The Sixth Key(91)

‘In a moment, but first you must tell us what you know.’

‘All I know is what everybody knows, that Saunière found something when the workers moved the Visigoth pillar to replace the altar during the church renovations—’

‘Not the wooden baluster?’ Rahn asked.

‘Look, whatever he found, it made him rich. Pillar, baluster, it makes no difference! I told you before, the villa, the tower, the church – he built all of it and also renovated the presbytery and the gardens. How could a priest afford to do all this with what he earned from selling masses for the dead, which is what he was accused of doing? How much can one make in a village this size, with no more than a hundred people? He couldn’t have made so much money – unless he had made a pact with the Devil.’

Rahn raised his brow.

‘You might think this unbelievable, but I think it is true.’ The abbé looked down into his cooling tea. ‘In fact, this rumour has saved me from boredom, God forgive me! You can imagine, this is not a stimulating place to live, even for a priest, and so when I first arrived here I passed the time sorting through the files left behind by previous abbés, looking for clues. I came across a diary belonging to Abbé Saunière. When I asked Madame Dénarnaud about it, she turned wild. She demanded that I give it to her immediately but I refused and she has behaved rather abominably towards me ever since. The old hag thinks everything that once belonged to Saunière is hers for the taking, just because she inherited everything else. I told her, the diary belongs to the church archives and I refused to part with it. Do you know what she said? She said she would put a curse on me! Some say she and Saunière were lovers but I don’t believe it; I think there was a far more sinister union  , which I dare not mention for staining my soul.’

‘Where’s the diary?’ Rahn said, leaning forward slightly.

‘If I show you that, will you show me the list?’

Rahn nodded, wary.

When he was gone, Rahn looked at Eva, expecting to see some shared warmth, some conspiratorial acknowledgement of their intimacy, but there seemed to be no trace of that vulnerable girl of the night before. Her eyes betrayed nothing at all, as if the memory of it had been erased from her mind.

She said, ‘You don’t honestly think it was the madame who did that to the church. The old woman can hardly walk!’

Rahn shook his head and whispered: ‘She’s not as feeble, nor as stupid, as she looks. Yesterday, when you went to fetch her a blanket, while the abbé was out of earshot, she said to me, “Beware of that raven” – referring to the abbé. What happens next? We find a raven hanging on the altar, with its bowels cut out!’

He could say nothing more because the young abbé returned, carrying a small book in his hands and a blush over his cheeks.

‘All is made clear,’ he said, ‘once you know the chronology in this diary. Saunière spent an incredible sum and wrote a timeline for all his renovations from the start, which was 1886, until the finish, 1891. It all begins when he visits Abbé Boudet. Here he says, “The abbé encouraged my desire to commence renovations as soon as possible.”

‘After that he finds something hidden in the church and then removes the altar, whereupon a short time later he begins to work on the foundations of the church. He writes: “Discovered a tomb in the evening. Rain.”

‘He then makes a number of entries. He travels to Carcassonne, to Rennes-les-Bains and to Coustassa. Here, he says, he met with some priests: “Saw the curé of Névian, Gélis and Carrière: saw Cros and Secret—”

‘See? He mentions a priest from Névian, though I don’t know who he was, as well as Abbé Gélis of Coustassa and a certain Carrière. At this time, Abbé Cros was the vicar-general of this diocese. It wasn’t until later, in his near retirement, that he became the abbé of Bugarach.’

‘From vicar-general to just an abbé, do you mean he was demoted?’ Rahn asked.

The other man smiled, weakly. ‘Who can say? At any rate, a certain Pierre Pradel was the secretary-general, I believe the word secret was no doubt an abbreviation for secrétaire.’

‘Unless it means secret,’ Eva pointed out.

‘Yes,’ he said, perhaps surprised that this had not occurred to him. ‘Saunière goes to Paris in 1892 to Saint Sulpice,’ he continued, ‘where he visits with a certain Abbé Bieil and Abbé Hoffat. Then he goes to Lyon, where he meets with Abbé Boulle.