“Funny thing is I don’t know her name. Whenever she’s been to us, she’s paid for the stuff and taken it away.”
“But could you show her to me?”
“I should think so; if you like to come down to my place one morning early we’d look out for her.”
“Of course I will—I’ll come tomorrow. Bother it, I wish she’d got dark hair.”
“P’raps she has—sometimes,” said Mignonette laconically.
CHAPTER XVI.
Reconstruction
When Poole reached Scotland Yard on the morning after his perusal of Sir Garth’s papers, he went straight to the room of Chief Inspector Barrod. That officer had just arrived but was quite ready to hear Poole’s report before going through his own papers. He listened without interruption while the detective detailed his various interviews of the previous day and nodded his approval of the résumé of the evidence which Poole had compiled and now laid before him.
“What’s your conclusion?” he asked.
“I haven’t formed one yet, sir, though I have got an idea. My great difficulty is to see how the blow was struck—in the face of that evidence. Two good witnesses practically swear that no blow was struck in the scuffle on the steps, and yet it’s impossible to believe that that was an accident. I’m convinced that that fellow gave a false account of himself and was probably disguised. I wondered, sir, whether you would help me stage a reconstruction of that, to see whether it really would have been possible to strike that blow without anyone noticing it. I thought on the broad staircase leading up to the big hall; we ought to have the doctor to see that we hit hard enough.”
Barrod agreed readily enough, but asked for an hour’s grace to enable him to clear his “in” basket. To fill the time, Poole walked across to Queen Anne’s Gate and asked to see Mr. Mangane. He had brought with him the “Company Board” jackets and explained to the secretary the conclusions he had so far arrived at. Mangane confirmed his belief that nothing significant was to be found in any but the Victory Finance Company file. Poole opened the latter.