Sentence The Fivehundredandseventysixth

Detective Inspector Alex Ferguson accompanied by Detective Sergeant Donald MacInnes and Detective Constable Wallace Williams entered Wilton Street on foot at 9pm and approached the house; this was not their regular patch, this district on the North side of the Clyde, but all three were Glasgow Boys, born and bred and knew every part of their home town – they had all, at some stage in their career, walked the streets of Maryhill on Beat Patrol and knew the lie of the land as well as any ghillie knows the estate he works, and all were aware of the suspicions around the first Mrs

MacDonald's death and the whispers of defenestration so they walked confidently but warily towards the house they sought; the light were on, someone was at home, so the Inspector rapped the door firmly and a few moments later it was opened by the slightly kooky looking woman the two O'Hare boys had described; she didn't look surprised at their arrival and indicated that they should enter and that their quarry was in the front room, which Ferguson entered and he came, at last, face to face with The Intruder AKA; the man was seated by the fire with a glass of whisky in his hand; he was startled – that showed in his eyes, although the rest of his face appeared impassive although a lambent smile played around his lips and Ferguson recalled a piece of juvenilia he had written in his youth, shortly after he had joined the City of Glasgow Police: 'beware the man whose smiles are free, for that man does not smile at me, he saves his smiles for such as thee, and he shall swing from yonder tree!'