Everything seemed turned topsy-turvy by chance; articles were broken open with the hatchet, which might have been opened with the hands;drawers had been forced which were not shut, and the keys of which were in the locks.Was this folly? No.For really no corner or crevice where a letter might be hid has been neglected.The table and bureau-drawers had been thrown here and there, but the narrow spaces between the drawers had been examined - I saw proofs of it, for I found the imprints of fingers on the dust which lay in these spaces.The books had been thrown pell-mell upon the floor, but every one of them had been handled, and some of them with such violence that the bindings were torn off.We found the mantel-shelves in their places, but every one had been lifted up.
The chairs were not hacked with a sword, for the mere purpose of ripping the cloth - the seats were thus examined.My conviction of the certainty that there had been a most desperate search, at first roused my suspicions.I said to myself, 'The villains have been looking for the money which was concealed; therefore they did not belong to the household.'""But," observed the doctor, "they might belong to the house, and yet not know the money was hidden; for Guespin - ""Permit me," interrupted M.Lecoq, " I will explain myself.On the other hand, I found indications that the assassin must have been closely connected with Madame de Tremorel - her lover, or her husband.These were the ideas that then struck me.""And now?"
"Now," responded the detective, " with the certainty that something besides booty might have been the object of the search, I am not far from thinking that the guilty man is he whose body is being searched for - the Count Hector de Tremorel."M.Plantat and Dr.Gendron had divined the name; but neither had as yet dared to utter his suspicions.They awaited this name of Tremorel; and yet, pronounced as it was in the middle of the night, in this great sombre room, by this at least strange personage, it made them shudder with an indescribable fright.
"Observe," resumed M.Lecoq, "what I say; I believe it to be so.
In my eyes, the count's guilt is only as yet extremely probable.
Let us see if we three can reach the certainty of it.You see, gentlemen, the inquest of a crime is nothing more nor less than the solution of a problem.Given the crime, proved, patent, you commence by seeking out all the circumstances, whether serious or superficial; the details and the particulars.When these have been carefully gathered, you classify them, and put them in their order and date.You thus know the victim, the crime, and the circumstances; it remains to find the third term of the problem, that is, x, the unknown quantity - the guilty party.The task is a difficult one, but not so difficult as is imagined.The object is to find a man whose guilt explains all the circumstances, all the details found - all, understand me.Find such a man, and it is probable - and in nine cases out of ten,, the probability becomes a reality - that you hold the perpetrator of the crime."So clear had been M.Lecoq's exposition, so logical his argument, that his hearers could not repress an admiring exclamation:
"Very good! Very good!"
"Let us then examine together if the assumed guilt of the Count de Tremorel explains all the circumstances of the crime at Valfeuillu."He was about to continue when Dr.Gendron, who sat near the window, rose abruptly.
"There is someone in the garden," said he.
All approached the window.The weather was glorious, the night very clear, and a large open space lay before the library window;they looked out, but saw no one.
"You are mistaken, Doctor," said Plantat, resuming his arm-chair.
M.Lecoq continued:
"Now let us suppose that, under the influence of certain events that we will examine presently, Monsieur de Tremorel had made up his mind to get rid of his wife.The crime once resolved upon, it was clear that the count must have reflected, and sought out the means of committing it with impunity; he must have weighed the circumstances, and estimated the perils of his act.Let us admit, also, that the events which led him to this extremity were such that he feared to be disturbed, and that he also feared that a search would be made for certain things, even should his wife die a natural death.""That is true," said M.Plantat, nodding his head.
"Monsieur de Tremorel, then, determined to kill his wife, brutally, with a knife, with the idea of so arranging everything, as to make it believed that he too had been assassinated; and he also decided to endeavor to thrust suspicion on an innocent person, or at least, an accomplice infinitely less guilty than he.
"He made up his mind in advance, in adopting this course, to disappear, fly, conceal himself, change his personality; to suppress, in short, Count Hector de Tremorel, and make for himself, under another name, a new position and identity.These hypotheses, easily admitted, suffice to explain the whole series of otherwise inconsistent circumstances.They explain to us in the first place, how it was that on the very night of the murder, there was a large fortune in ready money at Valfeuillu; and this seems to me decisive.
Why, when a man receives sums like this, which he proposes to keep by him, he conceals the fact as carefully as possible.Monsieur de Tremorel had not this common prudence.He shows his bundles of bank-notes freely, handles them, parades them; the servants see them, almost touch them.He wants everybody to know and repeat that there is a large sum in the house, easy to take, carry off, and conceal.And what time of all times, does he choose for this display? Exactly the moment when he knows, and everyone in the neighborhood knows, that he is going to pass the night at the chateau, alone with Madame de Tremorel.
