"And what then?"
"He was Trelawney's accomplice at Essenden's."
"Accomplice?" queried Teal patiently.
"He was with her. He must know where she's hiding now."
"Of course he must. But who's going to prove that in a court of law? We shouldn't do anything by pulling him in, even if we could. No, our best hope is to go on watching him and hoping that sooner or later he'll lead us to Jill Trelawney. And I can't help thinking that that's not much of a hope — with a man like Simon Templar."
Cullis's eyes returned to the ransacked dossier.
"The chief will have to be told about this," he said.
"I've already told him," said Teal. "He was all set to turn Scotland Yard inside out, only I was able to persuade him not to. I'd like a chance to do something on my own before the whole world hears what fools we are."
He stood up. He had been seated in the assistant commissioner's chair throughout the interview, leaning back and chewing gum as if the office belonged to him; for Mr. Teal was a very privileged person. His extraordinarily apathetic acceptance of that morning's startling discovery puzzled his chief. It is not every day that important papers are abstracted without trace from the Records Office, yet Teal seemed as wearily resigned to the fact as if he had only had to inform the commissioner that a plumber had been arrested the previous night for being drunk and disorderly in the Old Kent Road. Cullis was puzzled, for he seemed to detect a thread of melancholy fatalism behind the few remarks that Teal had made on the subject.
"I'll be getting along," Teal said glumly.