Drake grips the door handle as they race towards Bow, his heart thundering in his chest. The message from Bow was brief and sparse, telling him nothing except that his Homer had taken ill at home.

Mrs Ramsay was standing anxiously in the doorway, half-in and half-out of the house, with a young police officer at her side.

"Oh, Sergeant Drake!" she cries, fluttering her handkerchief. "He's done something terrible!"

Drake's blood runs cold as he shoulders past her into the house.