第94章

He fumed, pacing up and down between the table and the sofa, his open overcoat catching against the angles.The red flood of anger ebbed out, and left his face all white, with quivering nostrils.Mrs Verloc, for the purposes of practical existence, put down these appearances to the cold.

`Well,' she said, `get rid of the man whoever he is, as soon as you can, and come back home to me.You want looking after for a day or two.'

Mr Verloc calmed down, and, with resolution imprinted on his pale face, had already opened the door, when his wife called him back in a whisper:

`Adolf! Adolf!' He came back, startled.`What about that money you drew out?' she asked.`You've got it in your pocket? Hadn't you better--'

Mr Verloc gazed stupidly into the palm of his wife's extended hand for some time before he slapped his brow.

`Money! Yes! Yes! I didn't know what you meant.'

He drew out of his breast-pocket a new pigskin pocket-book.Mrs Verloc received it without another word, and stood still till the bell, clattering after Mr Verloc and Mr Verloc's visitor, had quietened down.Only then she peeped in at the amount, drawing the notes out for the purpose.After this inspection she looked round thoughtfully, with an air of mistrust in the silence and solitude of the house.This abode of her married life appeared to her as lonely and unsafe as though it had been situated in the midst of a forest.No receptacle she could think of amongst the solid, heavy furniture seemed other but flimsy and particularly tempting to her conception of a housebreaker.It was an ideal conception, endowed with sublime faculties and a miraculous insight.The till was not to be thought of.It was the first spot a thief would make for.Mrs Verloc, unfastening hastily a couple of hooks, slipped the pocket-book under the bodice of her dress.Having thus disposed of her husband's capital, she was rather glad to hear the clatter of the door-bell, announcing an arrival.Assuming the fixed, unabashed stare and the stony expression reserved for the casual customer, she walked in behind the counter.

A man standing in the middle of the shop was inspecting it with a swift, cool, all-round glance.His eyes ran over the walls, took in the ceiling, noted the floor - all in a moment.The points of a long fair moustache fell below the line of the jaw.He smiled the smile of an old if distant acquaintance, and Mrs Verloc remembered having seen him before.Not a customer.

She softened her `customer stare to mere indifference, and faced him across the counter.

He approached, on his side, confidentially, but not too markedly so.

`Husband at home, Mrs Verloc?' he asked in an easy, full tone.

`No.He's gone out.'

`I am sorry for that.I've called to get from him a little private information.'

This was the exact truth.Chief Inspector Heat had been all the way home and had even gone so far as to think of getting into his slippers, since practically he was, he told himself, chucked out of that case.He indulged in some scornful and in a few angry thoughts, and found the occupation so unsatisfactory that he resolved to seek relief out of doors.Nothing prevented him paying a friendly call on Mr Verloc, casually as it were.

It was in the character of a private citizen that walking out privately he made use of his customary conveyances.Their general direction was towards Mr Verloc's home.Chief Inspector Heat respected his own private character so consistently that he took especial pains to avoid all the police constables on point and patrol duty in the vicinity of Brett Street.This precaution was much more necessary for a man of his standing than for an obscure Assistant Commissioner.Private Citizen Heat entered the street, manoeuvring in a way which in a member of the criminal classes would have been stigmatized as slinking.The piece of cloth picked up in Greenwich was in his pocket.

Not that he had the slightest intention of producing it in his private capacity.On the contrary, he wanted to know just what Mr Verloc would be disposed to say voluntarily.He hoped Mr Verloc's talk would be of a nature to incriminate Michaelis.It was a conscientiously professional hope in the main, but not without its moral value.For Chief Inspector Heat was a servant of justice.Finding Mr Verloc from home, he felt disappointed.

`I would wait for him a little if I were sure he wouldn't be long, he said.'

Mrs Verloc volunteered no assurance of any kind.

`The information I need is quite private,' he repeated.`You understand what I mean? I wonder if you could give me a notion where he's gone to?'

Mrs Verloc shook her head.

`Can't say.'

She turned away to range some boxes on the shelves behind the counter.

Chief Inspector Heat looked at her thoughtfully for a time.

`I suppose you know who I am?' he said.

Mrs Verloc glanced over her shoulder.Chief Inspector Heat was amazed at her coolness.

`Come! You know I am in the police,' he said, sharply.

`I don't trouble my head much about it,' Mrs Verloc remarked, returning to the ranging of her boxes.

`My name is Heat.Chief Inspector Heat of the Special Crimes section.'

Mrs Verloc adjusted nicely in its place a small cardboard box, and turning round, faced him again, heavy-eyed, with idle hands hanging down.A silence reigned for a time.

`So your husband went out a quarter of an hour ago! And he didn't say when he would be back?'

`He didn't go out alone,' Mrs Verloc let fall negligently.

`A friend?' Mrs Verloc touched the back of her hair.It was in perfect order.

`A stranger who called.'

`I see.What sort of man was that stranger? Would you mind telling me?'

Mrs Verloc did not mind.And when Chief Inspector Heat heard of a man dark, thin, with a long face and turned-up moustaches, he gave signs of perturbation, and exclaimed:

`Dash me if I didn't think so! He hasn't lost any time.'