About this story
A thin man is waiting outside your locked door: a body was found in his rooms this afternoon, arranged so the police would name it him. He asks for your sofa, drawn curtains and silence until the fifteenth of June, when a Greek statesman due in London must reach his meeting alive. A motorcar idles in the street below, and the porter has already been asked whether you have company.
Who you’ll meet
Franklin Scudder, the hunted American who has arranged his own reported death, half-lit in the hall of the flat he has talked his way into, with the building porter lit in the doorway behind him and no idea what he is standing next to.
How it opens
Building PorterLondon offers theaters, restaurants, and boredom in equal measure.
Building PorterAnother week of this weather, Mr Hannay, and even London may rust.
You climbed toward the flat already considering a return to southern Africa.
The corridor lamp showed a thin man waiting beside your locked door.
Richard Hannay? I need five minutes before someone sees me here.
Choose
Give me one reason to open the door.
The porter can summon the police for you.
Who told you where I live?