“But in the boat?”
“There was only one person. Only ...”
“Yes?”
Tancred hesitated for quite a while. “I have a vague feeling – and nothing more than that, I may be wrong, a vague impression of something more. On the bank. I saw nobody, I merely had a feeling that somebody was there. No, I couldn’t say for certain.”
“Three then?” asked the bailiff.
“No, don’t take my word for it!”
“No, but the thought is fascinating. Three people who were involved. The entire Holzenstern Family?”
“Was it night, Tancred?” asked Alexander.
“The moon shone.”
“Yes, because otherwise you wouldn’t have been able to see all that.”
Tancred stopped his horse. “No, this is no good.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It can’t have been the Holzensterns because there were two men – at least.”
“I see. You’re quite right.”
Now it was the bailiff’s turn to stop his horse.
“Knudsen,” he said.
“Knudsen?” said Alexander. “But wasn’t he the one who dived after the deceased?”
“Yes, precisely. “Of course, I don’t mean to say that he’s the guilty one. But we need to talk to him.”
“What’s on your mind?”
“I’m not sure of it yet. I’m thinking of one person in particular. I’m wondering whether we can exclude him. Or not.”
Alexander and Tancred were puzzled.
“We can’t ask Knudsen now,” protested Alexander. “He’s probably asleep.”
“The farmhands work late hours. He lives over there and there’s a light in his window. Come, I believe it’s urgent!”
Tancred did not understand anything but he spurred the horse and set off with the others.
Knudsen was getting ready to go to bed when they arrived. He had already been home once, changed to dry clothes and returned to the lake. The bailiff did not waste his time but said, “When you went down to the deceased in the water ... Were you able to see at once that it was Molly?”
“No, I didn’t. I thought it was Miss Jessica because it was her cape.”
“But you surely saw her face, didn’t you?”
“No. The hood had a drawstring hem and it was pulled together so that you couldn’t see the face. I loosened it myself and it wasn’t until then that I saw who it was.”
“Thank you, Knudsen, I’m sorry to disturb you so late at night. Now we must move on.”
As they rode on, now in the direction of New Askinge, Alexander said, “You have a clue, don’t you?”
“Maybe” said the bailiff. “If it proves to be right, we need to hurry.”
“Is it about the mysterious man in the boat?”
“Spot on!”
“You think he didn’t know who he was throwing in the water?”
“That’s exactly what I believe!”
“If that’s the case, he may be able to do anything now. He must be furious.”
“Yes, or sad. Maybe there’s somebody who would like to kill him!”
“Do you think he’s the one who killed Molly in the stable? In the belief that it was Jessica?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Nor do I. Because he would have seen who it was when he fastened the hood.”
They drove the horses even faster on.
“It’s been several hours since we were here,” said Alexander. “Lots could have happened in the meantime.”
Tancred did not understand their restlessness.
They stormed into the farmyard, which lay in darkness.
“Get up, get up. It’s the bailiff and his men!” shouted the bailiff.
He jumped off his horse and knocked on the door.
Finally the light went on indoors and a female servant opened the door.
“Haven’t we had enough trouble here already?” she said curtly.
The bailiff followed her in. “Are all well?”
“All?” snorted the woman. “Molly’s dead, the Duchess is dead, and Miss Jessica has disappeared.”
“No, I mean the Holzensterns. Wake them so that I can see them!”
“What’s all this noise about?” the Count could be heard saying. All three of them appeared, dressed only in their nightclothes.
“Good,” said the bailiff. “Countess, where does your coachman live?”
“My coachman? What do you want to see him for?”
The bailiff had turned angry. “Answer my question!” he snarled.
The entire family stiffened disapprovingly at being spoken to like that.
The female maid said quickly, “He lives in the servants’ quarters. Only I don’t think he’s here right now. He walked towards the forest right before I went to bed. He’s been acting so strangely and sitting in the stable all evening.”
“In the direction of the forest? When?”
“Not that long ago. I’d only just put out the lights when you came rushing.”
“Please come out and explain which direction he went! Did he bring something with him?”
“A piece of rope. I suppose so that he could fetch a horse somewhere.”
“In the forest? At this time of the year? Come now and show which way he went.”She did so and they rode at a tremendous speed towards the forest. At a distance they could see a very tall oak tree rise towards the sky. They steered their horses in that direction.
They came just in time to see the coachman jump off a branch, with a rope tied round his neck. Alexander rushed forward, drew his sword and chopped off the rope in one go.
“Considering you’re disabled, I must say you’re very swift,” said the bailiff to Alexander.
“Disabled.... Oh, my leg. That’s nothing. Let’s be quick!”
They helped one another to loosen the noose about the man’s throat. Tancred looked on, confused. He was so surprised to hear his beloved father’s disability mentioned that he almost saw red. At home, it never occurred to them that Alexander Paladin limped or dragged his left leg slightly. They knew that he was seriously wounded in the Thirty Years War and that he and his mother had worked very hard to get him on his feet again, but that was all there had been to it.
The two men helped the half-suffocating man up so that he could catch his breath.
“I want to die,” he gasped. “Molly’s dead. What is there for me to live for now?”
“You’re still young,” said the bailiff. “Begin a new life somewhere. Good coachmen are always in demand, So you’re not the one who killed her?”
“Me? Why would I want to hurt Molly? “
“No, but perhaps Jessica, then?”
“Never upon my life! I’m not like that. But she died in an accident. She’d accidentally pushed her and then she’d fallen and the fall killed her. And she was so unhappy and I agreed to hide her in the lake because I didn’t want her to bring me in difficulties. She’s always been interested in me ...”
“Well, well!” said the bailiff. “You’ve said too many ‘she’s.’ Tell us the names, or do you want me to do so? Alright... The Countess said that she’d pushed Jessica Cross by accident and that the girl had fallen and killed herself in the fall. So now the Countess was deeply saddened and you agreed to throw Jessica in the lake because nobody would believe the Countess – no wonder they wouldn’t – and the Countess threatened you, so you did as the Countess told you.”
“Well, yes, it’s all just as I’ve been telling you,” wheezed the man in a hoarse voice with his hand about his throat. “You see, I’ve been punished before, and she hired me obligingly as her coachman. But she threatened to tell about my past – or fire me – and forced me to do all sorts of things. She threatened me over Jessi
ca too – so I dared not contradict her. She’d tied the hood around the girl’s head and it was dark. But it was Molly! My Molly! I’ll never forgive her for that. Nor myself!”
“Now tell us about that night when you threw the girl in the lake” said the bailiff. “Somebody came riding on a horse, didn’t they?”
The man found it dIfficult to speak, and he was obviously in great pain. “Yes, and I was terribly nervous because it was the Count and a young man, and the Count was just as surprised when he saw us. But the Countess ...”
“She was standing on the bank, wasn’t she?”
“Yes. She tried to calm the Count, whispering an awful lot of things to him, which I was unable to hear. But then the young man woke up and looked straight at me so that I asked why they’d brought him there, and then the Count rode off with him.”
“So the Count didn’t know that the girl was dead?”
“No, he was very shocked but the Countess managed to calm him. I’ve no idea what she said.”
“She probably said that it was Molly,” mumbled the bailiff to Alexander. “The Count couldn’t stand Molly.”
“May I have your permission to die now?”
“No, most certainly not!” said the bailiff.
“May I have something to drink then?”
The bailiff pulled a hip flask out from his jacket. “Here, drink this. You’ll need it. But I must ask you to return the flask to me. Well, then. What about the Duchess? When did you do it?”
The coachman moaned as he swallowed. Then he took the flask from his mouth and said “Aahh,” with a deep sigh. “The Duchess? Who was crazy about men? No, I had nothing to do with her. God bless my soul. May the Devil take me if I lie!”
They sat the man on one of the horses, got him back to the farm and left him with some of the other servants. They were given strict orders to keep an eye on him the next few days, so that he would not harm himself.
“Do you intend to let him walk free?” asked Alexander.
“Yes. He’s been punished enough. And he acted under duress.”
It was not necessary to wake the family again because none of them had gone to bed. Alexander felt that it had been a long twenty four hours. His eyes were sore. The eastern sky was already a golden hue as he entered New Askinge.
“Miss Stella can go to bed,” said the bailiff. “This is none of her business.”
The young girl left, just as expressionless as usual. Did she have any emotions at all? thought Tancred, who was now so tired that he could hardly stand on his legs. But he wanted to take part in the mystery until it was fully solved, and it would not be long now by the look of things.
The Holzenstern couple sat each in a chair, the Countess with her nightdress neatly draped about her and with her gentle, patient smile on her face. The Count tried to act calm, even though he was somewhat annoyed. But he could not conceal the perspiration trickling down his face.
“Will you confess, Countess Holzenstern?” said the bailiff.
“Confess what?” she asked coolly, and she certainly managed to appear completely composed.
“Well, then I’d better do the talking instead. Please correct me if I’m mistaken. On Sunday evening you were at the Wendels. You returned and put the horse in the stable. While you were there, Molly and Jessica came rushing in. Jessica screamed hysterically because your husband had committed an offence against her.”
The Count moaned despondently. All the Countess said was, “What an appalling lie! That girl’s imagination is positively sickening.”
The bailiff continued unperturbed. “One of the girls, who was dressed in Molly’s cape, ran past you and into the house. Of course, the girls hadn’t seen you. You thought the one who was left was Jessica. You’d worked up quite a considerable hatred of her, hadn’t you, Countess? You might have to leave the farm. I’ve enquired about New Askinge’s financial situation. Your husband had succeeded in undermining it, which could turn into a new scandal. But the worst scandal was the one that was now threatening, the fact that your husband had pursued your young relative. Then everybody would get to know what a rotten marriage you had. Here I wish to add that we know of your objection to marital intimacy, and that we can understand you in this respect. Your sister’s immoral life had frightened you. You didn’t want to be like her at all – and you went to the opposite extreme. That was a tragedy, but it doesn’t excuse the assault on the girl. I wouldn’t dare speculate whether there was an element of jealousy in all this. I don’t think you’re capable of such emotions. But perhaps you felt possessive. You wanted to be sure that nobody else was to have your husband. I think that in the stable you felt a surge of anger – and you struck. Then ran.”
“Do we have to listen to all this rubbish?” said the Countess to her husband.
The Count did not reply. He was extremely red in the face. After all, he had loved Jessica. He must have been tormented to hear that his wife had tried to kill her.
The bailiff glanced from one to the other but since they did not say anything more, he continued, “I suppose you saw the other girl go back to the stables then rush towards the forest.”
Still no confession from the Countess.
“But the deceased had to be got rid of. You went back to the stable – if you hadn’t been there the whole time – and you discovered your error. You’d killed Molly. Now the fact was that you had a husband who could assist you. And you had the means to put pressure on your coachman. But he’d been in love with Molly. You were really in a tight spot. But you ran the risk and tightened the hood over Molly’s face – and the coachman rose to the bait. In the belief that it was Jessica, he carried her into the forest and hid her there until you’d had the chance to consider how she could be hidden forever.”
Tancred was no longer able to think clearly. But he listened to the long account as best he could.
“The following evening you were all at Countess Ursula Horn’s home,” said the bailiff. “But you left early, as soon as young Tancred had retired.”
The boy gave a start as his name was mentioned and now he listened more intently. He had not known that the Holzensterns had left just after him.
“You, Countess, brought your coachman with you to lower Molly into the little lake nearby. However, in the middle of all this, your husband came riding along with the young man on the horse. What on earth was your husband doing there in the middle of the night? He had come from Old Askinge – with a flimsy explanation that he’d found the boy unconscious in the forest. You, Countess, whispered to your husband – so that the coachman wasn’t to hear it – that it was Molly that you accidentally had pushed and she had died. All the Count could do was accept it because he was in a fix himself. He rode quickly away from the scene. Molly hadn’t meant anything to him either. As a matter of fact, he abhorred her.”
“All day long, Countess, you thought very hard about this business of Old Askinge. I don’t know whether you were suspicious at all. After all, your husband had been out every other night. Surely you must have noticed it at some point. Maybe you remembered his interest in your sister, but I’ll never get that out of you so I won’t even bother to ask. But you became curious and suspicious, and the following evening, the third evening, you walked through the forest to the ruined castle. There you saw young Dieter leave. Yes, he heard you ...”
This was where the bailiff bluffed greatly because he did not know whether it in fact was the Countess that Dieter had heard.
“You went inside the castle – and found your sister. You’ve always been afraid of scandals, Countess Holzenstern. You delighted in other people’s escapades, but if it were now to be revealed that your husband was your sister’s lover ... You probably feared that young Dieter could work it out at any time. But I can tell you that he’d known about it all the time.”
For a moment, her face expressed horror and fury. But it q
uickly disappeared.
“So because you feared your good name and reputation, and maybe for the same reason that you wanted to kill your other rival, Jessica, you stabbed your sister. And afterwards, you dragged her down in the basement and tidied the room, piece by piece, and strewed ash on the floor to conceal your traces. However, you were unable to make cobwebs. That was what caught you out and made us search for the Duchess.”
The Countess straightened her back. “Have you quite finished? What a splendid tall tale! None of this can be proved!”
“Yes, indeed it can! We’ve got young Tancred’s explanation. And Jessica’s ...”
“Jessica?” The Count woke up.
“Yes, she’s safe. Out of reach of your dirty fingers and your wife’s wish to murder her. And we have the coachman’s confession. He hanged himself right in the forest.”
“A dead man’s evidence? What’s that worth?”
“We cut him down. He’s alive and willing to prove everything about the murder of Molly. I also believe that your husband will provide evidence. There’s so much else that can be used against you, you see. Such as the fact that the large bed at Old Askinge was cut into small pieces. That was only necessary because a woman had to carry it downstairs into the basement on her own. So I’m afraid you won’t go free, Countess Holzenstern.”
Tancred was thinking of his aunt’s words. She had said that there was a lot of bad blood in Stella’s lineage from her maternal grandmother. None of the daughters were first-class. The Count was not much better either, so poor Stella had nothing good to inherit.
‘I hope things will work out well for her,’ he thought in a moment of pity.
Suddenly the Countess lifted her head. “It was all worth it!” she said defiantly, continuing in a shrill voice, “My God, it was worth it! Finally to be able to strike the miserable Jessica, whom we depended on so much! It didn’t matter that it was Molly instead because that slut deserved it as well. And to be able to drive the knife around in that whore in the ruined castle ... Oh, it was a wonderful release which I could feel in my whole body! It’s worth everything that will come. Everything!”
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