businessman wasn't distressed at all by the aristocrat's demise.
"I am sure that we are dealing with a crime," Leblanc stated without preface. "More precisely, with a series of crimes."
"Are you implying that I'm killing my own servants?" Dubois arose.
"No, it is quite obvious that it is not you. In the last case, you simply couldn't have done it–if, of course, the whole house is not in collusion and doesn't protect you specially. But an arrangement between a murderer and his victims is absurd."
"As well as murders without a motive!"
"You see," the doctor cleared his throat, "purely theoretically you could have a reason... I'm not a specialist in mental disorders; here, in rural areas, people seldom go mad. But just recently I've read one article... Sometimes a man who has done a certain act subconsciously regrets it and tries to correct his deeds. Thus, he acts as a somnambulist, without being aware of his actions and without remembering them. So, as you were indirectly involved in the death of count de Montreux..."
"Nonsense," Dubois cut him off. "In your theory, I subconsciously try to execute his curse and lose my rest? But I don't feel any guilt, either conscious or subconscious. I see no reasons to stand on ceremony with these dried-up branches of the old aristocracy."
"Anyway, you have an alibi," the inspector interjected, "and we may not consider the exotic hypothesis of the doctor."
"Your hypothesis seems to me no less exotic," noticed Dubois, "you speak about murders, but, after all, these events are just accidents."
"It was not too difficult to arrange last three deaths," the inspector objected. "In order to cause a night heart attack of an old man, it's enough to frighten him badly. The same is applicable to the choked old woman. And it was possible to mix a drinkable potion which would agitate the horse into a frenzy.”
"Do you think one of the servants is behind all this?"
"No, not they. And not your... um... girlfriend. Yet Romans, investigating a crime, first of all asked a question: cui prodest–to whom is it favorable? You, obviously, have enemies, don't you?"
"As well as any businessman. But none of them would settle scores in such a Gothic novel style. Besides, if someone wants to destroy me, why would he kill my servants?"
"That's true, your business rivals are not suspects. These deaths seem more like revenge, and revenge with definite aims. It would seem that someone aspires to expel you from this house, simultaneously bringing down its price because of ill fame. For this purpose, he kills servants who previously served de Montreux's family and then betrayed them by serving you..."
"In other words, a de Montreux wants to buy back the family home cheaply? But the late count was the last in his line, no relatives remained. I found that out."
"In such affairs, there never can be full confidence. The relative could be distant and have another surname; it could be just a friend and, at lastly... even Armand count de Montreux himself."
"The dead man? You saw his body."
"Now I am not so sure that we saw the body of the count. You remember, the face was disfigured by the shot. Certainly, there is a question as to whose corpse was palmed off on us... but that's another matter. But look, how all the facts fit. The count knows the house better than anybody else, and he has keys to all the doors; he can easily get into any place on the estate. And, certainly, his emergence alone is enough to literally frighten to death the gardener and the cook."
"It's too romantic to be true," Dubois made a wry face.
"Because of the loss of his house, the count could have developed an idee fixe," noticed Clavier. "And then, quite probably, he would began to act exactly in such a way."
"Are you saying that a revenge-thirsting maniac is walking around my house? In that case, why does he limit himself to servants and not kill me?"
"And who told you that he wouldn't do that?" the inspector said with police directness. "Before killing you, he just wants to make you quake with fear, that's all."
"So what do you think I should do?"
"I would recommend that you leave... for some time. You see, here I can't guarantee your safety. In rural areas, there is not a large number of police... we can't assign a gendarme to each inhabitant of the house."
"In other words, you decline all responsibility?" Dubois sneered.
"No, certainly not. I will do my utmost...