Zone Blanche

MISSING

I think I've seen her before.

Her name is Sandra Chevrier.

She was a rookie district nurse.

It's a shame, I liked her.

So...

the eyes were pecked out by these damn crows.

The rest is a human's work.

Five stabs with a fine blade.

There's blood over there. She was carried here...

It happened at least ten hours ago.

Probably last night.

This place is so remote.

What the hell was she doing here?

-Teddy Bear? -Yeah?

Take this.

What?

This thing here...

Infinity...

It didn't bring her luck.

Yeah, I know it's weird. I've seen this before.

It must be the iron oxide in the soil.

The birds are going crazy...

The trees are bleeding...

It's going to be a shitty new year.

WELCOME TO VILLEFRANCHE

BLACK SPOT

Shut the fuck up! I'm trying to study!

Major!

There's a protest in front of the sawmill.

It's shutting down in two days. Could go sour.

Hermann?

Can you go check on it?

-Before it escalates? -Yeah.

How was it?

A woman that was stabbed and hanged.

OK. By the way, the new district attorney had a problem with his car.

Good. I had no idea about what brings him here.

-What's this? -So, well...

The new district attorney: Frank Siriani.

André found him on the roadside,

so he towed him back here in his trailer.

So, he's not...

No, he's sleeping.

So you're allergic to bees?

Like most insects...

and the sun, dust mites, pollen,

and nuts too...

It must spice up your life a bit.

I could've died there...

It's not easy to get to Villefranche.

After a three-hour drive, my car just stopped

less than a mile from here.

And I couldn't get a signal on my GPS!

We're in a dead zone.

No mobile signal, no GPS...

Even microwaves can get a bit fickle.

Sir, we usually deal with prosecutors by phone,

so what brings you here?

I've just been given all your cases,

and when I saw the pile on my desk,

I just had to come over to check it out.

It's a small town like any other.

Oh yeah?

So can you tell me why your homicide rate

is six times the national average?

I've only got three gendarmes.

The coroner is the local doctor.

We're in the middle of this huge forest

with freezing winters and scorching summers,

but everything's fine.

The 37 murder cases in my trunk beg to differ.

38:

we found a body this morning.

So, this is Adjutant Ferrandis.

He's the district attorney, he came over

to see how we work.

Camille Laugier. She's studying for her OPJ exam.

And Hermann, our Chief Adjutant.

Hello.

What do we have on Sandra Chevrier?

Nothing.

Single, no friends.

I didn't find anything interesting at her place.

We know that guy.

Yes, it's Dimitri.

Who's he?

Her brother. They grew up together in a foster home.

She'd come here to pick him up. He's into drugs...

Always up to no good.

Should we go check on him?

I knew it!

I knew it! This thing rang a bell.

Remember? Five years ago,

we saved a guy who'd hanged himself from the same tree!

See this? These glasses here,

carved in the bark.

No. I believe it's...

the infinity symbol in mathematics.

That's a pair of glasses.

It's Bruno Winkler.

His parents live nearby.

-Do you have the address? -Yes...

Well...

while my car's getting fixed,

and with another 37 cases to deal with,

we'll go check this out now.

We'll use your car, Major.

So what do you plan to do?

Usually, what I do is I ring the bell.

What are you doing here?

This is horrible.

Of course we knew Sandra Chevrier,

she was his nurse.

She was here last night to care for Bruno...

Had she been doing that for a while?

She started out two weeks ago.

Bruno liked her.

He's been like this

for the past five years.

His brain suffered from oxygen deprivation.

The doctors don't know why he's still alive.

But we haven't lost hope...

He can hear you, you know.

We don't know that, Mathilde.

Nobody knows.

The body was hanging from the same tree your son had picked.

Do you know if they...

Don't touch this!

Don't worry, I used to have the same one.

A mishap caused by a cashew nut.

But why is it that last night, between 9PM and 1AM,

it didn't record anything?

It looks like...

there aren't any night recordings.

I don't know what to tell you...

It was the nurse who used these machines.

Do you know why your son tried to commit suicide five years ago?

No.

He worked at the sawmill, we rarely saw him.

We never saw it coming.

But...

now we'll never abandon him again.

It's a just a reflex.

Happens from time to time.

They scared the shit out of me...

I noticed.

-And did you notice the tattoo? -Yeah.

Did you know that in Dante's Divine Comedy,

those who committed suicide were turned into a tree

in the Seventh Circle of Hell.

Oh yeah?

Hopefully, Sandra's brother will be more helpful than Dante.

We can drop you off at the gendarmerie.

Are you kidding? Let's keep going.

Villefranche has been delivering on its promises so far.

I bet this place isn't advertised to tourists.

Same problems here as everywhere else.

We'll go for the usual approach.

Dimitri! It's Major Weiss!

-Don't stand there. -Why is that?

-And what's the "usual approach"? -Don't stay there!

Dimitri!

Are you OK?

Tilt your head forward.

Not backwards! You're going like this...

Aren't you tired of all your bullshit, Dimitri?

Goddammit, man,

no need to rub it in!

Call my sister...

We hadn't seen each other in a month.

We had an argument,

she wanted me to go clean.

How did that work out?

Where are the drugs? In the toilet?

-Where were you last night? -Here.

I can't go anywhere with that ride of mine.

Did Sandra ever mention Bruno Winkler?

One of her patients.

You know him?

Someone killed her,

and then hanged her from a tree,

this is no joke.

Dimitri?

What happened?

He raped her! That's what happened!

-What are your saying? -Five years ago...

Sandra and me,

we had a summer job at the sawmill.

Winkler was our manager.

One night,

after work,

I found her in a corner, she was shaking...

You never told anyone?

She lodged a complaint with the prosecutor,

that's why he tried to kill himself.

Why is there no trace of that complaint?

I don't know... But it was him...

Winkler did it...

-Dimitri... -He's the one who did it, goddammit!