`I'll have a sandwich and a whisky with you,' he said, in reply to Dr Fell's invitation.
The doctor peered at him over the flame of the match for his cigar.
`Developments?'
`Serious ones, I'm afraid. At least two unforeseen things have occurred. One of them I can't make head or tail of.' He began to rummage in his brief-case and draw out papers. `To begin with, somebody broke into Driscoll's flat about a quarter to five o'clock this afternoon.!
'Broke into…'
`Yes. Here are the facts, briefly. You remember, when we questioned that Larkin woman I left orders to have her shadowed. Fortunately, Hamper had an excellent man there a plain-clothes constable, new man, whose only talent seems to be along that line. He took up Larkin's trail as soon as she left the gates. She walked straight up Tower Hill, without hesitating.
'At the top of Tower Hill she cut across and went into the Mark Lane Underground Station. There was a queue in front of the booking-office, and Somers couldn't get close enough to hear the station to which she booked. But Somers had a hunch. He took a ticket to Russell Square, which is the tube station nearest to where she lives. She changed at King's Cross, and then he knew he was right. He got out after her at the Russell Square station in Bernard Street, and followed her down Woburn Place to Tavistock Square.
She went into the third entry of Tavistock Chambers. Somers walked straight in after her, like a fool. But it's fortunate he did.
'He describes it as a rather narrow entry, badly lighted by a door with a glass panel at the rear, and with an automatic lift in the centre. The doors to the two flats on that floor are on either side. He had seen her closing the door of No.1 after her. And, at the same time she was going in, a woman slid out of the door of No. 2, darted past the lift, down a couple of steps, and out of the glass door at the back.'
The woman again, eh?' said Dr Fell, blowing out smoke placidly. `Did he catch a glimpse of her?'