Chandonne goes on to claim he began to get fearful about coming to see me. He claims there were a lot of police cars cruising the neighborhood, and that at one point when he came to my house late, there were two police cruisers parked in front. This was because my alarm had gone offwhen Chandonne forced open my garage door so the police would come. Of course, he tells Berger that it wasn’t him who set off the alarm. It was themit must have been them, he says. By now, it is getting close to midnight. It is snowing hard. He hides behind trees near my house and waits until the police leave. He says it is his last chance, he has to see me. He believes they are in the area and will kill me. So he goes to my front door and knocks.
“What did you knock with?” Berger asks him.
“I recall there was a door knocker. I believe I used that.” He drains the last of his Pepsi and Marino on tape asks him if he wants another one. Chandonne shakes his head and yawns. He is talking about coming into my house to bash my brains out and the bastard is yawning.
“Why didn’t you ring the bell?” Berger wants to know. This is important. My doorbell activates the camera system. Had Chandonne rung the bell, I would have been able to see him on a video screen inside the house.
“I don’t know,” he replies. “I saw the knocker and used it.”
“Did you say anything?”
“Not at first. Then I heard a woman ask, ‘Who is it?’ ”
“And what did you say?”
“I told her my name. I said I have information about the body she’s trying to identify, and to please let me talk to her.”
“You told her your name? You identified yourself as Jean-Bap tiste Chandonne?”
“Yes. I said I was here from Paris and had been trying to get her at her office.” He yawns again. “The most amazing thing happens,” he goes on. “The door suddenly opens and
she is there. She tells me to come in, and the minute I do, she slams the door shut behind me and I can’t believe it. She suddenly has this hammer and is trying to hit me.”
“Suddenly has a hammer? Where did she get it? Did it just appear out of thin air?”
“I believe she grabbed it off a table just inside the doorway. I don’t know. It happened so fast. And I try to get away from her. I run into the living room, yelling for her to stop, and that’s when the terrible thing happened. It was fast. I only remember I was on the other side of the sofa, and then something was flying in my face. It felt like liquid fire in my eyes. I have never felt anything so, so…” He sniffs again. “The pain. I was screaming and trying to get it out of my eyes. I was trying to get out of the house. I knew she was going to kill me and suddenly it went into my mind that she is one of them. Them. They have got me at last. I walked right into their trap! It was planned all along that she would get my brother’s body because she is them. Now I would be arrested and they would finally get the opportunity they want, finally, finally.”
“And they want what?” Berger asks him. “Tell me again, because I’m having a very hard time understanding, much less believing, this part.”
“They want my father!” he says with the first emotion I have seen. “To get Papa! To find a reason to go after him and bring him down, destroy him. To make it look like my father has a son who is a killer so they can get to my family. All this for years! And I am Chandonne and look at me! Look at me!!”
He stretches out his arms in a pose of crucifixion, hair floating out from his body. I watch in shock as he rips off his dark glasses and light pierces his tender, burned eyes. I stare into those bright red, chemically burned eyes. They don’t seem to focus and tears stream down his face.