CHAPTER 15
THE OUTSIDE JOBIt was almost three o’clock when the Inspector, who had made the library his headquarters, neared the end of his investigations at Socrates Close for the day. Mr Bowditch and a police photographer had completed their work on the footprint, and now stood beside the Inspector contemplating an array of shoes on the ground before them. Stanislaus had procured a pair from every member of the household, including the two Christmases, father and son, who lived in a small cottage on the edge of the estate.
At the moment matters were at a deadlock. The Inspector was depressed, the photographer puzzled and the irrepressible Bowditch quite unable to restrain his amusement.
‘Well,’ he said, ‘we’ve got a metric photograph and we’ve got a plaster cast. Here are the measureme
