On Tuesday 25th March, exercising her licence to take time off, Maeve sent Eileen to Miss Hemingway with a note to say she would be absent for an hour or so in the afternoon. She met Danny outside the store, and they walked the short distance to the Grand Hotel.
The hotel seemed grand indeed to Maeve, if less so to Danny, who was familiar with all kinds of establishments as he made deliveries from Templeton’s. An endless marble floor stretched away from the door and their heels echoed loudly as they made their way to a desk. The sound of their arrival drew the attention of the man standing there, whose sleek dark hair looked as if he varnished it. He had a black moustache, thin as a blade, and the strange spectacles on a cord like those of Miss Hemingway. He twirled the cord and the light
