‘I suppose I adore you. And I suppose I hate you – impersonally, of course, A.L.’ News of the murder broke when Hugh Stanton reached for the phone. Aston Lothbury was lying dead in a flat occupied by his glamorous secretary. Detective-Inspector Curwen, hurrying to the scene, was misdirected to the flat above and found a second corpse – that of a wealthy ex-Gaiety show-girl. Two flats, two murders, but – one killer? There was no lack of suspects but investigation showed that those who might have killed one, almost certainly could not have killed the other. Patiently Curwen prepared to follow a dozen possible lines, but Stanton crossed the lines and caught the killer in the tangle.