“No. Merchandise.”
“You don’t mean that eighty thousand dollars’ worth of merchandise has been taken from your store in the past year, and that you are unable to discover the thieves,” said Nick.
“That is precisely what I mean,” Frank replied, a bit more forcibly. “As a matter of fact, Mr. Carter, we are up against a most extraordinary game of systematic and persistent robbery. Day after day, and frequently during the night, articles of material value disappear most mysteriously from all parts of the store. We don’t know where they go, nor how the thefts are committed. We have not the slightest clew to the identity of the robbers.”
“What kinds of goods are chiefly missing?”
“All kinds, but invariably articles of considerable value. Costly laces of every description, fine handkerchiefs, pocketbooks, and jewelry, full pieces of expensive silks and satins, fine lace draperies, and—but I could not begin to enumerate them. They disappear as if they had evaporated from our shelves, counters, and show cases.”
“Can it be the work of professional shoplifters?”
“Impossible; utterly impossible! It is much too extensive.”
“How about your help?”
“Equally out of the question,” said Mantell decidedly.[{10}] “We employ about nine hundred clerks, but they have absolutely no opportunity for thefts of such character and magnitude. It would be impossible for them to take the goods from the store without being detected. We have had them closely watched, nevertheless, since these daily robberies were first discovered, but we have failed to detect a single thief among our employees.”
“You have store detectives, of course?” said Nick inquiringly.