"Now, between that time and the time I was able to see Mme. Steinheil this is what happened.
"In August 1908, being in the company of a colleague, I met several times a certain Cavellier, who for a year, a few years ago, was my colleague, though I did not know that he was an Inspector. I believe he is attached, officially at least, to the detective department of the Ministry of the Interior.
"In August, during our first meetings, Cavellier spoke to me about the Steinheil affair.... He told me that he was working in that affair for M. Sauerwein, adding that this gentleman was a Special Police Commissary at the Ministry of the Interior. He also said he was shadowing Rossignol, that he believed Rossignol was Mme. Steinheil's lover, that he thought she might have 'done the deed' (fait le coup), and that, in any case, he was certain that Rossignol and Mme. Steinheil had met, once before May 30th, 1908, and once since then, and both times in a restaurant or a hotel close to the Saint-Lazare Station.... Cavellier told me all this at the end of August....
"Cavellier has always impressed me as a man who, having discovered—I don't know how—that I had been concerned with Rossignol, was trying to 'bait' me in order to find out what I knew about Rossignol. I have never believed one word of what he told me about Madame Steinheil and Rossignol. I told Chief-Inspector Dol, however, of my conversations with Cavellier. Chief-Inspector Dol gave no more credence than I did to Cavellier's statements.
"In September or October, I went to Bellevue with Inspector Dechet.... I saw Mme. Steinheil. I then found that Mme. Steinheil had far more refined features and a much rounder face than the woman whom I had seen with Rossignol, in April 1908, and further that Mme. Steinheil was far slimmer and not so tall as the other woman. To make quite clear my absolute conviction that Mme. Steinheil and the other woman were not the same person, I told all this to Inspector Dechet, the moment we left Vert-Logis.
"A fortnight later, I told Cavellier, whom I happened to meet, of my conviction. He made no remark.
"Since then I have met Cavellier once or twice, but we never talked again about the Steinheil Affair.
(Signed) Mairet, The Inspector.
André, The Examining Magistrate.
Simon, His Clerk."
(Dossier Cote 918)
[Report.]