a lover of mysteries you’ve not done well in figuring out this plot, have you? You’ve played right into that priest’s hands. I suppose his blushing did it. He looks like such an innocent – those fair eyes! But he is an innocent with the heart of a devil.’
‘What do you mean?’ Rahn said.
The old woman looked at him with a smug expression that annoyed him. ‘Well, who do you think locked the hatch leading to the crypt last night? I suppose he told you I did it, didn’t he? The truth is, if I hadn’t unlocked the door to the sacristy you wouldn’t be here now. He did not know about that door, you see. And so, what did you tell him? Did you show him something you had found perhaps? Was it that list of names you mentioned?’
Rahn blinked.
Madame Dénarnaud gestured to a seat and said with a sudden affectation of motherly concern, ‘Sit down, my dear, you look pale. I think it’s time I told you some things, and you are free to do whatever you want with them.’ She composed herself and began: ‘It all started, in many ways, with Marie de Nègre d’Ables, Dame d’Hautpoul, Marquise de Blanchefort. She was the last in her line and the last to live in the castle of the Hautpouls, the one that is deserted now and fallen to ruin on the hill in this village. On the eve of her death, she called for her confessor. Quite naturally, he was the priest of Rennes-le-Château, the Abbé Antoine Bigou. I believe he is on your list?’
‘How do you know that?’
‘Never mind, just listen,’ she said to him, ignoring Eva.
Eva watched them from her seat opposite with an aloof detachment, apparently unperturbed by the other woman’s rudeness.
‘On her deathbed,’ the woman continued, ‘Madame Blanchefort gave Abbé Bigou something that had been in her husband’s family for many years. Something that came into her husband’s possession through the lords of Perillos – at least that’s what Saunière managed to find out.’