A Public Body — Raymond Flynn

One cocked hat, one red robe trimmed with black rabbit and one silver-gilt
chain with a gold and enamel knobbly bit at the end...

Eddathorpe's mayoral regalia has disappeared in the possession of
Councillor William 'Klondike Bill' Lynch, a colourful drunk who has devised
the perfect revenge on Eddathorpe's new mayor, his much-detested second
wife Muriel.

But the joke's not funny when Muriel Lynch turns up dead, with the regalia -
and Klondike Bill - carefully arranged in the next room. And less funny still
when Robert Graham's least-loved superior officer arrests Bill for a murder
he probably didn't commit...