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