Timetable of Death (Inspector Robert Colbeck 12)

1859. Two children dash past gravestones playing hide-and-seek. A freshly dug grave should provide the ideal hiding place, if it weren't for an unscheduled body occupying the spot.The body is that of Vivian Quayle, director of the Midland Railway and pillar of the community, whose mysterious death baffles local police and necessitates Scotland Yard's assistance. As Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming piece together the victim's final moments, and suspects and motives multiply, a gruesome picture emerges. This is a case only the Railway Detective can solve. 1859. Two children dash past gravestones playing hide-and-seek. A freshly dug grave should provide the ideal hiding place, if it weren't for an unscheduled body occupying the spot. The body is that of Vivian Quayle, director of the Midland Railway and pillar of the community, whose mysterious death baffles local police and necessitates Scotland Yard's assistance. As Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming piece together the victim's final moments, and suspects and motives multiply, an unpleasant picture emerges. This is a case only the Railway Detective can solve Young Imogen Burnhope and her maid Rhoda board a non-stop train to Oxford to visit her Aunt Cassandra, who waits on the platform at Oxford station where the train terminates, to greet them. Only they never arrive. All the passengers alight but the two women are nowhere to be seen. The train is searched and the coachman swears he saw them board onto first class, but they seem to have vanished into thin air. The Railway Detective must unravel the mystifying web of their disappearance before Imogen and Rhoda vanish into oblivion for good. 1859. St Mary's Church, Spondon. A little girl playing hide-and-seek jumps into a freshly-dug grave to find a dead man already occupying it. It is the body of Cedric Norton, a senior director of the Midland Railway. Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming travel to Derbyshire to investigate.