‘I’ve come about Abbé Cros . . .’
‘Eugene?’ he said.
‘I’m afraid he is dead,’ Rahn said.
‘What?’ The old man frowned, squinting.
‘Yes, unfortunately.’
‘Cros is dead?’ The news having sunk in, he took himself to a pew to sit down. ‘But how?’
‘He drowned yesterday, in the small pond in his garden.’
The old man paused. He told the other monk to leave them alone and when he was sure the young man had gone, he stared upwards at Rahn with unreserved distrust. ‘What was he doing in the pond?’
‘I think he was trying to find something – a key he had hidden there,’ Rahn told him.
‘The key was in the pond?’ The man looked down; many thoughts were apparently crossing his venerable mind.
‘So, you know what it was for?’
‘What?’ he said, coming out of his contemplation.
‘The key?’
‘No . . . I . . . well . . .’ The abbé seemed at a loss.
‘The key opened the tabernacle at Bugarach – in it we found a list of names,’ Rahn said.
‘You have the list? Let me see it!’ Grassaud ordered.
‘Do you know what it’s for, Abbé Grassaud?’
‘How should I know?’
‘Because your name is on it.’
The old man started to wheeze. ‘My name . . . on the list?’
‘Yes, and so is your church, along with a number of other churches and their priests.’
‘A number – how many?’
‘You saw Abbé Cros a week ago, is that so?’
‘Well, yes . . .’
‘After you left he was somewhat upset,’ Rahn said.
The old man faltered. ‘I don’t know what you are getting at with these questions—’
‘What did you want with him, Abbé?’
‘It was just a visit to an old friend.’ He shrugged it off, but Rahn could see an underlying anxiety.
‘Did he tell you anything about the list?’
‘Go away and leave me alone! I don’t know anything! My advice to you is to go, throw that list out and forget you ever saw it!’
‘But I’m afraid it’s too late for that,’ Rahn said.
‘Too late?’
‘The magistrate of Arques has disappeared, there are two men dead and a policeman involved – an inspector from Paris.’
This must have made an impression on the abbé because he sat back with a look of defeat on his face. ‘An inspector from Paris? What does he want?’
‘He happened to be at Carcassonne when the call came in about the abbé’s unfortunate accident, and now he’s investigating it in connection to a group called La Cagoule. Have you heard of them?’
The old abbé wavered. ‘No.’
Rahn knew he was lying. ‘In fact, I believe the inspector may be arriving here very soon to make further enquiries.’
‘Mon dieu!’ The abbé cupped his bearded chin, like a man faced with an insurmountable conundrum.
‘Do you have any idea why your name might be on that list?’
‘I won’t know until I see it,’ he said, looking up with a duplicitous eye. ‘I have to see who else is on it.’
Rahn took it out and showed it to him and the old man’s eyes widened as he read the names. Rahn put it back in his jacket pocket then and the man looked disappointed, as if he had not extracted everything he could from it.
‘So?’ Rahn said.
There was a moment of the greatest hesitation and then it seemed as if the abbé had come to a decision; he nodded. ‘Yes, I am on that list because I was something of a friend to Bérenger Saunière, the abbé of Rennes-le-Château, who was being investigated by Cros for the Bishop of Carcassonne but that was many years ago; if my mind serves me, it was in 1910. You see, Saunière moved here in 1885 but I met him in 1886. In those days we saw each other from time to time because he was interested in the history of this area and I had a good library in my sacristy. He was a bit of an amateur archaeologist, or so he said, and he showed me some things – artefacts he found when he was renovating his church. There was a goblet from the Knights of Malta, some coins, and various semiprecious things. I only heard later that he had found something else, something he was very secretive about. I don’t know what it was but it must have interested Bishop Billard because he paid for Saunière to go to Paris to have whatever it was appraised.’
‘Was this the same bishop who was investigating him?’
‘Oh no! At that time Abbé Cros was Bishop Billard’s secretary, actually, but later when the new Bishop of Carcassonne, a man called De Beauséjour, was appointed he also worked for him. It was the Bishop De Beauséjour who started investigating Saunière. You see, De Beauséjour was nothing like Billard.’