However, recently, hotel management had hired a firm of archtects to propose renovations, and the boarded up studio workshop had clearly been discovered.
In his suite
in the Hotel California Trail, Augustus Ryland contemplated the telegram just received from Marseille.
When Ted Treharne closed his studio/workshop and left to fight overseas, the studio became a perfect place for interim storage and appraisal of jewels smuggled from the Continent. The studio entrance was up boarded up within The hotel, but Augie had discovered the back entrance that opened through the overgown garden.
During World War 2, perilous Atlantic waters and smuggling competition hindered Augie’s gang. But there was little law enforcement interest in their work; the hotel served as a gathering place for visiting gang members, and it was a comfortable living.