Scotland Yard #2

When Inspector Farnsworth spots a pickpocket carrying a wartime identity card belonging to Captain Martin Richards—an American pilot listed as missing in action since 1944—his keen instincts tell him something doesn't add up. As Farnsworth shadows the mysterious man claiming to be Richards, he uncovers a dangerous web of espionage involving stolen military secrets, a scientist with suspicious loyalties, and clandestine radio communications hidden in an attic. Working with his colleague Chipp and armed with approval from the highest levels of government, Farnsworth devises a bold counter-intelligence gambit to turn the tables on a foreign power's spy ring.

Inspector Farnsworth of Scotland Yard arrives at a suburban house to find a man dead with a knife in his heart—and a suicide note on the desk. A petty thief has just been caught fleeing the scene, and Farnsworth's assistant assumes the case is straightforward: a burglary interrupted by an unexpected death. But before drawing conclusions, Farnsworth asks a question that changes everything, drawing on a hard lesson he learned years ago when a seemingly obvious suicide turned out to be something far darker.

When a woman is found stabbed on the roadside, Lieutenant Casey and the Sheriff suspect her husband, farmer Lyle Teak, despite his claim that she left him days ago. The investigation turns on a crucial detail: though Teak scrubbed his kitchen floor clean, blood seeped into the spaces between the boards—evidence he couldn't erase.

Detective Stephen Hammish settles into his opera box and meets tenor Ralph Tedwell, who's intrigued enough to hear a tale from the master criminologist's files—the strange case of Walter Marino, an underworld operator turned arts patron who discovered danger lurking behind the curtain. When Hammish later retrieves Tedwell backstage, he begins recounting how Marino's obsession with opera singer Juanita Espoto led to threats and a desperate scheme on a fateful December night in 1938. As the story unfolds, Marino's rage threatens to turn the opera house itself into a stage for violence.