It's 1946 and Macdonald's friends, The Hoggetts, are up to their eyeballs in end of harvest tasks: fences have to be mended, outbuildings repaired, woodpiles restocked, and fields cleaned up and readied for winter. These tasks necessitate walking around the whole property, taking stock of one's things and their condition. While doing this, Mr. Hoggett notices strange things: things missing, a woodpile toppled over, ash and old, burned food cans in the fireplace in their "cottage" [an "outbuilding" next to the river that friends and relations use when visiting in the summer, where kids can play, fish and get out of the city and get into nature], his favorite old coat missing from the barn...all inconsequential events by themselves but taken together, imply someone making themselves too comfortable with their things and on their land. But, aside from the loss of stuff so tatty that even rag and bone men wouldn't take them, nothing seriously criminal has happened. Yet Mr Hoggett--who is featured in earlier Macdonald mysteries, has decided that he's not too bad at the sleuthing business and so decides that something very sinister is happening. Mrs. Hoggett, being a practical farmer's wife, thinks that the family children who visited in the summer didn't clean up properly, or lost things, or moved things so they could play dress up and so assuming crimes have taken place is ridiculous. But, she suggests teasingly, perhaps he should call up his Scotland Yard friend who can race out and track down his moldy old coat. ("It's a really good coat!" Mr. Hoggett laments. "It was MOLDY!" says Mrs. Hoggett. Mr. Hoggett half wonders if SHE got rid of it when he wasn't looking. She won't even dignify that with an answer.) So, he decides he WILL call up his London policeman pal to find out what he thinks of it all. And if he gets to sit by the fire and jaw with Macdonald, all the better.
Conveniently, a petty crook who Scotland Yard had been keeping track of on the theory that a small fish lead to big fish, has slipped his tail and was last seen heading west--all the excuse Macdonald needs to spend more time in his favorite place--where he STILL hasn't purchased farm property! (Each time he visits he moans about how much land costs-well, it ain't getting cheaper!) Once he shows up and hears Mr. Hoggett's recitation of facts, he sets out to meet with every local who claims that they, too, have had something stolen: a leaky pair of boots, a hat that was on a scarecrow, a few old tins of beans, some really nice fishing line, moth-eaten drapes kids were using for dressup...and this is what perks up Macdonald's 6th sense for evil: a pair of "iron dogs" taken from Hoggett's cottage. [No one explains what "iron dogs" are but I gather from the things the characters say that they are heavy iron things that are usually in a fireplace to keep logs up off the floor. I would call that a chimney grate.] ANYWAY: The reason these iron dogs pique Macdonald's interest is that all the rest can be explained by tramps or travelors crossing the country and taking things they need to keep warm, or eat or sleep comfortably, or kids playing with things and not putting them back, or simply poor memories of what things one owns or where one actually left them. But none of those explanations account for missing iron dogs: a tramp would never schlep a pair of iron dogs around while trekking across country. And if a travelor wanted to steal things to sell for cash, there were dozens of much more valuable things they could have stolen (tools, say), but didn't. So why would someone want really heavy not valuable pair of iron dogs? Hmmm...and then Macdonald has one of those brain waves he's always having and asks if anyone has gone missing recently. Nope, not so's you'd notice. Any strangers been hanging around or passing through? Just the usual sorts..but wait! There was that odd city fellow who pretended to be local and who fits the description of the crook who fled London! After weeks spent wandering across fields in the daytime and hanging around pubs getting sloshed at night, he just up and vanished!
Macdonald quickly realizes that he's too old for the sort of larking about that this mystery is going to require so he calls back to London and asks for Reeves to come up to help out. We last saw Reeves in Checkmate to Murder, the young copper who loves nothing more than leaping over fences, scaling walls, running across rooftops and--best of all--nabbing bad guys and hauling them away. Of course Reeves is keen and promises to get there as fast as 1946 transportation will allow. Macdonald is relieved but also concerned: Reeves is a dyed in the wool Cockney. How is he going to handle this collection of back of the beyond locals who don't take kindly to strangers?
It turns out that Macdonald's fears were completely misplaced and Reeves takes to Lancashire like a sheep to a field of "bent grass". And what about the locals, how do they feel about Reeves? Well, Reeves does two things to win them over: (1) he incorporates "champion!" into every conversation which makes him friends with the menfolk; and (2) he insists on taking over cooking the "farm breakfasts" for himself and Macdonald and on cleaning up, lightening Mrs. Hoggett's To Do load significantly, which makes her very fond of him. (Breakfasts include: 6 farm eggs, half a loaf of homemade bread, fresh coffee from a giant pot, farm honey, farm butter and one pound bacon each. This meal is to last them to "tea" (which is served around 5 pm), which features pretty much the same food except tea instead of coffee, cheese instead of bacon, and a fat slice of "seed cake" (whatever that is). By my calculations at least 4 loaves of homemade bread are eaten every day by just 4 people. If Macdonald planned to miss tea (because he was going to be out in the fields or in the woods looking for clues), Mrs. Hoggett would pack up a GIANT "snack" for him--an entire meat pie, several apples, boiled eggs, and cheese.
So Macdonald and Reeves set out to examine the river (the Lune), up and down the shore, mile after mile, looking for a suitable place to hide evidence of a crime. Finally they find the perfect spot: right at a bend, under a willow tree that is growing over and within the river, there is a spot that is always at least a few feet under the water, even during the dryest months. So into the water they go and finally they find it: a human-sized object wrapped in old curtains, tied up with fishing line, and weighted down with iron dogs. Once reinforcements come out, they can begin the nasty business of pulling the thing out, unwrapping it, and finding the missing London petty thief. But who did it and why? The local police are convinced this is the work of a big city gang who bumped off someone who double crossed them. But Macdonald is convinced that it must be someone who lives locally as otherwise how could they know about that spot in the river, or where to find the necessary bits and bobs that were used to conceal the corpse? And yet...it couldn't have been someone VERY local as they would have known to not mess with a farmer's wood pile or leave a mess of ash and food cans in a fireplace.
And then there is that slightly unhinged artist renting out a farm house so he can find inspiration to paint (but is really hiding from military service). Macdonald looks through his stunning (but disturbing) portraits stacked all over his place and finds...a painting of the dead man! Add in a family of "potters" (which is the local term for Gypsies or Travelors) who leave trails through woods and over fields by tying tiny bits of colored fabric--the same fabric that was used to wrap a corpse--to branches, trails that pop up and then disappear just before other crimes are discovered. And then the very nervous wife of the leader of the potters (who, it turns out, is on the run from a wealthy family and using her potter life to hide until she suddenly disappears without a trace) turns out to have borne twins years ago and given them up for adoption and now they're exactly the same age as the London crook and the painter! Coincidence? Hardly! And then there's Mr. Shand, the wealthiest landowner in the county, nosing around, always popping up where no one wants him, hell bent on convincing Macdonald that there is nothing to see and that he should just head on back to London where he belongs--what's he hiding?
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