"No. The deputy-chief, M. Weber, has taken the case in hand. We have been searching the garden of the House of Retreat for the past week; and nobody is able to explain how they can have disappeared. The whole force is in a flutter. . . . No one has ever seen the like . . . a chief of the detective-service disappearing, without leaving a trace behind him!"
"The two maids?"
"Gertrude has gone. She is being looked for."
"Her sister Suzanne?"
"M. Weber and M. Formerie have questioned her. There is nothing against her."
"Is that all you have to tell me?"
"Oh, no, there are other things, all the things which we did not tell the papers."
They then described the incidents that had marked M. Lenormand's last two days: the night visit of the two ruffians to Pierre Leduc's villa; next day, Ribeira's attempt to kidnap Geneviève and the chase through the Saint-Cucufa woods; old Steinweg's arrival, his examination at the detective-office in Mrs. Kesselbach's presence, his escape from the Palais. . . .
"And no one knows these details except yourselves?"
"Dieuzy knows about the Steinweg incident: he told us of it."