The House That Kills by Noel Vindry

Author:Noel Vindry [Vindry, Noel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-11-27T21:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER X

COUP DE THÉTRE

We left; it was midnight.

The clerk of the court left us immediately, his wife not being accustomed to him coming home so late. Dumas, Clement and I walked together in silence.

‘I’m cold,’ said Clement, ‘and I’m very tired. Let me say goodbye here; I think it’s just about to rain and I’d like to get home as soon as possible!’

The sky was indeed covered by cloud.

Clement walked quickly away, and I noticed that Dumas kept his eyes fixed on the figure, which gradually faded into the night.

‘I should follow him,’ he growled. ‘We would certainly find out some interesting things… But no; he is astute enough to notice!’

I was stunned by these words. What?! Chief Superintendent Dumas was not entirely convinced of Clement’s innocence, even after my colleague’s succinct explanations? Really, what a remarkable display of job conditioning!

I told him as much. But he replied:

‘I am a better observer than you. Don’t take offence: I’ve had a long career in the police force. Didn’t you notice anything when we arrived at M. Allou’s house?’

‘No,’ I replied in bewilderment.

‘Didn’t you see a man stationed close to the door?’

‘Yes, perhaps... I didn’t really pay attention.’

‘And did you notice who came into the house last?’

‘My goodness, no. I remember that M. Allou went in first to illuminate the stairs. I came in behind him…’

‘Yes,’ continued Dumas. ‘As for me, I stood back to let Clement come in. But he declined so modestly that I didn’t insist. But I watched him out of the corner of my eye, without him noticing… I know how to do that. And I saw him quite clearly make a sign to the man who was waiting!’

I was absolutely astonished by his claim. M. Allou’s explanations had seemed so convincing…

‘Do you think my colleague was barking up the wrong tree?’ I asked.

Dumas didn’t answer my question right away. After a few seconds, he continued:

‘I don’t believe there was any signal: that owl’s hoot repeated… I’m a good observer, as I told you, and I would have noticed just as well as Clement.’

‘But this evening M. Allou heard it as well!’

‘I can only repeat that this evening neither you, nor I, nor Leger noticed any such thing.’

This time Dumas had gone too far and his professional jealousy had got the better of him. I observed curtly that he was doing nothing short of accusing my colleague of lying, not to mention complicity.

But he protested:

‘No, no, I didn’t say that. I merely said we don’t know everything. By the way, just between the two of us, and off the record… Do you approve of your colleague knowingly allowing Gaston Richaud to be killed?’

Dumas’ lack of respect was becoming more than I could handle. I told him brusquely that it was not my place to pass judgment on my colleagues, and even less was it his place. So saying, I turned and walked away from him.

But I soon began to sense that my indignation was not entirely well-founded. There was something niggling me…

I had taken a long time to get to my flat, because M.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.