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Histoires De Luna

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Luna reveals her plot and characters quite subtly. For the benefit of Old Slave and any others here's a plot summary so far... the 'Reader's Digest' version.

Luna will correct me if I've got anything wrong:


Forbidden Games

Luna is a top photographer’s model. Works for Vogue. Earns good money.

She has a difficult session in Paris with Mara, the photographer, who badly undermines her self confidence. Poor Luna even considers joining a convent!

Luna goes home to bed and is in mid-sulk when Mara phones and tells her to be ready to leave at 0500 next morning.

Next morning, Mara is late, and is (if I may say so) most unreasonable about it.

Mara announces that they are going to Zanzibar.

Mara takes a phone call that rattles her. Then they are arrested at the airport. Taken to the police station. Lots of nasty rude comments from other prisoners.

Everyone in the party is interviewed, Mara for an hour. Most come out visibly upset.

Luna is interviewed, shown a photo of someone she recognises as ‘Kay Maae’, then she accidentally sees a photo that has such a terrible effect on her that she ends up unconscious in hospital for 2 day.

When she awakes, Mara is visiting.

Mara seems to believe that Luna has been taking ‘shit’, like Kae, who (we learn) was dead on a mortuary slab in the image that Luna saw.

Mara leaves with a kiss.

As she goes, the nurse injects something into Luna’s IV line…..


Fontainebleu

A woman in considerable disarray is discovered by police on a provincial road. They label her as ‘Freaked out’.

Her name is Stephanie Moulin. She’s been separated from her sister and her brother in law and their daughter; she’d been looking for them for hours.

The police find the brother in law’s car abandoned at the picnic site and launch a search.


The last time

Dr Corrine Carrell is disturbed by a phone call from Dr Roux and by the arrival of a police car as she is preparing to go out for dinner. She is not pleased.

Roux wants her to come to Fontainebleu Park. He tells her he ‘really needs her.’

She puts on some scruffy clothes and then the discovery of her empty gun holster triggers a very nasty panic attack. Whatever happened had put her in hospital.

And whatever happened had been a Disaster. With a capital D.


La Solle

Corrine goes out into a rainstorm and gets into the police car with Agent détective Aubert Maximilian.

He was one of the policemen who found Stephanie.

The inquiry into the missing family is being coordinated at the riding school in Fontainebleau Park. The Gendarmerie, the Forensics Team, and the C.R.S. [Compagnie Républicaine de la Sécurité] are involved, and ”a lot of civilians who are just playing games.”

A car with some officers and a magistrate, Doctor D'Alembert (who Corinne doesn’t like) has gone up Crow Hill, Maximilian doesn’t know why.

The missing family are Laure and Martin Béjart, and their daughter Luciole, 18 (though she doesn’t look it.)

Roux is already there, and the other police look at her in a marked manner when she enters the operations room, though they seem pleased to see her.

Roux sends Maximilian to get an SUV and the prepare to leave for Crow Hill.

It seems that what they will find there won’t be pleasant…:eek:

(By the way, I don't believe that 'Dr Roux' is a Time Lord :doh:)
 
Wragg134 said:
Luna reveals her plot and characters quite subtly. For the benefit of Old Slave and any others here's a plot summary so far... the 'Reader's Digest' version.

Luna will correct me if I've got anything wrong:


Forbidden Games

Luna is a top photographer’s model. Works for Vogue. Earns good money.

She has a difficult session in Paris with Mara, the photographer, who badly undermines her self confidence. Poor Luna even considers joining a convent!

Luna goes home to bed and is in mid-sulk when Mara phones and tells her to be ready to leave at 0500 next morning.

Next morning, Mara is late, and is (if I may say so) most unreasonable about it.

Mara announces that they are going to Zanzibar.

Mara takes a phone call that rattles her. Then they are arrested at the airport. Taken to the police station. Lots of nasty rude comments from other prisoners.

Everyone in the party is interviewed, Mara for an hour. Most come out visibly upset.

Luna is interviewed, shown a photo of someone she recognises as ‘Kay Maae’, then she accidentally sees a photo that has such a terrible effect on her that she ends up unconscious in hospital for 2 day.

When she awakes, Mara is visiting.

Mara seems to believe that Luna has been taking ‘shit’, like Kae, who (we learn) was dead on a mortuary slab in the image that Luna saw.

Mara leaves with a kiss.

As she goes, the nurse injects something into Luna’s IV line…..


Fontainebleu

A woman in considerable disarray is discovered by police on a provincial road. They label her as ‘Freaked out’.

Her name is Stephanie Moulin. She’s been separated from her sister and her brother in law and their daughter; she’d been looking for them for hours.

The police find the brother in law’s car abandoned at the picnic site and launch a search.


The last time

Dr Corrine Carrell is disturbed by a phone call from Dr Roux and by the arrival of a police car as she is preparing to go out for dinner. She is not pleased.

Roux wants her to come to Fontainebleu Park. He tells her he ‘really needs her.’

She puts on some scruffy clothes and then the discovery of her empty gun holster triggers a very nasty panic attack. Whatever happened had put her in hospital.

And whatever happened had been a Disaster. With a capital D.


La Solle

Corrine goes out into a rainstorm and gets into the police car with Agent détective Aubert Maximilian.

He was one of the policemen who found Stephanie.

The inquiry into the missing family is being coordinated at the riding school in Fontainebleau Park. The Gendarmerie, the Forensics Team, and the C.R.S. [Compagnie Républicaine de la Sécurité] are involved, and ”a lot of civilians who are just playing games.”

A car with some officers and a magistrate, Doctor D'Alembert (who Corinne doesn’t like) has gone up Crow Hill, Maximilian doesn’t know why.

The missing family are Laure and Martin Béjart, and their daughter Luciole, 18 (though she doesn’t look it.)

Roux is already there, and the other police look at her in a marked manner when she enters the operations room, though they seem pleased to see her.

Roux sends Maximilian to get an SUV and the prepare to leave for Crow Hill.

It seems that what they will find there won’t be pleasant…:eek:

(By the way, I don't believe that 'Dr Roux' is a Time Lord :doh:)
Click to expand...
Work like this explains the infrequent delivery of the Cux Chronicle.

Velut Luna said:
What a Disaster, seems to read Tolstoy's War and Peace in a twenty page edition!
Click to expand...
I've read every one of your posts and Wragg's summary only helped refresh my memory... it does not supplant the brilliant storytelling!!!
 
Ooh Dear!

How could you miss.gif

The Round World (After Forbidden Games) is dark chapter which casts foreboding over the whole story.... :eek:

A round, featureless concrete room, a girl who is the daughter at times and the beast at others.

A hatch, which opens irregularly, is the only access into this diabolical round world.

A small crack in the wall - an illegal glance through it, revealing the Father.... with a cleaver.

The 'Father' who has taken poor Luna from the hospital and incarcerated her in the round room. Is he now going to kill her? :eek:
 
The Horror


Following Roux’s instructions, Aubert is driving the 4x4 along the winding road that run through the park for a few kilometres. Then we turn right onto a dirt track leading to Crow Hill. We are alone here, apart from just the trees and the scattered boulders that populate the Forest like giant gnomes.

'From here we have to go on foot, the track’s too narrow,' says Roux.

In the distance the glow of an electric light breaks the darkness. We advance along the path flanked by trees on both sides and covered with a network of branches that form a dark corridor, we light the ground with torches. The silence is almost total now that the rain has stopped, there’s only the rustle of our steps. There are smells of wet, rotting leaves and moss.

Roux lights another cigarette, he’s already breathing heavily with the effort of the walk.

'One of the inquiry teams, about three hours ago, took this path and came up to the Crows' Nest.'

'Where?'

Directing his flashlight at a group of trees above us, Roux points out the direction,

'Behind there.'

I bow my head to get under a tangle of branches, and climb up to the lookout, the Crows’ Nest, a rock terrace edged by a barrier, a simple metal tube. Below I can see a clearing and scrubby growth of oak and beech, also two off-road vehicles used by the police and a van for the transport of technical equipment.

The hum of the diesel generator for the electric light rises up to us, and the echo of voices.

'The team stopped here. It was sheer chance they saw it.'

Roux gasps, turning the flashlamp towards a bush. A clear reflection over a lone rock at the edge of the darkness seems to be a plastic bag caught in the branches. A pair of blue and white sneakers are slowly rotating, hanging from a branch.

'The girl fell from here?' I ask.

'Look harder.'

The shoes are not entangled, they’ve been tied to the branch by their laces.

'They were put there by someone.'

'Yup. And that prompted the team to go down. Come along, take care, it’s steep and slippery.'

Roux goes ahead of me, I follow him, intrigued despite myself. Who put the shoes there? And why? A sudden gust of wind brings raindrops splashing on my face from the leaves of the trees, I jump.
(I’ve had enough crises for today! When I get home I’ll play the beauty queen and maybe I’ll have a good cry, but not just now, please.)

The atmosphere of this place is beginning to get on my nerves and I want to get away as soon as possible. Past the clump of trees we reach the steep embankment, where weeds and climbers wind their way up, dotted with huge rocks forming a semicircle. Around one of them are gathered a dozen people, including D'Alembert the magistrate, Saintcolombe the assistant chief of the SIC (Central Investigation Service). Two men in white overalls are photographing something at the base of the boulder. Their overalls show the initials UCV (Violent Crimes Unit). Suddenly I understand everything, even though deep down I always knew already: I do not deal with kidnaps, I deal with murder victims. On the ground lies a curled shape, on which the electric light casts a network of shadows.

'Don’t let it be the girl,' I pray to myself.

It’s the body of the mother. Decapitated. The corpse is lying prone, legs folded, an arm under the body, the other arm is stretched out, the palm facing upward. The neck ends with a cut that’s glowing purple in the spotlights, with white bone gleaming wet. The head is one metre away, resting on the cheek, the face turned toward the body. I look up from the corpse and discover that others are looking at me. Saintcolombe has a pissed-off look.

'You! Who invited you?'

'I did,' responds Roux

'And why, if may enquire?'

'Professional training.'

Saintcolombe shrugs and walks away. I greet D'Alembert, the investigating magistrate, shaking his hand.

‘Fine, fine,' he responds offhandedly.

Then he goes away with an apology, dragging Roux with him. They discuss in low voices. The rest of those present, including those who know me by sight and those who’ve only heard of me, go on watching me until Thierry comes out of the shadows to find me. He’s a coroner, a tall, skinny fellow man in an angler’s hat. He’s always chewing a liquorice root; he keeps a stash in a silver cigarette box that’s older than he is.

'How are you?' he asks me, shaking my hand with both of his, which are icy cold. 'I’ve missed you so much.'

'You too.' I answer truthfully. 'I'm still on leave, I don't want to get too emotionally involved in this.'

'Then what are you doing here out in the wet?'

‘Obviously Roux got hold of me. But what are this lot up to?'

‘You mean the SIC or the UCV?'

'Both. They’re supposed to deal with organized crime or serial murders. There’s only one body here.'

‘They can deal with lost cats, if the magistrates get involved.'

'And D'Alembert is a friend of Saintcolombe.'

'And they gladly scratch each other's backs. Of course Saintcolombe wouldn't trust the Scientific Division, so he’s trotting around behind the clowns in white overalls. If he brings something home, he won’t have to share the credit.'

'And if he can’t?'

'The he’ll blame you.'

'Great shit.'

'Just the usual. You should be resting, not coming here just to get fucked about. '

'You too. Aren’t you retired?'

Thierry smiles,

'Actually I’m working free-lance, as a consultant. I can’t just stay at home and read thrillers, and I can’t do crossword puzzles.'

Thierry is a widower with no children, he’ll die with a scalpel in his hand.

'Shall I tell you about the woman, or do you want to pretend you don’t give a damn?'

'Go on.'

'Decapitated with a manual weapon, semi-curved blade. The murderer has taken at least four or five strokes to separate the head from the trunk, between the second and the third cervical. The first was probably the mortal one, just below the occiput, while she was standing up.'

'From behind?'

'Yes, judging from the direction of the cut. Unconsciousness immediate, death within a minute. It happened this afternoon, judging by the rigor mortis, but the exact time is difficult to calculate .... you'll hear those UCV guys giving the exact second.'

he adds sarcastically.

'No signs of her defending herself, she must have trusted the killer, otherwise she’d have turned at least three quarters before being hit. He attacked by surprise, and finished beheading her on the ground.'

Taking advantage of the fact that Saintcolombe and others have moved away from the corpse, I go back to look at it, mechanically, without realizing waht I’m doing.

'The clothes were not removed, no post-mortem violence.'

‘Agreed,'

confirms Thierry.

'The eyes are intact, no signs of penetration of the mouth.'

'Thank God...'

'Has the girl been seen?'

'We don’t know about her, she’s not been found yet.'

'She was taken off by the murderer?'

'That’s the most likely.'

I shake my head.

'Sex is not involved. He didn’t make a mess of the body. '

'Chopping her head off’s not making a mess?'

'There are no further signs on her, not even a bruise.'

'Perhaps he only wanted what he got,' concludes Thierry.

We remain for a moment to gazing into the void.

'Hey! Here!' shouts a technician in the bushes.

Everyone’s moving, me too, victim of my automatic responses. The technician extracts something from under a bush, he’s holding a sickle in his gloved fingers. Saintcolombe bends down to examine it closely.

'Are there any markings that may have been caused by bone?'

'You'll have a future as a knife-grinder,' I say sarcastically.

'Still here?'

'No, you're hallucinating!'

'Just don’t you touch it, we don’t want your mess here.'

I feel the blood rise to my face, clench my fists, stepping forward.

'Say that again, dickhead!'

'Hey ... are we in the playground?' someone says.

'She’s the one who’s crazy, can’t you see?'

Thierry puts a hand on my arm and whispers, 'Not worth it.'

'Fuck you, Saintcolombe. Get on with your job and pretend I'm not here.'

Saintcolombe, pointing to the sickle, asks Thierry,

'Doctor, can it be?'

'Could be.'

The technician passes a cotton swab over the blade. The cotton becomes dark blue: blood. The tool is wrapped and labelled. The technicians and Saintcolombe, called by an officer, move off and disappear, Thierry follows them. Alone in front of the bush, I'm meditating whether to just go back to the car and to hell with it all. A rustle makes me turn abruptly, the light from the electric lamp illuminates the pale, sweating face of Aubert. He’s cleaning his mouth with a tissue, he’s turned away to vomit, I regret leaving him alone.

'Are you OK?'

He nods, 'Yes, Doctor,' but with a tone of voice that suggests otherwise.

'I had to...'

'I can imagine. Don’t worry, it happens. Is it the first body you’ve seen?'

He shakes his head,

'No. But never so ... how much do we have to get used to?'

Before I can answer Roux calls me.

'Come on, you're missing the last part of the show.'

'What show?'

The group of investigators is moving towards the body, they seem to be expecting something. D'Alembert smiles nervously to the empty air.

'They're bringing her husband.'

The engine of a jeep sounds through trees, Saintcolombe reappears next to two uniformed officers escorting a man wearing only a pair of shorts and a dirty T-shirt. He stares around, confused. From how sunburned he is I can guess that, until he was found, he’s not been away from the area.

'Are they idiots, bringing him here? He could do the identification at the morgue, after they’ve reassembled the cadaver.'

'It’s not the identification that’s of any interest,' responds Roux.

The man is led up to the rock, he freezes for a moment.

'What's behind there?' he asks.

'Haven’t they told him? Shit!'

Saintcolombe invites the man to walk on, but, like a beast sniffing the butcher’s axe, he stops dead.

'No, no! I do won’t go any further. If you won’t tell me what it is, I won’t go there. I refuse.'

'It’s your wife, Mr. Bejard,' says Saintcolombe firmly.

Bejard shakes his head, as awareness makes its way into his mind.

'No! No!' He looks around, even more bewildered.

Then he runs, sprints the last few metres, a couple of agents intercept him near the corpse. I turn my face away while the man begins to cry.

'Let's go.'

Roux says, while Bejard is led away, supported by the arms, and the woman's body is picked up to be put into a mortuary sack.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Velut Luna said:
The Horror


Following Roux’s instructions, Aubert is driving the 4x4 along the winding road that run through the park for a few kilometres. Then we turn right onto a dirt track leading to Crow Hill. We are alone here, apart from just the trees and the scattered boulders that populate the Forest like giant gnomes.

'From here we have to go on foot, the track’s too narrow,' says Roux.

In the distance the glow of an electric light breaks the darkness. We advance along the path flanked by trees on both sides and covered with a network of branches that form a dark corridor, we light the ground with torches. The silence is almost total now that the rain has stopped, there’s only the rustle of our steps. There are smells of wet, rotting leaves and moss.

Roux lights another cigarette, he’s already breathing heavily with the effort of the walk.

'One of the inquiry teams, about three hours ago, took this path and has came up to the Crows' Nest.'

'Where?'

Directing his flashlight at a group of trees above us, Roux points out the direction,

'Behind there.'

I bow my head to get under a tangle of branches, and climb up to the lookout, the Crows’ Nest, a rock terrace edged by a barrier, a simple metal tube. Below I can see a clearing and scrubby growth of oak and beech, also two off-road vehicles used by the police and a van for the transport of technical equipment.

The hum of the diesel generator for the electric light rises up to us, and the echo of voices.

'The team stopped here. It was sheer chance they saw it.'

Roux gasps, turning the flashlamp towards a bush. A clear reflection over a lone rock at the edge of the darkness seems to be a plastic bag caught in the branches. A pair of blue and white sneakers are slowly rotating, hanging from a branch.

'The girl fell from here?' I ask.

'Look harder.'

The shoes are not entangled, they’ve been tied to the branch by their laces.

'They were put there by someone.'

'Yup. And that prompted the team to go down. Come along, take care, it’s steep and slippery.'

Roux goes ahead of me, I follow him, intrigued despite myself. Who put the shoes there? And why? A sudden gust of wind brings raindrops splashing on my face from the leaves of the trees, I jump.
(I’ve had enough crises for today! When I get home I’ll play the beauty queen and maybe I’ll have a good cry, but not just now, please.)

The atmosphere of this place is beginning to get on my nerves and I want to get away as soon as possible. Past the clump of trees we reach the steep embankment, where weeds and climbers wind their way up, dotted with huge rocks forming a semicircle. Around one of them are gathered a dozen people, including D'Alembert the magistrate, Saintcolombe the assistant chief of the SIC (Central Investigation Service). Two men in white overalls are photographing something at the base of the boulder. Their overalls show the initials UCV (Violent Crimes Unit). Suddenly I understand everything, even though deep down I always knew already: I do not deal with kidnaps, I deal with murder victims. On the ground lies a curled shape, on which the electric light casts a network of shadows.

'Don’t let it be the girl,' I pray to myself.

It’s the body of the mother. Decapitated. The corpse is lying prone, legs folded, an arm under the body, the other arm is stretched out, the palm facing upward. The neck ends with a cut that’s glowing purple in the spotlights, with white bone gleaming wet. The head is one metre away, resting on the cheek, the face turned toward the body. I look up from the corpse and discover that others are looking at me. Saintcolombe has a pissed-off look.

'You! Who invited you?'

'I did,' responds Roux

'And why, if may enquire?'

'Professional training.'

Saintcolombe shrugs and walks away. I greet D'Alembert, the investigating magistrate, shaking his hand.

‘Fine, fine,' he responds offhandedly.

Then he goes away with an apology, dragging Roux with him. They discuss in low voices. The rest of those present, including those who know me by sight and those who’ve only heard of me, go on watching me until Thierry comes out of the shadows to find me. He’s a coroner, a tall, skinny fellow man in an angler’s hat. He’s always chewing a liquorice root; he keeps a stash in a silver cigarette box that’s older than he is.

'How are you?' he asks me, shaking my hand with both of his, which are icy cold. 'I’ve missed you so much.'

'You too.' I answer truthfully. 'I'm still on leave, I don't want to get too emotionally involved in this.'

'Then what are you doing here out in the wet?'

‘Obviously Roux got hold of me. But what are this lot up to?'

‘You mean the SIC or the UCV?'

'Both. They’re supposed to deal with organized crime or serial murders. There’s only one body here.'

‘They can deal with lost cats, if the magistrates get involved.'

'And D'Alembert is a friend of Saintcolombe.'

'And they gladly scratch each other's backs. Of course Saintcolombe wouldn't trust the Scientific Division, so he’s trotting around behind the clowns in white overalls. If he brings something home, he won’t have to share the credit.'

'And if he can’t?'

'The he’ll blame you.'

'Great shit.'

'Just the usual. You should be resting, not coming here just to get fucked about. '

'You too. Aren’t you retired?'

Thierry smiles,

'Actually I’m working free-lance, as a consultant. I can’t just stay at home and read thrillers, and I can’t do crossword puzzles.'

Thierry is a widower with no children, he’ll die with a scalpel in his hand.

'Shall I tell you about the woman, or do you want to pretend you don’t give a damn?'

'Go on.'

'Decapitated with a manual weapon, semi-curved blade. The murderer has taken at least four or five strokes to separate the head from the trunk, between the second and the third cervical. The first was probably the mortal one, just below the occiput, while she was standing up.'

'From behind?'

'Yes, judging from the direction of the cut. Unconsciousness immediate, death within a minute. It happened this afternoon, judging by the rigor mortis, but the exact time is difficult to calculate .... you'll hear those UCV guys giving the exact second.'

he adds sarcastically.

'No signs of her defending herself, she must have trusted the killer, otherwise she’d have turned at least three quarters before being hit. He attacked by surprise, and finished beheading her on the ground.'

Taking advantage of the fact that Saintcolombe and others have moved away from the corpse, I go back to look at it, mechanically, without realizing waht I’m doing.

'The clothes were not removed, no post-mortem violence.'

‘Agreed,'

confirms Thierry.

'The eyes are intact, no signs of penetration of the mouth.'

'Thank God...'

'Has the girl been seen?'

'We don’t know about her, she’s not been found yet.'

'She was taken off by the murderer?'

'That’s the most likely.'

I shake my head.

'Sex is not involved. He didn’t make a mess of the body. '

'Chopping her head off’s not making a mess?'

'There are no further signs on her, not even a bruise.'

'Perhaps he only wanted what he got,' concludes Thierry.

We remain for a moment to gazing into the void.

'Hey! Here!' shouts a technician in the bushes.

Everyone’s moving, me too, victim of my automatic responses. The technician extracts something from under a bush, he’s holding a sickle in his gloved fingers. Saintcolombe bends down to examine it closely.

'Are there any markings that may have been caused by bone?'

'You'll have a future as a knife-grinder,' I say sarcastically.

'Still here?'

'No, you're hallucinating!'

'Just don’t you touch it, we don’t want your mess here.'

I feel the blood rise to my face, clench my fists, stepping forward.

'Say that again, dickhead!'

'Hey ... are we in the playground?' someone says.

'She’s the one who’s crazy, can’t you see?'

Thierry puts a hand on my arm and whispers, 'Not worth it.'

'Fuck you, Saintcolombe. Get on with your job and pretend I'm not here.'

Saintcolombe, pointing to the sickle, asks Thierry,

'Doctor, can it be?'

'Could be.'

The technician passes a cotton swab over the blade. The cotton becomes dark blue: blood. The tool is wrapped and labelled. The technicians and Saintcolombe, called by an officer, move off and disappear, Thierry follows them. Alone in front of the bush, I'm meditating whether to just go back to the car and to hell with it all. A rustle makes me turn abruptly, the light from the electric lamp illuminates the pale, sweating face of Aubert. He’s cleaning his mouth with a tissue, he’s turned away to vomit, I regret leaving him alone.

'Are you OK?'

He nods, 'Yes, Doctor,' but with a tone of voice that suggests otherwise.

'I had to...'

'I can imagine. Don’t worry, it happens. Is it the first body you’ve seen?'

He shakes his head,

'No. But never so ... how much do we have to get used to?'

Before I can answer Roux calls me.

'Come on, you're missing the last part of the show.'

'What show?'

The group of investigators is moving towards the body, they seem to be expecting something. D'Alembert smiles nervously to the empty air.

'They're bringing her husband.'

The engine of a jeep sounds through trees, Saintcolombe reappears next to two uniformed officers escorting a man wearing only a pair of shorts and a dirty T-shirt. He stares around, confused. From how sunburned he is I can guess that, until he was found, he’s not been away from the area.

'Are they idiots, bringing him here? He could do the identification at the morgue, after they’ve reassembled the cadaver.'

'It’s not the identification that’s of any interest,' responds Roux.

The man is led up to the rock, he freezes for a moment.

'What's behind there?' he asks.

'Haven’t they told him? Shit!'

Saintcolombe invites the man to walk on, but, like a beast sniffing the butcher’s axe, he stops dead.

'No, no! I do won’t go any further. If you won’t tell me what it is, I won’t go there. I refuse.'

'It’s your wife, Mr. Bejard,' says Saintcolombe firmly.

Bejard shakes his head, as awareness makes its way into his mind.

'No! No!' He looks around, even more bewildered.

Then he runs, sprints the last few metres, a couple of agents intercept him near the corpse. I turn my face away while the man begins to cry.

'Let's go.'

Roux says, while Bejard is led away, supported by the arms, and the woman's body is picked up to be put into a mortuary sack.
Click to expand...

Corinne and Saintcolombe don't seem to be very friendly.... there's history there, mark my words...

Another edge of the seat chapter, Luna! This one has me hooked in! :)
 
Wragg134 said:
Luna reveals her plot and characters quite subtly. For the benefit of Old Slave and any others here's a plot summary so far... the 'Reader's Digest' version.

Luna will correct me if I've got anything wrong:


Forbidden Games

Luna is a top photographer’s model. Works for Vogue. Earns good money.

She has a difficult session in Paris with Mara, the photographer, who badly undermines her self confidence. Poor Luna even considers joining a convent!

Luna goes home to bed and is in mid-sulk when Mara phones and tells her to be ready to leave at 0500 next morning.

Next morning, Mara is late, and is (if I may say so) most unreasonable about it.

Mara announces that they are going to Zanzibar.

Mara takes a phone call that rattles her. Then they are arrested at the airport. Taken to the police station. Lots of nasty rude comments from other prisoners.

Everyone in the party is interviewed, Mara for an hour. Most come out visibly upset.

Luna is interviewed, shown a photo of someone she recognises as ‘Kay Maae’, then she accidentally sees a photo that has such a terrible effect on her that she ends up unconscious in hospital for 2 day.

When she awakes, Mara is visiting.

Mara seems to believe that Luna has been taking ‘shit’, like Kae, who (we learn) was dead on a mortuary slab in the image that Luna saw.

Mara leaves with a kiss.

As she goes, the nurse injects something into Luna’s IV line…..


Fontainebleu

A woman in considerable disarray is discovered by police on a provincial road. They label her as ‘Freaked out’.

Her name is Stephanie Moulin. She’s been separated from her sister and her brother in law and their daughter; she’d been looking for them for hours.

The police find the brother in law’s car abandoned at the picnic site and launch a search.


The last time

Dr Corrine Carrell is disturbed by a phone call from Dr Roux and by the arrival of a police car as she is preparing to go out for dinner. She is not pleased.

Roux wants her to come to Fontainebleu Park. He tells her he ‘really needs her.’

She puts on some scruffy clothes and then the discovery of her empty gun holster triggers a very nasty panic attack. Whatever happened had put her in hospital.

And whatever happened had been a Disaster. With a capital D.


La Solle

Corrine goes out into a rainstorm and gets into the police car with Agent détective Aubert Maximilian.

He was one of the policemen who found Stephanie.

The inquiry into the missing family is being coordinated at the riding school in Fontainebleau Park. The Gendarmerie, the Forensics Team, and the C.R.S. [Compagnie Républicaine de la Sécurité] are involved, and ”a lot of civilians who are just playing games.”

A car with some officers and a magistrate, Doctor D'Alembert (who Corinne doesn’t like) has gone up Crow Hill, Maximilian doesn’t know why.

The missing family are Laure and Martin Béjart, and their daughter Luciole, 18 (though she doesn’t look it.)

Roux is already there, and the other police look at her in a marked manner when she enters the operations room, though they seem pleased to see her.

Roux sends Maximilian to get an SUV and the prepare to leave for Crow Hill.

It seems that what they will find there won’t be pleasant…:eek:

The Round World (After Forbidden Games) is dark chapter which casts foreboding over the whole story.... :eek:

A round, featureless concrete room, a girl who is the daughter at times and the beast at others.

A hatch, which opens irregularly, is the only access into this diabolical round world.

A small crack in the wall - an illegal glance through it, revealing the Father.... with a cleaver.

The 'Father' who has taken poor Luna from the hospital and incarcerated her in the round room. Is he now going to kill her? :eek:
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Excellent synopsis Wragg :)
As editor/translator, let me say I'm as mystified as anyone :p
I've asked Luna not to give me any more advance information than absolutely necessary,
I enjoy it more that way, and I think it helps me convey the 'uncertainties, mysteries, doubts,
without any irritable reaching after fact or reason' ;)
We worked that way on 'Devil in the Convent' and 'Amica',
and it's even more appropriate to this intricate skein of threads -
be assured, Luna will weave them together, but it won't be quick ;) :devil:
 
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There is definite plot development, but what it all means yet, I certainly can't tell. :confused: A gruesome murder scene. What has Corning seen in the past? Where is the daughter? Lovely storytelling. :)
 
Velut Luna, I didn't mean to say I couldn't understand what you have written so beautifully, so Wragg, thank you for reminding me of all the scenes.

It's just that reading a story a little bit at a time, especially when reading other threads on this excellent site at the same time, can make it a little hard to get the big picture.

When watching TV, I'm out a lot so record virtually everything that looks interesting. When a series of, say, six episodes has finished, I watch all six over two nights.

Must be an old brain problem.
 
old slave said:
Velut Luna, I didn't mean to say I couldn't understand what you have written so beautifully, so Wragg, thank you for reminding me of all the scenes.

It's just that reading a story a little bit at a time, especially when reading other threads on this excellent site at the same time, can make it a little hard to get the big picture.

When watching TV, I'm out a lot so record virtually everything that looks interesting. When a series of, say, six episodes has finished, I watch all six over two nights.

Must be an old brain problem.
Click to expand...
When the story is finished you can read it all in one go, in the archive, which, as always, has cared very carefully by madiosi.:)
 
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