"I intend shortly to produce your murderer. Please advise all interested."
In kind with the way Sir Arthur Conan Doyle portrays Scotland Yard investigators, Elton gives Kingsley a particular relish for the mystery of his work. Kingsley works an investigation entirely privately, choosing only to reveal as much information as necessary to his superiors and other persons concerned in the case. When he feels sufficiently ready to prove his case, he dramatically tells Shannon to prepare.
"Any drink, any meal, any girl, any time."
This is Captain Shannon's motto. He's a man of no empathy, often openly using people for the satisfaction of using them, not even because he needs something from them specifically. To him, life is open to be exploited by him and him alone. He considers himself exceptionally qualified for both his post and for his exploits.
"Kingsley watched her disappear from the room, wondering if his heart would break. Logic inofrmed him that of course it would not. The heart was no more than a muscle, a pump which distributed blood about the body; it had nothing whatsoever to do with a man's emotions. But if that was the case, why did it ache so?"
Elton describes Kingsley's romance with about as much irony as Kingsley himself approaches it. Kingsley doesn't take his romantic relationships seriously, preferring to surrender to the juvenile indulgence of sentiment. Constantly framing his emotions as a battle between feeling and logic, Kingsley approach romance from a narcissistic perspective.
". . . He was damned if he was going to water down his arguments simply to satisfy the preference of the mob for dogma and ignorance."
Kingsley, as a result of his profession, devotes himself nearly entirely to logical pursuits. Also due to his profession, he spends most of his time in community with fellow government employees and agents, meaning he has no real frame of reference for the general population. In his opinion, he's far superior to the average person, so he interprets every public appearance as a trial of his intelligence.
