Sherazade by Leïla Sebbar

Author:Leïla Sebbar [Sebbar, Leïla]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781566569880
Publisher: Interlink Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

b) accessories and any peculiarities: green plastic satchel

Information regarding place of work and other places regularly visited by missing person: school

Municipal Library

The form had been duly completed and signed. The father would bring the identity photo of his daughter the next day. The inspector informed the father that a telegram would be sent to the Paris Metropolitan Police and the police of the three Departments, and a telex would be sent to the Youth and Community Sections of the police. In case of urgency – if suicide were suspected – there would be a national broadcast to all police headquarters, and airport and border police would be notified.

Although he was discreet, Sherazade's father hadn't thought the police would make inquiries after a week. In his absence, his wife had to deal with inspectors who called and asked her to answer questions. She pretended to have difficulty in understanding French and the inspectors had to be satisfied with curt replies. The mother couldn't stop them searching the wardrobe in which she pointed out Sherazade's drawer. They had the discretion – because she was present? – not to search the other drawers or the hanging part and the shelves. They asked her where her daughter's bedroom was. She showed them the room with three beds, two of which were bunks, a table and the writing desk where she worked. They looked at the school books – Sherazade had taken her private notebooks – and a small Larousse dictionary.

'Did your daughter get any mail?'

'No.'

'No letters? Nothing?'

'No.'

'Has she written since she left?'

'No.'

'Have you anything else you can tell us?'

'No.'

The inspectors left the house without any clues, without getting on the track of anything interesting. They had been polite. The mother told no one she'd found a note that she'd got Meriem to read – 'Mum, I'm leaving tomorrow. Don't worry. Your daughter, Sherazade.' She told Meriem and Sherazade's father she'd found a road map of Algeria under her daughter's mattress.

The inspectors visited the school and then the Municipal Library. They'd never had occasion to go there, they were from the neighbourhood but at their age they preferred the football field to the library. They found it vast and light, pleasant. They noticed the newspapers, dailies and magazines that they glanced at while waiting for the head librarian. They saw a young woman in jeans approaching, which surprised them: a librarian ought to wear a pleated skirt and flat walking shoes. She had on a very bright Jacquard pullover in reds, yellows, greens. The inspectors walked over to her, introduced themselves and spoke of Sherazade. The young woman didn't seem surprised and the inspectors, or rather one of them, the most observant, wondered for a moment if this progressive young woman might not possibly be harbouring the missing girl. He didn't give any indication of his suspicions, but promised himself to get hold of the librarian's home address and to have her discreetly shadowed. She spoke enthusiastically about Sherazade, told them she read a lot,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.