The Paris Architect: A Novel

When he went home after work, he’d tried to figure out what had spooked Lucien so. How could a sketch of some bricks upset him? He couldn’t get to sleep thinking about it. He had to see that sketch again. He read until 2:00 a.m., then got up, got dressed, and went to the office. Lucien had given him his own key after his first week, so he could work into the evening if he wanted. He was taking a huge risk being out on the streets after the curfew; the Germans could pick him up. But it didn’t scare him. If that happened, it was just a simple matter of calling his uncle to clear up a misunderstanding.

Patiently, Alain kept working the blade back and forth until he heard a click. The drawer slid open, and he rifled through the papers until he found a folded one. Before he pulled it out, he made sure he remembered exactly where he’d found it. It was pitch black in the office, so Alain took the lamp off the desk, set it on the floor, and turned it on. Under the light, he could see the sketch was the one he’d seen that morning—a metal frame one meter square enclosing some bricks. He turned the paper over and found another view of the bricks with what seemed like a fireplace andiron connected to it. Alain kept staring at the drawing, but it made no sense to him at all. Lucien had never mentioned that he was doing any residential work, and this was just an odd detail of something, not a project.

There were also a few notes in pencil on the sketches, giving some dimensions and sizes of the metal frame. One note called out that the new mortar should match the existing mortar. Alain sat on the bare wood floor and rubbed his eyes. He was getting tired, and not having solved the puzzle, he decided to leave. As he was returning the sketch to its proper place, he heard the lift coming up. He quickly slid the drawer shut and replaced the lamp. He stood by the door to the office and listened. When the lift stopped at the office floor, he immediately knew who it was and retreated to the rear of the office into the storage closet. As he shut the door, he heard the key turn in the lock and the click of a light switch.

Through a crack in the door, he saw Lucien walk briskly to the desk and unlock the drawer. With a solemn expression, he carefully pulled out the sketch and unfolded it. He examined it carefully as if this was the first time he’d ever seen it. Then he stared into space for almost an entire minute before he folded it up and stuck it in his inside jacket pocket. He sat in his chair and dialed the phone.

“I know it’s late, but I needed to speak to you,” said Lucien. “It’s important that we hold off on the fireplace…No, nothing has happened; I just think we should wait…I need a little more time…I know how many people are involved in this…I’m one of those people involved in this…Oh, very well, you can have the drawing tomorrow…No, I promise it will be delivered to the usual place…You have my word, Monsieur Manet…I tell you nothing is wrong…I’m just a bit jumpy…No, I don’t know why,” Lucien said and hung up the phone.

Lucien sat down at his desk and began to draw on another sheet of white paper. After twenty minutes, he stood up and lit a match. Holding the first drawing in his right hand, he set it afire and watched it burn into a black crisp, disintegrating into ashes, which floated to the floor. He took the new drawing, folded it, and placed it in his side jacket pocket. After straightening up his desk, he walked to the door and left.

As Alain watched all of this, a great sense of excitement was building up inside of him. He loved reading mysteries and watching them at the cinema. Now here was a real-life mystery to solve. He still couldn’t figure out what the detail meant, but in time he was certain he would. Manet was mixed up in this, and that made the whole mystery even more fascinating. After walking to the door to listen if the lift had made it down to the first floor, Alain sat down for a while to ponder the problem. It had to be something quite dangerous to call for all this intrigue. Why all this fuss about a fireplace?





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