The Last Evening’s Route

This flow traces Louise’s increasingly desperate movements on the night she tried to reach help and instead encountered the men pursuing her.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

Eviction and Need

Eviction and Need The Room Lost Madame Crêmieux tells Louise she must leave, and Louise accepts the notice without protest. With little money, no steady work, and nowhere certain to go, she reaches the last days of an already precarious stretch of independence. A Sudden Decision The evidence suggests she has learned that Jeanine Armenieu is marrying Marco Santoni. She rents her old blue evening dress again, apparently hoping to reach Jeanine and ask for help at the wedding reception.

Repeated Calls

Repeated Calls The Café Booth A waiter remembers Louise entering a café near Rue Caumartin, cold and poorly dressed beneath her borrowed evening clothes. She orders several grogs and repeatedly tries to reach someone by telephone. A Failed Connection The waiter cannot say whether she ever succeeds. Her repeated attempts suggest that she is searching for assistance before going to the wedding, making the later image of her walking alone more desperate than purposeful.

The Wedding Appeal

The Wedding Appeal Through the Reception Louise enters Le Roméo in a faded dress that sets her apart from the wedding guests. She finds Jeanine Armenieu and tries to speak with her while Marco Santoni interrupts; Jeanine’s manner appears reserved and she refuses what Louise asks. Money, Not Rescue Jeanine later explains that Louise wanted to borrow money and hinted at desperation. She gave her several thousand-franc notes, but that help did not repair the broken friendship or give Louise a safe place to go.

Walking Toward the Bar

Walking Toward the Bar A Route Across Paris A taxi driver sees Louise refuse a ride and walk away from the reception. He later glimpses her crossing Place Saint-Augustin and continuing toward Boulevard Haussmann and Rue de l’Etoile. A Destination Unclear She has a message waiting at Pickwick’s Bar, though investigators initially do not know its contents. Her determined walk gives the route a hidden purpose, but leaves her exposed to anyone who recognizes the value of her identity.

The Missing Handbag

The Missing Handbag A Fatal Attempt Bianchi and his accomplices try to seize Louise’s silver handbag, believing it contains the identity card needed to claim the hidden money. Its thin chain is twisted around her wrist, preventing the quick theft they expected. Violence and Disposal Louise falls and struggles; Bianchi strikes her and then kills her with a blackjack. The men remove her body from the immediate area of the bar and leave it on Place Vintimille, where the case begins as an apparently unrelated street killing.

Three days before Louise disappears

About half past ten on the murder night

Shortly before midnight on the murder night

After midnight, before about two

Around two in the morning