Chapter 56

The first hint of a smile appeared on Mr Campion’s face. ‘Stupendous!’ he murmured. ‘A sort of departmental store. “Don’t Miss Our Bumper Blackmail Basement. Wholesale Murder, First Floor. Kidnapping and Hosiery on Your left.”’ Mr Barber was not listening to him. His left hand still rested upon the little green-and-gold-bound children’s book. He tapped it gently with a heavy forefinger. ‘It recalls an incident which I had forgotten—an accident of twenty years ago. Coulson was the only man with whom I ever had direc…