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grab his passport and driving license before vanishing into the night?
    While the police were locating this property and the one in Eaton Row, Lucan was driving the Corsair through the cold London night. His own Mercedes, with its hood cold and its battery as dead as Sandra Rivett, had been found in Elizabeth St., so at that stage, no one knew what vehicle Lucan was driving. He would have been careful not to run a red light or attract attention because the steering wheel, the gear shift and door were covered with bloodstains, and in the trunk was a length of lead pipe wrapped in surgical tape, identical to the murder weapon the police had already found in Belgrave St.
    By half past 12, Lucan was driving into the grounds of the executive home of two friends, Ian and Susan Maxwell-Scott, in the little Sussex town of Uckfield, 16 miles from the south coast and 44 miles from Knightsbridge. Ian had been playing backgammon at the Clermont and had decided to stay up “in town” as he’d had a few drinks. Susan was already in bed, but she went down to let Lucan in.

    Lord Lucan route after murder
    She knew at once that something was wrong. The usually immaculately tidy earl looked rough, his hair uncombed, and he had what looked like a “wet patch” on one hip of his trousers. As she poured him a stiff Scotch, he said, “I’ve been through the most nightmarish experience. It’s so incredible I don’t know whether you or anyone else will believe it.” He told her a story which strained credulity at the time and has ever since.
    Lucan then rang his mother—this was the call the Dowager received in the presence of Constable Beddick—and Susan Maxwell-Scott heard Lucan say, “No, I won’t speak to [the police] now. Tell them that I’ll ring in the morning.”
    Next, the disheveled Lucan called the Shand Kydds, his brother and sister-in-law. They were not in, so Lucan accepted Susan’s offer of a pen and paper and wrote a letter:
    “Dear Bill, The most ghastly circumstances arose tonight which I briefly described to my mother…” and it ended, “I will… lie doggo [low] for a bit but I am only concerned for the children. If you can manage it I want them to live with you… V [Veronica] has demonstrated her hatred for me in the past and would do anything to see me accused. For George and Frances to go through life knowing their father had stood in the dock for attempted murder would be too much. When they are old enough to understand, explain to them the dream of paranoia and look after them, Yours ever, John.”
    He then wrote a second letter, again to Bill Shand Kydd, relating specifically to finances. A sale of family silver was coming up at the famous London auction house of Christie’s on November 27, and it would pay off Lucan’s bank overdrafts. The note ended, “The other creditors can get lost for the time being, Lucky.”
    Susan Maxwell-Scott made them both a cup of coffee and promised to post the letters for him. She tried to get him to stay the night, as she was clearly worried about him and the whole situation. Lucan refused, saying he had to get back to sort things out. Then he said he’d be in touch soon, as soon as he talked to the police; he thanked her, kissed her cheek and drove away into the Sussex night.
    That was the last that anyone, apparently, saw of Lord Lucan.
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Chapter 8: Lord Lucan, in the Basement, with a Lead Pipe
    So what was the story that John Lucan told his mother and Susan Maxwell-Scott, which he had hinted at in his first letter to Bill Shand Kydd?
    Not content to let his private detectives do the snooping for him, Lucan was in the habit of watching the house in Belgrave St. himself, either from his Mercedes or on foot. On the night of November 7, he had been passing the house when he witnessed a fight going on in the basement. When the Dowager Lady Lucan first relayed this to the police in her official statement, she used the word “driving,” and Ranson’s