Colonel's photograph

The Colonel's photograph is both The Killer’s practical lure and the conspicuous trace that links his repeated murders. The same image that warns the district about the danger becomes the means by which he draws victims close to the Ornamental pool. Its power is not simply that it identifies The Killer: he turns looking itself into the last step of the trap. Later, multiple copies emerge from Édouard’s black briefcase, and a diary entry about persuading a young blonde woman to inspect the picture leads Bérenger to suspect that Dany was in danger.

Image, Warning, and Evidence

The photograph is described as depicting a decorated military man, with a moustache, insignia, and a Military Cross. When Bérenger examines the copies in Édouard’s black briefcase, he remarks on the Colonel’s face and its expression, which seems likely to arouse pity. The image is therefore recognizable not just by its uniform and decorations but by an appearance that can invite a viewer’s attention and sympathy. The play gives no further account of the Colonel or of why his portrait has this effect; its significance lies in how The Killer makes the image function.

The photograph has already circulated as public evidence before Bérenger finds it in the briefcase. The Architect explains that copies were found on the bodies of people drowned in the pool and then posted on the district’s walls. Some victims were brought back to life briefly and supplied additional information. The image thus occupies an uneasy double position: it is a warning left in the wake of the crime, yet it is also part of the method that enables the crime to recur. Making the photograph visible has not made the danger disappear.

The Lure at the Ornamental Pool

The Architect recounts how The Killer, disguised as a beggar, approaches people as they leave the tram-stop to go home. Because residents are not permitted to use private cars outside Radiant City, they walk toward the gates, where he can intercept them. He begins with an appeal for alms and a story of need, then tests a prospective victim through conversation and persists even when the person tries to move on. He also offers small goods from a basket, including artificial flowers, birds, old-style nightcaps, maps, postcards, cigarettes, and drawings. These overtures bring seller and customer to the Ornamental pool without immediately revealing the purpose of the encounter.

The Colonel's photograph supplies the decisive invitation. As darkness gathers, The Killer proposes showing it; curiosity draws the victim closer for a better look. The Architect describes the close scrutiny as disturbing, but the scene does not explain that disturbance as a supernatural or literal force. Instead, the crucial circumstance is the victim’s attention and position: while the person leans toward the picture, The Killer pushes them into the water. He then looks for another victim. The photograph does not itself kill; its role is to hold the viewer’s gaze at the moment when proximity to the pool becomes fatal.

Recognition Without Safety

Knowledge of the image and the method does not protect the district. The Architect says that everyone knows about the approach, yet two or three people still fall into the trap each evening, and The Killer is never caught in the act. Bérenger is astonished that people who know the danger continue to be taken in. The Architect’s account makes the distinction plain: knowing what the photograph is associated with is not the same as avoiding the encounter that makes it dangerous. The Killer can present his routine as a familiar appeal, and the moment of looking still draws people into reach.

Édouard’s recognition sharpens this irony. When Bérenger describes the killings, Édouard identifies the beggar and the use of the Colonel’s photograph, saying he has known about the method for a long time. He does not treat the information as new, and his knowledge has not brought the murders to an end. The photograph therefore marks not only a failure to warn but a wider inability to turn repeated knowledge into effective protection. The district’s familiarity with the image coexists with continued deaths and growing abandonment.

Copies in Édouard’s Briefcase

The image returns as a material clue when photographs begin pouring from Édouard’s black briefcase. Bérenger inspects them and sees the same face repeated. Édouard confirms that it is the Colonel, while Bérenger finds further copies inside the case and recognizes the famous photograph from the murders. The discovery changes the conversation from general knowledge of The Killer’s technique to evidence physically present among Édouard’s belongings. Édouard says he has not been looking inside the briefcase; Bérenger points out that Édouard is never without it. Nothing in the scene establishes that Édouard knowingly cooperates with The Killer, but the unexpected contents make the case an unsettling repository of the very image used to lure victims.

As Bérenger empties the case, he also finds cigarettes that he identifies as belonging to The Killer. The photograph is part of a larger accumulation of incriminating material, rather than an isolated oddity. Bérenger later opens a small box of documents and reads from a private diary. It records that The Killer persuaded two people to look at the Colonel’s photograph near the pool, then describes plans to persuade a young blonde woman he has been pursuing. Bérenger connects that description to Dany, his fiancée, and fears that she is the intended victim. The photograph’s function consequently extends beyond the killings already known: it helps expose the mechanism of the murders and makes the threat to Dany immediate.