Description:
As Morel digs deeper into the case, a coded melody and a sudden attack bring the investigation to a turning point. Someone wants the past to stay buried — and they’re willing to kill for it.
Chapter 5: Echoes in G Minor
Back in his flat on Rue de Belleville, Morel laid the photograph and the note under the weak light of his desk lamp. The room smelled of burnt matches and old leather. Rain tapped lightly against the window like a warning.
He unfolded the sheet music found at the pianist’s apartment. The composition looked incomplete — bars scratched out, measures repeated with slight changes. But something felt deliberate. Too structured to be a mistake.
A melody in G minor. The same theme repeated three times with subtle variations. Hidden in plain sight. It wasn’t music — it was a cipher.
Morel had seen something like this once before, back in 1943, when the Résistance used piano rolls to pass encoded messages through occupied France. If Sophie Lemoine had been part of that network — and survived — it would explain the red wax letters, and why someone wanted Émile gone.
He made a mental note: Find someone who could play this. Decipher the melody.
But as he leaned back, the desk lamp flickered. Then everything went black.
A shadow moved at the window.
Morel dropped to the floor just as the glass shattered. A bullet buried itself in the wooden frame behind him. He rolled, pulled his revolver from the drawer, and fired once — a warning.
Silence.
He rushed to the window. The alley below was empty except for a glint of rain on cobblestones. Whoever it was, they were gone. Fast and quiet. Professional.
He stepped back inside and locked the window. His eyes went to the music again.
Someone didn’t want that tune played. Which meant it mattered.
Morel poured himself a shot of whiskey with a shaking hand, then opened the drawer under the lamp.
Inside, wrapped in waxed cloth, was a contact he hadn’t used in years — Julien Mercier, ex-codebreaker turned piano teacher, last seen running a faded conservatory in the 16th arrondissement.
If anyone could read music the way a spy would, it was Julien.
And in this game, the tempo was quickening.