Mrs. Pargeter, a widow who is blissfully unaware that her husband may have dabbled in some illegal activities during his life, finds a skull with a bullet hole in it when a paving slab from her mansion's patio cracks in two as she walks across it. A resourceful woman, Mrs. Pargeter consults with some of the numerous aides who had been deeply trusted by her husband. All of them would do anything to help her. The characters are rather caricatured, with nicknames that are memorable. For example, Fixin' Nixon could get appointments or tickets on short notice or even if sold out, Tina the Transformer could temporarily change someone's appearance to hide their identity, Keyhole Crabbe could get into any building or safe, etc.
Mrs. Pargeter is also using her husband's contacts to locate the father of Kirstie, her gardener, who hasn't seen her father since he disappeared on her ninth birthday. As that investigation deepens, Kirstie's father seems to figure into the patio investigation. The police investigation is taking forever, but Mrs. Pargeter and her crew independently discover whose body was deposited under her patio as it was being built, why he was murdered, and the scope of a whole related web of the underworld. Mrs. Pargeter is hoping against hope that Kirstie's father is still alive and that he wasn't the murderer.
This story is light, quick, and humorous in its droll way.
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