The Franchise Affair

Robert Blair was about to knock off from a slow day at his law firm when the phone rang. It was Marion Sharpe on the line, a local woman of quiet disposition who lived with her mother at their decrepit country house, The Franchise. It appeared that she was in serious trouble: Miss Sharpe and her mother had been accused of brutally kidnapping a young woman named Betty Kane.

Miss Kane's claims seem highly unlikely, even to Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard, until she describes her alleged...