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"I visited him every teeks By then I’d turned the antique shop into a bistro Every second Saturday night after the bistro closed I’d sneak up to the cabin We’d talk and he’d give "

"What did Charlotte mean?" Beauvoir asked It was Chief Inspector Gae repetition of "Charlotte" There were references to the name all over the Hermit’s cabin, from the book Charlotte’s Web, to a first-edition Charlotte Brontë, to the rare violin Everyone else hadhis head "Nothing, itI know about He never mentioned the name"

Beauvoir stared at him "Careful, Olivier I need the truth"

"I have no reason to lie anymore"

For any rational person that would be true, but Olivier had behaved so irrationally Beauvoir wondered if he was capable of anything else

"The Hermit had scratched the name Charlotte in code under one of those wooden sculptures he’d s, deeply disturbing works showing people fleeing some terror And under three of his works the Hermit had carved words in code

Charlotte Emily And under the last one? The one that showed Olivier in a chair, listening, he’d carved that one, short, da word

Woo

"And ‘Woo’?" Beauvoir asked "What did that ," snapped Beauvoir "He put it under the carving of you"

"That wasn’t raph It’s you and you know it Why did he write ‘Woo’ under it?"

But it wasn’t just under the carving Woo had appeared in the web and in that piece of wood, covered in the Hermit’s blood, that had bounced under the bed Into a dark corner A piece of red cedar carved, according to the forensic experts, years before

"I’ain, Olivier, what did ‘Woo’ mean?"

"I don’t know" Now Olivier was exasperated but he took a breath and regained himself "Look, I told you He said it a couple of tiht it was just a sigh It sounded like a sigh Then I realized he was saying ‘Woo’ He only said it when he was afraid"

Beauvoir stared at hi to need more than that"

Olivier shook his head "There is no more than that That’s all I know I’d tell youto him, but he never explained, and I never asked"

"Why not?"