Edouard Garnier trampled into the cellar workshop muttering, “Rats! Damn rats!” as if tiny demons were at his heels. Or rather one particular tiny demon. But the marten had wisely chosen to stay hidden in one of the crates at the side of the room. But the short astronomer appeared to have had a round with a skilled boxer rather than a small animal. His gray hair was sticking up in messy tufts and his waistcoat was sadly wrinkled. Even in the dimmer light of the oil lamps, his eyes appeared red. Haidée concluded that the man was either drunk or sleep deprived.
The later possibility was confirmed when Garnier walked up to Renaud waving another round telescope card carefully lettered with symbols drawn in black ink. “I must have your opinion,” the short astronomer declared. “I’ve been up all night trying to figure this out.”
Renaud’s gaze missed nothing of Garnier’s appearance. “Oh?”
Haidée reached over to get a cup of cider. “You look like you’ve been working very hard, Monsieur Garnier.”
Startled by her voice, the short astronomer looked over at her. “Mademoiselle Avenall. I didn’t see you here. What are you doing down here? Shouldn’t you be out visiting the village or something?”
“There’s only so much of the village one can see,” she replied. “I was just curious and wanted to see what Monsieur Renaud was doing. He’s been very kind to show me how everything worked.”
“Ha!” barked Garnier. “Women doing astronomy. That would be the day!”
Renaud gave him a bored smile. “Oh, I wouldn’t be so dismissive of that. Now what is it that you wanted me to see?”
Garnier shoved the card into his hands. “I’ve been trying to work out a new card to put in my telescope to get a better image. I’ve been looking at the moons of Jupiter, you know, and lately I’ve been displeased with the somewhat fuzzy view I’ve been getting. I’m pretty sure that this particular spell will do the trick, but it hasn’t been working for me. I’ve asked Everard and Roland to look over my work, but you know how those two blowhards are. They tell me to redo it. Redo it! As if I was an errant schoolboy who has made a mess of his assignments. You tell me what you see.”
Renaud looked at the card as if deep in thought. Haidée glanced over, scrutinizing the symbols. “They look all right to me,” he bluffed. “But I’ve just done a casual glance. If the card isn’t working, then perhaps you should redo it again. Maybe it’s not your spell that’s wrong, but a flaw in the materials.”
The short astronomer made a sound in the back of his throat that sounded like he was having an apoplexy. He swore. “All that work, wasted!” Furiously, he tore the card to bits and tossed the scraps behind him.
“You look overworked,” Renaud said soothingly. “I’m sure if you took a nap, you’ll be refreshed afterwards to continue on your work.”
“Can’t sleep,” Garnier muttered.
“But Monsieur Garnier!” exclaimed Haidée. “That will ruin your health. You must get some sleep.”
“Talk about sleep all you want,” Garnier replied, turning his red rimmed gaze on her. “You don’t have to worry about things watching you all the time.”
She frowned. “That sounds as if you’re having hallucinations from lack of sleep.”
The short astronomer gave a weary chuckle. “Oh no, Mademoiselle. No hallucinations. They couldn’t be. Something’s watching us. All of us. I saw it climbing the wall, just underneath what used to be Bisset’s laboratory. It crawled, worse than a rat or a fanged spider. And it was dark and large. And it was watching.” Garnier laughed again, sounding on the edge of hysteria. “Good God, I can’t believe Legard could even sleep with it watching or that D’Aubigne could just blithely go out without knowing. I’m going back to my laboratory to work on that card again.”
As he stomped back up the stairs, Renaud and Haidée glanced at each other.
“The poor man sounds like he’s cracked under the stress,” she said.
Renaud looked thoughtful. “I don’t know. I think there is some truth to what he is saying. I think Garnier must have seen something to scare him. I’m not sure if it’s related to Legard’s and D’Aubigne’s deaths let alone those of Bisset and Neville.”
“But dark things worse than rats and spiders watching him? It sounds like he’s had a nightmare and that he’s afraid to go back to sleep because of it. Or maybe he’s overcome by guilt—if he had killed the other men.”
“So you don’t think there’s anything to Garnier’s ranting?”
Haidée pulled out the key that she hid in her pocket. “Well, he does have this. It looks like a bedroom key. We could go search his room.”
“Where did you get that?”
The marten reappeared from one of the crates and climbed up the table to survey the tray of food. Haidée shook her head. “I think the marten stole it from Garnier.”
Renaud was amused. “What a wily creature. Do you think anyone who is afraid of getting murdered might have something in his room? Or if he is the murderer that he would be so foolish as to leave any evidence in his own room?”
“If he’s confident that he won’t get caught, there is a possibility that he left something in his room. And even if there isn’t anything that might point towards what’s happening, we could at least determine where not to look.”
“Well, Garnier is going to be in his laboratory for the remainder of the day,” he mused. “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to take a look at his room now. I’ll go search his room while he’s away.”
Haidée looked at his outstretched hand. “Oh no you don’t. I have the key. I’m going with you. Besides, having two people search a room would go faster.”
“Is that your logic again?” he replied, his voice cool. “Fine. Have it your way.”
“You sound like a petulant child who is accustomed to doing things by himself,” Haidée remarked. She headed towards the stairs. “I thought you said before that you wouldn’t turn down help.”
“But in this case, I didn’t even ask for help.” He grabbed his coat and shrugged it on before following her. “You’re just being nosy.”
“Well, I’m not going to stand around doing
Realizing that Renaud and Haidée were getting out of the cellar, the marten made a split second decision and grabbed one of the smaller pasteries on the tray with its mouth. It jumped down the table and raced after them.
Back on the second floor, the marten stopped in front of Legard’s bedroom door to rest from its labors. Stealing food was hard work. It sat on its haunches and squeaked, drawing Haidée’s attention to it. She just shook her head.
“Not now. We’re busy.”
It squeaked again, but seeing that there was no way it could persuade the humans that they were heading toward the wrong door, it settled down to eat its second breakfast for the day. The apple slices that Haidée had given it earlier could only go so far.
Since Haidée had the key, she had the honors of opening the door to Garnier’s bedroom. But although the key slid smoothly into the lock, it refused to turn. She tried to jiggle the knob, but that didn’t work either. Admitting defeat, she stepped aside to let Renaud open the door. It didn’t work for him either.
“Maybe it’s a key for another door,” he said. “Perhaps it’s to his bathroom.”
“Well, it’s not going to work since we’re out here and not in there.” Haidée was feeling grouchy. Not only did Garnier interrupt her and Renaud’s “conversation” in the cellar, but his key didn’t work too.
Renaud took the key out of the lock and examined it. “You know, it does look a lot like all the other bedroom keys but it’s a bit larger than the bathroom key. Maybe it isn’t to the bathroom. Maybe it’s to another bedroom.”
“That really doesn’t sound very likely,” she commented. “Why on earth would he have the key to someone else’s bedroom? Monsieur Everard would be a more likely candidate. He is the head astronomer and I would think he would have keys to everything in this place.”
“But it wouldn’t hurt to try.” He walked to the next door down which happened to be Laurent Roland’s door. It didn’t fit that lock. Neither did it fit D’Aubigne’s door.
The marten, seeing Renaud and Haidée head it’s way, abandoned its half chewed pastry and began chattering excitedly.
“I think your pet knows more than its letting on,” he remarked.
Haidée tilted her head, watching the animal’s antics. “Sometimes I think it’s actually trying to say something but I always dismiss it as my overactive imagination.”
“Perhaps you’re right,” he replied, although a tinge of doubt laced his words. He tried the key in Legard’s door. The lock clicked and the door swung open. “Well, that’s interesting.”
“Of course it is. It does look rather incriminating. Why would Garnier have a key to Legard’s door unless he wanted to get into this room for some reason or another?”