“I shall be delighted. There’s our address.” He handed his card to the Inspector.
Goodall fingered it, thinking carefully. “Mr. Forshaw!” he called. “Mr. Forshaw, Junior!”
“Yes, Inspector!”
“You stated just now that you interviewed Mr. Linnell’s partner yesterday.”
“That’s so, Inspector. Yesterday afternoon, to be precise.”
“What happened exactly—tell me?”
“Well, it was like this! This gentleman, Mr. Daventry, asked to be allowed to have a look at the Stuart stuff—the three articles that have been stolen. I showed them to him. He examined them rather carefully . . . that’s all I think . . . oh . . . he commented on the possibility of them being stolen . . . I remember that fact, because I took the trouble to explain the precautions that were always taken to safeguard our property.”
“You had a watch on the stuff then?” queried Goodall.
Day intervened and took up the thread from Forshaw. “Two of your people were here, Inspector. During the hours the Galleries were open to the public! In ‘plain-clothes’ of course, and armed! It’s our usual plan when we have sales of anything at all valuable. It’s been our practice for many years now.”
Goodall signified that he understood. Then he turned to young Forshaw again. “What else did this Daventry do?”