The Parisian Codex

4 - The Antiques Dealer

François Bel had taken up residence in the 7th arrondissement, between Saint-Germain des Prés and Invalides. Robert Leroy's partner had bought himself a duplex apartment on the top floor of a building in Paris' most expensive district.

A man in his early fifties, he was dark-haired, with silver hair at the temples. He wore a dark velvet dinner jacket. The garment revealed a young man's figure, with broad shoulders and slender hips.

Monsieur Bel greeted me with a polite smile and a firm handshake.

I entered the exotic wood-paneled hallway, where the parquet floor was covered with a refined carpet. With a gesture, Bel ushered me into an office—his own, I assumed.

The room was square and had only two openings: the door we'd just entered and a tall window opposite. The rest of the walls were covered with books. Waxed wooden shelves overflowed with eclectic-looking volumes. Leather-bound works with gilded text rubbed shoulders with timeworn paperbacks in no apparent order.

Here again, a precious carpet covered the parquet floor. The desk itself was not huge, but obviously old. The cheerful disorder of the furniture was reminiscent of that on the shelves.

Bel sat down behind the desk, and I took my place opposite him. The antique chair creaked under my weight.

"So Nadine has hired a private detective," he said.

"She's very worried."

Bel clasped his hands together and put his index fingers to his lips. "Me too," he finally said with a sigh. "This isn't like Robert."

"Do you know what happened?"

Bel leaned back in his seat, took a deep breath, and began his story. "Thursday afternoon, Robert had planned to go to the storeroom..."

"Where exactly?"

"Our offices are on Saint-Pères Street, and we rent the building's basement as a warehouse."

"So Robert was in the cellar? Did you see him?"

Bel shook his head nervously. "I was in my office, upstairs. Robert said he wanted to examine our latest acquisition. It's a codex from the Middle Ages."

"Madame Leroy said you are the antique book specialist. She couldn't tell me why Robert examined this one."

"He wasn't interested in the book but in the cloth wrapping the codex. It had gold embroidery that seemed to fascinate him. So he set off to examine it, to see if we could have it restored."

"Examine it ... in the cellar?"

"Calling it a cellar is an insult to the place. We've reinforced the walls, installed a humidity and temperature control system, and state-of-the-art lighting. Not to mention the door and alarm system."

"And you're just tenants?"

"We deal with fragile, antique objects, often of very high value. The investment quickly paid for itself."

"So Robert was supposed to examine this embroidery, but you don't know if he did?"

Bel heaved a sigh and leaned over to open a drawer in his desk. He pulled out a crimson cloth, which he placed carefully on top of the piles of books and papers cluttering the top of the desk. I bit my lip.

The cloth, five feet long and twenty inches wide, was decorated with arabesques of gold thread. Mostly, it had been torn to shreds, as if someone had taken shears to it.

I bent down to get a better look at the fabric, but I already knew... My body froze, and so did my mind. I was familiar with this embroidery. I'd made it, stitch by stitch, on my master's instruction. I hadn't seen it since... My hands snapped out of their immobility and began to tremble.