I feel sure he was well and truly drunk the night before, maybe whilst committing murder. I think what happens is the smell of alcohol, if there is enough, leaks through the pores in our skin as our body tries to eliminate it and also from the lungs during air exchange. I am sure we could find something on the internet for it. Rather than a pure alcohol smell I think it is bad breath with a sweet odour,ie not truly the smell of alcohol.
I feel sure the policeman who first spoke to Henri would have smelt alcohol as HVB was very likely to have been drinking after the murders. In fact, I think he said he had an alcoholic drink, did he not? I am sure that was to disguise more than one drink. One can see why it took him so long to call for help, what with sobering up and getting his story right (a joke really). I suspect he fell asleep at some stage between the murders and calling the ambulance which was done on waking up. This was his unconscious state he referred to -
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