er Bright was waiting.

The priest stood waiting, his face showing tenseness.

"Please," said Lord Darcy. "Sit down, both of you. This won't take
long. My lady, may Master Sean make use of that table over there?"

"Certainly, my lord," the Countess said softly, "certainly."

"Thank you my lady. Please, please--sit down. This won't take long.
Please."

With apparent reluctance, Father Bright and my lady the Countess sat
down in two chairs facing Lord Darcy. They paid little attention to
what Master Sean O Lochlainn was doing; their eyes were on Lord Darcy.

"Conducting an investigation of this sort is not an easy thing," he
began carefully. "Most murder cases could be easily solved by your
Chief Man-at-Arms. We find that well-trained county police, in by far
the majority of cases, can solve the mystery easily--and in most cases
there is very little mystery. But, by His Imperial Majesty's law, the
Chief Man-at-Arms must call in a Duke's Investigator if the crime is
insoluble or if it involves a member of the aristocracy. For that
reason, you were perfectly correct to call His Highness the Duke as
soon as murder had been discovered." He leaned back in his chair. "And
it has been clear from the first that my lord the late Count was
murdered."

Father Bright started to say something, but Lord Darcy cut him off
before he could speak. "By 'murder', Reverend Father, I mean that he
did not die a natural death--by disease or heart trouble or accident
or what-have-you. I should, perhaps, use the word 'homicide'.

"Now the question we have been called upon to answer is simply this:
Who was responsible for the homicide?"

The priest and the countess remained silent, looking at Lord Darcy as
though he were some sort of divinely inspired oracle.

"As you know ... pardon me, my lady, if I am blunt ... the late Count
was somewhat of a playboy. No. I will make that stronger. He was a
satyr, a lecher; he was a man with a sexual obsession.

"For such a man, if he indulges in his passions--which the late Count
most certainly did--there is usually but one end. Unless he is a man
who has a winsome personality--which he did not--there will be someone
who will hate him enough to kill him. Such a man inevitably leaves
behind him a trail of wronged women and wronged men.

"One such person may kill him.

"One such person did.

"But we must find the person who did and determine the extent of his
or her guilt. That is my purpose.