12 August 2026
Wednesday. A guest in a wheelchair, Annika, came to the desk tonight with five friends and asked to be framed for murder with them. I wished very much to say yes.
I could not. The hotel cannot take a wheelchair, and I will not pretend otherwise; a casebook that pretends is no casebook at all. I was ashamed of the hotel for a moment, and told it so, and it did not answer, being a hotel.
But the basement under Hay Street is a large place with a great many cases in it, and several of them can take a wheelchair. The people at the desk know which, and they helped the six of them choose another adventure along the corridor that they could all go into together. I did not ask which. A good inspector knows when not to investigate.
Annika promised that if the hotel is ever rebuilt, she will be the first suspect through the door. I have written her name at the top of a fresh page.
— Insp. A. Brochard, Gendarmerie
