While a doctor examined the corpse, the police inspector and sergeant responsible, having already questioned the whole household, were at the site of the crime in search of possible clues, when the butler, not without some reluctance, entered the room and in a low voice, as if afraid to upset someone, announced the arrival of the master of the house.
Jack Trevelyan, with the overcoat still dressed, was waiting for them in the library, walking in circles, when sergeant Hardman and the inspector Stanley entered.
“I believe you already know the reason for our presence in your house …” the question was raised by the inspector as an affirmation.
“Yes, Inspector... Uh …” in spite of not knowing the name he did not thought it relevant, and continued without waiting for an answer “Gardner, the butler, has told me... There is no doubt Inspector? It is true that someone… kill my darling Helen?”
Jack Trevelyan fell into the armchair in which he had been supported since hearing the voice of the inspector and held his head in his hands, being shaken by an attack of crying on hearing the confirmation from Stanley. The inspector waited for him to calm down, while trying to make his first impressions on the man in front of him.
Jack Trevelyan was a man, of about thirty-five years, tall and blond, originating from a family of goods, but without name, who gained fame as a lawyer, having been proposed and subsequently elected to a seat in Parliament. Stanley knew his reputation, like almost all of London society, either for his excessive ambition, which had taken him to occupy the post which he maintained, or by his marriage, much talked about at the time, with a young woman coming from an important but financially finished family of the ancient nobility.
Helen Trevelyan was the daughter of a Lord, with a title and no possessions. All this was already known to Stanley when he entered the Trevelyan household, but the inspector had not made such knowledge clear since entering the house. When Jack calmed down, which did not take long, Stanley continued:
“Excuse us for not leaving the interrogation for later, but taking into account the gravity of the situation, both for it’s brutality, and for your role in our society, I believe it to be better to end as quickly as possible with what we have to do here. The sooner we finish here the sooner we can start our search looking for the… person who did this.” the pause that the inspector did before choosing the word to describe the one who would have done such a thing, and the face that he did while pronouncing it, showed that, had he not have to think about it, Stanley would have chosen a more harsh word. “Therefore, Mr. Trevelyan, I would like to begin, for demand of the case, by asking you where you were this afternoon.”