III. THE HUNT FOR THE MAN
M. de Presles, the examining magistrate in charge of the Court atBrives, had just arrived at the chateau of Beaulieu, having beennotified of the tragedy by the police sergeant stationed at Saint-Jaury.The magistrate was a young, fashionable, and rather aristocratic man ofthe world, whose grievance it was to be tied down to work that wasmechanical rather than intellectual. He was essentially modern in hisideas, and his chief ambition was to get away as quickly as possiblefrom the small provincial town to which he had been exiled by thechanges and chances of promotion; he was sick of Brives, and now itoccurred to him that a crime like this present one would give him anopportunity of displaying his gifts of intuition and deduction, provehis quality, and so might enable him to get another appointment. AfterDollon had received him at the chateau, the magistrate had first of allmade enquiry as to who was in the house at the time. From theinformation given him he was satisfied that it was unnecessary tosubject either Therese or Charles Rambert to immediate examination, bothof the young people being much too upset to be able to reply to seriousquestions, and both having been taken away to the house of the Baronnede Vibray. It was, also, clear that M. Rambert senior, who had onlyarrived after the crime, could not furnish any interesting information.
"Tell me exactly how you discovered the crime, M. Dollon," he said as,pale and trembling, the steward accompanied him along the corridor tothe scene of the murder.
"I went this morning as usual, sir," the steward replied, "to say goodmorning to Mme. de Langrune and receive her orders for the day. Iknocked at her door as I always did, but got no answer. I knockedlouder, but still there was no answer. I don't know why I opened thedoor instead of going away; perhaps I had some kind of presentiment. Oh,I shall never forget the shock I had when I saw my poor dear mistresslying dead at the foot of her bed, steeped in blood, and with such ahorrible gash in her throat that for a moment I thought her head wassevered from the trunk."
The police sergeant corroborated the steward's story.
"The murder certainly was committed with peculiarly horrible violence,sir," he remarked. "The body shows that the victim was struck with theutmost fury. The murderer must have gone mad over the corpse from sheerlust of blood. The wounds are shocking."
"Knife wounds?" M. de Presles asked.
"I don't know," said the sergeant uncertainly. "Your worship can formyour own opinion."
The magistrate followed the steward into the room where Dollon had takencare that nothing was touched.
In its furniture and general arrangement Mme. de Langrune's roomcorresponded with the character of the old lady. It was large, andquietly furnished with old presses, arm-chairs, chairs and old-fashionedtables. It was evident that she had had no liking for modern fashions,but had preferred to have her own room stamped with the rather severe,yet very comfortable character of former days.
The whole of one side of the room was filled by the Marquise's bed. Itwas large, and raised upon a kind of dais covered with a carpet ofsubdued tones. At the foot of the bed, on the right, was a large window,fastened half open despite the keen cold, no doubt for hygienic reasons.In the middle of the room was a round mahogany table with a few smallarticles upon it, a blotting-pad, books and so on. In one corner a largecrucifix was suspended from the wall with a prie-Dieu in front of it,the velvet of which had been worn white by the old lady's knees.Finally, a little further away, was a small escritoire, half open now,with its drawers gaping and papers scattered on the floor.
There were only two ways of ingress into the room: one by the doorthrough which the magistrate had entered, which opened on to the maincorridor on the first floor, and the other by a door communicating withthe Marquise's dressing-room; this dressing-room was lighted by a largewindow, which was shut.
The magistrate was shocked by the spectacle presented by the corpse ofthe Marquise. It was lying on its back on the floor, with the armsextended; the head was towards the bed, the feet towards the window. Thebody was almost naked. A gash ran almost right across the throat,leaving the bones exposed. Torrents of blood had saturated the victim'sclothes, and on the carpet round the body a wide stain was still slowlyspreading wider.
M. de Presles stooped over the dead woman.
"What an appalling wound!" he muttered. "The medical evidence willexplain what weapon it was made with; but no doctor is required to pointout the violence of the blow or the fury of the murderer." He turned tothe old steward who, at sight of his mistress, could hardly restrain histears. "Nothing has been moved in the room, eh?"
"Nothing, sir."
The magistrate pointed to the escritoire with its open drawers.
"That has not been touched?"
"No, sir."
"I suppose that is where Mme. de Langrune kept her valuables?"
The steward shook his head.
"The Marquise could not have had any large sum of money in the house: afew hundred francs perhaps for daily expenses, but certainly no more."
"So you do not think robbery was the motive of the crime?"
The steward shrugged his shoulders.
"The murderer may have thought that Mme. de Langrune had money here,sir. But anyhow he must have been disturbed, because he did not takeaway the rings the Marquise had laid upon the dressing-table before shegot into bed."
The magistrate walked slowly round the room.
"This window was open?" he asked.
"The Marquise always left it like that; she liked all the fresh air shecould get."
"Might not the murderer have got in that way?"
The steward shook his head.
"It is most unlikely, sir. See: the windows are fitted outside with akind of grating pointing outwards and downwards, and I think that wouldprevent anyone from climbing in."
M. de Presles saw that this was so. Continuing his investigation, hesatisfied himself that there was nothing about the furniture in thatroom, or in the dressing-room, to show that the murderer had beenthrough them, except the disorder on and about the little escritoire. Atlast he came to the door which opened on to the corridor.
"Ah!" he exclaimed: "this is interesting!" and with a finger he pointedto the inner bolt on the door, the screws of which were wrenched halfout, showing that an attempt had been made to force the door. "Did Mme.de Langrune bolt her door every night?" he asked.
"Yes, always," Dollon answered. "She was very nervous, and if I was thefirst to come to bid her good morning I always heard her unfasten thatbolt when I knocked."
M. de Presles made no reply. He made one more tour of the room, minutelyconsidering the situation of each single article.
"M. Dollon, will you kindly take me where I can have the use of a tableand inkstand, and anything else I may need to get on with my preliminaryenquiry?"
"Your clerk is waiting for you in the library, sir," the stewardreplied. "He has everything ready for you there."
"Very well. If it is convenient to you we will join him now."
* * * * *
M. de Presles followed Dollon down to the library on the ground floor,where his enterprising clerk had already established himself. Themagistrate took his seat behind a large table and called to the policesergeant.
"I shall ask you to be present during my enquiry, sergeant. The firstinvestigations will devolve upon you, so it will be well for you to hearall the details the witnesses can furnish me with. I suppose you havetaken no steps as yet?"
"Beg pardon, sir: I have sent my men out in all directions, with ordersto interrogate all tramps and to detain any who do not give asatisfactory account of their time last night."
"Good! By the way, while I think of it, have you sent off the telegram Igave you when I arrived--the telegram to the police head-quarters inParis, asking for a detective to be sent down?"
"I took it to the telegraph office myself, sir."
His mind made easy on this score, the young magistrate turned to Dollon.
"Will you please take a
seat, sir?" he said and, disregarding thedisapproving looks of his clerk, who had a particular predilection forall the long circumlocutions and red tape of the law, he pretermittedthe usual questions as to name and age and occupation of the witnesses,and began his enquiry by questioning the old steward. "What is the exactplan of the chateau?" was his first enquiry.
"You know it now, sir, almost as well as I do. The passage from thefront door leads to the main staircase, which we went up just now, tothe first floor where the bedroom of the Marquise is situated. The firstfloor contains a series of rooms separated by a corridor. On the rightis Mlle. Therese's room, and then come guest-chambers which are notoccupied now. On the left is the bedroom of the Marquise, followed byher dressing-room on the same side, and after that there is anotherdressing-room and then the bedroom occupied by M. Charles Rambert."
"Good. And the floor above: how is that arranged?"
"The second floor is exactly like the first floor, sir, except thatthere are only servants' rooms there. They are smaller, and there aremore of them."
"What servants sleep in the house?"
"As a general rule, sir, the two maid-servants, Marie the housemaid andLouise the cook, and also Herve the butler; but Herve did not sleep inthe chateau last night. He had asked the mistress's permission to gointo the village, and she had given it to him on condition that he didnot come back that night."
"What do you mean?" enquired the magistrate, rather surprised.
"The Marquise was rather nervous, sir, and did not like the idea ofanyone being able to get into the house at night; so she was alwayscareful to double-lock the front door and the kitchen door herself everynight. She went round all the rooms too every night, and made sure thatall the iron shutters were properly fastened, and that it was impossiblefor anyone to get into the house. When Herve goes out in the evenings heeither sleeps in the village and does not return till the followingmorning, which is what he did to-day, or else he asks the coachman toleave the yard door unlocked, and sleeps in a room above the stableswhich as a rule is not occupied."
"That is where the other servants sleep, I suppose?"
"Yes, sir. The gardeners, the coachman, and the keepers all live in theout-buildings. With regard to myself, I have a small cottage a littlefarther away in the park."
M. de Presles sat silent for a few moments, thinking deeply. The onlysound in the room was the irritating squeak of the clerk's quill pen, ashe industriously wrote down all the steward's replies. At last M. dePresles looked up.
"So, on the night of the crime the only persons sleeping in the chateauwere Mme. de Langrune, her granddaughter Mlle. Therese, M. CharlesRambert and the two maids. Is that so?"
"Yes, sir."
"Then it does not seem likely that the crime was committed by anyoneliving in the chateau?"
"That is so, sir:--and yet I do not believe that anybody got into thechateau; only two people had a key of the front door--the Marquise andmyself. When I got to the house this morning I found the door open,because Mlle. Therese went out early with M. Charles Rambert to meet M.Rambert, senior, at the station, and she opened the door with the keysthat the Marquise had given into her care the night before; but shetold me herself that when she started to meet the train at five o'clockthe door was shut. Mlle. Therese had put her keys under her pillow, andmy bunch had never left my possession."
"Is it not possible," the magistrate suggested, "that someone may havegot in during the day, hidden himself, and have committed the crime whennight came? Remember, M. Dollon, the bolt inside Mme. de Langrune'sbedroom door has been wrenched away: that means that the murderer madehis entrance by that door, and made it by force."
But the steward shook his head.
"No, sir, nobody could have secreted himself in the chateau during theday; people are always coming to the kitchen, so the back door is underconstant supervision; and all yesterday afternoon there were gardenersat work on the lawn in front of the main entrance; if any stranger hadpresented himself there he would certainly have been seen; and finally,Mme. de Langrune had given orders, which I always attended to myself, tokeep the door locked through which one gets down to the cellars. So themurderer could not have hidden in the basement, and where else could hehave hidden? Not in the rooms on the ground floor: there was company todinner last night, and all the rooms were used more or less; theMarquise, or some one of the guests, would certainly have discoveredhim. So he would have had to be upstairs, either on the first or secondfloor: that is most unlikely: it would have been very risky; besides,the big house-dog is fastened up at the foot of the staircase during theday, and he would not have let any stranger pass him: either the dogmust have known the man, or at all events some meat must have beenthrown to him; but there are no traces to show that anything of the sortwas done."
The magistrate was much perplexed.
"Then the crime is inexplicable, M. Dollon. You have just told meyourself that there was no one in the chateau but Mme. de Langrune, thetwo young people Therese and Charles, and the two maids: it certainly isnot any one of those who can be the guilty person, for the way in whichthe crime was committed, and the force of the blows dealt, show thatthe criminal was a man--a professional murderer in fact. Consequentlythe guilty person must have got in from outside. Come now, have you nosuspicions at all?"
The steward raised his arms and let them fall in utter dejection.
"No," he replied at last, "I do not suspect anybody! I cannot suspectanybody! But, sir, as far as I am concerned, I feel certain thatalthough the murderer was not one of those who occupied the chateau lastnight he nevertheless did not come in from outside. It was not possible!The doors were locked and the shutters were fastened."
"Nevertheless," M. de Presles remarked, "inasmuch as someone hascommitted a murder, it must necessarily be the fact, either that thatsomeone was hidden inside the chateau when Mme. de Langrune herselflocked the front door, or else that he got in during the night. Do younot see yourself, M. Dollon, that one or other of these two hypothesesmust be correct?"
The steward hesitated.
"It is a mystery, sir," he declared at last. "I swear to you, sir, thatnobody could have got in, and yet it is perfectly clear also thatneither M. Charles nor Mlle. Therese, nor yet either of the two maids,Marie and Louise, is the murderer."
M. de Presles sat wrapped in thought for a few minutes and then desiredthe old steward to fetch the two women servants.
"Come back, yourself," he added, as the old man went away; "I mayrequire further particulars from you."
Dollon left the room, and Gigou, the clerk, leant forward towards themagistrate: tact was not the most shining of M. Gigou's qualities.
"When your enquiry is finished, sir--presently--we shall have to pay avisit to the Mayor of Saint-Jaury. That is in accordance with the usualprocedure. And then he cannot do less than invite us to stay todinner!"