Our new alternator securely mounted, we set off again on the North Oxford Canal, past the outskirts of Rugby. We stopped just north of town, hoping to pick up some groceries at Newbold, but the one grocery store is being remodeled, so we ended up going to the local pub for dinner. There was a piano in the Gents, lurking behind the baby changing table.

Do the locals in Newbold enjoy a good sing-song while relieving themselves? Is there a string quartet in the Ladies?

Or perhaps the piano crawled in there to die, outcompeted by a big screen TV or pub quizzes?

Could it be something more sinister? If you open the top and look inside, is there one piano wire missing? The very piano wire that was used to garrote the bishop in the library? Of course, one glance at the piano and Miss Marple would know at once who committed the terrible crime, so the villain had hidden it in the one place Miss Marple will never look… the men’s room of the village pub!

Yes, that must be it.