“No,” said the young man, “there’s no one of that name here. Sorry I can’t help you.”
French replied conventionally and retreated downstairs. He had obtained the look at the occupant of the engineer’s office which he had wanted. Moreover, he had seen enough to convince him that the young man was alone.
Once again he took up his weary vigil in the street below. For nearly an hour he killed time before he saw his new acquaintance leave. Then he quickly reentered the building and climbed to Welland’s office.
With considerable misgiving he had determined to do a dangerous and prohibited thing—to search the premises without a warrant. He felt sure he could do so without discovery. The whole of the floor itself was unoccupied, and the wooden steps of the stairs would give plenty of notice of anyone’s approach. Unless some extraordinarily unfortunate accident should bring Welland himself back, he should be quite safe.
As an additional precaution he knocked once more on both Welland’s and Tozer’s doors. When he had waited a moment he clattered downstairs, then creeping silently up again, he took his bent wire from his pocket and set to work on the lock. In a very few minutes it yielded to his treatment, and passing softly through the door, he closed it behind him.
The room was fitted up in the barest way as an office. In the centre stood a roll-top desk with an Austrian bentwood chair behind it. A second chair faced the desk. In one corner was a cupboard of painted deal. And that was all. There was not even a blind on the window, nor a wastepaper basket. And the second room was entirely empty.
The doubt of the commission agency business which all this suggested was increased by a rapid search of the desk. It contained only some financial newspapers, a notebook with records of stock and share transactions, and a number of novels of the more modern and intellectual type. The cupboard, which was not locked, was empty.
In spite of the speed at which French worked, his search was amazingly thorough. Every leaf in the notebook was turned over and its contents examined, every novel was gone through lest letters or loose sheets might have been left between the pages, the walls and floor was examined for secret hiding places. In short, when he concluded that there was nothing in the rooms to interest him, it was because he had made absolutely certain of the fact.
Only once had he had a bad moment, when he had heard laboured steps ascending the stairs. Silently he had withdrawn to the inner room, in the hope that even were it Welland, he might still escape discovery. But the steps had passed on to one of the offices above, and again breathing freely, he had resumed his work.
In his withdrawal also he was fortunate. Having looked round to make sure that no signs of his visit remained, he drew the office door silently after him, and gained the street unseen.
It was by this time after and French felt that he had done enough for the day. But he went back to the Yard, not only as a matter of routine, but to receive the reports of his three men.
For the first time since he returned from Portsmouth French felt a sudden thrill of delightful excitement as he listened to these reports. It looked as if at long last he really was on the right track. For each of the three girls was employed in a box office!
The red-haired girl, it seemed, worked in the box office of the Royal Cinema in Edgware Road and the other two in those of Theatres in Vauxhall Bridge Road and Old Kent Road respectively. Each had walked from the point at which she had been set down to her place of business, directly or by a circuitous route as was necessary to bring her there at the required time. None of them had held any communication with any other person during the walk. In each case the shadower had found out his quarry’s name, but not her address, as all three men were afraid of calling attention to their activities by too persistent questioning.
“Well,” said French, “get back again this evening and shadow them home.”
Though French himself had been looking forward to a quiet evening in the bosom of his family, his eagerness was now so great that after supper he sallied forth once more to try to push the case a step further. After considerable trouble he succeeded in obtaining interviews with the managers of all four places of amusement—the two cinemas and the two theatres. To each he explained his official position, and having made it clear that nothing was suggested against the girls personally, he put his questions.
But as he had foreseen, the managers were not helpful. None of them had noticed anything abnormal or suspicious in the conduct of the girl in his company’s employment, nor had there been any irregularity about her cash.
Next day French carried his routine inquiries a step further. Armed with the addresses which his three assistants had discovered on the previous evening, he interviewed the landladies of the three new girls’ boarding houses. In each case he was assured that the girl in question had been in evident trouble during the previous six months. But the landladies did not think it was financial. At least none of the girls had shown a difficulty in meeting her bill.
The result of these inquiries left French more than ever determined to probe the affair to the bottom. But when he came to consider this next step he found it was not so obvious. At last he decided to get hold of the girls one by one, and try to force a confidence. This of course had the serious drawback of being a virtual warning to the gang that the police were on their
