Detective and mystery stories; Fantômas (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
"I come to another point. As you know, the murder of the Marquise de
Langrune was attended by some strange circumstances. At the inquest it
was proved that the murderer most probably got into the house from
outside, opening the front door with a skeleton key, and that he
obtained admission into the bedroom of the Marquise, not by burglarious
means--I lay insistence upon that--but by the simple means of her having
opened the door to him, which she did on the strength of his name, and,
finally, that if robbery was the motive of the crime, the nature of the
robbery remained a mystery.
"Now I have ascertained, gentlemen, and--if, as I shall ask you
presently, you decide to have an adjournment and a supplementary
investigation--I shall be able to prove two important facts. The first
is that the Marquise had in her possession a lottery ticket which had
just won a large first prize; this ticket had been sent to her by M.
Etienne Rambert. This ticket was not found at the time, but it was
subsequently traced to a person, who for the moment has utterly
disappeared, who declared that it was given to him by M. Etienne
Rambert. And it is further noteworthy that M. Etienne Rambert seemed to
be in greater funds from that time. The second fact I have ascertained
is that, although M. Etienne Rambert pretended to get into a first-class
carriage of a slow train at the gare d'Orsay, he most certainly was not
in that train between Vierzon and Limoges: I can, if you wish, call a
witness who inspected all the compartments of that carriage, and can
prove that he was not there.
"The probable, almost certain, inference is that M. Etienne Rambert got
into that slow train at the gare d'Orsay for the definite purpose of
establishing an alibi, and then got out of it on the other side, and
entered an express that was going in the same direction, and in front of
the slow train.
"You may remember that it was shown that all trains stopped at the mouth
of the Verrières tunnel, near Beaulieu, and that it was possible for a
man to get out of the express, commit the crime and then return--I would
remind you of the footprints found on the embankment--and get into the
slow train which followed the express at an interval of three hours and
a half, and get out of that train at Verrières station. The passenger
who did that, was the criminal, and it was M. Etienne Rambert.
"As I have already proved that it was Gurn who murdered the Marquise de
Langrune, it seems to follow necessarily that M. Etienne Rambert must be
Gurn!"
Juve paused to make sure that the jury had followed his deductions and
taken all his points. He proceeded, in the most tense hush.
"We have just identified Gurn with Rambert and proved that Rambert-Gurn
is guilty of the Beltham and Langrune murders, and the robbery from Mme.
Van den Rosen and Princess Sonia Danidoff. There remains the murder of
the steward, Dollon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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