Alfred was known to the police, and the psychiatric hospital of his small provincial town.
His parents had known little except hard work and dedication to their bookstore, which was also a cafe. People in this village, came there to have a coffee, an aperitif, while immersing themselves in a detective or science fiction story. Germaine, Alfred's mother, liked to observe these visitors, often regulars. Like them, she could read for hours only interrupted by the bell of the door which indicated the arrival of a new customer. Sometimes she groaned as she was dragged out of her reading.
Alfred's father, Gustave, was a gruff man with a strong build, jovial face and intelligent eyes, he could sit for hours observing his clients, especially the female clients.
He did not read but he wrote. Sitting in a corner of the bookstore inaccessible to visitors, he would invent dialogues, project himself in the weirdest situations. He would cross out entire pages only to start over again sometimes nervously, sometimes with a small smile indicating his level of involvment. At the end of the day he made sure to fold up his blackened pages and put them in a safe place.
In his writings the idea of domination often came up. A domination not physical but rather intellectual. The bookstore was teeming with characters that corresponded exactly to those he was trying to portray. The ideal robot portrait would be a woman in her thirties, long hair, preferably blond with a soft and smiling look.
His story, which he constantly rewrote, was often the same, but he sought perfection trying to find the exact exchange he would have with one of these assiduous readers, one of these victims.
He was dreaming finding himself face to face with one of these young girls in a neutral place so he could project onto her his fantasy which consisted in having the right to life or death over his prey if she did not respond correctly to the questions he would ask her.
He was obsessed with the word “Intimacy”. What could be hiding behind this word? This is what Gustave wanted. Penetrate the intimacy of a young girl. When her eyes would cross his, what would she think? Could he steal this intimacy or on the contrary would she reveal her thoughts to him?? That, he believed, was the reason for his main question.
"What are you thinking when you're in front of me?"
How Alfred gained access to his father's secret pages. We don’t know.
Upon reading these chilling scenarios, he immediately understood that his father was about to commit harm on an innocent victim.
He decided to act and defend a young girl against the madness of a psychopath. His plan was ready.
When his father would take Enzo the dog for their daily walk, usually after breakfast and before the opening of the bookstore, he would follow him into the park with a gun and a silencer.
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