For an hour, Adelson had been stationed at the window, watching the shadows. The houses were dark, the streets deserted, as if a sorcerer had made all the inhabitants disappear. The detective no longer recognized Adelson. Normally, at this time, people would be out dining or going to the cinema, and the sidewalks would be bustling. But that night, the city was the stage for strange events. Madmen had driven out the normal population. Adelson found himself on the front line, the only living being in the middle of a ghost city. He refused to give in to fear, determined to understand what was going on.
The detective stepped away from the window and went up to his attic. It was dark. In front of him, tied to a chair, Minnie stared at him with a hostile eye. She squirmed, thrashing left and right to free herself from her bonds. It had taken great effort to tie her up. An evil force seemed to have multiplied her strength—she had even bitten him.
"I hope they cut you into little pieces and eat you alive!" she screamed between howls. Adelson looked at her with sorrow. She had become a stranger to him, her mouth filled with incomprehensible words. He had kept her here with great difficulty as she raised her chin toward the sky.
"He's up there! I must join him!"
Who did she want to find? Adelson didn't understand. He was exhausted, out of breath from a bad cold that wouldn't let up. He kept blowing his nose, stuffed himself with medicine—to no avail.
Suddenly, a deep night fell over the room. He rushed to the window. The streetlights lining the road had gone out, plunging the city into suffocating darkness. A terrifying sight unfolded before Adelson: carried by a muffled murmur and the sound of drums, faceless figures in flowing robes marched through the shadows. Minnie thrashed even harder. It was as if she could see the scene and sense what was coming. A magnetic pull seemed to draw her toward the approaching shadows that now rumbled beneath the window.
Adelson watched them from behind the curtain. Some silhouettes in black clothing blended with the night, while others, with painted faces, danced. He jumped. In front, crowned with a royal crown, wrapped in a large red cape, and waving a golden cane, Chise seemed to challenge him. He leapt, walked on his hands, cackling and shrieking. Poor Chise! He had never lived up to his name more than now. That band of lunatics had turned his friend into a pitiful clown! What was the meaning of that costume?
Adelson grabbed the phone to call Commissioner Finot.
"These lunatics pretending to be ghosts and trying to scare honest people—let them rot in jail!" he thought.
Unfortunately, the line was dead. In her chair, Minnie twisted so much she tore her skin. She hurled a string of insults at him.
"You'll see, when they catch you, you'll wish you were never born!" she spat furiously.
"Who's behind all this madness?"
Instead of answering, Minnie burst out laughing like a maniac.
"What nonsense!" exclaimed Adelson. "How did it come to this?" In a single night, the city of Adelson had lost its light and its freedom. That was a few days ago. It felt like an eternity...
That morning, it was raining. Minnie had worked all night studying the profile of Roger Magouille, a wealthy landowner who had bought the magnificent Sombréval castle... The sale had apparently occurred under very dubious circumstances. Until dawn, she had combed through ledgers and mountains of invoices. She couldn't wait to be done with the task.
Meanwhile, Adelson was wrapping up a delicate mission. For two weeks, he had been overseeing the security system at the Central Bank, which was about to receive a major shipment: all the gold from the Goldistan mines. A tough job—made even harder by the fact that he had caught a cold. Every time he coughed, the alarm would go off and guards would storm the vault, armed to the teeth. The bank's executives were growing impatient.
"Be careful!" they kept saying.
Once the mission was complete, he paid a visit to the banker, Alain Gordor.
"Your institution now has the most secure system in the world. I dare anyone to break in."
"Thank you," replied the director, lighting a fat cigar. "I couldn't sleep at night! If the gold disappeared, we'd all be ruined—and Adelson City would become a ghost town."
As Adelson left the bank, Commissioner Finot's car pulled up beside him.
"I need your help," he said. "Aymé Raude's jewelry shop has been robbed."
"Again?"
"Yes, but this time they took everything—including the secret stash of the rarest jewels. It makes no sense."
At the scene, Commissioner Finot asked to speak with Aymé Raude while Adelson examined the door. He noticed a mark near the handle, but the lock was intact, and the security system had been very skillfully deactivated. Something was off.
The jeweler arrived, all smiles and full of energy. He didn't seem worried at all, and despite everything, he was bouncing around, telling silly jokes.
"Nice of you to drop by!" he exclaimed cheerfully. "What brings you here?"
"We heard your shop was robbed last night," said Finot.
"Me? You must be joking! Not at all. For once, I wasn't robbed. Do you see any signs of violence?"
The commissioner looked at the empty display cases. The locks didn't appear to have been forced.
"Don't tell me," the policeman cried, "that some billionaire bought out your entire store?"
"Well, you're not far off. Someone came in—not quite a buyer, not exactly a thief either."
"Then what happened?" barked the commissioner, itching to slap the dumb grin off the jeweler's face.
Aymé Raude leaned in and whispered into Finot's ear.
"In truth, I gave all the jewels to the idol who came in person to claim them. I couldn't say no to the idol. Would you refuse an offering to the idol?"
"What are you talking about?"
Aymé grabbed the policeman's arm.
"Yes, why don't you believe me? I swear it's true. This deity, to whom I gave my entire shop, is the greatest genius the Earth has ever known. He is like the sun, the moon, and the stars: immortal! I'm leaving my profession to follow the idol." He let out a huge sigh.
"And that's why you woke me up? That jewelry shop gets robbed every other week. Who cares."
"It's not really a robbery. This time, things are more complicated. My instincts tell me this is serious. The jeweler was talking nonsense. We need to keep an eye on him. He claims he gave all the jewels… to the idol!"
Minnie opened her eyes and sat up.
"Gave them to the idol? What idol? What is this nonsense? Stop talking rubbish!"
"Either he's crazy," added Adelson, "or he's mocking us. His story was so bizarre that Commissioner Finot asked us to discreetly watch the jewelry shop. I'd love to see what this idol looks like."
The next night, Adelson and Minnie parked across from the shop and set up a surveillance post, determined to catch the slightest clue. The hours dragged on slowly. The two detectives were growing impatient when the shop door opened, letting two shadowy figures pass, burdened with suitcases. A black car rolled up silently, headlights off, and sped away. Without wasting a second, the detectives gave chase.
"Step on it! We'll lose them!" ordered Adelson.
The car, lights still off, raced through the countryside. Suddenly, the horizon lit up. Gigantic flames illuminated the sky. Without slowing down, the black limousine left the road and took a path up a sandy hill, disappearing behind a mound from which the firelight glowed.
"Let's stop here and go on foot," suggested Adelson. "I wonder what's burning."
Planted deep in the forest, around a massive bonfire, was a small village. A little farther on stood a marble altar with a black statue. On either side, dark-robed officiants danced, singing slow, haunting chants. Around them were enormous heaps of flowers. Adelson and Minnie crawled to the village entrance. They read on a sign the name of this place, which appeared on no map: FÉLICITÉ. A city that seemed to have sprung from nowhere—like a miracle.