His death: maybe no accident?? (Spoilers)
The scene near the end where Zola dies from carbon monoxide poisoning... I immediatley got the sense that foul play was involved. To put it simply, Zola had pissed off too many people. And a lot of those people had the ways and means to strike back. But the movie did not elaborate further.
I happened to read up on Zola in Wikipedia (a fine research tool if there ever was one!) and I thought I'd post this excerpt about his death:
Zola died of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a stopped chimney. He was 62 years old. His enemies were blamed because of previous attempts on his life, but nothing could be proven. (Decades later, a Parisian roofer claimed on his deathbed to have closed the chimney for political reasons).[3] Addresses of sympathy arrived from all parts of France; for an entire week the vestibule of his house was crowded with notable writers, scientists, artist and politicians, who came to inscribe their names in the registers. On the other hand, Zola's enemies used the opportunity to celebrate in malicious glee.[4] Thus, Henri Rochefort wrote a piece in "L'Intransigeant", claiming Zola had committed suicide, having discovered Dreyfus to be in fact guilty. Zola was initially buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre in Paris, but on 4 June 1908, almost six years after his death, his remains were moved to the Panthéon, where he shares a crypt with Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas.
“Take Major Danby out and shoot him.” — Catch-22