"Most probably," said the chief detective, "with this silk scarf, which the victim was wearing and a piece of which remains, as though she had clung to it with her two hands to protect herself."
"But why does only that piece remain?" asked the magistrate. "What has become of the other?"
"The other may have been stained with blood and carried off by the murderer. You can plainly distinguish the hurried slashing of the scissors."
"By Jove!" said Ganimard, between his teeth, for the third time. "That brute of a Lupin saw everything without seeing a thing!"
"And what about the motive of the murder?" asked the magistrate. "The locks have been forced, the cupboards turned upside down. Have you anything to tell me, M. Dudouis?"
The chief of the detective-service replied:
"I can at least suggest a supposition, derived from the statements made by the servant. The victim, who enjoyed a greater reputation on account of her looks than through her talent as a singer, went to Russia, two years ago, and brought back with her a magnificent sapphire, which she appears to have received from some person of importance at the court. Since then, she went by the name of Jenny Saphir and seems generally to have been very proud of that present, although, for prudence sake, she never wore it. I daresay that we shall not be far out if we presume the theft of the sapphire to have been the cause of the crime."
"But did the maid know where the stone was?"
"No, nobody did. And the disorder of the room would tend to prove that the murderer did not know either."
"We will question the maid," said the examining-magistrate.