Dear Investigator
The following email sequence was found on the work laptop of Ms. Charpentier six days after their apartment burnt down and they were declared missing. Amidst our review of her work laptop’s contents, we feel these emails better fall under your purview. Please comment and take action as necessary.
Yours, The Dept of The Interior, Special Investigations GroupMailto: m.aubert@deptint.fr Mailfrom: s.charpentier@deptint.fr Date: 09/06/2004. Subject: The Trip to Villeneuve-la-Niort Day 1
Dear Mr Aubert
I have arrived at Villeneuve-la-Niort, though I am sorry to say I am behind schedule. I was unable to find transport from the railway station as none of the taxi drivers said they had heard of the village. I was able to hitchhike to the next village along and bought a bicycle to get myself to Villeneuve-la-Niort. I am checked into the Auberge du Vert and am apparently the only guest. They do apparently have a working telephone and a limited internet connection, despite my repeated attempts to make contact in the previous month. I’ll begin my search into the source of all the clerical anomalies that plague the village’s paperwork.
Yours Sincerely,
SandrineMailto: m.aubert@deptint.fr Mailfrom: s.charpentier@deptint.fr Date: 10/06/2004. Subject: The Trip to Villeneuve-la-Niort Day 2
Dear Mr Aubert
My initial attempts at getting the needed information to correct the village’s population data have not been successful. The mayor and the parish priest have both refused to talk to me or grant me access to their own records. They say there’s nothing amiss and that they have better things to do than deal with a bureaucrat from Paris. This unfriendliness seems to extend to the entire village as all my attempts to make conversation or knock on doors have been rebuffed. Despite it being the 21st century, the village seems left behind by technology as there’s no telecommunications beyond the inn and the only television in town is an old CRT in the inn lounge. I’ve also noted that despite recently filed birth certificates, there are no children in the village, which corroborates the local school district’s report of no enrolled students. Tomorrow I will continue my surveillance and explore the village further as I feel there’s definitely something being hidden here.
Yours Sincerely,
SandrineMailto: m.aubert@deptint.fr Mailfrom: s.charpentier@deptint.fr Date: 11/06/2004. Subject: The Trip to Villeneuve-la-Niort Day 3
Dear Mr Aubert
I visited the parish church in the morning and reviewed the graveyard. According to the grave markers, there hasn’t been a death in the village since 1720. This does not match with our records, which show several deaths recorded. I asked the priest about this when I saw them leaving the church and they offhandedly said that the villagers prefer to be buried in the crypt, a tradition that began with the Great Plague of Marseille. When I asked to see the crypt, the priest, Father Michel, became quite annoyed with me, accused me of prying into private grief, and then quickly left with a swift declination.
Yours Sincerely,
SandrineMailto: m.aubert@deptint.fr Mailfrom: s.charpentier@deptint.fr Date: 12/06/2004. Subject: The Trip to Villeneuve-la-Niort Day 4
Dear Mr Aubert
I have perhaps made a breakthrough and found someone in the village who is willing to talk to me. I attended the Sunday mass, partly in hopes of learning more about the church and partly to mollify the priest. Unlike the rest of my time here, the villagers were polite to me. The service itself was unusual, with many old little customs and the priest speaks latin almost like he knew the original. After the mass I explored the church interior and encountered a young woman called Matilda. A check of my records shows no living Matilda in the village but she was very happy to talk about the church and her role in looking after it. She even offered to give me a tour of the village on Monday.
Yours Sincerely,
SandrineMailto: m.aubert@deptint.fr Mailfrom: s.charpentier@deptint.fr Date: 13/06/2004. Subject: The Trip to Villeneuve-la-Niort Day 5
Dear Mr Aubert
After catching a glance at the alcohol licence for the inn, I’ve spent the morning going over images of what few certificates we have from the village. It appears as if it is the same handwriting on all the documents for at least the last three hundred years. This is of course impossible and leads me to think that a previous mayor must have submitted them all in one recent batch. I was unable to get Matilda to tell me anything directly about the village when she spent the afternoon showing me a local cave filled with paintings of interlocking octagons. I was able to persuade her to give me a key to the crypt. I’m heading there tonight.
Yours Sincerely,
SandrineMailto: m.aubert@deptint.fr Mailfrom: s.charpentier@deptint.fr Date: 13/06/2004. Subject: The Trip to Villeneuve-la-Niort Day 5 Evening
Dear Mr Aubert
BEGIN SPEECH TO TEXT TRANSCRIPT - I’m recording this on my blackberry so I have a live record of my visit into the church’s crypt. It should auto upload when I return to my room. The church is gloomy when unlit. The key has worked on the front door and I’m now opening the side door to the basements. Nothing in the store room of any interest. I’m avoiding going up into the tower, I don’t want my torch light to be seen. There’s a layer of dust on the crypt steps that must be decades old but the last death was recorded two years ago. So clearly the priest was lying about that. And lying about more. I’m in the main crypt and it's completely empty. Wait, no, there’s something in one of the side rooms. Is that, is that Matilda? But how can she be down here? There’s a tunnel leading on from here, it isn’t part of the church. It’s going downwards. I think I can hear whispering. Oh my. It’s beautiful. A cavern, a cavern full of jewels! They see me, they see all of me! Oh, the colours! END SPEECH TO TEXT TRANSCRIPT
Yours Sincerely,
SandrineMailto: m.aubert@deptint.fr Mailfrom: s.charpentier@deptint.fr Date: 14/06/2004. Subject: The Trip to Villeneuve-la-Niort Day 6
Dear Mr Aubert
I finally was able to find time to meet with the mayor. Turns out he really was busy. He apologised for the seemingly copied certificates, as it turns out the villages records were damaged by rain and so new certificates were needed. He’s also provided me with the corrected paperwork. My apologies for the auto-email last night, I think my phone started taking dictation whilst I was watching a film. I’ll have the village's database entries all sorted once I return on Monday.
Yours Sincerely,
Sandrine
Image Credits: Medieval village 3 By Wess4U CC-BY-SA-3.0, Filo-Files by Brandon Schauer CC-BY-SA-2.0