Here again Tarling came to a dead end.

Though he might trust the Chinaman with his life, he was perfectly satisfied that this man would not reveal all that he knew, and it was quite possible that Ling Chu spoke English as well as he spoke his own native tongue and the four dialects of China.
"I give it up," said Tarling, half to himself and half aloud.
He was undecided as to whether he should wait for his subordinate's return from Scotland Yard and tax him with the crime, or whether he should let matters slide for a day or two and carry out his intention to visit Odette Rider.

He took that decision, leaving a note for the Chinaman, and a quarter of an hour later got out of his taxi at the door of the West Somerset Hotel.
Odette Rider was in (that he knew) and waiting for him.

She looked pale and her eyes were tired, as though she had slept little on the previous night, but she greeted him with that half smile of hers.
"I've come to tell you that you are to be spared the ordeal of meeting the third degree men of Scotland Yard," he said laughingly, and her eyes spoke her relief.
"Haven't you been out this beautiful morning ?" he asked innocently, and this time she laughed aloud.
"What a hypocrite you are, Mr.Tarling!" she replied.

"You know very well I haven't been out, and you know too that there are three Scotland Yard men watching this hotel who would accompany me in any constitutional I took." "How did you know that ?" he asked without denying the charge.
"Because I've been out," she said naively and laughed again.