228 292
230
Charles Pépin
5
Deep down, Ange’s suicide
does not surprise me, wild
beasts can’t handle being
caged up. There was too
much boiling in him, he
needed action, boxing rings,
bars, women, movement,
speaking, thumping, dancing;
he could not stop without
falling down. The last time
I saw him in the prison
courtyard, he seemed bad
to me, I asked myself if he
blamed me, if he told himself
that we were there because
of me. I tried to convince him
that it would pass quickly,
that he would be free as soon
as the trial ended but he
interrupted me: “Months in
this hole? You laugh, I will be
gone before.” I didn’t really
understand, I imagined that
he would be free before the
trial, that he would obtain
instruction from the judge to
appear before the court as a
free man and that we would
see each other again at the
trail, the idea pleased me.
The judge repeats that we
were seen, Ange and me,
at the bar Cap Horn a few
days before the crime,
because I had, after what
Ange told them, “a service
to ask of him”. She adds that
witnesses attested that we
had exchanged cash, a rather
large sum, it seemed without
being secretive, tranquilly
seated at our table with our
beers. It is then plausible,
as we have each declared it,
that I asked him for a loan or
a small donation of money.
But you can see it differently:
that the service in question
had been to give Rédoine a
lesson and the money was
in retribution for this little
lesson that had turned out
badly.
The judge asked me what I
think. I respond to her that