Casebook 2: The Ranikston Deceptions - 2.1[index]
Everyone must have a routine. It settles a person. So, on that day, I did what I always do. I woke to the buzzing of my alarm clock at 6.15am. Snoozed for ten more minutes. Washed and dressed. Made toast. Ate toast. Left the house.
But before I could leave the house, something strange happened to me. I put on my coat. To my surprise, it was a size too big. The coat I had worn every winter for ten years didn't fit. I took it off and looked at it. It was the same style, the same colour, as it had always been. But this was not my coat.
I reached into the pockets. There in the right breast pocket was my wallet. In the outside pocket, my keys. In the top pocket the same unused handkerchief I had kept in there for three years. I checked the contents of my wallet. It was all there. No cash missing, all credit cards present. But there was an extra card. It was a DDC Carpfather International Bank card and it was held in the name of P. Jupiter Ranikston, the famous billionaire.
A soon-to-be-familiar chill cut through me as I recognised it for what it really was: the calling card of the Sweetheart Club. A crime was being announced to me in their bizarre and meticulous fashion.