"Watson, may I ask you to do something for me?"
Holmes had stopped in front of the house, looking up to the windows.
"Of course, Holmes, what is it?"
"Let me take this interview with Mr Stockton alone. Could you please have an eye on the male entrants meanwhile?"
"Of course, but why?"
"At the moment it's just an idea."

It took a while till I was sure to have all men in the lounge again. Well, all man except for Mr Amberson I went down the stairs to tell Holmes about his disappearance, when I was stopped by a young lady.

"Doctor Watson? Might I have a word with you?", she ask with a hard Dutch accent.
"You may."
"Thank you.", she looked around as if she felt observed, "My name's Jobke Van der Maes. I've spend the room with Ms Visovich and Mrs Madsen. I'm not sure if it is of interest for Mr Holmes, but I start to feel uncomfortable near Ms Visovich. I think I'll go crazy." "My Dear, if you want to move to another room, Mr Eideard would be the better address to turn to."
"It's not that, Doctor.", she whispered, obviously frightening of something, "it's just a strange event that happened just before Ms Svoboda's been found."
"Then talk, my Dear, and free your soul from it."
"It might be of absolutely no importance, but just before lunch, Ms Visovich sat down in our room alone, reading. The door was closed and I was up to knock and enter to call her, when I suddenly heard her talk to someone she called Vincent. She said something about "his chance" and a girl, but I didn't get the meaning of her words. So I knocked and opened the door. I've expected to find a man in the room, but Ms Visovich was all alone."
"Maybe her secret visitor left after he heard you knocking."
"But that's impossible. There's only one door. And he can't have left through the window, I checked it. It's too high to jump, but it was locked from the inside and even as I opened it I saw not a single soul. And it wasn't dark already."
Ms Van der Maes stood before me at the verge of tears. Softly I laid my hand on her shoulder.
"Don't worry, my Dear. I'm sure there is an explanation for this."
She sniffed and looked at me, then nodded in agreement.
"Maybe it's just the nerves. Thank you, Doctor."
"Ms Van der Maes, right?", Holmes suddenly ask from behind me.
"Good Lord, Holmes. You shouldn't scare me like this. Yes, it this is Ms Van der Maes."
"You seem to be frighten of something."
"I believe I'm going mad, Mr Holmes."
She started to repeat her story and after she ended, Holmes carefully patted her hand.
"My dear Madam, thank you for your information. Have you told this to anyone else."
The young lady shook her head and stroking her dark brown curls out of her face she answered, that she's much too much afraid of being the next victim in this reign of fear.
"There's just one thing more, Mr Holmes.", she added, "I already heard Ms Visovich speaking to this "Vincent" once before that event."
"When was that?"
"The night Ms Filiberto got murdered."
"You don't say."
"I was more asleep than awake when I suddenly heard music from, I believe, downstairs. And I noticed that one of my roommates went downstairs to look. A bit later my other roommate got up and went outside as well. I tried to sleep again, till I heard Ms Visovich's voice shouting that name."
"What have you thought then?"
"Not much. But I belief she's meeting with a lover secretly.", it was obviously embarrassing for her to think about what could have caused Ms Visovich to shout that name in the middle of the night, "Mrs Madsen can surely confirm this story."

"How was your talk with Mr Stockton, Holmes?"
I asked after we went outside again, giving young Ms Van der Maes all possible comfort.
"Rather a waste of time, Watson. He's very quiet, and all things he said, were information we already received from Mr Eideard."
"What's about his arm?"
"As I asked him he said he broke it on his travel here."
"Do you believe him?"
"He seems to be nervous while I interviewed him."
"As if he's been lying?"
"Maybe."
"By the way, I almost forgot to tell you what happened to me. Say, have you seen Mr Amberson?"
"So you haven't found him."
"No. Mr Holthausen-Strohm mentioned that he went upstairs for a little nap, but the door was locked. I heard him snoring inside, but I haven't seen him."

Suddenly Holmes stopped near the wall that surrounded the estate.
"What do you think, Watson, could you climb this wall?"
"I think none of us could. Not without help. It's rather high and there's not a single possibility to find hold in the wall." "For this is a new part of the wall. But have a look at this." Holmes waved me to another spot, where the wall, that stood before us was still from the time of the estates building.
"What's the point here, Doctor?"
"Here it might be far more easier."
"And it's impossible to see the house from here. See. ", he pointed at a group of trees near by.
"You think the murderer enter the estate here?"
"Possible. I would say this might be a meeting-point."
"And that means what?"
"It's just a theory, but now I can imagine Ms Filiberto laying awake in her bed that awful night, getting up and looking out of the window, seeing someone walking towards those trees. She gets suspicious, sneaks downstairs and find the sheets.
"Do you have a suspect then?"
"Make your own thought. We know that there's more then one killer, at least one of these villains must stay somewhere else than on the estate. They must have knowledge of the estate and secret passages inside the house."
"Secret,… secret passages, Holmes?"
I starred at my friend in disbelief.
"Brunton told me about them. And now even Ms Van der Maes' story and the murders of Ms Lacroix and Ms Svoboda are explainable."
"But then who of the male entrants is this brother the blackmail- letter's been talking about."
"Most likely Ms Visovich's husband."
"But she's not married."
"She is. Haven't you looked at her during the little talk we had with her? How she was trying to hide her hand?"
"You mean she tried to hide a light spot on her finger where a ring is just to have his place?"
"Exactly. It's just an idea but maybe there was something in the one of the tea.cups and she couldn't remember in which. She only searched for a way to get the cups cleaned out, that's why she did what she did."
"So she's the third person in the murder's party."
"And one of them obviously has been in one of the passages, listening, as we talked to Ms Van der Maes."
We have walked back through the group of trees, and now Holmes stopped, sighing sorrowful, pointing towards a large tree in front of us, on which the bodies of Ms Van der Maes and Mrs Madsen swung lifeless in the soft wind.

Proceed to Part 15