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a man who seemed to be staring at me. We had chosen a pub overlooking the harbor, with tables outside, which allowed us to bathe in the sun and watch the yachts drift in and out of the marina every time the swing bridge lifted. It was a pretty place to while away a couple of hours, with eighteenth-century houses lining cobbled wharfs and battered trawlers unloading crates full of monkfish and crab, but Sam started bellyaching about the landlord who kept coming to the door to look at me, and my pleasure in the peaceful scene evaporated. I was wearing dark glasses and I studied the man secretly from behind my lenses. He was as lean and hungry as he had always been and undoubtedly as vicious. But he was better looking than Joseph Stalin ... or Joseph Stalin's brother...
 

INCIDENT REPORT
    Date: 15.11.78
Time: 11:15
Officer in charge: PS Drury, Richmond Police
Incident: Authorized entry to 30 Graham Road, Richmond, following the death of the owner, Miss Ann Butts. Neighbors had reported a number of cats trapped inside the property. No next of kin was available.
Officers attending: PS Drury, PC Andrew Quentin. Also in attendance: RSPCA Inspectors: John Howlett, Tony Barrett
    Entry to the property was gained via the front door with a Yale key that Miss Butts was wearing on a string around her neck at the time of her death. The house was very cold with no central-heating provision. There were two gas fires in each of the downstairs rooms, but neither was lit at the time of entry. None of the windows was open, although a small casement in the back cloakroom was insecurely fastened due to a broken fixing.
    The officers had been informed by neighbors that there were at least twenty cats inside the premises, and the smell of cats' urine in the front hallway was overpowering. The conditions inside the house were squalid and untidy-in particular the downstairs cloakroom and the upstairs bathroom where neither toilet had been flushed and soiled paper was lying on the floors. Human feces was found in the two downstairs rooms. Boxes of empty vodka bottles were stacked against the kitchen walls.
    The smell of cats' urine in the kitchen was particularly bad. Litter from a tray had been scattered across the linoleum floor and used indiscriminately by the animals. The RSPCA inspectors expressed concern that Miss Butts had wedged a small chest of drawers against the cat flap, which she had agreed to install after a previous visit from them. Numerous food and water bowls lined the edges of the floor, but all were empty.
    A search of the cupboards in the kitchen revealed inadequate provisions, both for Miss Butts herself and the colony of cats in her care. There was little in the way of tinned or boxed food, although there were fifteen pints of milk in her fridge and some raw meat, mostly chicken. "Reduced price" stickers suggested Miss Butts had acquired the goods cheaply, although subsequent inquiries at a local supermarket provided information that she picked over "binned" goods in order to obtain cat food free.
    There were two downstairs rooms, excluding the kitchen and cloakroom, and the doors to both were open. These rooms had also been fouled by the animals, although to a lesser extent than the kitchen. In the front sitting room, three dead cats were found under a pile of cushions in a corner. In the opinion of John Hewlett (RSPCA) all three had been dead lor a minimum of four days. Two of them, both toms, had little or no fur on their faces and severe scratches to their bodies, and appeared to have died from untended wounds inflicted during a fight. The third, also a tom, had lost most of its fur and had died from a broken neck. Two more dead tomcats were discovered upstairs in Miss Butts's bedroom, wrapped in towels and placed in the wardrobe. Both were severely undernourished, shorn of fur and had broken necks.
    The doors to all the upstairs rooms were closed. Five live cats, all toms, were found trapped in the back bedroom. The animals