‘Have there been any sightings, Harry?’ Wright Watson cleared his throat as he spoke, then drew on his pipe yet again.

‘No sir. Nothing. Something of a “wild goose chase”, do you think?’

Makepeace closed the office door so that none of the other officers would overhear the conversation that was about to take place. The bobbies on the beat were already grumbling about the amount of shoe leather they had worn out searching for Edward Smith. Makepeace looked at his commanding officer sitting at his desk. Detective Chief Inspector Watson had been under pressure from the Chief Constable to make an arrest and the two detectives had tried to do that, based on a second piece of anonymous correspondence. This letter – again using words cut out from the Gazette and Argus -...

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