Private Paris (Private 10) - Page 120
Chapter 100
WE WATCHED FROM the booth as Hoskins and Fromme reentered the interrogation room.
“I’ve cooperated,” Haja said. “Can I see a lawyer now?”
“A few more questions,” the magistrate said, sitting on a chair to the sculptor’s right and leaning over his cane.
Hoskins, who stood on the other side of the bed, said, “Michele Herbert described you as angry when you were at the academy of fine arts.”
“I don’t remember that,” Haja said.
“Was it your hatred of France that made you angry?”
Haja paused and said, “Maybe. I was disgusted with the decadence of Paris.”
Fromme said, “So you came to France already a radical follower of Islam? Is that right?”
“It was my fate. Part of my calling.”
Hoskins reached into a folder and took out an eight-by-ten photograph. “Is this you?” She held the picture up to her, and even through the swelling, I could see shock registering.
The investigateur saw it too and said, “You didn’t know Henri Richard was taking pictures of you two having sex with him dressed as a priest and you in a robe and hijab?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Haja said. “That’s not me.”
Hoskins said, “Do I need to use force? Strip-search and photograph you myself? Or do I spare you that indignity?”
The bomber and sculptor closed her eyes.
After several long beats, Fromme said insistently, “Is that you, madame?”
“Yes,” Haja said at last. “It’s me.”
“Who did that to you? Who mutilated you like that?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Haja said, opening her eyes.
“Oh, I think it does matter,” Hoskins insisted. “I think it matters a great deal to you. I think your castration is the source of your anger.”
“I stopped being angry about that a long time ago. It was the will of Allah.”
“That’s how you react after having your clitoris cut off because of Islam? You think it was right and proper for your father’s religion to lop off one of your body parts so you could never enjoy having sex?”
“Islam is submission,” Haja said. “Submission to God’s will. Once I submitted, I was able to see the rightness of Islam. It’s what I fight for.”
“You want an alternative explanation? One that Jack Morgan is floating?”
At hearing my name, Hamid shifted and said, “What’s that?”
“Morgan thinks it’s possible that you’re fighting for something else entirely,” the investigateur said. “He thinks because of your resentment over your mutilation, you planted evidence against the imam and the others to stir things up, create a mob mentality, promote a civil and racial war in France.”
Haja snorted. “And what good would that do me?”
“It might just drive Islam from this country,” Hoskins said. “It might just cleanse your adopted society of the religion that butchered you.”
“Mr. Morgan has quite the imagination, but he is dead wrong.”
“You deny wanting a civil war?” Fromme said.
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