John Rutherford bookseller and sometime fiction writer discovers the bludgeoned corpse of a policeman one evening while taking a stroll in a rainstorm. The policemans overturned bicycle is what first catches Rutherfords eye. Then he sees Officer Johnsons body sprawled on the sodden ground of Phantom Coppice. Rutherford takes Johnsons bike and pedals to rural Paulsfield police station two miles away to report the crime. There he finds Sgt. Martin who initiates calls to a doctor a photographer and