the murder." She paused. "Fache has more than enough evidence to take you into custody for questioning."
Langdon suddenly sensed that he needed a lawyer. "I didn't do this."
Sophie sighed. "This is not American television, Mr. Langdon. In France, the laws protect the police, not criminals. Unfortunately, in this case, there is also the media consideration. Jacques Sauniere was a very prominent and well-loved figure in Paris, and his murder will be news in the morning. Fache will be under immediate pressure to make a statement, and he looks a lot better having a suspect in custody already. Whether or not you are guilty, you most certainly will be held by DCPJ until they can figure out what really happened."
Langdon felt like a caged animal. "Why are you telling me all this?"
"Because, Mr. Langdon, I believe you are innocent." Sophie looked away for a moment and then back into his eyes. "And also because it is partially my fault that you're in trouble."
"I'm sorry? It's your fault Sauniere is trying to frame me?"
"Sauniere wasn't trying to frame you. It was a mistake. That message on the floor was meant for me."
Langdon needed a minute to process that one. "I beg your pardon?"
"That message wasn't for the police. He wrote it for me.I think he was forced to do everything in such a hurry that he just didn't realize how it would look to the police." She paused. "The numbered code is meaningless. Sauniere wrote it to make sure the investigation included cryptographers, ensuring that I would know as soon as possible what had happened to him."
Langdon felt himself losing touch fast. Whether or not Sophie Neveu had lost her mind was at this point up for grabs, but at least Langdon now understood why she was trying to help him. P. S.Find Robert Langdon.She apparently believed the curator had left her a cryptic postscript telling her to find Langdon. "But why do you think his message was for you?"
"The Vitruvian Man,"she said flatly. "That particular sketch has always been my favorite Da Vinci work. Tonight he used it to catch my attention."
"Hold on. You're saying the curator knew your favorite piece of art?" She nodded. "I'm sorry. This is all coming out of order. Jacques Sauniere and I..."
Sophie's voice caught, and Langdon heard a sudden melancholy there, a painful past, simmering just below the surface. Sophie and Jacques Sauniere apparently had some kind of special relationship. Langdon studied the beautiful young woman before him, well aware that aging men in France often took young mistresses. Even so, Sophie Neveu as a" kept woman" somehow didn't seem to fit.
"We had a falling-out ten years ago," Sophie said, her voice a whisper now. "We've barely spoken since. Tonight, when Crypto got the call that he had been murdered, and I saw the images of his body and text on the floor, I realized he was trying to send me a message." "Because of The Vitruvian Man?" "Yes. And the letters P. S."
"Post Script?"
She shook her head. "P. S. are my initials." "But your name is Sophie Neveu." She looked away. "P. S. is the nickname he called me when I lived with him." She blushed. "It stood for Princesse Sophie"
Langdon had no response.
"Silly, I know," she said. "But it was years ago. When I was a little girl." "You knew him when you were a little girl?" "Quite well," she said, her eyes welling now with emotion. "Jacques Sauniere was my grandfather."
CHAPTER 14
"Where's Langdon?" Fache demanded, exhaling the last of a cigarette as he paced back into the command post.
"Still in the men's room, sir." Lieutenant Collet had been expecting the question. Fache grumbled," Taking his time, I see." The captain eyed the GPS dot over Collet's shoulder, and Collet could almost hear the wheels turning. Fache was fighting the urge to go check on Langdon. Ideally, the subject of an observation was allowed the most time and freedom possible, lulling him into a false sense of security. Langdon needed to return of his own volition. Still, it had been almost ten minutes.
Too long.
"Any chance Langdon is onto us?" Fache asked.
Collet shook his head. "We're still seeing small movements inside the men's room, so the GPS dot is obviously still on him. Perhaps he feels ill? If he had found the dot, he would have removed it and tried to run."
Fache checked his watch. "Fine."
Still Fache seemed preoccupied. All evening, Collet had sensed an atypical intensity in his captain.
Usually detached and cool under