“A few days ago you settled your bill here with a couple of five pound notes—is that so? Do you admit it?”
“Of course,” muttered Willoughby; “what of it?”
“Only this. Those two five pound notes are very interesting indeed to us. Could you go a step further and tell us from where you got them?” Bannister prided himself upon what he considered was his ability to come straight to the point.
But Willoughby did not answer.
“I’ll go a step further,” continued the Inspector. “The cashier handed you change for a ten-pound note two days after you settled that particular account. Do you remember that? I should also like to know from where you obtained that one.”
A look of annoyance flashed across Willoughby’s face. “Look here, Inspector,” he said with a well-defined note of asperity, “I’m well aware that you’re conducting an investigation of a murder-case, and I’ve no doubt from all I hear about you that you’re getting a rough passage. I am also equally aware that I should be prepared to assist you and all that”—he paused and gave Bannister the benefit of a straight look between the eyes—“but I’m damned if I can see why I should be expected to tell you where my own money comes from!”
Bannister smiled cynically. “Perhaps I shall be able to stimulate your imagination then. Give me those numbers, Godfrey, that I ’phoned to you from Westhampton.”
The Sergeant passed the list over to his superior. Bannister held it judicially. “Those three notes I may tell you to which I have just made reference, the two ‘fives’ and the ‘ten,’ were handed to Sheila Delaney at the ‘Mutual Bank,’ Westhampton, by the cashier there on the morning that she was murdered. To the best of our knowledge, they were stolen from her in Branston’s operating-room. That was why I put the question to you. Certainly we have no reason to suspect that they were taken from her before.” He handed the list back to Sergeant Godfrey. “Perhaps you are now more likely—shall we say—to give me the information I am requesting? I think so—eh?” His tone was cold and hard.
Willoughby’s face as the Inspector spoke became more and more an open register of astonishment and bewilderment. If he were not the victim of genuine surprise, concluded Bannister, then he was a most accomplished actor, for astonishment was written palpably upon every line of his face.
“What?” he exclaimed, “you’re joking, surely.”