The Harbour Light
Veteran — the hard tier. Assume nothing the file has not proved.
Willy Bat was found at the south berth of Fox and Piglet Wharf at twenty past eight last night, face down, shot once. He was a lighterman. He was forty and he owed money.
The revolver came out of the basin this morning. It is registered to William Piglet, who owns half the wharf, who was seen with Bat by the crane minutes before, and who has been in a cell at Wapping since one o'clock. The bullet in Bat came from that gun.
He is not charged yet. That is what you are for.
Understand what you are working against. The file as it stands will hang him and every man above you is satisfied with it. Doubt will not move them and neither will a better story. Whatever you put your name to, put it in hard: only what the paper proves outright will stand, and it will have to be the whole of it. A file that raises a question leaves this exactly where it is.
Four people were on that wharf last night and all four are still in the building. You have the file the police built against Piglet. Read it before you believe it.
Who is in the house
- Bill Piglet — Half owner of the wharf. In custody at Wapping since one o'clock
- Kay Fox — Half owner of the wharf
- Ned Ratcliffe — Dock labourer, casual, nine years on the wharf
- Silas Tawny — Night gateman, twenty-two years on this wharf
You may take 3 of them into the interrogation room. Choosing which is most of the game.
Where you are
Fox and Piglet Wharf, a small river wharf on the north bank, in a wet October. The office, the gate lodge and the south berth.
The dead: Willy Bat.
Where it comes from
Grounded in R v Wallace, Liverpool Assizes, April 1931; Court of Criminal Appeal, May 1931. Never solved. Read the original. The case is original; the story it learns from is not.