4.6: News from elsewhere

There’s a bang on the door and the Minkey walks in, perhaps ‘resentfully crashes’, more like. Since the events of The Herbert Whodunnit, Alcock has always extended a welcome to him - after all, he did agree to go back to the Swan Hotel against his wishes to gather evidence - but sometimes Alcock wonders whether the Minkey exaggerates his troubles working in the pub. He seems to be a minkey made for pain.

It transpires that a very strange atmosphere has recently developed. The Barman has pulled the phone from its socket and even taken his shotgun to the cash register. There is no chance, this year, of watching the Six Nations Rugby on the television in the pub. A sharp new anti-technology ethos prevails, even in a C17 stone pub with very little of it. 

Is this an aspect of ‘the modifications’?