Read The Ghost Riders of Ordebec (Commissaire Adamsberg) for Free Online

Danglard. It’s like I told your little brother when he was seven months old. And I’d have told you the same, if I’d known you at that age. There are three rules you have to remember, Zerk, and you’ll always get by. When you can’t find your way through to the end of something, ask Veyrenc. When you can’t manage to do something, ask Retancourt. And when you don’t know something, ask Danglard. Just bear those three things in mind. But Danglard is going to be very grumpy tonight, so I don’t know if he’ll tell us. Veyrenc’s rejoining the squad and he won’t like that. Danglard is an exotic plant and like all rare objects he’s fragile.’
    Adamsberg called his oldest deputy while Zerk was serving up dinner. Steamed tuna with courgettes, tomatoes and rice, followed by fruit. Zerk had asked if he could stay with his new father for a while, and the agreement was that he would look after the evening meal. It was an undemanding arrangement, since Adamsberg was fairly indifferent to what he ate and could have gone on forever swallowing identicalplatefuls of pasta, just as he always dressed in an identical manner, wearing a black canvas jacket and trousers, whatever the weather.
    ‘Does Danglard really know everything?’ the young man asked, frowning in a way that brought his eyebrows together: thick, like his father’s, they made a sort of thatch over his vague expression.
    ‘No, there are plenty of things he doesn’t know. He has no idea how to find a woman, although, just now, he’s had this lady friend for two months, which is an exceptional event. He can’t divine water, but he’s good at sniffing out white wine. He can’t control his anxiety or forget the mass of questions that he keeps circling around, like a rat in a maze. He’s no good at running, he doesn’t know how to sit and watch the rain fall or the river flow, he has no idea how to ignore the cares of life and, worse still, he manufactures them ahead of time so that they won’t take him by surprise. But he knows absolutely everything that doesn’t look useful at first sight. All the libraries in the world have found their way inside Danglard’s head and there’s still plenty of room. It’s something colossal, unprecedented, and I can’t describe it to you.’
    ‘But what’s the point, if it isn’t useful at first sight?’
    ‘Well, obviously, it does become useful at second or sixth sight.’
    ‘OK,’ said Zerk, apparently satisfied with the answer. ‘I don’t know what I know. What do you think I know?’
    ‘Same as me?’
    ‘And what’s that?’
    ‘No idea, Zerk.’
    Adamsberg raised a hand to indicate that he had finally got through to Danglard.
    ‘Danglard? Everyone asleep at your place now? Can you pop over here?’
    ‘If it’s for that pigeon, forget it. It’s covered in fleas and I have very bad memories of fleas. Plus I don’t like their expression under the microscope.’
    Zerk consulted his father’s two watches to find out the time. Violette had ordered him to give the pigeon something to eat and drink every hour. He soaked a few fragments of biscotte , filled the water dropper, including the drop of tonic, and set about his task. The bird’s eyes were closed but it accepted the food the young man put into its beak. Zerklifted the pigeon up gently as Violette had shown him. This woman had given him a shock. He would never have imagined that such a creature could exist. He could still see her large hands deftly dealing with the pigeon, and the blonde curls falling on the golden feathery down that covered her strong neck, as she lean over the table.
    ‘Zerk’s taking care of the pigeon. Anyway, it doesn’t have fleas any more, Retancourt’s sorted it.’
    ‘So, what do you want?’
    ‘Something’s bothering me, Danglard. That little woman in the flowery overall who was in the office today, did you notice her?’
    ‘I suppose so. Strangely inconsistent, physically evanescent. If you blew on her