The Thames Cargo Affair

@sherlock

The steamer's engine thrums through your boots as the fog swallows the riverbank lights. A gaunt man in a coal-stained cap leans beside you at the rail, pipe smoke curling into the damp air. "You'll forgive my saying so," he murmurs, nodding toward the porter stacking crates below, "but a man who wears new boots to load old cargo is a man worth wondering about. Keep him talking for me, would you?"