Sensational by Jodie Lynn Zdrok

Author:Jodie Lynn Zdrok
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

Nathalie read it through a second time. Her mouth had caught up to her brain today, but reading wasn’t yet seamless. “Repulsive and repugnant, just for the sake of being so. This is all a tease. It doesn’t tell us anything.”

“Except who his next prey is likely to be,” Christophe murmured.

She thumbed the edge of the notebook. “A Princess we can’t help any more than we could help the Suitor.”

“We hope to get to him before that.” Christophe took in a deep breath and let it out. “We’re surveying buildings above and near laundries, and we have four or five leads about ‘suspicious men’ carrying valises, though given the number of visitors in the city right now, there’s not much weight to assign that. An anonymous source cited a ‘volatile’ actor—aren’t many of them so?—who should be investigated. Both university scholars and theater professionals say they’ve never seen or heard of this script, so we believe it’s the creative, unpublished work of the killer. Oh, and as a result of Jules’s vision, we’ve been interviewing descendants of the Sanson family.”

Nathalie always thought it strange that one family would have generations of executioners spanning decades, from the Revolution of 1789 until the 1840s. What must those holiday gatherings and dinner conversations have been like? “I’m assuming nothing came of it, or we wouldn’t be reading about another murder.”

“They’re a proud family and were insulted, as one might expect,” Christophe said, shrugging. “Somewhat understanding once we presented, insofar as we were able, the reasons for the inquiry. There’s nothing to suggest any of them are involved. Monsieur Patenaude was able to assist us for several of the interviews and confirmed it.”

Nathalie’s heart warmed at the sound of M. Patenaude’s name. All she recalled of his visit was that his glasses had been very thick. She was pleased to hear that his gift had been there when he reached for it during those interviews.

“The Deiblers also spoke to us and, in fact, offered to consult. Monsieur Patenaude engaged with them as well.”

The heirs to the Sanson throne enjoyed their own renown for being at the helm of Le Rasoir National in recent decades. Was that who had pulled the rope on the guillotine when she’d watched the murderer Pranzini’s execution two years ago? “It’s not every day a father-and-son execution team can share their intimate knowledge of the guillotine with a murder investigation.” She closed the notebook. “Then what about Jules’s vision?”

“It’s possible that Monsieur Patenaude was mistaken. After all, he … as you know, things have changed for him.”

Nathalie frowned. The glee she’d felt on M. Patenaude’s behalf was punctured with disappointment.

“However,” Christophe said, his tone optimistic, “we, too, came away from the interviews secure in the conclusion that none of them are suspects. We’re pursuing three other theories at the moment: One is that Le Rasoir was making a false claim and isn’t really the descendant of an executioner. The second is that he’s a distant branch on the Sanson family tree, say the grandson of a third cousin or some such.

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