Cockett's Last Cock-up

Book excerpt: Chief Inspector Nigel Cockett could have retired at the age of 55, but like a fool he stayed on for that last promotion that would raise his pension just a little more. Unfortunately, just then a corpse turned up in the holding cell of his own police station. Inspector Manson, his young colleague fresh from police college—the chappy that was supposed to succeed him—seemed to think that he, Nigel, was the culprit. Just because he was the only person who had the key to the lock-up in his possession. “This won’t do at all,” the policeman thought, “I’ve been framed!” So he called his old acquaintance Daisy Hayes on the phone. She was the only real-life sleuth he’d ever met with any talent for solving murders. He begged her to help him prove his innocence: “The only thing I can say for sure is that I didn’t do it!”