"Nonsense!" put in the chief. "Why should she take it? To throw suspicion on herself? Besides, I'll show you another reason why it's not suicide. The man was shot through the right eye, the ball went in straight and clean, tearing its way to the brain. Well, in the whole history of suicides, there is not one case where a man has shot himself in the eye. Did you ever hear of such a case, doctor?"
"Never," answered Joubert.
"A man will shoot himself in the mouth, in the temple, in the heart, anywhere, but not in the eye. There would be an unconquerable shrinking from that. So I say it's murder."
The judge shook his head. "And the murderer?"
"Ah, that's another question. We must find the woman. And we must understand the rôle of this American."
"No woman ever fired that shot or planned this crime," declared the commissary, unconsciously echoing Coquenil's opinion.
"There's better reason to argue that the American never did it," retorted the judge.
"What reason?"
"The woman ran away, didn't she? And the American didn't. If he had killed this man, do you think anything would have brought him back here for that cloak and bag?"
"A good point," nodded the chief. "We can't be sure of the murderer—yet, but we can be reasonably sure it's murder."