“I made a copy of the list exactly as I received it, Sir Frank, and the name is not here. I am prepared to swear that her ladyship’s name was not included.”
Tarleton turned to me.
“Will you be good enough to bring me the list I gave you to copy. It looks as though some slip had been made.”
I had not ventured to destroy the document. To have done so would have been to expose myself to a serious rebuke, without serving any useful purpose. Tarleton was not the man to forget such a name as Lady Violet’s—one of the first that had attracted his attention among those that appeared in Weathered’s appointment-book with a number attached to them. All I had hoped to do was to keep the police off her track for a few hours, and that object had now been achieved.
The list was actually in my breast pocket, but I went up to my room as though to fetch it, and returned, carrying it in my hand. I put on an apologetic air as I handed it to my chief.
“The name is certainly here, sir. I can only suppose that I must have left it out of the copy I made for Captain Charles.”
Tarleton let me off more lightly than I expected.
“Either you or the Captain left it out, that’s clear,” he said gruffly. “The point is that Lady Violet was not only a member of the Club; she was also one of Weathered’s patients, which means that she may have been in his power, and she was one of those to whom he had given a special number for some reason that we have still to find out. Perhaps she may be able to tell us.”
I could scarcely suppress a shiver. This point had never occurred to me. I pictured to myself the question being put to the unhappy girl, and tortured myself with wondering what would be her reply.
The Inspector’s attitude had undergone a considerable change as he listened to Tarleton’s information. Evidently he realized that the police authorities had been rather hasty in coming to the conclusion that the inquiry was at an end.