Gwendoline Butler - A Grave Coffin

GWENDOLINE BUTLER

HarperCollins Publishers

77–85 Fulham Palace Road,

Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by

HarperCollins Publishers 1998

Copyright © Gwendoline Butler 1998

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

Cover layout design © HarperCollins Publishers 2014

Cover photographs © Shutterstock.com

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

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: 9780006510123

Ebook Edition © JULY 2014 ISBN: 9780007545452

Version: 2014–07–08

With my thanks to Dr Colin Fink for

all his help on scientific and

medical matters.

Cover

Title Page GWENDOLINE BUTLER

Copyright COPYRIGHT Copyright Dedication Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 The Key Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 The Door Opens Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Keep Reading About the Author Author’s Note Also by the Author About the Publisher HarperCollins Publishers 77–85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London W6 8JB www.harpercollins.co.uk First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 1998 Copyright © Gwendoline Butler 1998 Gwendoline Butler asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work Cover layout design © HarperCollins Publishers 2014 Cover photographs © Shutterstock.com All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books. 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: 9780006510123 Ebook Edition © JULY 2014 ISBN: 9780007545452 Version: 2014–07–08

Dedication DEDICATION Dedication Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 The Key Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 The Door Opens Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Keep Reading About the Author Author’s Note Also by the Author About the Publisher With my thanks to Dr Colin Fink for all his help on scientific and medical matters.

Prologue PROLOGUE A brief Calendar of the life and career of John Coffin, Chief Commander of the Second City of London Police. John Coffin is a Londoner by birth, his father is unknown and his mother was a difficult lady of many careers and different lives who abandoned him in infancy to be looked after by a woman who may have been a relative of his father and who seems to have acted as his mother’s dresser when she was on the stage. He kept in touch with this lady, whom he called Mother, lodged with her in his early career and looked after her until she died. After serving briefly in the army, he joined the Metropolitan Police, soon transferring to the plain-clothes branch as a detective. He became a sergeant and was very quickly promoted to inspector a year later. Ten years later, he was a superintendent and then chief superintendent. There was a bad patch in his career about which he is reluctant to talk. His difficult family background has complicated his life and possibly accounts for an unhappy period when, as he admits, his career went down a black hole. His first marriage split apart at this time and his only child died. From this dark period he was resurrected by a spell in a secret, dangerous undercover operation about which even now not much is known. But the esteem he won then was recognized when the Second City of London was being formed and he became Chief Commander of its Police Force. He has married again, an old love, Stella Pinero, who is herself a very successful actress. He has also discovered two siblings, a much younger sister and brother.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

The Key

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

The Door Opens

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Keep Reading

About the Author

Author’s Note

Also by the Author

About the Publisher

A brief Calendar of the life and career of John Coffin, Chief Commander of the Second City of London Police.

John Coffin is a Londoner by birth, his father is unknown and his mother was a difficult lady of many careers and different lives who abandoned him in infancy to be looked after by a woman who may have been a relative of his father and who seems to have acted as his mother’s dresser when she was on the stage. He kept in touch with this lady, whom he called Mother, lodged with her in his early career and looked after her until she died.

After serving briefly in the army, he joined the Metropolitan Police, soon transferring to the plain-clothes branch as a detective.

He became a sergeant and was very quickly promoted to inspector a year later. Ten years later, he was a superintendent and then chief superintendent.

There was a bad patch in his career about which he is reluctant to talk. His difficult family background has complicated his life and possibly accounts for an unhappy period when, as he admits, his career went down a black hole. His first marriage split apart at this time and his only child died.

From this dark period he was resurrected by a spell in a secret, dangerous undercover operation about which even now not much is known. But the esteem he won then was recognized when the Second City of London was being formed and he became Chief Commander of its Police Force. He has married again, an old love, Stella Pinero, who is herself a very successful actress. He has also discovered two siblings, a much younger sister and brother.