‘We gave Doyle a lift in the car,’ Steve explained. ‘He was supposed to be wildly drunk, just to prove that he had all the money you were giving him as a bribe. But he wasn’t drunk at all. There was absolutely no smell of drink on the man.
‘My wife,’ Paul explained, ‘is not too keen on the smell of alcohol. But when Doyle got out of the car she did not need the window open. That was all. Quite simple, really.’
‘Bless my soul.’ Lord Westerby turned in bewilderment to Inspector Vosper. ‘I say, sergeant! Where are you?’ He wandered off to the gangplank. ‘All right, lead away.’
Steve sighed. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘I suppose that’s about it. Another Paul Temple crime solved. It’s all over bar our holiday?’ She leaned her head against his shoulder and stared out across the bay. ‘Isn’t it a beautiful night? So quiet and still, so warm.’
Paul put his arm round her and closed his eyes.
‘We’re alone now,’ said Steve. ‘There’s only Diana Maxwell down in her bunk asleep, and old Dr Stuart in a drunken coma. Don’t you find the sea romantic?’
‘Well, yes,’ he began.
‘Let’s have another drink to cheer ourselves up. And then we can bathe in the moonlight. Do you know, we’ve never bathed in the moonlight together?’
Paul yawned. ‘Darling, it’s nearly four o’clock. I’m tired. You were dozing off yourself just now—’
‘Now listen to me, Paul Temple, you’re going into that water or I’ll damn well throw you overboard! Take your choice!’
She had spoken rather loudly and somewhere beyond the harbour a dog barked. A few moments later there was a splash, and somebody cried for help. But it was late and nobody came to investigate. The dog seemed to have gone back to sleep.
About the Author
Francis Henry Durbridge was born in Hull, Yorkshire, in 1912 and was educated at Bradford Grammar School. He was encouraged at an early age to write by his English teacher and went on to read English at Birmingham University. At the age of twenty one he sold a play to the BBC and continued to write following his graduation whilst working as a stockbroker’s clerk.
In 1938, he created the character Paul Temple, a crime novelist and detective. Many others followed and they were hugely successful until the last of the series was completed in 1968. In 1969, the Paul Temple series was adapted for television and four of the adventures prior to this, had been adapted for cinema, albeit with less success than radio and TV. Francis Durbridge also wrote for the stage and continued doing so up until 1991, when Sweet Revenge was completed. Additionally, he wrote over twenty other well received novels, most of which were on the general subject of crime. The last, Fatal Encounter, was published after his death in 1998.
Also in this series
Send for Paul Temple
Paul Temple and the Front Page Men
News of Paul Temple
Paul Temple Intervenes
Send for Paul Temple Again!
Paul Temple: East of Algiers
Paul Temple and the Kelby Affair
Paul Temple and the Harkdale Robbery
Paul Temple and the Geneva Mystery
Paul Temple and the Margo Mystery
Paul Temple and the Madison Case
Light-Fingers: A Paul Temple Story (e-only)
A Present from Paul Temple (e-only)
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
http://www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8, Canada
http://www.harpercollins.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London, SE1 9GF, UK
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
http://www.harpercollins.com
Paul Temple and the Curzon Case (A Paul Temple Mystery) Page 13