Chapter 262: The mysterious third person
After dropping Anne home, Augustine headed straight to the office. The moment he stepped in, he found Gustave waiting, standing near his desk with a composed but alert expression.
"Sir," Gustave greeted him with a respectful nod. "How is Madam?"
"She is fine," Augustine replied as he lowered himself into the chair. "She has been discharged." Without wasting another second, he asked, "Now tell me, what did you find?"
Gustave stepped forward and placed a folder on the desk. "This is everything we gathered from Robert’s place. His body was found in the kitchen, lying in a pool of blood. Lorie’s body was discovered near the front door."
Augustine opened the folder. A set of photographs greeted him, grim and unsettling, blood smeared across the floor, Robert’s lifeless body twisted unnaturally on the cold tiles of the kitchen.
"He was stabbed multiple times," Gustave continued gravely. "At first glance, it looked like a case of mutual murder, like they killed each other during a fight. There was no sign of forced entry, no obvious evidence pointing to the presence of a third person. But..."
He pointed at one of the photos. "Look here—in the hallway between the kitchen and the front door. Not a single blood stain. If Lorie had been attacked in or near the kitchen and tried to flee, there would be some trail. But the path is clean."
Augustine narrowed his eyes, his mind already racing.
"That’s the first red flag," Gustave added. "It suggests Robert didn’t kill her. Someone else was in that house, someone who made sure to leave no trace."
He flipped to the next photo, zoomed in on Robert’s hand clutching a bloodied knife.
"And there is this. The knife is in his right hand. But Robert was left-handed. If he had killed her in a fit of rage, or even in a premeditated act, he would’ve used his dominant hand."