The Case of the Christmas Goose Club

A publican opens his Christmas savings tin to count out the goose money. The £14 is gone. The lock is undamaged. Four people had access.

An empty Victorian brass-bound savings tin on a shelf, the lid open and the latch faintly bent.

Section I

The Scene

Interior of The Anchor and Crown public-house, gas-lit December evening, the savings tin on a shelf behind the bar with a sprig of holly above the door.

Hand-drawn floor plan of the public-house, marking the bar counter, savings-tin shelf, cellar entrance, kitchen passage, Pyke's residence above, and the brewery off-map. — The ground in question.

Setting: The Anchor and Crown, a public-house in Stepney, East London
Time: Tuesday, 19 December 1893 - four days before the Goose Club share-out
Weather: Cold; a fog hanging over the river; a carol-singer at the corner
Atmosphere: Gas-lit bar, sawdust floor, the smell of beer and December coal-smoke; the savings tin sits on a shelf behind the bar where every regular can see it; a sprig of holly nailed above the door.

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