In every case, like Samantha, they had delivered the simple message that everyone but them was guilty. Essentially it transpired that the dirty words were by Miss Carlsbad, and the naughty pictures by Damian Macpherson of Samantha and other uninhibited ladies supplied for the most part by Lady Amanda Mandible who also laid on stately settings for orgies. Rude food was cooked and presented by the Pickled Herring; grace was said by the Reverend Branwell Larch; managerial skills, frilly underwear and ‘sexual aids’ (including manacles, whips and face masks) were Peregrine Contractor’s province. He, together with the late Brian Wilmslow, had cooked the books. The Pickled Herring boys did grudgingly admit to two attempts on Simon’s life as well as being accessories in the demise of Wilmslow. The principal culprits, however, were generally agreed to be Doc Macpherson and Dandiprat. Macpherson was, in the time honoured phrase, ‘dead on arrival’ at Whelk General Hospital.
