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“She’s dead.”
“No, she’s not.”
“She’s dead, Valjean! Come with me, you are under arrest.”
“I will not resist you, Monsieur l’Inspecteur, but can't you see she is clearly not dead!”
Javert walked up to Fantine’s bedside and gave her a closer examination. From this new vantage point, he could see the almost imperceptible rising and falling of her chest. So, the whore’s still alive. And Jean Valjean will not cooperate until she’s dead? Does that mean he has to stand around waiting like a ninny for his prisoner all day? No, the execution of the law must not be delayed.
“She’s dead.”
Valjean stared at him in disbelief, as though he was the one inflicted with madness. The man dared to grab his hand and placed it directly under the whore’s nose.
“See, there? She has breath left in her yet. She’s not dead.”
Javert withdrew his hand and huffed in frustration. The law must be carried out promptly. He wouldn’t be swayed. There was only one thing to do.
He raised his wooden cane high and brought it down on the whore’s head with a satisfying crack, ignoring the horrified gasp of the sister beside him, or the numb, uncomprehending horror on the convict’s face.
Fantine’s chest became still.
“There, now she’s dead.”
His pronouncement roused Valjean from his stupor, and in a flash he found himself pinned against the wall of the infirmary, a dangerous criminal breathing down his neck.
“You have killed this woman!”
“You are resisting arrest, Jean Valjean. Under the Code Penal, that will add—”
“I don’t care how many years it will add to my sentence, I am in for life anyways! But how dare you, how could you—a defenceless woman!”
“Her continued living was hindering the course of justice, Jean Valjean. Since you expressly refused to come with me until she has expired, and she took an annoyingly long time to do so, I merely took the most logical action. It was your own bloody fault. You could have obeyed me, yet you insisted on lingering—”
Valjean ceased his ramblings with a kiss.
The poor sister fainted, but neither paid her any mind. It was just as well, that in her unconscious state she would be protected from the corruption that was taking place by the deathbed of an unfortunate woman, who dared to stand between a tiger and his prey.