”Ah!” Poiret sneered and stood up, his heavyset body shaking agitatedly, “He is ambitious, this Inspector Watkins! He does not visit Poiret for months, but then comes to him for the help. He does not ask Poiret to help him as a friend, but as a professional detective. For that Poiret, he asks the commission. Do not talk to Poiret of friendship.”
Haven looked at the emotions exploding out of the mouth of his friend. He said after a while, “Still, old boy, a month’s wages for a policeman is kind of excessive?”
Poiret looked at him and a smile slowly entered his round face. He sat down again.
“Poiret, he now knows why you are a captain, a leader of men.”
“Nothing of the sort, old boy. The rank pretty much fell into my lap as they kept falling down left and right. But you must’ve held quite a high rank yourself with your knowledge and intellect.”
“Non!” said Poiret brusquely.
He took the cheque he had received from Inspector Watkins from his pocket and lit it on fire with his cigar.
“Poiret, he is not a leader of men,” Poiret continued with barely audible sadness in his voice. “He works alone.”
The End
The Jules Poiret Mystery Series
Jules Poiret in The Murder of Lady Malvern
Jules Poiret in Lord Hammershield dies
Jules Poiret in The Murder in Torquay
Jules Poiret and The Brighton Bounder
The House of Cards Came Tumbling Down
Jules Poiret in The Murder of Lady Malvern
Silent Rivers Bleed