'Mr Gabb, your son did not commit suicide. He was murdered.'
Simon Gabb has everything - or so it seems: a beautiful house, a big
estate, a flourishing business and two sons, both endowed with evident
capacity for carrying on the family firm. The moody Giles is brilliant
and inventive; the married Basil is dependable and efficient. And yet
something is manifestly wrong. A secret invention, on which his business
was engaged for the government, becomes known to those who had no right
to know it. But how and where did the leak occur? It is a conundrum
which creates suspicion and dissension within the family and engulfs
everyone who dine with them one Saturday night. Giles has become
friendly with young Arden and Billy Laforte, who were the previous
owners of Herons' Hall until their father's death left them penniless,
and who now rent one of the lodges on the property. When Giles brings
the Lafortes to the Hall for the first visit to their old home in three
years, the Gabbs hardly know what to expect. Yet the Lafortes seem
completely at ease, so when a fierce storm develops, Mrs Gabb insistes
they stay the night.
The next morning, Gabb's elder son, Giles, is found dead in a motorboat
on the lake, his body propped up by a shotgun. But it is soon apparent
that the gun was not the cause of death, nor did he die in the boat; a
skilled marksman shot him from a distance. Superintendent Mallett is
assigned the case and must deal with the smouldering emotions the flare
up between everyone present that evening.
