The Black Swan

In the novel The A.B.C. Murders, the Black Swan is a hotel in Doncaster. Alexander Bonaparte Cust stayed at the hotel when he went to Doncaster. Shortly after the murder at Doncaster, the hotelier Mr Ball brought his chambermaid Mary Stroud to tell the police what she had seen in one of the rooms. On the strength of this, two policemen were despatched. They came back with the hotel register showing an entry for "A B Case" or "A B Cash" (the handwriting was difficult to read). They had also search Cust's room and found a case containing many boxes of stockings.