The Map

At two o'clock the second investigator came to the stand with a laptop, and the clerk lowered the projection screen.

He was a police commander of about fifty, methodical, who spoke by pointing. He began with an aerial view of Sarnay-les-Bois, then he zoomed in, and the whole room watched the area appear the way you look at a holiday photograph belonging to people you don't know.

— Here, the village. Here, the D118. Here, the lateral canal, which runs parallel to the D118 for about four kilometres. Between the two, the towpath, which is not open to traffic but which is not closed either: there is a barrier, it has been broken for years, everybody uses it.