Coffin Underground

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Coffin Underground
Gwendoline Butler

Scotland Yard Chief Superintendent John Coffin investigates a spate of killings at the notoriously evil No.22 Church Row. But he suspects there’s more to it than just a haunted house…From one of the most universally praised English crime writers, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie.Scotland Yard Chief Superintendent John Coffin is openly sceptical of the evil reputation of the house at No. 22 Church Row. True, the house has seen violent death over the centuries. But none of it suspicious. Until now…Coffin suspects something more than a haunted house. He sees a human, complex web of relationships, interlocking and interacting in a way he can't yet fathom, and in which people get caught up and destroyed – as they play into the game of a very clever killer.

GWENDOLINE BUTLER

Coffin Underground

Copyright (#ulink_68745395-3832-5c97-a0f7-63c8b273f347)

Published by HarperCollins Publishers,

77–85 Fulham Palace Road,

Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in 1988 by Collins

Copyright © Gwendoline Butler 1988

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2014

Cover photographs © Shutterstock.com

I have to acknowledge the help of John Kennedy Melling in providing me with material and information about fantasy games and their influence

Gwendoline Butler asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

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HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Source ISBN: 9780006178170

Ebook Edition © JULY 2014 ISBN: 9780007544691

Version: 2014–07–02

9 drops of human blood

7 grains of gunpowder

½ ounce of putrefied brain

13 mashed graveworms.

Recipe for Horror providedbyMary and Percy Bysshe Shelley

Contents

Cover (#ub66fd2d4-f8a4-562c-ac28-ed22735fbb44)

Title Page (#u7ce8a03d-f2a3-5739-b2d6-6f8c6994dda5)

Copyright (#ulink_fc9a0b39-a05c-5baa-8fab-89acdfe1478b)

Epigraph (#u9872b37d-dc05-59ee-8426-53454070aed8)

Prologue (#ulink_d36200c1-e0bd-5adc-8c78-f31736ff96cb)

Chapter One (#ulink_185e19a5-ac99-5348-9363-5e77d4d8618e)

Chapter Two (#ulink_445377f8-d016-5f68-9ce0-8888e9a7af19)

Chapter Three (#ulink_688c58f1-48f0-5c30-b9dc-1a84529a0348)

Chapter Four (#ulink_4962b241-47e0-594e-94cf-994cb0149d17)

Chapter Five (#ulink_873be6d2-9541-58a0-93fb-cc7b2c75c652)

Chapter Six (#ulink_6dc1564b-0a19-5155-90c0-02442fb369f1)

Chapter Seven (#ulink_73954970-9e0c-5d87-9e83-496d3d579591)

Chapter Eight (#ulink_88c1c181-0c05-5695-8b2c-c9d96bda98e3)

Chapter Nine (#ulink_116116e3-6d6d-5626-9e09-68cb32c4fe61)

Chapter Ten (#ulink_82c73421-29bf-5fa3-8be5-be583be0e58c)

Chapter Eleven (#ulink_fde831ee-686e-5644-bd02-2a74cd53d54d)

Chapter Twelve (#ulink_a2e0dcbd-d4d1-50df-a2ba-395ebbdb2dda)

Chapter Thirteen (#ulink_8b1cc0bf-59fa-54d6-86d5-530bb3d2da26)

Chapter Fourteen (#ulink_52aae4b3-8b46-5a0d-9dbf-3c67320a81f5)

Keep Reading (#u6e0e1d68-81ab-5920-8859-039473e8a2ae)

About the Author (#ulink_069fc11b-2518-53ff-87a6-84c5fe667cde)

Also by the Author (#ulink_c2bb31e4-4dc4-554e-a88c-9a43e5af705f)

About the Publisher (#ulink_6455ef6d-964e-5e0f-8ed3-fd0759bc684d)

Prologue (#ulink_cae06514-5835-5ad1-95dd-49dc2c16c509)

One hot day in the summer of 1974, in New York, a young girl was out shopping. She was looking for a present for her boyfriend back in England. It would soon be his birthday, he was three years older than she was, and when they had parted she had made a promise that she would send him a present. In many ways she felt very far away from him now and getting farther with every minute, but she meant to keep that promise. She had not written many letters to him, although he had sent her constant messages of a brief if loving kind. The fact that her world and his were now so very different. Her parents were working in New York, her father in the United Nations and her mother for a private consultancy, and they were living in a smart secure part of the city. She was a diplomat’s child and used to that way of life; her London boyfriend was in different circumstances altogether.

She had some errands to do for her mother in a big and famous store in Fifth Avenue (her mother shopped expensively), so that her first search for a present was in this store. This kind of shop was her natural habitat since her family had both taste and money. But today nothing took her fancy as a suitable present.

There was a reason for this, one of which she might not have been fully aware herself. She was in an odd mood, had been for some weeks now. Puberty was hitting her hard. Sex was both interesting her and perturbing her. She did not quite know how to handle it or herself. She was changing so fast that every day she felt different. It puzzled her as much as anyone.

Her parents sensed something of her emotional disturbance, but put it down to her arrival at an awkward age, in a new and exciting city. She was a clever girl, doing well at her private school. In this way New York suited her. Ambition was stirring inside her.

She strolled around the store, studying ties, shirts, small leather goods and pieces of jewellery, like gold chains such as men wear. He would like such a chain, but although well provided with money for her age, she was still a child who could not afford gold.

She wandered into the book department. No, nothing he would like there. He was not a reader. More an adventurer in life, or that was how he saw himself. But looking at the books had given her an idea. She remembered something that one of her mother’s friends in London, a distinguished man, had told her about. And hadn’t her friends at school here joked about some similar game? She poked about for what she fancied.

She could feel her heart beginning to bang. It was exciting, her idea. But no, she soon realized that this was not the sort of store in which to find what she wanted. Too staid, too conventional.

In fact, she fancied the sales assistant gave her an odd look when she asked by name for what she wanted, but this might have been her imagination. It was saleable, after all. No, they did not stock it. Well, she was not surprised.

She was a robust girl who had been through all the upheavals attendant upon the life of a diplomat’s family with vivacity and pleasure. She liked the excitement. They had a house in London, England, to which they returned at intervals. It was not a house she enjoyed living in, although she liked London. The house had a feeling about it which she noticed on her first entrance every time the family returned. After that first impact, she got used to it. Or it faded away. She would call it a house with a strong character and not all of it nice. It was a house with a history.

She might write about it in a story for her class magazine. She wanted to get one in this term if she could. It would be good for her standing amongst her peers. But there was another episode in her London life she might write about. Get it out on paper and stop thinking about it, she decided.

In the next shop, she bought a fresh pad of paper to use for her writing. Then she made her inquiry.

Oh yes, they had the game. Yes, certainly, it could be packed up ready to send overseas. The assistant was surprised. This was not the type of kid that usually bought these games. Typically, they were white, well educated and pushy. This girl was well spoken but fulfilled no other condition.

The girl adopted a sophisticated air and made all the arrangements for postage and the US customs. The assistant had given her a look of surprise, as if she wasn’t the sort of person who usually bought that kind of game, but so what?

The palms of her hands were sweating as she completed the transaction. Her imagination was excited. Various tales were going the rounds about this game in her circle. The phrase ‘Playing with Fire’ came into her mind.