She turned to Poole.
“Who do you think ‘Daphne’ is, Mr. Poole?—the girl who threw herself at Ryland’s head and then left him kicking his heels at the very time and place that would make things look bad for him—she’s Miss Saverel, secretary of the Victory Finance Company!”
CHAPTER XVII.
This Way and That
Inez explained to the two detectives how she had obtained from Ryland the handkerchief with an unusual scent which had belonged to Daphne, the mysterious girl who alone could have confirmed, or at any rate supported, his alibi. She told of her tracing it to “Mignon’s” and of how the assistant there had fined down the likely owners to a single one whom she herself knew by sight. She told of how she had gone down the following morning to the girl’s room in the Fulham Road and how the girl had presently pointed out to her a young woman, simply but well dressed, who was walking along the other side of the road. Inez had followed her to South Kensington Station, and thence in the Underground to the Monument, from where the girl had walked to an office in Fenchurch Street. Inez had not dared to follow her into the building but, after a discreet interval, had scrutinized the names on the board and among them found, to her intense excitement, that of the Victory Finance Company. After a few minutes’ thought, she had applied to the hall porter as to whether he knew if a friend of hers, Miss Tatham (a creature of her imagination) was still employed with the Victory Finance Company, to which the porter had replied that so far as he knew the only young woman employed by the Company was Miss Saverel, who had only that minute arrived—but she could obtain further information from the Company itself—on the fourth floor—he offered her the lift. Inez had declined his offer, given him a shilling and departed. She had herself tried to find Ryland but, failing to do so, had come in to Scotland Yard.
“What’s all this about a Victory Finance Company?” asked Barrod. “Why should you have got your eye on them, Miss Fratten?”
Poole explained the connection and told the Chief Inspector briefly of his own examination of Sir Garth’s file connected with it and of the enquiries that Mangane was making for him. After some further discussion it was arranged that Poole should meet Miss Fratten at the Monument Station at half-past five that evening and that together they should trail Miss Saverel to her home, after which the detective would consider whether to question her. If Ryland Fratten could be found in the meantime, he was to be brought along, in order to identify his “Daphne.” As soon as Inez had gone, Barrod turned to his subordinate.
“Who’s this Mangane?” he said. “Why’s he doing your work for you?”
Poole flushed at the curtness of the enquiry.
“He’s doing something for me that I couldn’t do nearly so well myself. I can trust him, I know; we were at . . . I knew him well before I joined the Force.”
“That’s no reason for trusting anyone,” said Barrod. “Take a word of advice from me, young man, and don’t call in any gifted amateurs—you’ll get let down one of these days if you do.”