II

At the Royal Spa Hotel, Inspector Craddock was taken straight to the Man-ager’s office.

The Manager, Mr. Rowlandson, a tall florid man with a hearty manner,greeted Inspector Craddock with expansive geniality.

“Glad to help you in any way we can, Inspector,” he said. “Really a mostsurprising business. I’d never have credited it—never. Scherz seemed avery ordinary, pleasant young chap—not at all my idea of a hold-up man.”

“How long has he been with you, Mr. Rowlandson?”

“I was looking that up just before you came. A little over three months.

Quite good credentials, the usual permits, etc.”

“And you found him satisfactory?”

Without seeming to do so, Craddock marked the infinitesimal pause be-fore Rowlandson replied.

“Quite satisfactory.”

Craddock made use of a technique he had found efficacious before now.

“No, no, Mr. Rowlandson,” he said, gently shaking his head. “That’s notreally quite the case, is it?”

“We-ll—” The Manager seemed slightly taken aback.

“Come now, there was something wrong. What was it?”

“That’s just it. I don’t know.”

“But you thought there was something wrong?”

“Well—yes—I did … But I’ve nothing really to go upon. I shouldn’t likemy conjectures to be written down and quoted against me.”

Craddock smiled pleasantly.

“I know just what you mean. You needn’t worry. But I’ve got to get someidea of what this fellow, Scherz, was like. You suspected him of—what?”

Rowlandson said, rather reluctantly:

“Well, there was trouble, once or twice, about the bills. Items chargedthat oughtn’t to have been there.”

“You mean you suspected that he charged up certain items which didn’tappear in the hotel records, and that he pocketed the difference when thebill was paid?”

“Something like that … Put it at the best, there was gross carelessness onhis part. Once or twice quite a big sum was involved. Frankly, I got our ac-countant to go over his books suspecting that he was—well, a wrong ’un,but though there were various mistakes and a good deal of slipshodmethod, the actual cash was quite correct. So I came to the conclusion thatI must be mistaken.”

“Supposing you hadn’t been wrong? Supposing Scherz had been helpinghimself to various small sums here and there, he could have covered him-self, I suppose, by making good the money?”

“Yes, if he had the money. But people who help themselves to ‘smallsums’ as you put it—are usually hard up for those sums and spend themoffhand.”

“So, if he wanted money to replace missing sums, he would have had toget money—by a hold-up or other means?”

“Yes. I wonder if this is his first attempt….”

“Might be. It was certainly a very amateurish one. Is there anyone elsehe could have got money from? Any women in his life?”

“One of the waitresses in the Grill. Her name’s Myrna Harris.”

“I’d better have a talk with her.”