That dossier was put before Mr. Assistant Commissioner Cullis the very next day; and he spent a whole twelve hours with it, neglecting all other business.
This record of Jill Trelawney was of great interest to Mr. Cullis, for it dealt with the career of that dangerous lady for some time before she had burst upon London, as the leader of the Angels of Doom. It went back, in fact, to the event which had led to the creation of the Angels — the time when Sir Francis Trelawney, her father, himself at one time assistant commissioner, had been detected almost in the act of betraying his position and submitting to bribery and corruption. And after his death, which some said was directly due to his discovery and disgrace, had come the Angels of Doom, with his daughter at their head…
As he went through that dossier, Cullis remembered the day, nearly three years ago, when he himself, then only a superintendent, had helped to bring home the charge — the day in Paris when he had gone there with the chief commissioner to watch Sir Francis in the very act of betraying a police secret.
And Cullis remembered the day after that. An afternoon in Scotland Yard when, in the presence of Trelawney and the chief commissioner, he had opened a box taken from the Chancery Lane Safe Deposit, and had found in it a bundle of new five-pound notes which it had been possible to trace back directly to Waldstein. He remembered Trelawney's protestations — that he had never put the notes in his strong box, that he had never seen them before, that he could not explain how they came to be there at all. And the chief commissioner's cold, accusing eyes…
All these memories came back to Cullis as he went through page after page of the dossier, and they were still with him when he went home late that night. For although Teal was humanly inclined to spread himself on the subject of his pet aversion, there was no doubt even in Cullis's mind that the Saint was a factor to be reckoned with, and anyone might have been pardoned for wondering what was going to happen next.
But the next morning there seemed to be no more reason to wonder, for when Cullis arrived at the Yard and went up to his office he found Chief Inspector Teal waiting for him there, and there was something in Teal's lugubrious countenance which foreboded bad news; and, since Cullis's mind was full of Jill Trelawney, he was not so surprised as he might have been when he discovered what that bad news was.
"Weren't you the last man to handle that Trelawney dossier?" asked Teal, coming straight to the point.
Cullis nodded.
"I should think so. I had it out all yesterday afternoon."
"I believe you returned it to Records yourself?"