The Eight Strokes of the Clock (6 page)

Rénine ran his eyes down the slip of paper which the chief inspector handed him and said:

“That’s right. The two lists agree.”

Inspector Morisseau seemed greatly excited:

“The chief attaches the greatest importance to your discovery. So you will be able to show me? …”

Rénine was silent for a moment and then declared:

“Mr. Chief Inspector, a personal investigation—and a most exhaustive investigation it was, as I will explain to you presently—has revealed the fact that, on his return from Suresnes, the murderer, after replacing the motorcycle in the shed in the Avenue du Roule, ran to the Ternes and entered this house.”

“This house?”

“Yes.”

“But what did he come here for?”

“To hide the proceeds of his theft, the sixty banknotes.”

“How do you mean? Where?”

“In a flat of which he had the key, on the fifth floor.”

Gaston Dutreuil exclaimed, in amazement:

“But there’s only one flat on the fifth floor, and that’s the one I live in!”

“Exactly, and, as you were at the cinema with Madame Aubrieux and her mother, advantage was taken of your absence …”

“Impossible! No one has the key except myself.”

“One can get in without a key.”

“But I have seen no marks of any kind.”

Morisseau intervened:

“Come, let us understand one another. You say the banknotes were hidden in M. Dutreuil’s flat?”

“Yes.”

“Then, as Jacques Aubrieux was arrested the next morning, the notes ought to be there still?”

“That’s my opinion.”

Gaston Dutreuil could not help laughing:

“But that’s absurd! I should have found them!”

“Did you look for them?”

“No. But I should have come across them at any moment. The place isn’t big enough to swing a cat in. Would you care to see it?”

“However small it may be, it’s large enough to hold sixty bits of paper.”

“Of course, everything is possible,” said Dutreuil. “Still, I must repeat that nobody, to my knowledge, has been to my rooms; that there is only one key; that I am my own housekeeper; and that I can’t quite understand …”

Hortense too could not understand. With her eyes fixed on Prince Rénine’s, she was trying to read his innermost thoughts. What game was he playing? Was it her duty to support his statements? She ended by saying:

“Mr. Chief Inspector, since Prince Rénine maintains that the notes have been put away upstairs, wouldn’t the simplest thing be to go and look? M. Dutreuil will take us up, won’t you?”

“This minute,” said the young man. “As you say, that will be simplest.”

They all four climbed the five stories of the house and, after Dutreuil had opened the door, entered a tiny set of chambers consisting of a sitting room, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom, all arranged with fastidious neatness. It was easy to see that every chair in the sitting room occupied a definite place. The pipes had a rack to themselves; so had the matches. Three walking sticks, arranged according to their length, hung from three nails. On a little table before the window a hatbox, filled with tissue paper, awaited the felt hat which Dutreuil carefully placed in it. He laid his gloves beside it, on the lid.

He did all this with sedate and mechanical movements, like a man who loves to see things in the places which he has chosen for them. Indeed, no sooner did Rénine shift something than Dutreuil made a slight gesture of protest, took out his hat again, stuck it on his head, opened the window and rested his elbows on the sill, with his back turned to the room, as though he were unable to bear the sight of such vandalism.

“You’re positive, are you not?” the inspector asked Rénine.

“Yes, yes, I’m positive that the sixty notes were brought here after the murder.”

“Let’s look for them.”

This was easy and soon done. In half an hour, not a corner remained unexplored, not a knickknack unlifted.

“Nothing,” said Inspector Morisseau. “Shall we continue?”

“No,” replied Rénine, “The notes are no longer here.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that they have been removed.”

“By whom? Can’t you make a more definite accusation?”

Rénine did not reply. But Gaston Dutreuil wheeled round. He was choking and spluttered: “Mr. Inspector, would you like
me
to make the accusation more definite, as conveyed by this gentleman’s remarks? It all means that there’s a dishonest man here, that the notes hidden by the murderer were discovered and stolen by that dishonest man and deposited in another and safer place. That is your idea, sir, is it not? And you accuse me of committing this theft don’t you?”

He came forward, drumming his chest with his fists: “Me! Me! I found the notes, did I, and kept them for myself? You dare to suggest that!”

Rénine still made no reply. Dutreuil flew into a rage and, taking Inspector Morisseau aside, exclaimed:

“Mr. Inspector, I strongly protest against all this farce and against the part which you are unconsciously playing in it. Before your arrival, Prince Rénine told this lady and myself that he knew nothing, that he was venturing into this affair at random and that he was following the first road that offered, trusting to luck. Do you deny it, sir?”

Rénine did not open his lips.

“Answer me, will you? Explain yourself; for, really, you are putting forward the most improbable facts without any proof whatever. It’s easy enough to say that I stole the notes. And how were you to know that they were here at all? Who brought them here? Why should the murderer choose this flat to hide them in? It’s all so stupid, so illogical and absurd! … Give us your proofs, sir … one single proof!”

Inspector Morisseau seemed perplexed. He questioned Rénine with a glance. Rénine said:

“Since you want specific details, we will get them from Madame Aubrieux herself. She’s on the telephone. Let’s go downstairs. We shall know all about it in a minute.”

Dutreuil shrugged his shoulders:

“As you please, but what a waste of time!”

He seemed greatly irritated. His long wait at the window, under a blazing sun, had thrown him into a sweat. He went to his bedroom and returned with a bottle of water, of which he took a few sips, afterwards placing the bottle on the windowsill:

“Come along,” he said.

Prince Rénine chuckled.

“You seem to be in a hurry to leave the place.”

“I’m in a hurry to show you up,” retorted Dutreuil, slamming the door.

They went downstairs to the private room containing the telephone. The room was empty. Rénine asked Gaston Dutreuil for the Aubrieuxs’ number, took down the instrument and was put through.

The maid who came to the telephone answered that Madame Aubrieux had fainted, after giving way to an access of despair, and that she was now asleep.

“Fetch her mother, please. Prince Rénine speaking. It’s urgent.”

He handed the second receiver to Morisseau. For that matter, the voices were so distinct that Dutreuil and Hortense were able to hear every word exchanged.

“Is that you, madame?”

“Yes. Prince Rénine, I believe?”

“Prince Rénine.”

“Oh, sir, what news have you for me? Is there any hope?” asked the old lady, in a tone of entreaty.

“The enquiry is proceeding very satisfactorily,” said Rénine, “and you may hope for the best. For the moment, I want you to give me some very important particulars. On the day of the murder, did Gaston Dutreuil come to your house?”

“Yes, he came to fetch my daughter and myself, after lunch.”

“Did he know at the time that M. Guillaume had sixty thousand francs at his place?”

“Yes, I told him.”

“And that Jacques Aubrieux was not feeling very well and was proposing not to take his usual cycle ride but to stay at home and sleep?”

“Yes.”

“You are sure?”

“Absolutely certain.”

“And you all three went to the cinema together?”

“Yes.”

“And you were all sitting together?”

“Oh, no! There was no room. He took a seat farther away.”

“A seat where you could see him?”

“No.”

“But he came to you during the interval?”

“No, we did not see him until we were going out.”

“There is no doubt of that?”

“None at all.”

“Very well, madame. I will tell you the result of my efforts in an hour’s time. But above all, don’t wake up Madame Aubrieux.”

“And suppose she wakes of her own accord?”

“Reassure her and give her confidence. Everything is going well, very well indeed.”

He hung up the receiver and turned to Dutreuil, laughing:

“Ha, ha, my boy! Things are beginning to look clearer. What do you say?”

It was difficult to tell what these words meant or what conclusions Rénine had drawn from his conversation. The silence was painful and oppressive.

“Mr. Chief Inspector, you have some of your men outside, haven’t you?”

“Two detective sergeants.”

“It’s important that they should be there. Please also ask the manager not to disturb us on any account.”

And, when Morisseau returned, Rénine closed the door, took his stand in front of Dutreuil and, speaking in a good-humoured but emphatic tone, said:

“It amounts to this, young man, that the ladies saw nothing of you between three and five o’clock on that Sunday. That’s rather a curious detail.”

“A perfectly natural detail,” Dutreuil retorted, “and one, moreover, which proves nothing at all.”

“It proves, young man, that you had a good two hours at your disposal.”

“Obviously. Two hours which I spent at the cinema.”

“Or somewhere else.”

Dutreuil looked at him:

“Somewhere else?”

“Yes. As you were free, you had plenty of time to go wherever you liked … to Suresnes, for instance.”

“Oh!” said the young man, jesting in his turn. “Suresnes is a long way off!”

“It’s quite close! Hadn’t you your friend Jacques Aubrieux’s motorcycle?”

A fresh pause followed these words. Dutreuil had knitted his brows as though he were trying to understand. At last he was heard to whisper:

“So that is what he was trying to lead up to! … The brute! …”

Rénine brought down his hand on Dutreuil’s shoulder:

“No more talk! Facts! Gaston Dutreuil, you are the only person who on that day knew two essential things: first, that Cousin Guillaume had sixty thousand francs in his house; secondly, that Jacques Aubrieux was not going out. You at once saw your chance. The motorcycle was available. You slipped out during the performance. You went to Suresnes. You killed Cousin Guillaume. You took the sixty banknotes and left them at your rooms. And at five o’clock you went back to fetch the ladies.”

Dutreuil had listened with an expression at once mocking and flurried, casting an occasional glance at Inspector Morisseau as though to enlist him as a witness:

“The man’s mad,” it seemed to say. “It’s no use being angry with him.”

When Rénine had finished, he began to laugh:

“Very funny! … A capital joke! … So it was I whom the neighbours saw going and returning on the motorcycle?”

“It was you disguised in Jacques Aubrieux’s clothes.”

“And it was my fingerprints that were found on the bottle in M. Guillaume’s pantry?”

“The bottle had been opened by Jacques Aubrieux at lunch, in his own house, and it was you who took it with you to serve as evidence.”

“Funnier and funnier!” cried Dutreuil, who had the air of being frankly amused. “Then I contrived the whole affair so that Jacques Aubrieux might be accused of the crime?”

“It was the safest means of not being accused yourself.”

“Yes, but Jacques is a friend whom I have known from childhood.”

“You’re in love with his wife.”

The young man gave a sudden, infuriated start:

“You dare! … What! You dare make such an infamous suggestion?”

“I have proof of it.”

“That’s a lie! I have always respected Madeleine Aubrieux and revered her …”

“Apparently. But you’re in love with her. You desire her. Don’t contradict me. I have abundant proof of it.”

“That’s a lie, I tell you! You have only known me a few hours!”

“Come, come! I’ve been quietly watching you for days, waiting for the moment to pounce upon you.”

He took the young man by the shoulders and shook him:

“Come, Dutreuil, confess! I hold all the proofs in my hand. I have witnesses whom we shall meet presently at the criminal investigation department. Confess, can’t you? In spite of everything, you’re tortured by remorse. Remember your dismay, at the restaurant, when you had seen the newspaper. What? Jacques Aubrieux condemned to die? That’s more than you bargained for! Penal servitude would have suited your book, but the scaffold! … Jacques Aubrieux executed tomorrow, an innocent man! … Confess, won’t you? Confess to save your own skin! Own up!”

Bending over the other, he was trying with all his might to extort a confession from him. But Dutreuil drew himself up and coldly, with a sort of scorn in his voice, said:

“Sir, you are a madman. Not a word that you have said has any sense in it. All your accusations are false. What about the banknotes? Did you find them at my place as you said you would?”

Rénine, exasperated, clenched his fist in his face:

“Oh, you swine, I’ll dish you yet, I swear I will!”

He drew the inspector aside:

“Well, what do you say to it? An arrant rogue, isn’t he?”

The inspector nodded his head:

“It may be … But, all the same … so far there’s no real evidence.”

“Wait, M. Morisseau,” said Rénine. “Wait until we’ve had our interview with M. Dudouis. For we shall see M. Dudouis at the prefecture, shall we not?”

“Yes, he’ll be there at three o’clock.”

“Well, you’ll be convinced, Mr. Inspector! I tell you here and now that you will be convinced.”

Rénine was chuckling like a man who feels certain of the course of events. Hortense, who was standing near him and was able to speak to him without being heard by the others, asked, in a low voice:

“You’ve got him, haven’t you?”

He nodded his head in assent:

“Got him? I should think I have! All the same, I’m no farther forward than I was at the beginning.”