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Книга дельная. Без воды, приводятся реальные кейсы и способы их разрешения. Много практичных полезных советов и методик. Кое-что уже испробовала в дел...
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"Yes."
"Where are they?"
"Abroad."
"And your seven pals, those of the Altenheim gang?"
"I have left them. They are still going on."
"Where can I find them?"
Dominique hesitated. Lupin unfolded two notes of a thousand francs each and said:
"Your scruples do you honor, Dominique. There's nothing for it but to swallow them like a man and answer."
Dominique replied:
"You will find them at No. 3, Route de la Revolte, Neuilly. One of them is called the Broker."
"Capital. And now the name, the real name of Altenheim. Do you know it?"
"Yes, Ribeira."
"Dominique, Dominique, you're asking for trouble. Ribeira was only an assumed name. I asked you the real name."
"Parbury."
"That's another assumed name."
The head-waiter hesitated. Lupin unfolded three hundred franc notes.
"Pshaw, what do I care!" said the man. "After all, he's dead, isn't he? Quite dead."
"His name," said Lupin.
"His name? The Chevalier de Malreich."
Lupin gave a jump in his chair:
"What? What do you say? The Chevalier – say it again – the Chevalier.. ?"
"Raoul de Malreich."
A long pause. Lupin, with his eyes fixed before him, thought of the mad girl at Veldenz, who had died by poison: Isilda bore the same name, Malreich. And it was the name borne by the small French noble who came to the court of Veldenz in the eighteenth century.
He resumed his questions:
"What country did this Malreich belong to?"
"He was of French origin, but born in Germany.. I saw some papers once.. that was how I came to know his name… Oh, if he had found it out, he would have wrung my neck, I believe!"
Lupin reflected and said:
"Did he command the lot of you?"
"Yes."
"But he had an accomplice, a partner?"
"Oh hush.. hush.. !"
The head-waiter's face suddenly expressed the most intense alarm. Lupin noticed the same sort of terror and repulsion which he himself felt when he thought of the murderer.
"Who is he? Have you seen him?"
"Oh, don't let us talk of that one.. it doesn't do to talk of him."
"Who is he, I'm asking you."
"He is the master.. the chief… Nobody knows him."
"But you've seen him, you. Answer me. Have you seen him?"
"Sometimes, in the dark.. at night. Never by daylight. His orders come on little scraps of paper.. or by telephone."
"His name?"
"I don't know it. We never used to speak of him. It was unlucky."
"He dresses in black, doesn't he?"
"Yes, in black. He is short and slender.. with fair hair.."
"And he kills, doesn't he?"
"Yes, he kills.. he kills where another might steal a bit of bread."
His voice shook. He entreated:
"Let us stop this.. it won't do to talk of him… I tell you.. it's unlucky."
Lupin was silent, impressed, in spite of himself, by the man's anguish. He sat long thinking and then rose and said to the head-waiter:
"Here, here's your money; but, if you want to live in peace, you will do well not to breathe a word of our conversation to anybody."
He left the restaurant with Doudeville and walked to the Porte Saint-Denis without speaking, absorbed in all that he had heard. At last, he seized his companion's arm and said:
"Listen to me, Doudeville, carefully. Go to the Gare du Nord. You will get there in time to catch the Luxemburg express. Go to Veldenz, the capital of the grand-duchy of Zweibrucken-Veldenz. At the town-hall, you will easily obtain the birth-certificate of the Chevalier de Malreich and further information about the family. You will be back on the day after to-morrow: that will be Saturday."
Другие электронные книги автора Maurice Leblanc
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Книга дельная. Без воды, приводятся реальные кейсы и способы их разрешения. Много практичных полезных советов и методик. Кое-что уже испробовала в дел...
Далее