“My friend, Mr. Elk,” said Johnson a little awkwardly, and Elk nodded.
“Glad to meet you, Miss Bennett,” he said, and noted Ray’s annoyance with inward satisfaction which, in a more cheerful man, would have been mirth.
She bowed slightly and then said something in a low tone to her brother. Elk saw the boy frown.
“I shan’t be very late,” he said, loudly enough for the detective to hear.
She put out her hand to Johnson, Elk she favoured with a distant inclination of her head, and was gone, leaving the three men looking after her. Two, for when Mr. Elk looked around, the boy had disappeared into the building.
“You know Miss Bennett?”
“Slightly,” said Elk grudgingly. “I know almost everybody slightly. Good people and bad people. The gooder they are, the slighter I know ’em. Queer devil.”
“Who?” asked the startled Johnson. “You mean her father? I wish he wasn’t so chilly with me.”
Elk’s lips twitched.
“I guess you do,” he said drily. “So long.”