“Yes; we were only there about a quarter of an hour. Mr. Hessel said he hadn’t time to do more then. I’ve been trying to get him to come along and tackle the job but he keeps on putting it off. I believe the old chap’s really rather upset.” “I can quite believe it. He told me that Sir Garth had been extraordinarily good to him.” Poole paused for a minute to jot something down in his note-book. “There’s just one thing more I want to ask you,” he continued. “Miss Fratten says that her father was working rather hard every evening latterly on something that seemed to worry him. Do you know what that was?” “Oh yes,” replied Mangane. “That was about a finance company he thought of going into—he was looking into its dealings to see if it was sound. I don’t quite know why he wanted to go into it—beneath his notice I should have thought. There may have been some personal reason, of course. I shouldn’t have said he was particularly worried about it—he was interested, certainly—he always was in anything he took up.” Poole nodded. “What was the company?” “The Victory Finance Company—quite a small affair, as those things go nowadays.” “Did you come across the papers when you went through with Mr. Hessel and Mr. Menticle?” “Oh yes, they were all there—with his notes.” “Could I see them?” “I should think so—but you’d have to ask Hessel—he’s got the keys.” The detective nodded and rose to his feet. “Now if I could just see the butler for a minute,” he said, “and then perhaps Miss Fratten . . .” He slurred the sentence off; it was better not to let Mangane know about his allowing the girl to talk to her brother first. The dignified Golpin, interviewed in the morning-room, was able to assure Poole that there were no duplicate keys to the study, that no one had entered it from the hall between the time of Sir Garth being brought back and Mr. Hessel locking it up with Mr. Mangane—he had been in the hall himself all the time, telephoning for the doctor from a box under the stairs, waiting to admit Sir Horace, etc.—and that Mr. Hessel had not been back to the house, except for the reading of the will—when he had certainly not entered the study—and on the occasion when he, Mr. Menticle and Mr. Mangane had all been into the study together. The detective thanked him and was asking him to go and enquire whether Mr. Fratten could now see him, when the door opened and Inez came in. Poole thought that the girl looked paler than when she had left him an hour or so before, and there were shadows under her eyes. But her voice was firm enough.