ELSPETH BROOKE was blonde and very, very angry. And with good cause, she explained, as she showed Inspector Carter and Sergeant Graham into the livingroom of her opulent seaside home. A diamond necklace, conservatively valued at €50,000, had been stolen from her bedroom. To make matters worse, she had even heard the thief leaving the house – although he had slipped through the front door before she could catch a glimpse of him. “You see, I had been sunbathing on the terrace. Then it completely clouded over, and after about twenty minutes I felt a bit cold and came inside. That’s when I heard the footsteps going out of the house – and when I came up to my bedroom, I found the dressing-table drawer forced and the necklace gone!” Mrs. Brooke subsided into a chair and nervously fingered a ring. “The terrible thing is that only three people knew where it was,” she said.

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