Stark entered the room that Bannister indicated fluttering with suppressed excitement and with a sense of tremendous impatience. He had heard of Bannister—who hadn’t come to that?—and immediately, for him, the case began to assume greater proportions than ever before. He plucked the lemon-coloured glove from his right-hand and bowed to his auditors, somewhat consequentially. “That is so,” he opened, “and I think it will not be very long before I am able to convince you, Inspector, that I have information for you of the most—er—paramount importance. For I am sure that I have.”
“Let’s have it, then,” declared Bannister, “my ears are open. Sit down.”
“At the present time,” proceeded Stark, “I hold the position of Manger of the Westhampton branch of the Mutual Bank. But you know that, of course.”
“One moment,” came the quick interruption, “how long have you held that position?”
“I came here in May—the May of last year. What I have to tell you will not take me very long. I read in this morning’s paper that the young lady found murdered at the dentist’s at Seabourne has now been identified as a Miss Sheila Delaney of Tranfield—the village adjoining Westhampton. Am I correct in that statement, Inspector Bannister?”
“We have good and substantial reason to believe so,” conceded Bannister.
“Well then, you may be interested to hear that Miss Delaney, who was a client of ours of some years’ standing cashed a cheque at our bank on the morning of the very day that she was murdered, value a hundred pounds. The cheque was made payable to ‘self’ and was of course drawn against her current account.” He paused as though to measure thoroughly the full effect of his statement.
“Go on,” said Bannister, a grim note sounding in his voice. Stark looked at him quickly and went on as ordered.
“The notes handed to the lady by my cashier were partly ‘tens’—partly ‘fives’ and the remainder ordinary currency notes. There were ninety pounds in bank notes. Those are the numbers.” He handed across to the Inspector an envelope upon which the information was written. Bannister beamed and rubbed the palms of his hands in unmistakable pleasure.
“Splendid,” he cried, “you’ve done us a great service, Mr. Stark, there’s no doubt about that. This should help the course of our investigations tremendously.”
“I thought it would,” said Stark, flushed with pleasure at Bannister’s approbation, “but please wait a minute—I haven’t finished yet. There’s more to come.” He rose from his chair and walking to the door opened it and looked sharply outside. then he closed it again, came back to his chair and drew it a little distance nearer to the Inspector. “After Miss Delaney had received her money,” he was now speaking very quietly and intensely, “she asked the cashier who attended to her—Churchill by name—to show her in to me. Into my private room! He did so. She came into my private office and made what I considered to be an extraordinary request. You are doubtless aware that Banks often keep in their strong-rooms certain valuables belonging to their clients. Miss Delaney not only has a Deposit account with ‘Mutual’ as well as the ordinary current account but we also had lodged with us for some years, I believe, a legacy left her by her father the late Colonel Daniel Delaney. I refer, Inspector, to what is always described in the Deposit-Note as ‘The Peacock’s eye.’”
“What?” ejaculated Bannister. “What the blazes is that?”
Anthony also eagerly awaited the Manager’s answer.
“‘The Peacock’s Eye’ is the description given to a magnificent blue-shaded emerald of somewhat peculiar shape. It is valued, I believe, at something like twenty thousand pounds. Anybody who has not been privileged to see it can have no adequate idea of its immense size or unique beauty. Miss Delaney asked for the gem, signed for its receipt and took the stone away with her.” He passed a slip of paper over to the Inspector. “There’s her signature for it,” he explained. Bannister pursed her lips in deep thought. Anthony bent over his shoulder. Stark took advantage of their silence to continue his story. “I pointed out to her the foolishness of the procedure as far as I could—consistently that is with my duty and position as her Bank Manager. I foreshadowed the risk she was running—tried to get her to visualise certain dangers to which she was exposing herself and also the stone. To no avail, gentlemen! The lady was adamant.”
“What did you do then?” inquired Bannister peremptorily.
“I went to our strong-room, opened Miss Delaney’s private safe in which the jewel was kept, took the case containing the ‘Peacock’s Eye’ back to my own room and handed it to her. Whereupon Miss Delaney signed the receipt-note that you’ve just examined.” He sat back in his chair with a certain amount of self-satisfaction.
“Did anybody else in the service of your Bank know of this transaction?”
“Nobody at all,” replied Stark firmly. “I confided the matter to no one, neither then nor since, and nobody could possibly have known what I was doing.”
“One moment, Mr. Stark,” Anthony broke in sharply, “had Miss Delaney ever made this request before?”
“Never—during my tenure of the Managership. I couldn’t say regarding the period before that—naturally.”
“If so—if she had done it previously—I take it there would be documentary substantiation of the occurrence?”
“I should say so—yes.”
“And you haven’t come across any?”
Stark shook his head with decision, “None.”
“Did the lady seem at all upset, nervous, or frightened, or was she quite normal?”
“Well,” answered Stark, “I’ve seen her several times before and I don’t think she’s the kind of girl to show such conditions as nervousness or fright. She has always impressed me as very self-reliant and capable. I should say she was a girl that could face the music—could stand fire as you might say. But I’ll
