“Yes.”
Norton’s wearied eyes confused him. After he had left? Then....
“Where is Miss Ballau?” he cried.
“Well, as I said before,” Norton answered, “I owe you an apology. We let her go almost immediately after you and the doctor left. The case against her has collapsed. That is, so far as her actual guilt is concerned. That’s why I called you over last night. I thought you might fill in the missing links.”
De Medici’s face remained without expression but his thoughts were circling wildly once more. Norton was still talking.
“It was a mistake to arrest her at all. I felt from the beginning that we were acting too hastily. But the burned note sort of decided things for me ... for a little while. But—there were too many unexplained things ... too many ends. So we let her go. It’s the only way. She knows something and it’s impossible to get it out of her here. We’ve got a better chance waiting for her to lead us to the man or woman who murdered Ballau. She’s shielding someone. I could see it last night....”
“Where is she now?” De Medici interrupted tensely.
Lieutenant Norton shrugged his shoulders.
“I think my men will locate her before the day is over,” he answered with bitterness. “But she eluded us after we let her go. That idiot Michaelson....”
“You lost track of her?” De Medici murmured.