Cara Black
Murder in the Marais
The first book in the Aimee Leduc series, 1999
Dedicated to the 'real' Sarah and all the ghosts, past and present
My thanks go to all who inspired and supported this endeavor: from the beginning Nina, Jean and the Saturday group, James N. Frey without whom, the B's, Alice, Isabelle, resources of the Holocaust Center of Northern California, the work of Serge Klarsfeld, Ange who said 'why not', the wonderful Noe Valley librarians, L, Le Centre de Documentation Juive in Paris for all their help, Gabrielle, Madeline Dieudonne et Julia Curtet, agents de recherche privee in Paris for their generosity, Denise Schwarzbach who opened her heart and shared. My heartfelt thanks go to Melanie Fleishman-who kept an eye on the small details and saw the big picture, my son Shuchan who let me and Jun, who said it would happen.
Fate knows no distance.
– a French saying
THE MARAIS
*
PARIS
NOVEMBER 1993WEDNESDAY
Wednesday Morning
AIMÉE LEDUC FELT HIS presence before she saw him. As if ghosts floated in his wake in the once elegant hall. She paused, pulling her black leather jacket closer against the Parisian winter morning slicing through her building, and reached for her keys. The man emerged from the shadows by her frosted paned office door. A baby's cry wafted up from the floor below, then the concierge's door slammed.