At the Villa Rose (28 page)

Mr. Ricardo drew his chair closer in to the table.

"I will confess to you," he said, "that I thought Mlle. Celie was an
accomplice."

"It is not surprising," said Hanaud. "Some one within the house was an
accomplice—we start with that fact. The house had not been broken
into. There was Mlle. Celie's record as Helene Vauquier gave it to us,
and a record obviously true. There was the fact that she had got rid of
Servettaz. There was the maid upstairs very ill from the chloroform.
What more likely than that Mlle. Celie had arranged a seance, and then
when the lights were out had admitted the murderer through that
convenient glass door?"

"There were, besides, the definite imprints of her shoes," said Mr.
Ricardo.

"Yes, but that is precisely where I began to feel sure that she was
innocent," replied Hanaud dryly. "All the other footmarks had been so
carefully scored and ploughed up that nothing could be made of them.
Yet those little ones remained so definite, so easily identified, and I
began to wonder why these, too, had not been cut up and stamped over.
The murderers had taken, you see, an excess of precaution to throw the
presumption of guilt upon Mlle. Celie rather than upon Vauquier.
However, there the footsteps were. Mlle. Celie had sprung from the room
as I described to Wethermill. But I was puzzled. Then in the room I
found the torn-up sheet of notepaper with the words, 'Je ne sais pas,'
in mademoiselle's handwriting. The words might have been
spirit-writing, they might have meant anything. I put them away in my
mind. But in the room the settee puzzled me. And again I was
troubled—greatly troubled."

"Yes, I saw that."

"And not you alone," said Hanaud, with a smile. "Do you remember that
loud cry Wethermill gave when we returned to the room and once more I
stood before the settee? Oh, he turned it off very well. I had said
that our criminals in France were not very gentle with their victims,
and he pretended that it was in fear of what Mlle. Celie might be
suffering which had torn that cry from his heart. But it was not so. He
was afraid—deadly afraid—not for Mlle. Celie, but for himself. He was
afraid that I had understood what these cushions had to tell me."

"What did they tell you?" asked Ricardo.

"You know now," said Hanaud. "They were two cushions, both indented,
and indented in different ways. The one at the head was irregularly
indented—something shaped had pressed upon it. It might have been a
face—it might not; and there was a little brown stain which was fresh
and which was blood. The second cushion had two separate impressions,
and between them the cushion was forced up in a thin ridge; and these
impressions were more definite. I measured the distance between the two
cushions, and I found this: that supposing—and it was a large
supposition—the cushions had not been moved since those impressions
were made, a girl of Mlle. Celie's height lying stretched out upon the
sofa would have her face pressing down upon one cushion and her feet
and insteps upon the other. Now, the impressions upon the second
cushion and the thin ridge between them were just the impressions which
might have been made by a pair of shoes held close together. But that
would not be a natural attitude for any one, and the mark upon the head
cushion was very deep. Supposing that my conjectures were true, then a
woman would only lie like that because she was helpless, because she
had been flung there, because she could not lift herself—because, in a
word, her hands were tied behind her back and her feet fastened
together. Well, then, follow this train of reasoning, my friend!
Suppose my conjectures—and we had nothing but conjectures to build
upon-were true, the woman flung upon the sofa could not be Helene
Vauquier, for she would have said so; she could have had no reason for
concealment. But it must be Mlle. Celie. There was the slit in the one
cushion and the stain on the other which, of course, I had not
accounted for. There was still, too, the puzzle of the footsteps
outside the glass doors. If Mlle. Celie had been bound upon the sofa,
how came she to run with her limbs free from the house? There was a
question—a question not easy to answer."

"Yes," said Mr. Ricardo.

"Yes; but there was also another question. Suppose that Mlle. Celie
was, after all, the victim, not the accomplice; suppose she had been
flung tied upon the sofa; suppose that somehow the imprint of her shoes
upon the ground had been made, and that she had afterwards been carried
away, so that the maid might be cleared of all complicity—in that case
it became intelligible why the other footprints were scored out and
hers left. The presumption of guilt would fall upon her. There would be
proof that she ran hurriedly from the room and sprang into a motor-car
of her own free will. But, again, if that theory were true, then Helene
Vauquier was the accomplice and not Mlle. Celie."

"I follow that."

"Then I found an interesting piece of evidence with regard to the
strange woman who came: I picked up a long red hair—a very important
piece of evidence about which I thought it best to say nothing at all.
It was not Mlle. Celie's hair, which is fair; nor Vauquier's, which is
black; nor Mme. Dauvray's, which is dyed brown; nor the charwoman's,
which is grey. It was, therefore, the visitor's. Well, we went upstairs
to Mile. Celie's room."

"Yes," said Mr. Ricardo eagerly. "We are coming to the pot of cream."

"In that room we learnt that Helene Vauquier, at her own request, had
already paid it a visit. It is true the Commissaire said that he had
kept his eye on her the whole time. But none the less from the window
he saw me coming down the road, and that he could not have done, as I
made sure, unless he had turned his back upon Vauquier and leaned out
of the window. Now at the time I had an open mind about Vauquier. On
the whole I was inclined to think she had no share in the affair. But
either she or Mlle. Celie had, and perhaps both. But one of them—yes.
That was sure. Therefore I asked what drawers she touched after the
Commissaire had leaned out of the window. For if she had any motive in
wishing to visit the room she would have satisfied it when the
Commissaire's back was turned. He pointed to a drawer, and I took out a
dress and shook it, thinking that she may have wished to hide
something. But nothing fell out. On the other hand, however, I saw some
quite fresh grease-marks, made by fingers, and the marks were wet. I
began to ask myself how it was that Helene Vauquier, who had just been
helped to dress by the nurse, had grease upon her fingers. Then I
looked at a drawer which she had examined first of all. There were no
grease-marks on the clothes she had turned over before the Commissaire
leaned out of the window. Therefore it followed that during the few
seconds when he was watching me she had touched grease. I looked about
the room, and there on the dressing-table close by the chest of drawers
was a pot of cold cream. That was the grease Helene Vauquier had
touched. And why—if not to hide some small thing in it which, firstly,
she dared not keep in her own room; which, secondly, she wished to hide
in the room of Mlle. Celie; and which, thirdly, she had not had an
opportunity to hide before? Now bear those three conditions in mind,
and tell me what the small thing was."

Mr. Ricardo nodded his head.

"I know now," he said. "You told me. The earrings of Mlle. Celie. But I
should not have guessed it at the time."

"Nor could I—at the time," said Hanaud. "I kept my open mind about
Helene Vauquier; but I locked the door and took the key. Then we went
and heard Vauquier's story. The story was clever, because so much of it
was obviously, indisputably true. The account of the seances, of Mme.
Dauvray's superstitions, her desire for an interview with Mme. de
Montespan—such details are not invented. It was interesting, too, to
know that there had been a seance planned for that night! The method of
the murder began to be clear. So far she spoke the truth. But then she
lied. Yes, she lied, and it was a bad lie, my friend. She told us that
the strange woman Adele had black hair. Now I carried in my pocket-book
proof that that woman's hair was red. Why did she lie, except to make
impossible the identification of that strange visitor? That was the
first false step taken by Helene Vauquier.

"Now let us take the second. I thought nothing of her rancour against
Mlle. Celie. To me it was all very natural. She—the hard peasant woman
no longer young, who had been for years the confidential servant of
Mme. Dauvray, and no doubt had taken her levy from the impostors who
preyed upon her credulous mistress—certainly she would hate this young
and pretty outcast whom she has to wait upon, whose hair she has to
dress. Vauquier—she would hate her. But if by any chance she were in
the plot—and the lie seemed to show she was—then the seances showed
me new possibilities. For Helene used to help Mlle. Celie. Suppose that
the seance had taken place, that this sceptical visitor with the red
hair professed herself dissatisfied with Vauquier's method of testing
the medium, had suggested another way, Mlle. Celie could not object,
and there she would be neatly and securely packed up beyond the power
of offering any resistance, before she could have a suspicion that
things were wrong. It would be an easy little comedy to play. And if
that were true—why, there were my sofa cushions partly explained."

"Yes, I see!" cried Ricardo, with enthusiasm. "You are wonderful."

Hanaud was not displeased with his companion's enthusiasm.

"But wait a moment. We have only conjectures so far, and one fact that
Helene Vauquier lied about the colour of the strange woman's hair. Now
we get another fact. Mlle. Celie was wearing buckles on her shoes. And
there is my slit in the sofa cushions. For when she is flung on to the
sofa, what will she do? She will kick, she will struggle. Of course it
is conjecture. I do not as yet hold pigheadedly to it. I am not yet
sure that Mlle. Celie is innocent. I am willing at any moment to admit
that the facts contradict my theory. But, on the contrary, each fact
that I discover helps it to take shape.

"Now I come to Helene Vauquier's second mistake. On the evening when
you saw Mlle. Celie in the garden behind the baccarat-rooms you noticed
that she wore no jewellery except a pair of diamond eardrops. In the
photograph of her which Wethermill showed me, again she was wearing
them. Is it not, therefore, probable that she usually wore them? When I
examined her room I found the case for those earrings—the case was
empty. It was natural, then, to infer that she was wearing them when
she came down to the seance."

"Yes."

"Well, I read a description—a carefully written description—of the
missing girl, made by Helene Vauquier after an examination of the
girl's wardrobe. There is no mention of the earrings. So I asked
her—'Was she not wearing them?' Helene Vauquier was taken by surprise.
How should I know anything of Mlle. Celie's earrings? She hesitated.
She did not quite know what answer to make. Now, why? Since she herself
dressed Mile. Celie, and remembers so very well all she wore, why does
she hesitate? Well, there is a reason. She does not know how much I
know about those diamond eardrops. She is not sure whether we have not
dipped into that pot of cold cream and found them. Yet without knowing
she cannot answer. So now we come back to our pot of cold cream."

"Yes!" cried Mr. Ricardo. "They were there."

"Wait a bit," said Hanaud. "Let us see how it works out. Remember the
conditions. Vauquier has some small thing which she must hide, and
which she wishes to hide in Mlle. Celie's room. For she admitted that
it was her suggestion that she should look through mademoiselle's
wardrobe. For what reason does she choose the girl's room, except that
if the thing were discovered that would be the natural place for it? It
is, then, something belonging to Mlle. Celie. There was a second
condition we laid down. It was something Vauquier had not been able to
hide before. It came, then, into her possession last night. Why could
she not bide it last night? Because she was not alone. There were the
man and the woman, her accomplices. It was something, then, which she
was concerned in hiding from them. It is not rash to guess, then, that
it was some piece of the plunder of which the other two would have
claimed their share—and a piece of plunder belonging to Mlle. Celie.
Well, she has nothing but the diamond eardrops. Suppose Vauquier is
left alone to guard Mlle. Celie while the other two ransack Mme.
Dauvray's room. She sees her chance. The girl cannot stir hand or foot
to save herself. Vauquier tears the eardrops in a hurry from her
ears—and there I have my drop of blood just where I should expect it
to be. But now follow this! Vauquier hides the earrings in her pocket.
She goes to bed in order to be chloroformed. She knows that it is very
possible that her room will be searched before she regains
consciousness, or before she is well enough to move. There is only one
place to hide them in, only one place where they will be safe. In bed
with her. But in the morning she must get rid of them, and a nurse is
with her. Hence the excuse to go to Mlle. Celie's room. If the eardrops
are found in the pot of cold cream, it would only be thought that Mlle.
Celie had herself hidden them there for safety. Again it is conjecture,
and I wish to make sure. So I tell Vauquier she can go away, and I
leave her unwatched. I have her driven to the depot instead of to her
friends, and searched. Upon her is found the pot of cream, and in the
cream Mlle. Celie's eardrops. She has slipped into Mlle. Celie's room,
as, if my theory was correct, she would be sure to do, and put the pot
of cream into her pocket. So I am now fairly sure that she is concerned
in the murder.

"We then went to Mme. Dauvray's room and discovered her brilliants and
her ornaments. At once the meaning of that agitated piece of
hand-writing of Mlle. Celie's becomes clear. She is asked where the
jewels are hidden. She cannot answer, for her mouth, of course, is
stopped. She has to write. Thus my conjectures get more and more
support. And, mind this, one of the two women is guilty—Celie or
Vauquier. My discoveries all fit in with the theory of Celie's
innocence. But there remain the footprints, for which I found no
explanation.