"Yes," said the Superintendent composedly. "You hardly expected to meet me here, I suppose?"
"Well, Mrs. Garth mentioned your earlier visit, but I am at a loss to understand——"
"Oh, it is easily explained. We of the Yard take nothing for granted, Mr. Fenley. I learned by chance that a young lady who lives here rang you up at Roxton this morning, and knowing that you took the trouble to conceal the fact, I thought it advisable——"
Mrs. Garth was a woman of discretion. She closed the door on the two men. Fenley did not wait for Winter to conclude.
"That was foolish of me, I admit," he said, readily enough. "One does not wish all one's private affairs to be canvassed, even by the police. The moment Mrs. Garth mentioned your name I saw my error. You checked the telephone calls to The Towers, I suppose, and thus learned I had misled you."
"Something of the sort. Miss Garth is a lady not difficult of recognition."
"She and her mother are very dear friends. It was natural they should be shocked by the paragraphs in the newspapers and wish to ascertain the truth."
"Quite so. I'm sorry if my pertinacity has annoyed them, or you."
"I think they will rather be pleased by such proof of your thoroughness. Certainly I, for my part, do not resent it."