During the hours that followed, the Victory Finance offices were searched, the Wrailes’ rooms in Fulham not only searched but turned inside out; the owners had not been back since morning and there was no sign of a hurried flight. Poole collected all the papers he could lay his hands on for future inspection, but for immediate use he concentrated on an exhaustive search for photographs of the fugitives—he wanted to get their likenesses broadcast through the country with the least possible delay. A cabinet photograph on Mrs. Wraile’s writing-table gave an excellent representation of Sir Hunter Lorne’s late Brigade Major in uniform, but it was not till a volume of snapshots had been unearthed and searched that a picture of his wife was forthcoming. The rush of work had kept Poole’s mind from the problem of Hessel’s identity with Lessingham. Although it had come as a complete surprise, the detective had felt too suspicious of the banker’s connection with the case—and particularly with the five minutes following the “accident”—to be entirely astonished. Now, as he worked on the creation of the net to catch the living criminals he felt that he could well thrust the problem of the dead one into the background until his immediate task was completed. By the time he got back to his Battersea lodgings, well after midnight, he had forgotten all about it and dropped asleep the moment his head touched the pillow. The succeeding days were trying ones for Inspector Poole. Once the machinery of Scotland Yard and of the County Constabularies was in full working order, there was little he could do himself in the way of pursuit. For days the search went on, at first with confidence, then with patient hope, finally with dogged persistence—but little more. At a conference with the Assistant-Commissioner on the morning after the affair at Ald House it had been decided to take the public fully into the confidence of the police—primarily in order that the full power of the press might be brought to bear in the search. Placards bearing the likeness of James and Miriam Wraile were posted at every police station and post office; all but the most dignified newspapers printed similar reproductions, together with minute descriptions, and every detail of the escape and many possible and impossible theories and suggestions. The B.B.C. gave nightly encouragement to the searchers, both professional and amateur. An inquest was held on the body of Leopold Hessel, at which his identity with the financier, Travers Lessingham, was revealed, together with his association with Captain Wraile in the Rotunda Syndicate transactions. Nothing, however, was said at the first hearing about the Fratten murder, though naturally the public jumped to their own conclusions. The circumstances of Hessel’s death could not, of course, be fully established without the presence of the Wrailes, and the inquest was adjourned for a fortnight.