Crooks' Tours: Two

Lady Sylvia struggled with the man briefly, before knocking him to the ground with the haft of her riding crop. Unsure of what to do next, she let him flee, while she saw to the fallen figure. She had assumed that it would be the typical damsel in distress, instead, it was an elderly man with a neat moustache and traces of latin ancestry.

"I must thank you," he looked up, "you seem a most spirited young thing, Miss..."

"Lady," she lowered her eyes. "Lady Sylvia Vaughan, I'm staying with Val Tarrant at Prior's Hill Park."

"Well, I'm pleased to meet you, Lady Sylvia," the man rose to his feet, dusting himself off. "I'm Ralph Nicholson, renting the Old Rectory. Visit me, if you have the time."

"Of course," Lady Sylvia laughed. "Now, do you know the man who was attacking you?"

"It depends," the man bowed graciously. "If you mean, did I know that swine personally and oft-times share a pint down the local inn with him, then no - mostly as I don't carry pocket tests for poison everywhere with me. But if you mean, do I know who he was, then I did."

"And who was he?" the young aristocrat asked.

"Joe Perelli," the old man told her "-a vicious New York thug who decided very suddenly last month to take a holiday in Norfolk. Since when there have been five robberies committed here that answer exactly to his modus operandi."