“Well, I haven’t run away with her. She smiles too much. I couldn’t bear it.”
“She’s gone, sir,” Bell said heavily. “She was to have signed her contract as leading lady in Mr. Mark Woodcote’s new play. That was yesterday. She didn’t come. They had no word from her. And yesterday her servants gave information she had disappeared——”
“I know. I was there. So she hasn’t turned up yet?”
“No, sir. And Mr. Lomas and you, you found her bag in the river. That was her bag.”
“Well, well.” said Reggie. “And what’s the Criminal Investigation Department going to do about it?”
“Where’s she gone, Mr. Fortune? She didn’t take her car. She’s not been seen at Stanton station. She’s not at her flat in town. She’s not with any of her friends.”
“The world is wide,” Reggie murmured.
“And the river’s pretty deep, Mr. Fortune.”
At this point Lomas came in. He beamed upon them both, he patted Bell’s large shoulder, he came to Reggie Fortune. “My dear fellow! Here already! ‘Duty, stern daughter of the voice of God,’ what? How noble—and how good for you!”
Reggie looked from his jauntiness to the gloom of Bell. “Tragedy and comedy, aren’t you?” he said. “And very well done, too. But it’s a little confusing to the scientific mind.”