‘All that you’ve brought back is the information that the suspects have fled to America.’ ‘I don’t call that a meagre reward, sir,’ said Colbeck. ‘You were too late, man. They’ve flown the coop.’ ‘We only just missed catching them, sir,’ Leeming pointed out. ‘It was the inspector who guessed that they’d flee the country and that Miss Adnam would be sure to visit her father beforehand. His theory was proved right even though, when he first put it forward, you had doubts about it.’ ‘That’s beside the point, Sergeant,’ said Tallis. ‘Our journey was not in vain. We established the facts.’ ‘I wanted arrests and you failed to make them.’ They’d returned to Scotland Yard to account for their absence and to inform the superintendent that the fugitives were no longer on British soil. Tallis was appalled by the news. Instead of reaching for a cigar, however, he heaped criticism on his detectives for what he described as their lack of urgency.
