Chief Superintendent Wycliffe suspected foul play -- but it was difficult to prove. For one thing he didn't have a body, only a revolver, picked out of the estuary mud one morning with five chambers loaded and one fired.

It was when he went to follow up a tenuous lead -- at an antique shop that had been closed for three days -- that he discovered his body -- one body, one missing person, and a whole host of clues that pointed to an obvious solution.

But Wycliffe had his own particular instincts about the case and was determined to follow them, even when it meant bringing in the Navy to search for a missing ship, and a missing body.