Why the hell? Thoday found himself asking. The bloke had been strangled. Everyone was sure of that much. So some bugger had killed him, laid him out on a tombstone—oh, very entertaining, that!—and calmly taken off his shoes before pushing off. It made no sense. Thoday thought some more. It had to make sense. Killers were not raving lunatics as a rule. They thought about what they were doing, unless it was a spur-of-the-moment rush of blood to the head, in which case they usually confessed straightaway. This was not one of those cases.

No. Someone quite deliberately, and with much malice aforethought, had decided to kill off Major Richard Dunne, KOYLI. He’d done for old Dickie in a neat military way and left the body lying to attention. Was this a misplaced gesture of respect for an old soldier—an old comrade, possibly—on the killer’s part? Or was it a derisive two-fingered salute to the forces of law and order?

The feet? The shoes? There was a message there for him, if he could just—

Gradually, a dark thought began to form, a burgeoning thundercloud. Thoday attempted to reason it away. It grew larger and more ominous. It was staring him in the face. Glowering at him.

He scooped up both socks and both shoes in his hands and went to find the morgue assistant.

“I say! You offered to let me take a gander at the corpse again? That would be okay? Fine! I wonder, could you also help me with a little experiment?”

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Cambridge, Monday, the 19th of May, 1924

He heard them from afar. Trilling laughter and shouted commands. Even the swiftly stifled shriek of someone falling out of a tree perhaps.

“So sorry I’m late, vicar!” Redfyre excused himself as he stood for a moment shoulder to shoulder with the clergyman at the gate, watching in dismay as half a dozen ladies crashed about the place, making it their own. “I say, have I missed the party?”

“I’ll introduce you to their commander,” whispered Reverend Turnbull. “This is just the forward reconnaissance unit. You are going to stay, aren’t you?”

“I’ll show my face. Perhaps steady the ladder while they climb. I’d be better prepared if you told me what they’re trying to achieve.”