DI Yarrow lit another cigarette with the Zippo lighter that he had been given by Philip Hardie, an injured Canadian RAF pilot. They had become friends during their recuperation at Belllington Hall; the lungs of the Canadian had been so badly damaged by smoke inhalation when his Boulton Paul Defiant night fighter had been shot down in flames during the London Blitz that he had been advised to give up smoking. His rear gunner had not survived the attack.
Yarrow then returned to the pile of statements stacked up on his desk, next to an ash-tray already overflowing with cigarette stubs and ash.
Yarrow’s eyes were red raw from the incessant cigarette smoke, tired from repeated readings of the 3 dozen or so statements, reading and re-reading them, searching for that nugget of information previ
