She made a comfortable gesture. `No use finishin' off a good assignment too quick…. But all the times she's been there I never saw anything. The best chance I had was the night before she went away, about two weeks ago. They come in from the theatre or some place, and they was both pretty tight. I watched the door, and everything was all quiet for about two hours, so I knew what was up. Then, the door opened, and they both come out again for him to take her home. And they stood there swearing eternal love to each other and he was saying how he was going to do a piece of work that would get him a good newspaper job, and then they could get married..
`But I wasn't certain,' explained they practical Mrs Larkin, kin, `because that's what they all say when they're drunk. And besides, I heard him telling the same thing to a little red-head he had here while X19 was away. But that night, of course, I wasn't on duty. I was just getting home myself, and he came staggering down the steps with his arm around the red-head, and she was trying to hold him up… '
`Stop it!' Lester Bitton suddenly shouted. `You didn't,' he said heavily — `you didn't put into your report you didn't say this'
`Time enough. But I am off the subject, ain't I?' said Mrs Larkin. She straightened the puffs of hair over her ears. `Don't take it so hard, mister. They're all like that, mostly. I didn't mean to give you the works.
`I'll go on about to-day. Oh yes; I know where I was. Well, I got dressed and went up to Berkeley Square. It's a good thing I did, because she come out of the house fairly early. And believe it or not, that woman walked all the way from her place to the Tower of London!
`Well, I seen her buying tickets for all them towers, and I had to buy 'em all, too, because I didn't know where she'd, go. But I thought, this is a hell of a place to pick for rendy-voo, and then I tumbled to it. She was wise to being watched. I thought probably that trip to the country tipped her off, and her husband had maybe said something to let her guess….'
`They had never gone there together before?' interrupted Hadley.
`Not while I was watching them'
She was more subdued now when she spoke, and she told her story without comment. It was ten-minutes past one when Laura Bitton arrived. After buying her tickets and a little guide, she, had gone into the refreshment-room and ordered a sandwich and a glass of milk. All the time she ate she watched the clock with every sign of nervousness and impatience. `And, what's more,' Mrs Larkin explained, 'she wasn't carrying that arrow-thing you had on your desk this afternoon.'
At twenty minutes past one Laura: Bitton left the refreshment-room and hurried away. At the Middle Tower she hesitated, looked about, and presently moved along the causeway, and hesitated again at the Byward Tower. There she consulted the map in her guide-book and looked carefully about her.