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

If you don’t deliver me I shall kill her as I killed Dolores⁠—or else they will kill me⁠—or⁠—Oh, I don’t know all the ideas that are driving me wild⁠—!

“You see, there’s another man,” he explained. “There’s Sauverand, whom she loves. Oh, the infamous pair! They have killed Fauville and the boy and old Langernault and those two in the barn and others besides: Cosmo Mornington, Vérot, and more still. They are monsters, she most of all⁠—And if you saw her eyes⁠—”

He spoke so low that Mazeroux could hardly hear him. He had let go his hold of Mazeroux and seemed utterly cast down with despair, a surprising symptom in a man of his amazing vigour and authority.

“Come, Chief,” said the sergeant, helping him up. “This is all stuff and nonsense. Trouble with women: I’ve had it like everybody else. Mme. Mazeroux⁠—yes, I got married while you were away⁠—Mme. Mazeroux turned out badly herself, gave me the devil of a time, Mme. Mazeroux did. I’ll tell you all about it, Chief, how Mme. Mazeroux rewarded my kindness.”

He led Don Luis gently to the car and settled him on the front seat.

“Take a rest, Chief. It’s not very cold and there are plenty of furs. The first peasant that comes along at daybreak, I’ll send him to the next town for what we want⁠—and for food, too, for I’m starving. And everything will come right; it always does with women. All you have to do is to kick them out of your life⁠—except when they anticipate you and kick themselves out.⁠ ⁠… I was going to tell you: Mme. Mazeroux⁠—”

Don Luis was never to learn what had happened with Mme. Mazeroux. The most violent catastrophies had no effect upon the peacefulness of his slumbers. He was asleep almost at once.

It was late in the morning when he woke up. Mazeroux had had to wait till seven o’clock before he could hail a cyclist on his way to Chartres.

They made a start at nine o’clock. Don Luis had recovered all his coolness. He turned to his sergeant.

“I said a lot last night that I did not mean to say. However, I don’t regret it. Yes, it is my duty to do everything to save Mme. Fauville and to catch the real culprit. Only the task falls upon myself; and I swear that I shan’t fail in it. This evening Florence Levasseur shall sleep in the lockup!”

“I’ll help you, Chief,” replied Mazeroux, in a queer tone of voice.

“I need nobody’s help. If you touch a single hair of her head, I’ll do for you. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Chief.”

“Then hold your tongue.”

His anger was slowly returning and expressed itself in an increase of speed, which seemed to Mazeroux a revenge executed upon himself. They raced over the cobblestones of Chartres. Rambouillet, Chevreuse, and Versailles received the terrifying vision of a thunderbolt tearing across them from end to end.

Saint-Cloud. The Bois de Boulogne⁠ ⁠…

On the Place de la Concorde, as the motor was turning toward the Tuileries, Mazeroux objected:

“Aren’t you going home, Chief?”

“No. There’s something more urgent first: we must relieve Marie Fauville of her suicidal obsession by letting her know that we have discovered the criminals.”

“And then?”

“Then I want to see the Prefect of Police.”

“M. Desmalions is away and won’t be back till this afternoon.”

“In that case the examining magistrate.”

“He doesn’t get to the law courts till twelve; and it’s only eleven now.”

“We’ll see.”

Mazeroux was right: there was no one at the law courts.

Don Luis lunched somewhere close by; and Mazeroux, after calling at the detective office, came to fetch him and took him to the magistrate’s corridor. Don Luis’s excitement, his extraordinary restlessness, did not fail to strike Mazeroux, who asked:

“Are you still of the same mind, Chief?”

“More than ever. I looked through the newspapers at lunch. Marie Fauville, who was sent to the infirmary after her second attempt, has again tried to kill herself by banging her head against the wall of the room. They have put a straitjacket on her. But she is refusing all food. It is my duty to save her.”

“How?”

“By handing over the real criminal. I shall inform the magistrate in charge of the case; and this evening I shall bring you Florence Levasseur dead or alive.”

“And Sauverand?”

“Sauverand? That won’t take long. Unless⁠—”

“Unless what?”

“Unless I settle his business myself, the miscreant!”

“Chief!”

“Oh, dry up!”

There were some reporters near them waiting for particulars. He recognized them and went up to them.

“You can say, gentlemen, that from today I am taking up the defence of Marie Fauville and devoting myself entirely to her cause.”

They all protested: was it not he who had had Mme. Fauville arrested? Was it not he who had collected a heap of convicting proofs against her?

“I shall demolish those proofs one by one,” he said. “Marie Fauville is the victim of wretches who have hatched the most diabolical plot against her, and whom I am about to deliver up to justice.”

“But the teeth! The marks of the teeth!”

“A coincidence! An unparalleled coincidence, but one which now strikes me as a most powerful proof of innocence. I tell you that, if Marie Fauville had been clever enough to commit all those murders, she would also have been clever enough not to leave behind her a fruit bearing the marks of her two rows of teeth.”

“But still⁠—”

“She is innocent! And that is what I am going to tell the examining magistrate. She must be informed of the efforts that are being made in her favour. She must be given hope at once. If not, the poor thing will kill herself and her death will be on the conscience of all who accused an innocent woman. She must⁠—”

At that moment he interrupted himself. His eyes were fixed on one of the journalists who was standing a little way off listening to him and taking notes.

He whispered to Mazeroux:

“Could you manage to find out that beggar’s name? I can’t remember where on earth I’ve seen him before.”

But an usher now opened the door of the examining magistrate, who, on receiving Don Perenna’s