Mme. Doulenques babbled something unintelligible and then, as the detective pressed her, made an effort to collect her scattered wits.
"Three weeks ago at least, sir: yes, three weeks exactly; no one has been here since, I will swear."
Juve made a sign to the gendarme, who understood, and felt the body carefully.
"Quite stiff, and hard, sir," he said; "yet there is no smell from it. Perhaps the cold——"
Juve shook his head.
"Even severe cold could not preserve a body in that condition for three weeks, and it's not cold now, but there is this:" and he showed his subordinate a small yellowish stain just at the opening of the collar, close to the Adam's apple, which, in spite of the comparative thinness of the body, was very much developed.
Juve took the corpse under the arm-pits and raised it gently, wishing to examine it closely, but anxious, also, not to alter its position. On the nape of the neck was a large stain of blood, like a black wen and as big as a five-shilling piece, just above the last vertebra of the spinal column.
"That's the explanation," the detective murmured, and carefully replacing the body he continued his investigation. With quick, clever hands he searched the coat pockets and found the watch in its proper place. Another pocket was full of money, chiefly small change, with a few louis. But Juve looked in vain for the pocket-book which the man had doubtless been in the habit of carrying about with him: the pocket-book probably containing some means of identification.
The inspector merely grunted, got up, began pacing the room, and questioned the concierge.
"Did M. Gurn have a motor-car?"