At the Villa Rose by AEW Mason Page B

going," he
said, "and to make sure that when she has gone there she will stay
there—until we want her again?"
    Hanaud looked at the young man pityingly.
    "I can understand, monsieur, that you hold strong views about Helene
Vauquier. You are human, like the rest of us. And what she has said to
us just now would not make you more friendly. But—but—" and he
preferred to shrug his shoulders rather than to finish in words his
sentence. "However," he said, "we shall take care to know where Helene
Vauquier is staying. Indeed, if she is at all implicated in this affair
we shall learn more if we leave her free than if we keep her under lock
and key. You see that if we leave her quite free, but watch her very,
very carefully, so as to awaken no suspicion, she may be emboldened to
do something rash—or the others may."
    Mr. Ricardo approved of Hanaud's reasoning.
    "That is quite true," he said. "She might write a letter."
    "Yes, or receive one," added Hanaud, "which would be still more
satisfactory for us—supposing, of course, that she has anything to do
with this affair"; and again he shrugged his shoulders. He turned
towards the Commissaire.
    "You have a discreet officer whom you can trust?" he asked.
    "Certainly. A dozen."
    "I want only one."
    "And here he is," said the Commissaire.
    They were descending the stairs. On the landing of the first floor
Durette, the man who had discovered where the cord was bought, was
still waiting. Hanaud took Durette by the sleeve in the familiar way
which he so commonly used and led him to the top of the stairs, where
the two men stood for a few moments apart. It was plain that Hanaud was
giving, Durette receiving, definite instructions. Durette descended the
stairs; Hanaud came back to the others.
    "I have told him to fetch a cab," he said, "and convey Helene Vauquier
to her friends." Then he looked at Ricardo, and from Ricardo to the
Commissaire, while he rubbed his hand backwards and forwards across his
shaven chin.
    "I tell you," he said, "I find this sinister little drama very
interesting to me. The sordid, miserable struggle for mastery in this
household of Mme. Dauvray—eh? Yes, very interesting. Just as much
patience, just as much effort, just as much planning for this small end
as a general uses to defeat an army—and, at the last, nothing gained.
What else is politics? Yes, very interesting."
    His eyes rested upon Wethermill's face for a moment, but they gave the
young man no hope. He took a key from his pocket.
    "We need not keep this room locked," he said. "We know all that there
is to be known." And he inserted the key into the lock of Celia's room
and turned it.
    "But is that wise, monsieur?" said Besnard.
    Hanaud shrugged his shoulders.
    "Why not?" he asked.
    "The case is in your hands," said the Commissaire. To Ricardo the
proceedings seemed singularly irregular. But if the Commissaire was
content, it was not for him to object.
    "And where is my excellent friend Perrichet?" asked Hanaud; and leaning
over the balustrade he called him up from the hall.
    "We will now," said Hanaud, "have a glance into this poor murdered
woman's room."
    The room was opposite to Celia's. Besnard produced the key and unlocked
the door. Hanaud took off his hat upon the threshold and then passed
into the room with his companions. Upon the bed, outlined under a
sheet, lay the rigid form of Mme. Dauvray. Hanaud stepped gently to the
bedside and reverently uncovered the face. For a moment all could see
it—livid, swollen, unhuman.
    "A brutal business," he said in a low voice, and when he turned again
to his companions his face was white and sickly. He replaced the sheet
and gazed about the room.
    It was decorated and furnished in the same style as the salon
downstairs, yet the contrast between the two rooms was remarkable.
    Downstairs, in the salon, only a chair had been overturned. Here there
was every sign of violence and disorder. An empty safe stood open in
one corner; the rugs upon the polished