A Voss and Pike Casefile: The Early Days
Section 23: What Albert Saw
"Twenty past eleven," said Albert. "Her chair came along the quay slowly, under the one lamp that works. A man was walking beside her. Tall, pale coat, bareheaded, silver hair. He took his glasses off while he was talking and polished them on a handkerchief, the way a man does when he's deciding whether to be patient. They talked a good while." He turned his cup in its saucer. "Then he went round behind her, as if to offer a hand. I thought, how kind. And I went to put the kettle on, because I'm eighty-one and I do put the kettle on. And when I came back there was only the lamp."
"Did you ring anyone?"
"I know what they write about a man who rings in the night about a lamp," said Albert quietly. "I'm sorry, love. I've been sorry since six o'clock."
At 11.20pm an elderly witness saw Marian under the single working lamp with a tall, silver-haired man who polished his glasses while he spoke - testimony easily dismissed because a council form has already filed its witness as "confused".
By sitting down and listening first, you've been given the witness a council form had already filed as unreliable - and Albert has decided you can be trusted with it.