“Yes,” Merriman answered, surprise and eagerness growing in his face.
“Then,” Willis went on, “you will be pleased to learn that she is not in France—at least, I think not. She left the Peveril Hotel in Russell Square about eleven o’clock yesterday morning.”
Merriman sprang to his feet.
“In London?” he queried excitedly. “Where? What address?”
“We don’t know yet, but we shall soon find her. Now, sir, you can’t do anything for the moment, and I am anxious to hear your story. Take your own time, and the more details you can give me the better.”
Merriman controlled himself with an effort.
“Well,” he said slowly, sitting down again, “I have something to tell you, inspector. My friend Hilliard—Claud Hilliard of the Customs Department—and I have made a discovery. We have accidentally come on what we believe is a criminal conspiracy, we don’t know for what purpose, except that it is something big and fraudulent. We were coming to the Yard in any case to tell what we had learned, but this murder has precipitated things. We can no longer delay giving our information. The only thing is that I should have liked Hilliard to be here to tell it instead of me, for our discovery is really due to him.”
“I can see Mr. Hilliard afterwards. Meantime tell me the story yourself.”
Merriman thereupon related his and Hilliard’s adventures and experiences from his own first accidental visit to the clearing when he noticed the changing of the lorry number, right up to his last meeting with Mr. Coburn, when the latter expressed his intention of breaking away from the gang. He hid nothing, explaining without hesitation his reasons for urging the delay in informing the authorities, even though he quite realized his action made him to some extent an accomplice in the conspiracy.
Willis was much more impressed by the story than he would have admitted. Though it sounded wild and unlikely, then was a ring of truth in Merriman’s manner which went far to convince the other of its accuracy. He did not believe either that anyone could have invented such a story. It’s very improbability was an argument for its truth.