“If I think rightly, you do not work under the same conditions as the agents in the service of the Prefecture, who are entirely allied to the Administration. You are, I suppose, a kind of volunteer of the police, at liberty to give information as you please, consequently free as regards initiative.”
Laforêt interrupted him.
“If you wish to speak to me on the Vanves affair, I must stop you at once. My principal ordered me not to take any further steps in the matter for the moment. The Public Prosecutor is in possession of the information. Every one to his own department. We shall not take up the matter again, provisionally.”
“But if I simply asked you to enlighten me on certain points?”
“One can always give advice.”
“Good! The police are about to make a search for the authors of the crime of which my master has been the victim. But I, also, should like to investigate.”
“There is no one to prevent you.”
“Ah! One must know how to go about it. One does not become a detective by instinct. Which end shall I begin with, to unravel the skein?”
“Come! Had your master any family?”
“A daughter.”