MURDERER!

A word alone, printed on a slip of paper that falls from the folds of a vintage diorama. Beneath the handwriting is a small cameo, a fine quality pen and ink image of a refined middle-aged woman. When Doctor Goodier turns over the innocuous note, his astute eyes are greeted by a simple question mark.

While Harry, his police sergeant friend is standing at his side, the doctor discovers a compartment within the diorama. Inside is a handful of expertly drawn character cards. Each card bears a person's name; nothing more. That is, until Doctor Goodier examines them more closely. Along the edge of each is a series of tiny coded markings, mysterious identifications made by their anonymous donor. 

Maud Goodier, the doctor's wife, finds the subject matter of the hand-painted scenery quite macabre. Axes, razors, blood, even a hangman's noose! It's nothing like the innocent little peep-hole theatre she and her granny played with when Maud was just a child.

Quite by chance, Harry stumbles upon an abandoned patch of land at the rear of a small village cemetery. Once allocated for the remains of paupers, he finds a single headstone marked 'Orphan Children of Cathedral Gardens'. Listed beneath that heading are the names of children known to have died whilst in the care of 'Cathedral Gardens', a former Victorian asylum now derelict. To the sergeant's consternation, four of those names match the names found on the cards in the diorama.

Only when Doctor Goodier plays out the first act in the peephole theatre does he realise the enormity of their discovery.