Part 27 (1/2)
It left her trembling all over; and she stammered: ”How horrible!... The poor fellow!... Ah, Renine, you couldn't save him this time!... And that's what upsets me more than anything, that we could and should have saved him, since we knew of the plot....”
Renine made her sniff at a bottle of salts; and when she had quite recovered her composure, he said, while observing her attentively:
”So you think that there is some connection between the murder and the plot which we were trying to frustrate?”
”Certainly,” said she, astonished at the question.
”Then, as that plot was hatched by a husband against his wife or by a wife against her husband, you admit that Madame d'Ormeval ...?”
”Oh, no, impossible!” she said. ”To begin with, Madame d'Ormeval did not leave her rooms ... and then I shall never believe that pretty woman capable.... No, no, of course there was something else....”
”What else?”
”I don't know.... You may have misunderstood what the brother and sister were saying to each other.... You see, the murder has been committed under quite different conditions ... at another hour and another place....”
”And therefore,” concluded Renine, ”the two cases are not in any way related?”
”Oh,” she said, ”there's no making it out! It's all so strange!”
Renine became a little satirical:
”My pupil is doing me no credit to-day,” he said. ”Why, here is a perfectly simple story, unfolded before your eyes. You have seen it reeled off like a scene in the cinema; and it all remains as obscure to you as though you were hearing of an affair that happened in a cave a hundred miles away!”
Hortense was confounded:
”What are you saying? Do you mean that you have understood it? What clues have you to go by?”
Renine looked at his watch:
”I have not understood everything,” he said. ”The murder itself, the mere brutal murder, yes. But the essential thing, that is to say, the psychology of the crime: I've no clue to that. Only, it is twelve o'clock. The brother and sister, seeing no one come to the appointment at the Trois Mathildes, will go down to the beach. Don't you think that we shall learn something then of the accomplice whom I accuse them of having and of the connection between the two cases?”
They reached the esplanade in front of the Hauville chalets, with the capstans by which the fishermen haul up their boats to the beach. A number of inquisitive persons were standing outside the door of one of the chalets. Two coastguards, posted at the door, prevented them from entering.
The mayor shouldered his way eagerly through the crowd. He was back from the post-office, where he had been telephoning to Le Havre, to the office of the procurator-general, and had been told that the public prosecutor and an examining-magistrate would come on to etretat in the course of the afternoon.
”That leaves us plenty of time for lunch,” said Renine. ”The tragedy will not be enacted before two or three o'clock. And I have an idea that it will be sensational.”
They hurried nevertheless. Hortense, overwrought by fatigue and her desire to know what was happening, continually questioned Renine, who replied evasively, with his eyes turned to the esplanade, which they could see through the windows of the coffee-room.
”Are you watching for those two?” asked Hortense.
”Yes, the brother and sister.”
”Are you sure that they will venture?...”
”Look out! Here they come!”
He went out quickly.
Where the main street opened on the sea-front, a lady and gentleman were advancing with hesitating steps, as though unfamiliar with the place. The brother was a puny little man, with a sallow complexion. He was wearing a motoring-cap. The sister too was short, but rather stout, and was wrapped in a large cloak. She struck them as a woman of a certain age, but still good-looking under the thin veil that covered her face.