The Teeth of the Tiger - Maurice Leblanc (feel good books txt) 📗

both very narrow, both a little long-shaped and oval and of a restricted radius which was the very character of the jaw.

The men did not speak a word. M. Desmalions raised his head. Mme. Fauville did not move, stood livid and mad with terror. But all the sentiments of terror, stupor and indignation that she might simulate with her mobile face and her immense gifts as an actress, did not prevail against the compelling proof that presented itself to every eye.

The two imprints were identical! The same teeth had bitten into both apples!

“Madame⁠—” the Prefect of Police began.

“No, no,” she cried, seized with a fit of fury, “no, it’s not true.⁠ ⁠… This is all just a nightmare.⁠ ⁠… No, you are never going to arrest me? I in prison! Why, it’s horrible!⁠ ⁠… What have I done? Oh, I swear that you are mistaken⁠—”

She took her head between her hands.

“Oh, my brain is throbbing as if it would burst! What does all this mean? I have done no wrong.⁠ ⁠… I knew nothing. It was you who told me this morning.⁠ ⁠… Could I have suspected? My poor husband⁠ ⁠… and that dear Edmond who loved me⁠ ⁠… and whom I loved! Why should I have killed them? Tell me that! Why don’t you answer?” she demanded. “People don’t commit murder without a motive.⁠ ⁠… Well?⁠ ⁠… Well?⁠ ⁠… Answer me, can’t you?”

And once more convulsed with anger, standing in an aggressive attitude, with her clenched hands outstretched at the group of magistrates, she screamed:

“You’re no better than butchers⁠ ⁠… you have no right to torture a woman like this.⁠ ⁠… Oh, how horrible! To accuse me⁠ ⁠… to arrest me⁠ ⁠… for nothing!⁠ ⁠… Oh, it’s abominable!⁠ ⁠… What butchers you all are!⁠ ⁠… And it’s you in particular,” addressing Perenna, “it’s you⁠—yes, I know⁠—it’s you who are the enemy.

“Oh, I understand! You had your reasons, you were here last night.⁠ ⁠… Then why don’t they arrest you? Why not you, as you were here and I was not and know nothing, absolutely nothing of what happened.⁠ ⁠… Why isn’t it you?”

The last words were pronounced in a hardly intelligible fashion. She had no strength left. She had to sit down, with her head bent over her knees, and she wept once more, abundantly.

Perenna went up to her and, raising her forehead and uncovering the tear-stained face, said:

“The imprints of teeth in both apples are absolutely identical. There is therefore no doubt whatever but that the first comes from you as well as the second.”

“No!” she said.

“Yes,” he affirmed. “That is a fact which it is materially impossible to deny. But the first impression may have been left by you before last night, that is to say, you may have bitten that apple yesterday, for instance⁠—”

She stammered:

“Do you think so? Yes, perhaps, I seem to remember⁠—yesterday morning⁠—”

But the Prefect of Police interrupted her.

“It is useless, Madame; I have just questioned your servant, Silvestre. He bought the fruit himself at eight o’clock last evening. When M. Fauville went to bed, there were four apples in the dish. At eight o’clock this morning there were only three. Therefore the one found in the garden is incontestably the fourth; and this fourth apple was marked last night. And the mark is the mark of your teeth.”

She stammered:

“It was not I⁠ ⁠… it was not I⁠ ⁠… that mark is not mine.”

“But⁠—”

“That mark is not mine.⁠ ⁠… I swear it as I hope to be saved.⁠ ⁠… And I also swear that I shall die, yes, die.⁠ ⁠… I prefer death to prison.⁠ ⁠… I shall kill myself.⁠ ⁠… I shall kill myself⁠—”

Her eyes were staring before her. She stiffened her muscles and made a supreme effort to rise from her chair. But, once on her feet, she tottered and fell fainting on the floor.

While she was being seen to, Mazeroux beckoned to Don Luis and whispered:

“Clear out, Chief.”

“Ah, so the orders are revoked? I’m free?”

“Chief, take a look at the beggar who came in ten minutes ago and who’s talking to the Prefect. Do you know him?”

“Hang it all!” said Perenna, after glancing at a large red-faced man who did not take his eyes off him. “Hang it, it’s Weber, the deputy chief!”

“And he’s recognized you, Chief! He recognized Lupin at first sight. There’s no fake that he can’t see through. He’s got the knack of it. Well, Chief, just think of all the tricks you’ve played on him and ask yourself if he’ll stick at anything to have his revenge!”

“And you think he has told the Prefect?”

“Of course he has; and the Prefect has ordered my mates to keep you in view. If you make the least show of trying to escape them, they’ll collar you.”

“In that case, there’s nothing to be done?”

“Nothing to be done? Why, it’s a question of putting them off your scent and mighty quickly!”

“What good would that do me, as I’m going home and they know where I live?”

“Eh, what? Can you have the cheek to go home after what’s happened?”

“Where do you expect me to sleep? Under the bridges?”

“But, dash it all, don’t you understand that, after this job, there will be the most infernal stir, that you’re compromised up to the neck as it is, and that everybody will turn against you?”

“Well?”

“Drop the business.”

“And the murderers of Cosmo Mornington and the Fauvilles?”

“The police will see to that.”

“Alexandre, you’re an ass.”

“Then become Lupin again, the invisible, impregnable Lupin, and do your own fighting, as you used to. But in Heaven’s name don’t remain Perenna! It is too dangerous. And don’t occupy yourself officially with a business in which you are not interested.”

“The things you say, Alexandre! I am interested in it to the tune of a hundred millions. If Perenna does not stick to his post, the hundred millions will be snatched from under his nose. And, on the one occasion when I can earn a few honest centimes, that would be most annoying.”

“And, if they arrest you?”

“No go! I’m dead!”

“Lupin is dead. But Perenna is alive.”

“As they haven’t arrested me today, I’m easy in my mind.”

“It’s only put off. And