Detective Sergeant Kathleen Doyle was investigating a tip she’d received about doctors who were being assaulted at a London free clinic, but—strangely enough—none of the volunteers was willing to give her a statement. Instead, her only witness offered a fanciful tale about supernatural evildoers—which was nonsense, of course; it was clearly an attempt to shift the blame to the appropriate cultural bogeyman.

Although it did seem as though there were a lot of strange things happening, and all of them at once. A shame, that she had to interrupt the investigation to attend a servant’s funeral at Trestles, but Acton felt they were obligated to go. If only she didn’t feel as though her husband was a little too eager to attend this particular funeral. . . .