She Existed

Bonnefond lived in a town house in Beaune with a four-metre garden and a chime on the door. He showed her into a dining room where he had laid out, on the table, a pile of files and a pair of glasses.

— I'll warn you straight away, he said. I do not have the documents. A broker keeps things for ten years, not twenty-three. What I have is my memory, and at seventy-eight it is better for 2002 than for last Tuesday.

— I'll take what you have.

— Sit down. Would you like a coffee?