As a learner driver, he had not fully mastered the art of driving and talking. For a while, that worked – until we reached the turnoff to Pannal where I had visited Miss Weston earlier in the day, bearing chocolates and the news that she may never see her uncle’s watch chain again. Just as I cons...
‘Good luck,’ he wished me as we stepped out among the throng at Forster Square station in Bradford. He had an errand at the main post office, and we agreed to meet in half an hour at the nearby tea rooms. Mentioning the Braithwaite name –Yorkshire’s equivalent of Ali Baba’s Open Sesame – had nett...
Perhaps Marcus did not need my help. Perhaps Wilson really was very good at interviewing women, and I should not have let his attitude annoy me. I had found out so much, and yet so little. The collusion of Archie the waiter in the matter of Runcie’s proof of adultery for the purpose of his divorc...
If I had not happened upon a couple of girls exercising their ponies, I might be looking still. Leaving the car in a narrow lane, I walked along a track. On the curve of a bend, I saw the dwelling, a single storey, octagonal house with two chimneys, a roughcast finish and latticed windows. It sto...
Reaching the hotel, I decided against looking about to see whether Sykes was loitering in the grounds, waiting to hear about my encounter with Joel. Having squeezed in so many tête-à-têtes, we would be in danger of raising eyebrows. I was not in a hurry to see him. Once a policeman, always a poli...
Sykes and I had written one each the previous evening. Mine read: APPROXIMATE TIMINGS Ethan last seen alive: 1.10pm Saturday by Josiah Turnbull, quarry foreman 5.15pm – Ethan’s body found by Harriet 5.50pm – Arthur from farm: no sign of Ethan – sundial intact 6.30pm – MJ to quarry – sundial smash...