قتل‌های غیرعادی

CHAPTER 1

Extraordinary Murders

I was staying in Paris during the spring and part of the summer of 18#. There I met a Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin. This young gentleman came from a noble family but he himself was not very rich. He was not really interested in money. He lived frugally. Books were his only luxury.

We first met at an obscure library in the Rue Montmartre. By some strange coincidence we were both looking for the same book. After that, we met many more times.

He told me about the history of his family. I was astonished by the extent of his reading. When did he find the time to read so many books? And I was fascinated by his vivid imagination.

It was decided that we should live together while I was in Paris. We found a big, old, deserted house in the Faubourg St. Germain. As I had more money than Dupin, I offered to pay the rent.

Our isolation was perfect. We admitted no visitors. Nobody knew the address of the house where we lived.

For some strange reason, Dupin loved the night and I began to share his enthusiasm. Of course the night did not last forever, so when the morning came we closed all the shutters on the building to simulate the conditions of darkness. Then we lit two or three candles. This was to have enough light to read or write or simply talk. We sat in the house all day until the clock indicated that the true night was coming. Then we went out into the streets continuing our conversation. We walked far and wide in the great city, looking for things to stimulate our imagination. There was an infinity of mental excitement in simply observing the world.

It was during these walks that I discovered and began to admire Dupin’s incredible analytic ability. He told me that he could see directly into men’s hearts and minds. At first I did not believe him. But then something happened to change my mind. One night we were walking down a long dirty street near the Palais Royal. I was looking at a newspaper when I noticed one particular story: EXTRAORDINARY MURDERS

This morning at about three o’clock, a number of terrible screams awoke the inhabitants of the Quartier St. Roch. The screams were coming from the fourth floor of a house in the Rue Morgue. Only two people lived there: Madame L’Espanaye and her daughter Mademoiselle Camille L’Espanaye. After several attempts, neighbours finally entered the house together with two policemen. By this time there were no more screams. But as the group ran up the stairs, they heard two more angry voices coming from the upper part of the house. However, when they got to the fourth floor there was again silence. They divided up into small groups, moving from room to room. They finally arrived at a back room. The scene they discovered there was almost too horrible to describe.

The apartment was in great disorder. The furniture was broken and the bed lay in the middle of the floor. On a chair was a razor covered in blood. Bloody lengths of human hair lay in the fireplace. On the floor there were three large silver spoons, an ear-ring and two bags containing four thousand francs in gold. The drawers of a desk which stood in one corner were open and papers were scattered about.

Under the bed was an open safe with the key still in the door. It contained a few letters and other papers but nothing of any importance.

There was no sign of Madame L’Espanaye. But somebody noticed there was an extraordinary quantity of soot in the fireplace. And so they searched the chimney. There they found the dead body of the daughter. The body was quite warm. A doctor examined it and found many bruises and cuts. On the throat there were several dark bruises and finger marks. This suggested only one thing. Strangulation.

They searched the rest of the house but found nothing. Finally they went into the small garden at the back of the house. There they found the body of the old lady. Her throat was completely cut and when two men tried to raise her, the head fell off. The body itself was completely mutilated. It didn’t look human.

No one has yet found a clue that could help to solve this mystery.