At a sign from me the girl left the room. “What’s wrong, old man?” I said.
“Have you seen the paper this morning?” he asked.
“No, not yet. Why?”
“Then you haven’t seen this,” he said, handing me his copy of the Times which, as most solicitors do, he was in the habit of scanning before he began his day’s work.
What I read staggered me. It was as follows:
Missing Lady
“The police are actively in search of Mrs. Thelma Audley, aged 20, daughter of Mrs. Shaylor, widow of Lieutenant-Commander Cyril Shaylor, R.N., who left her home at Bexhill-on-Sea on the morning of the 18th inst. after the receipt of an urgent telegram calling her to London.
“She did not show the message to anyone, but its receipt apparently caused her great excitement, for she hurriedly packed a bag, telling her mother that she would be staying at the Grosvenor Hotel at Victoria and would return next day.
“Nothing has since been seen or heard of her. She did not arrive at the hotel, and it is an open question whether she actually ever went to London.
“Inquiries show that she did not travel by the train she intended. But as there are two lines of railway from Bexhill to London the lady may have taken the second route, by a train leaving half-an-hour later, which brought a good many returning excursionists to London, so that she may easily have passed unnoticed.