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isn’t it?’ said the commissaire. ‘With help from high-ups in the Ministry of the Interior . . . And that’s all you could come up with, to land me in it up to my neck? Do you really take me for an idiot?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Lanquetot, get this so-and-so out of here before I make him eat his toad.’
    ‘No one touches my toad. They’re fragile creatures.’
    ‘Know what I’d like to do with your toad? Or with people like you?’
    ‘I certainly do know. You probably wouldn’t want me to say in front of your junior officers, though?’
    ‘Out!’
    Lanquetot went back down the stairs behind Kehlweiler.
    ‘I can’t give you your papers back now,’ Lanquetot whispered. ‘He might be watching you.’
    ‘Let’s say 8 p.m., metro Place Monge.’
    Lanquetot went back up to Paquelin’s office, after having made sure Louis Kehlweiler was out on the street. There was a little bead of sweat on the boss’s upper lip. He’d take a couple of days to calm down.
    ‘Did you hear that, Lanquetot? Not a word to anyone else here, mind. And how do we know it really was Sorel on the line, after all? We could check, call up the Ministry . . .’
    ‘Yes, we could, sir, but if it really was Sorel, might not be a good idea. He’s an irascible man.’
    Paquelin sat down heavily.
    ‘You were here before me, Lanquetot, under that lunatic Adamsberg. Have you ever heard of this character before, “Ludwig” or Louis Granville? Does the name ring a bell?’
    ‘No, sir, nothing.’
    ‘On your way, Lanquetot. And remember? Not a word to anyone.’
    Lanquetot went back to his office, damp with perspiration. To start with, check out any missing persons in the 5th.

V
     
    LANQUETOT ARRIVED ON time. Louis Kehlweiler was already there, leaning on the balustrade around the entry to the metro station. He was holding his toad in his hand and gave the impression of being deep in a conversation which Lanquetot dared not interrupt. But Louis had seen him, and turned round and smiled.
    ‘Here are your ID papers, Kehlweiler.’
    ‘Thanks, Lanquetot, it worked perfectly. My apologies to your junior colleagues.’
    ‘I’ve checked all the missing persons in the 5th arrondissement. I even looked at the 6th and 13th, because they’re the adjoining ones. Nothing. Nobody’s been reported missing. I’ll take a look at the other districts.’
    ‘How far back did you go?’
    ‘The whole of the last month.’
    ‘That should be enough. Unless there’s some exceptional circumstance, I think it would have been in the last three or four days, and not too far from the Place de la Contrescarpe. Or maybe somewhere completely different.’
    ‘What makes you so sure?’
    ‘My little piece of bone, Lanquetot. I brought it to your boss quite honestly. And if he hadn’t been so aggressive, he’d have had some doubts, thought about it, and done his job properly. I played the game, I don’t need to feel guilty, and you’re my witness. He didn’t do his job. All the better, I get to take it on, with his blessing and a kick up the backside from him. Just what I wanted.’
    ‘So this little thing – it’s really a bone?’
    ‘A human bone, my friend. I got it checked at the Natural History Museum just now.’
    Lanquetot gnawed at a fingernail.
    ‘I don’t get it. It didn’t look like anything. What bone is it?’
    ‘The top joint of a big toe. Could be left or right, you can’t tell, but probably a woman’s. So we need to look for a woman.’
    Lanquetot paced around a little, hands behind his back. He needed to think.
    ‘This toe bone,’ he said at last, ‘could have come from an accident maybe?’
    ‘Improbable.’
    ‘But it’s not normal to find a toe bone on the grid round a tree.’
    ‘That’s what I think too.’
    ‘So how did it get there? Perhaps it’s from a pig?’
    ‘No, Lanquetot, no. It’s human, I’m not going to go back on that. If you’re still sceptical, we can get it analysed further. But even Bufo agrees,