“He lived in a palace in the Faubourg St. Germain, which he had leased, furnished; he maintained a retinue of servants and lived like royalty. One day, at four o’clock in the afternoon, he was found dead in the library of that palace. There was a bullet hole in his right temple, and he had died instantly.
“But, Carter, there seemed to be no doubt that he had killed himself. Everything in the room bore evidence of that, even to a half-written note that he had left on the table near where the body was discovered.
“But the last person who was known to have been with him was the woman you call Juno, and whom I call ‘The Leopard.’ She was arrested, questioned, subjected to every art that the French police employ to force her to tell all she knew of the circumstances, but we might just as well have left her alone, so far as any result was obtained from her. She smiled at us, defied us, bewitched us, fascinated all of us. That was the time when I so nearly fell under her spell myself. She was permitted to go; but ever after that we felt it our duty to keep her under close surveillance.
“But that is not all of the story, as it relates to Prince Turnieff.
“I have said that he made a great display of wealth; that he had in his possession several fortunes in jewels. I should have added that he did no business at the banks, and that because of that, it was assumed that he had brought with him all the cash he required.
“It was estimated that he must have had a million francs or more in cash in his house at the time of his death, to say nothing of the jewels. When I tell you that after his death there was no trace found of either cash or jewels, and that none of it has ever been seen since, you will understand how it was that Juno, as you call her, was suspected.”
The detective nodded.
“Still,” continued the chief, “there was nothing against the woman. It could not even be established that she had been other than a friend and a companion of the rich prince. On that day when he killed himself—or was presumed to have done so—she had been with him in his library only a short time, and it was not until more than two hours after her departure that the body was discovered.
“You wished to know what it was that brought her first to our attention; that was the circumstance.”