In asking Vic Clayton to take him to the place where she and Claudia Badger claimed to have been robbed, Nick had several motives.
To begin with, he wished to see if she would willingly consent to do so.
Nick reasoned that, in case she readily consented, it would indicate a bare possibility that he in some way had misinterpreted the curious features that he had detected in the photograph, and that the picture might not be as incriminating in its significance as he had inferred.
While even this remote doubt existed, Nick felt that he could not wisely make any very aggressive move in the case, and he took this method to remove the doubt.
As a matter of fact, he hardly believed that Vic would consent to comply with this request, but would evade it with some plausible excuse.
Providing that she complied and went with him, however, Nick believed that he could so corner her with questions, while alone with her in a carriage, that he could finally force from her a confession of the whole business.
In any event, moreover, he felt sure that he could so artfully take these steps that he would in no way sacrifice any of his present advantages.
He found Vic Clayton alone in the handsomely furnished waiting-room, engaged in writing at an open desk in one corner.
She had rearranged her hair and rouged her cheeks since Sandy Hyde’s departure, and she looked, as a matter of fact as well as of design, remarkably handsome and attractive.
“Dear me!” she exclaimed, quickly dropping her pen upon seeing Nick enter. “Is it you, Detective Carter?”