CARBON COPY CHAPTER 1

Cameron Crow worked for a Montreal newspaper. Like every morning, the clock was showing noon as Cameron arrived at his desk. Joseph, his editor, had long since lost all hope of explaining to his friend and employee the notion of 9 to 5. Well before his first day of work, the journalist with the scent of barrel and peppermint had exchanged a painful past for a future in constant wakefulness. While Cameron engulfed two pills of aspirin, Joseph made him read a strange news: A man had coldly murdered a puritan family from Louisville, Kentucky. All this was not extraordinary, except that the alleged perpetrator of this villainous crime was the writer of Polish origin, Claude Cyriltochter.

Cameron had never felt anything but indifference to this name. The recent popularity of the latter was not really due to his licky writing or his captivating stories, but rather a cult of anonymity. The novelist had not made any public appearance for nearly twenty years, at least no one could testify he was still alive, and he had no known family.

Cameron looked up at Joseph with a skeptical face. The reporter did not understand his boss's insistence. Was it such a good deal for the newspaper? "I think you need it Cam. I'm telling you this as a friend, "Joseph said with a sigh. On leaving the room, Cameron noticed on Joseph's desk an envelope addressed to a man named Clara. Was it our Clara? Capricious Clara? he wondered. He had not seen her since ... the breakup.