But the moderate south-east wind was not strong enough to move the clouds, and the visibility was so poor that the huge menacing shape of the giant airship was invisible to the probing searchlights on Apsley Gate. Only the steady throb of its four 210-horse-power Maybach engines could he heard in...
William Rivers’s car was parked outside. The guest house was one of those seedy establishments that had a signboard boasting a sea view, but a sight of the sea could probably be achieved only by standing on a chair in the attic. Dave and I walked into the entrance hall and I banged a table bell o...
We arrived at a quarter past two. The Crosses’ house was a neat semi-detached three-up two-down property, of a style which pointed to it having been built before the Second World War. The front garden, in common with most of the houses in the street, had been paved over to accommodate the ubiquit...
According to Mrs Partridge, the wife of the gents’ outfitter, Sarah Gosling left her husband for Morgan and went to live with him in Brighton.’ ‘But d’you think he might know anything that would help us, sir?’ As was often the case, Marriott was having difficulty following Hardcastle’s mercurial ...
It was obvious that our priority was to trace the people who’d been at Diana Barton’s ‘kitchen’ party. But how we were to do that presented a problem. Several, in fact. ‘First of all,’ I began, ‘When Thomas Hendry gets here later today, I shall charge him with arson at twenty-seven Tavona Road on...
‘Surely he’s just another of Daisy Benson’s clients.’ ‘Very likely, Marriott,’ said Hardcastle, as he engaged a cab from the rank outside the station, ‘but anybody who was acquainted with Ronald Parker, however loosely, might just lead us to his murderer. And Daisy, it seems, knew both Parker and...
But detectives, constrained as they are by the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, can’t keep office hours, and I could already visualize the rest of the weekend disappearing. I told the custody sergeant to put Roberts in the interview room, and decided that Kate Ebdon would be best suited to assis...
It is a well known fact that these days villains are not above stealing police cars left carelessly in the street. To put the police logbook on the dashboard may prevent the issue of a ticket from an enthusiastic traffic warden, but it is an open invitation to any passing low-life to do a bit of ...
They were terraced and each pair of houses shared a porch, the front doors of which were side by side. ‘Would you be Mrs Nash by any chance?’ asked Hardcastle, raising his bowler hat. ‘Yes, I’m Rose Nash.’ The woman appeared to be about forty years of age, and was wearing a floral pinafore apron ...