“Madame Tiphaine Geniot?” asked Beardy.
“Yes, that’s me...”
“I gather you were not authorized to fetch Nassim from school today...”
“What are you talking about?” She turned to Nora. “Really, Nora, we agreed—”
“We never agreed anything,” Nora shrieked, almost hysterical.
“That’s not true,” said Tiphaine, feigning outraged surprise. “Nassim, didn’t we agree I would pick you up today?”
Still huddled in his mother’s arms, the little boy began to sob.
“What has she done to you, my darling?” Nora said, furious and fearful at the same time.
“I haven’t done anything to him,” Tiphaine said, appearing more and more appalled by the turn events were taking. “You’re the one scaring him with your screaming.” She knelt down in front of Nassim. “Wasn’t it agreed I would get you from school today?”
She looked into his eyes: cold, hard, implacable. A look filled with loathing and menace; a barely veiled threat. For the first time in his life, Nassim sensed he was in danger. Terrified, the child simply nodded, hiccupping with sobs.
“Don’t cry, Nassim,” said Tiphaine in a voice so gentle it was like a caress. “It’s just a misunderstanding between your mommy and me. Everything is going to be fine, I promise.”
“Liar!” roared Nora. Now it was her turn to kneel down in front of her son. “What’s gotten into you, Nassim? You know perfectly well I was coming to fetch you.”
The boy stared at his mother in distress, his eyes filled with tears.
“Calm down, madame,” said Baldy. “You’re frightening your son.”
“Nassim, answer me, please,” Nora said, ignoring the officer. “There was never any question that Tiphaine was picking you up from school, was there?”
“Nora, this is absurd!” exclaimed Tiphaine, before the boy had a chance to answer. “What’s gotten into you?”
“Let him speak,” Nora barked back at her. She turned to her son and held him by the shoulders, as if about to shake him like a plum tree. “Say it, for heaven’s sake, say that it was me who was coming to fetch you. Have you lost your tongue?”
“Madame!” interrupted Beardy. “There’s no point in getting all worked up like this. Your son’s been found, safe and sound. We’ll call off the search.”
All of a sudden it dawned on Nora that in under five minutes the situation had turned against her. She was losing all credibility. It was as if she were actively furnishing evidence of Tiphaine’s trustworthiness. Now she was the monster. Nassim was standing in front of her, clearly terrified by her behavior, when she was the one who was meant to be protecting and reassuring him. She froze, seeming to become aware of her son’s ordeal, and felt her anger melt away. She stood up and hugged him tightly to her again.
“Forgive me, my darling...I was so worried. You weren’t in school, and I never agreed anything with anyone about picking you up. And certainly not Tiphaine! It was me picking you up today, do you understand?”
Nassim hugged his mother like a drowning man clinging to a life buoy, his body racked with huge sobs.
“Nassim, are you all right?” The boy continued to cry, his face buried in his mother’s neck. “Nassim, darling, answer me.”
Baldy nodded and pursed his lips. “Well, I think we can leave you now.”
Nora whipped around as though she’d heard a shot. “What about her?” she asked, gesturing at Tiphaine with a scornful nod. Baldy lifted his shoulders as though to express his impotence.
“There’s nothing we can charge her with. We found the child safe at home. I don’t see what she could be guilty of.”
Nora flinched as though she’d received an electric shock. She put Nassim down with awkward haste and strode over to the two police officers.
“You’re not going to do anything? You’re just going to let her go?”
“My colleague has just explained to you that we have nothing to hold against Madame Geniot,” said Beardy, sounding a great deal firmer than his colleague. Nora felt like an insect caught in a spider’s web: the more she struggled, the more she found herself tangled in a psychological trap.
She turned to Tiphaine and said, “Don’t ever come near me or my children again.”
“That will be tricky, I only live next door,” said Tiphaine with a wry smile, not missing a beat.
