Coffin on the Water

Coffin on the Water
Gwendoline Butler

Detective Constable John Coffin investigates the murder of a young woman, whose body is found floating in the Thames with a sinister note attached to her. A gripping crime novel from one of the most universally praised English mystery writers, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie.In 1946, newly promoted detective-constable John Coffin arrives in Greenwich to take up his post. Soon after, the body of a young woman floats down the Thames to South London.It quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary murder: the victim has been strangled, stabbed and mutilated. Attached to the body is a note reading "Present for my mother," a reference to former actress Rachel Esthart, whose son drowned under mysterious circumstances 17 years previously, and who has just received a postcard promising an imminent gift from the boy, whose death she has never acknowledged.Then two other bodies are found in the river, murdered in the same brutal way, and Coffin has a multiple murder case on his hands…

GWENDOLINE BUTLER

Coffin on the Water

Copyright (#ulink_ef42e322-c3a6-537f-afd4-78b9af387dfc)

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Harper

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published by William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd, 1986

Copyright © Gwendoline Butler 1986

Gwendoline Butler asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library

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HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780006176305

Ebook Edition © JUNE 2014 ISBN: 9780007544646

Version: 2017-04-25

Dedication (#ulink_a978b1f3-ea1a-5fbe-8c63-34c956d44e75)

To J.K.M.

Contents

Cover (#u85a5b375-1846-5464-b139-8265ad98528e)

Title Page (#u1614da8a-42fb-5652-a229-5aa02f4ede79)

Copyright (#ulink_0b142d37-665f-5e87-b1ab-a50d1f8daed9)

Dedication (#ulink_c8f62b87-e11c-5f7d-a9cc-0cb033a02183)

Chapter 1: The Delivery (#ulink_54dc1d00-7ce0-5863-8333-d3ff0ebd5415)

Chapter 2: The Shape of the Murderer (#ulink_9ae0180b-383f-5828-8e58-cc6dc3a33961)

Chapter 3: The Stance of the Murderer (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 4: The Feet of the Murderer (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 5: Following the Feet of the Murderer (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6: The Neck of the Murderer (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7: The Neck Feels the Rope (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8: The Hands of the Murderer (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9: The Work of the Murderer’s Hands (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10: A Sight of the Murderer’s Hands (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11: The Way the Murderer Walked (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12: The Face of the Murderer (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publishers (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_2379f9b6-33eb-5dc3-869f-526a4b43f1df)

The Delivery

It was the biggest feast since the feeding of the five thousand, or so it was felt locally in Greenwich, and their outliers, the Hythe and the Wick. In the spring of 1946 the General Assembly of the United Nations was entertained to a banquet in the Painted Hall of the Royal Naval College. Premier Attlee welcomed them. The feast was austere, in tune with the rationed times: a soup, game, and a pudding, but the wines were good.

Present, in a purely professional capacity and not eating, were Chief Superintendent Dander, and Inspectors Warwich and Banbury. Also there were a troupe of young detectives-in-training, and among them John Coffin and Alex Rowley.

Also present was a murderer-to-be, like a bridegroom in waiting.

The bodies came later.

The bodies came drifting in, delivered by the river, bearing a greeting card as if they were a birthday present. The river is a part of this story; the river supported the bodies, carrying them on the tide to their appointed destination. A body dropped on a rising tide in the river somewhere as yet unknown, between Deptford and Greenwich, to be carried up river, then back by the ebbing water towards Fidder’s Reach where it will be deposited on the mud on schedule. Or so the killer thought.

Looked at later, as through the eyes of John Coffin, young detective still on probation, it was a hell of a journey they made for the hell of a purpose.