“Maledictions!”
Phoebus knows there was someone else in the room. He was stabbed in the back.
Esmeralda has a poinard hidden her person somewhere that undressing didn't reveal yet. Yet, when captured, the would have searched her, found her poinard, and seen it wasn't bloodied.
Granted on of the plot points in the book is the incompetence of the justice system but Phoebus, in add to being a scoundrel and a rake, seems also profoundly stupid.
