CHAPTER 20Approaching by way of the courtyard was out. Anyone watching from inside the front windows of my apartment would have an unobstructed view of the courtyard entrance. I walked halfway around the block to Rue Mouffetard. A covered alleyway ran between buildings there. I went through it into a dim little courtyard inside the heart of the block. Most of it was taken up by the big orange trash containers of the buildings around it. From there I turned left into another covered alleyway that led past the rear of the four-story house containing my apartment.
The rear wall had no windows. It was made of rough stone and was unusually thick. The only opening was a rear door that had been set in after breaking through the wall there sometime around the turn of the century. Like many of the
