looked for him. They tried so hard to find him he could have been given medical treatment. God, what a tragic waste!"
Jean-Pierre looked over at the American.
"Again, monsieur, what can I say? I can't help you any more than I can help myself"
"Tell me exactly what happened. I learned very little at the theater. The police weren't there when it happened, and the witnesses who remained-mainly ushers by trip time I arrived-weren't much help. Most claimed they heard the shouts, at first thinking they were part of the 'bravos," then saw an old man in disheveled clothes running down the aisle, yelling that you were his son and carrying a rifle, which he turned on himself and fired. That was about it."
"No, there was more," said Villier, shaking his head.
"There was a brief hush in the audience, a momentary pause, that shock of astonishment before the vocal reaction begins. It was then that I clearly heard several of his statements.
"I have failed you and your in other-I am useless, a nothing. I only want you to know I tried-I tried but failed." That's all I recall, then there was chaos. I have no idea what he meant."
"It'has to be in the words, Mr. Villier," said Latham rapidly, emphatically, "and it had to be something so vital to him, so catastrophic that he broke the silence of a lifetime and confronted you. A last gesture before killing himself; something had to trigger it."
"Or the final deterioration of an unbalanced mind pushed over the edge into utter madness," suggested the actor's wife.
"I don't think so," the American courteously disagreed.
"He was too focused. He knew exactly what he was doing -what he was going to do. He somehow got into the theater with a concealed rifle, no mean feat, and then waited until the performance was over and your husband was accepting the praises of the crowd-he wasn't going to deny him that. A man gripped in the emotional frenzy of an insane act would be prone to interrupting the play, pivoting the entire attention on himself. Jodelle didn't. A part of him was too rational" too rationally generous to permit it."
"Are you also a psychologist?" asked Bressard.
"No more than you are, Henri. The bottom line for both of us is studying behavior, predicting it if we can, isn't that so?"
"So you're saying," interrupted Villier, "that my father. the natural father I never knew-rationally calculated the moves for his own death because he was motivated by something that happened to him." The actor leaned back in his chair, frowning.
"Then we must find out what it was, mustn't we?"
"I don't know how, sir. He's dead."
"If an actor is analyzing a character he must bring to life- on the stage or in a film, and that character is beyond the cliches of his imagination, he has to study the reality, expand upon it, doesn't he?"
"I'm not sure what you mean."
"Many years ago I was called upon to play a murderous Bedouin sheikh, a very unsympathetic man who ruthlessly kills his enemies because he believes they are the enemies Of Allah. It brought to mind all the cliches one expects: the satanic brows; the sharp chin beard; the thin, evil the messianic eyes-it was all so banal, I thought. So I Test to Jidda, went into the desert-under luxurious conditions, I assure you-and met with several Bedouin chieftains.
They were nothing of the sort. They Were religious zealots, indeed, but they were calm, very courteous, and truly, believed that what the West called the Arab crimes of their grandfathers were entirely justified, for those ancient enemies were the enemies of their God.
They even, explained that after each death, their ancestors would pray to Allah for the safe deliverance of their enemies. There was a true sadness in what they felt was necessary slaughter. Do you see what I mean?"
"That was Le Carnage du Voile," said the Quai d'Orsay's Bressard.
"You were superb and stole the film from its two stars. Paris's leading-critic wrote that your, evil was so pure because you clothed it in such quiet benevolence-"
"Please, Henri. Enough."
"I still don't know what you're driving at, Mr. Villier."
"If what you believe about Jodelle .. . if what you believe is true, then a part of him was less mad than his actions would indicate.
Isn't that really what you are saying?"
I "Yes, it is. I believe it. That's why I've been trying to find him."
"And such a man, regardless of his infirmities, is capable of communicating with others, with