I read the first few words and, feeling sick to my stomach, I dropped the report on the floor.
Why did her life matter to me? Why was I invested in the Dubois family’s issues? A part of me recognized that an affair could point to a motive for a crime. The autopsy results and those emails only confirmed it, and I would at least know what my boss was dealing with. Perhaps Larousse was indeed Antonia’s murderer.
But there was another part of me that couldn’t help but think there was something I was missing. Antonia Hawtrey-Moore was, according to Bastian, a client of the Counterfeiter. Someone had murdered her shortly before Julian Garros was arrested. Was it a coincidence? Were the two cases related? The images flashed in my head like scenes from a movie. The murderer (or murderess, or what the hell do I know), pulling invisible strings to lure me to the Dubois’ mansion. Leaving Antonia’s emails there (otherwise, how did they get to her ex-husband’s office?) for me to discover them. Leaving the money in my hands for… God, what do I know?
If the motive for the murder had been Antonia’s infidelity, Timotheo Larousse held all the cards to be the murderer.
I returned the documents with shaky hands, slipping out of the room as if on autopilot. I had to escape before anyone noticed me. After switching off the lights in Laurent Dubois’s office, I pressed my ear against the door, straining to hear any sounds outside. Once it seemed clear, I slipped out into the hallway.
I was sure I had solved the case. Or at least part of it. I had a motive, a culprit, and although I couldn’t quite put the pieces together… It made sense, in part. No one could have convinced me otherwise.
Naive me! I know now that my theory was impossible. Larousse couldn’t have been the murderer, not considering what happened next.
Excerpt from the forensic medical report - Autopsy performed on Antonia Hawtrey-Moore
Place: London, UK, 12 February
Time: 9:25am.
Requesting authority: 3rd Criminal Prosecutor.
DESCRIPTION OF THE CASE
Antonia Hawtrey-Moore, female, British resident. 60-year-old woman with British and French nationality. Her husband describes finding her lying on the floor, with weak breathing. She had gunshot wounds. She died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Auxiliary reports the date of death as 12 February at 01:05 am. Attributed to general blood loss and fatal perforation of vital organs.
EXAMINATION OF THE BODY
(…)
Cervical injury.
Blow to the left side of the head, no suture. Possible loss of consciousness.
Facial stiffness.
(…)
DESCRIPTION
The body shows no signs of violence prior to death. We can conclude that he suffered a significant fall in the hours before 01:05 a.m.; from the state of the blow, it occurred between 12 noon and 12 midnight on 11 February. We do not know for certain whether it occurred at the same time as the gunshots, around 21:00 on February 11. We do know, from the position of the wounds and the body, that the fall was not a direct consequence of the shooting. The victim died of two gunshot wounds to the thorax and abdomen.
MEDICO-LEGAL CONCLUSIONS
Violent death caused by a third party.
Internal haemorrhage, death within a few minutes.
Causes: Blood loss, organ puncture.
Gunshot wound (2)
Application of life support, stabilisation of blood flow.
At the disposal of the court and judge number 03 of the criminal court for any information considered relevant to the case.
Signature: Doctor Tana Dunberg, General Forensic Department.
Chapter 25
