Roger Downes

In the novel The A.B.C. Murders, Roger Emmanuel Downes is a school master at Highfield School for Boys. He left his seat at the Regal cinema in Doncaster after the end of the show, he found his way blocked by a man slumped in his seat. He could not rouse him and summoned the commissionaire Jameson. They discovered that the man, later identified as George Earlsfield, was dead, stabbed in the back.

After interviewing Downes, Colonel Anderson commented that Downes must consider himself a lucky man. He is of the same build and height as the dead man and wearing a woolen scarf just like him. In fact Downes was seated just next to him but had moved one seat away to be in front of an empty seat. Anderson believed that Downes, being "D" was the intended victim in Doncaster.