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Chapter 93: Digging a Pit, Make it Deeper!

Lange saluted Vezinier with utmost deference, introduced himself, and then handed a letter to the Chief Justice.

Vezinier confirmed the wax seal on the envelope was intact before slowly breaking it open. As he did so, he casually inquired about Valayer's situation.

The Police Intelligence Bureau had already thoroughly investigated these matters, so Lange's answers flowed smoothly.

Vezinier then took out his spectacles and began to read the letter.

In the letter, Valayer first reminisced about their past together, then mentioned that Lange, who delivered the letter, was his most loyal valet and could be completely trusted.

Vezinier hadn't seen Valayer in three or four years, but he vaguely recalled his friend having a valet named Lange.

He continued reading.

Valayer stated in the letter that a cousin of his, from the household of Viscount Montry, had gotten into legal trouble. He had only recently learned from the newspapers that the presiding judge in the case was an old friend, and thus wished to ask his old friend for a favor. He explained that he wasn't feeling well lately, so he had sent his valet to Paris to handle the lawsuit first, promising to visit his old friend as soon as the weather warmed.

He then expressed his hope that Vezinier could arrange a lighter sentence for Runacher. As for the expenses, the Montry family had already prepared them and certainly wouldn't put his old friend in an awkward position.

Vezinier put the letter away and looked at Lange. "Of course, I'll help Victor. However, that young man went too far, and with witnesses, he's looking at a minimum of flogging and a prison sentence of no less than thirty years."

Lange nodded, nervously rubbing his hands. "My Lord Count, my master actually means, it would be best if he could be acquitted..."

Vezinier was about to shake his head, but Lange's next words made his eyelids twitch. "Viscount Montry is willing to offer thirty-five thousand Livre."

After a moment of silence, Vezinier sighed. "The witnesses will be difficult to handle..."

"We will find a way."

Vezinier suddenly turned and waved his hand. "Go back for now; I will give you my answer in a few days."

That afternoon, Vezinier returned home and immediately wrote a letter, sealing it with wax. He then summoned his trusted valet, Bruno, instructing him to deliver it to Viscount Valayer in Caen as quickly as possible.

Before Bruno had even boarded the carriage, the "glassmaker" within Vezinier's household relayed the news to the Police Intelligence Bureau agents stationed outside the villa.

Vezinier's trusted man rode relentlessly for two days, finally arriving in Caen.

This small city had only one main road leading to Paris. At this time, hawkers lining the road were huddled, dispiritedly calling out for business.

Bruno consulted a map, then dismounted and approached the nearest hawker, asking for directions to Viscount Valayer's home.

Valayer was the "deputy mayor" of Caen; everyone knew him. After receiving 5 Denier, the hawker enthusiastically pointed him in the right direction.

Bruno set off again. Near the city center, he dismounted once more and stopped a young man to ask for directions.

The young man was about to reply when he saw a fight break out not far away, rapidly approaching their location. Startled, he immediately turned and left.

Bruno looked around, then pulled aside a middle-aged man who happened to be passing by, asking for Viscount Valayer's residence. He received the same answer as the hawker.

By the time Bruno arrived at Valayer's villa, it was already dusk.

A male servant warmly ushered him inside. Bruno observed the Valayer family crests on the walls and stair railings, nodding inwardly.

He then saw the ailing Viscount Valayer, wrapped thickly in blankets, nod to him from the second floor.

Bruno quickly handed his master's letter to the servant, who then went upstairs to give it to Valayer.

About half an hour later, Bruno received Viscount Valayer's reply and immediately set off overnight to return to Paris.

However, he failed to notice that the gardeners, handymen, and other staff in the villa were identical to the hawkers doing business along the main road into Caen.

And the maid who served him tea was one of the people involved in the fight in the city center, albeit dressed in women's clothing – the Police Intelligence Bureau was simply too short on female spies, so they had to make him do double duty.

As for the "Valayer" who greeted him, in the dim light and from such a distance, any person in makeup would have been indistinguishable, even to Valayer's own mother.

The true location of Valayer's home was actually several kilometers away...

When Bruno returned to Paris, he handed the reply to Vezinier, assuring him that he had indeed seen Viscount Valayer and even had tea at his house.

This couldn't be entirely blamed on his incompetence. In an era with such underdeveloped information networks, it was truly difficult to ascertain the true identity of someone in a distant city in a short amount of time. Even if he had gone directly to the town hall, the Police Intelligence Bureau would have already stationed personnel there to allow him to see "Viscount Valayer" from a distance.

By this point, Vezinier had no further doubts. He immediately summoned Lange and told him that he could arrange for Runacher's acquittal, but because the case was so significant, it would require forty thousand Livre.

Lange readily agreed but expressed his hope for a swift trial, as Viscount Valayer's young nephew, Runacher, had lived a privileged life since childhood and could not endure the torments of prison.

Vezinier, of course, agreed wholeheartedly.

Lange returned to Viscount Montry's home and conveyed the news to them. He then found a doctor, feigning that the eyewitness in the Runacher case frequently drank heavily and abused his wife, and paid the doctor to issue a certificate stating the witness had mental problems.

The Montry family mortgaged their villa and art shop, then scraped together what they could, ultimately only raising a little over thirty thousand Livre. Lange, with no other choice, "personally covered" the remaining six thousand five hundred Livre.

With all preparations complete, Lange repeatedly cautioned his "cousin" that as family members of the accused, they should not have excessive contact with the judge. Only then did he take them to Vezinier's villa.

Viscount Montry handed the bank draft to Judge Vezinier's servant and saw the Chief Justice nod to him from the window. A huge weight was finally lifted from his heart.

That evening, Lange visited Vezinier's home again, formally thanking him on his master's behalf and requesting a reply letter to prove he had successfully completed his mission.

Having just earned forty thousand Livre, Vezinier was in high spirits. He immediately penned a rambling three-page letter, primarily expressing how much effort he had put into the matter for his old friend, implying that he should remember this favor, and incidentally praising his valet a few times.

Lange then departed with the letter.

A few days later, another messenger from Valayer delivered his master's thank-you letter to Vezinier.

The Chief Justice opened and read the letter, then immediately burned it, instructing the messenger to tell Valayer to burn their recent correspondence.

He had handled too many wrongful convictions and false accusations to not understand the importance of destroying evidence.

Five more days passed, and the Runacher case reopened.

First, the eyewitness was proven to have mental problems, rendering his testimony invalid.

Then, the alleged relics found in Runacher's home were discovered not to belong to the victim—a clear result of Vezinier's tampering in the evidence room.