The keys

Diary of Dr W. N. W., forensic pathologist. Grenoble. 2/17/1998.
's keys were found in the clasped, angry fist of a man floating down the Isère river.

He was not identified as himself, since is known to have water phobia (though we possess some contradictory data on that). Two 200 cc injections of phenylcarbitol were necessary for the dead man to release his prey.

Two of the keys are already on record. The longest one opens the flat where had been living in the past three weeks before he left it for parts unknown. He forgot to give the key to Mr Manfred Calamassi, the owner of the real-estate agency who bought the flat back from him. The smallest key opens the door of as mashed-open cupboard that was found four days ago on the parking lot of the Montferrière mart. The cupboard was empty, and exhaled a pungent odour of dead leaves that puzzled the shopping-cart addicts around it.

The three other keys remain an enigma, as is the identity of our floater. Nobody has come yet to reclaim the body, and he is still waiting in the deep-frozen solitude of a morgue drawer for the one merciful soul that will wake up his memory. His left shoulder blade wears a strange mark that is also written with a felt-tip pen on the back of his shirt. A picture of it appeared in the local newspapers, to no avail. It is on record that this symbol was engraved by himself on a tree during the summer of 1972, along with his own initial and his girlfriend's.

We are quite confident that the relationship between and the deceased will be brought to light once the keys are properly identified, something to be expected soon.