Killer's crime map

Killer's crime map is a marked plan that Bérenger and Édouard discover while gathering scattered objects and restoring them to a briefcase. The crosses indicate places where the Killer is expected to be, while the accompanying times suggest a schedule fixed in advance. In the scene, the map converts suspicion into something Bérenger regards as actionable proof, setting an urgent race to notify the authorities in motion.

Discovery and Appearance

As Bérenger and Édouard collect objects from the table, floor, and other furniture and put them back into the briefcase, Édouard produces a large envelope from his pocket. Its contents interrupt their effort: there is still another item to examine. When they open the envelope, Bérenger identifies the paper as a map or plan and immediately asks what the crosses mean. The map is spread out on the table for inspection, making its markings available to both men.

The briefcase and map have distinct roles in the moment. The men have been restoring scattered things to the case, but the map is not simply another object to put away: its markings demand interpretation. Édouard brings it forward, and Bérenger pauses over its signs. Its importance arises not from any described visual elaboration—the text specifies crosses and written times—but from what the men infer those details can reveal about the Killer's movements.

Crosses and Timetable

Édouard interprets the crosses tentatively as places where the Killer is meant to be. The map therefore appears to connect locations with an anticipated sequence of activity. The scene presents this as the men's reading of the document, not as an independently verified account of what the Killer has done at each marked place. That distinction matters: the paper gives them a structured lead, while its meaning still has to be acted upon and confirmed.

Bérenger then reads out a sequence of times: 9:15, 13:27, 15:45, and 19:03. Édouard suggests that they are probably the Killer's timetable, fixed in advance from place to place and hour to hour. Bérenger continues to an even finer notation, 23 hours, 9 minutes, and 2 seconds. Édouard's response stresses the schedule's precision: the Killer is not wasting time, he says, and the stage direction gives that observation a mixture of admiration and indifference. The exact times make the plan seem measured down to the second, while the crosses give that temporal order a spatial counterpart.

Evidence and Urgency

For Bérenger, the map changes the practical terms of the discussion. He has just insisted that the connection between intention and act is plain; now the marked places and exact schedule seem to offer a way to demonstrate that connection. He proposes notifying the police so they can pick up the Killer, and calls the map proof to be shown to the Architect and the Superintendent. His confidence that the task is easy contrasts with the narrow window he immediately describes: the Prefecture's offices close before nightfall, and afterward no one will be there.

The danger, as Bérenger sees it, is not only that official help will become unavailable for the night. Between then and the following day, the Killer might alter the plan. The timetable's apparent fixity thus creates urgency rather than reassurance: if it is genuinely fixed, it may guide action, but it may also cease to be reliable as soon as the Killer changes it. Bérenger's repeated insistence on moving quickly follows directly from that possibility. The map does not itself stop the Killer; it prompts an attempt to carry information to people who might intervene.

Dramatic Significance

The map gives physical form to the connection between intention and action that Bérenger has been trying to articulate. Crosses and times make the Killer's anticipated movements legible enough, in Bérenger's view, to report. Yet the scene also leaves the document's evidentiary force dependent on interpretation: Édouard says the crosses are probably locations and the times are probably a timetable, while Bérenger moves from those readings to the certainty that they have proof.

That gap between inference and action gives the object its dramatic force. A large envelope, a map opened on a table, a handful of crosses, and a sequence of increasingly exact times redirect the men from restoring the contents of a briefcase to seeking official intervention. Édouard remarks on the Killer's efficiency with admiration mixed with indifference; Bérenger instead treats the same precision as a reason to hurry. The map therefore marks a difference in response as well as a clue: where Édouard registers the schedule's disciplined pace, Bérenger tries to turn knowledge of it into action before it can change.