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| The next day, Nils shows Pierre a small valise saying, look, Pierre, the aunt left this behind. They return with it to the hotel, Pierre carrying it because Nils needs his hands free for taking photographs, which he says are for a university project. They leave the valise ouside the aunt's room and return to the house of the sailing club. The next day, Pierre sees on the television that there has been an explosion at the hotel, killing two-hundred and forty-three people. The aunt is among the dead and Laure, upon learning this, is seized with a fit of hysterical laughter. |
| This grows in intensity for several minutes and finally dissolves into tears. When Laure has stopped crying, she asks Pierre to go back to the hotel and claim, on her behalf, what remain of the aunt's effects. Surprisingly, Pierre finds that most of the aunt's possessions are still intact. He learns that the day before the explosion, the aunt moved from her room to the bridal suite, which is on the other side of the hotel. As such, a mystery surrounds her death. Although she did receive some injuries, they should not have been enough to kill her. An autopsy is performed and it is found that the aunt died from an overdose of pills. |
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