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assistant
housekeeper to her mother. A friendship with young Oswyn developed into a
clandestine relationship and by the time her mother knew of this secret love
affair, her beautiful young daughter was pregnant. She explained to Alice her
relation to young Oswyn and how the baby's father would have to be kept secret
even from the members of the household. It was to protect young Oswyn that
Alice coaxed the young farmhand to her bed, so he would now be the source of
whispering by the staff.”
    Vera continued. “Oswyn saw
them in bed. She may have arranged it so to help break their relationship. He
confronted her in the library next day. The library was on the top floor and a
stairs led out onto the flat roof above. It was here that they had spent many
an hour on hot summer evenings making love beneath a canopy of stars,
shamelessly naked in the moonlight. He followed her out onto the roof. The conversation
that followed was supposedly overheard by a staff member who remained nameless.
She told him all her mother had related to her. Upset, he held her by the shoulders
and shook her. ‘This must be a lie contrived to break up their relationship. I
don’t believe you.”
    “But my mother wouldn’t lie
to me about something like that.”
    He felt his pride draining
from him, this wonderful world of love and lust was suddenly taken from his
life. He pulled her close to him.
    “No.” she shouted and as she pushed
him away, she stumbled backwards, her lower limbs catching the wall of the
parapet and she went toppling over. His mind took on a hazy blankness for how
long he didn’t know. Until the commotion below, the anguish of crying and
screams of shock brought him to his senses. He left the house and went
wandering through the woods.
     After Vera had finished her
account they left the restaurant and Henry walked her back to the shipping
office and then headed for Scotland Yard.
     He was hoping Vincent might
have the file on the Oswyn Welland case. He thought there might be a lot more
that Vera hadn’t told him. He climbed two flights of stairs to Vincent's
office. It was a small room tucked away at the back of the building with an
unremarkable view of a drab office block. He knocked and walked in. Vincent was
reclining in a leather armchair alongside the open window dozing fitfully.
Henry coughed loudly, waking him with a start.
    “You could give a man a heart
attack doing things like that!”
    “Sorry to disturb your
siesta.”
    “You’re forgiven, but you
must realize,” he said jocularly, “us old retired chaps need our little
afternoon nap.”
     “I thought I’d drop by and
say hello. I know it’s a bit soon to expect any developments from Tom, but
would you think there is any chance of seeing the file on the Oswyn Welland
case?”
    Vincent tapped a red folder
lying on the desk. “Here it is. I’ve been going through it since early morning
and cannot see anything that could connect it to your Shirley’s murder. Now I’d
like you to study it and see can you come up with anything I might have
missed.” He handed the file to Henry and stood up stretching himself. “I’m
going out for a little constitutional stroll, will be about an hour; would you
like me to send you up a cup of coffee or tea?”
    “No thanks, I’ve only just
had lunch.”
    It wasn’t a large file and it
took Henry less than half an hour to read through it thoroughly. There was
nothing he could find even if it were proved Oswyn had pushed her, to connect
this to Shirley's murder. Alice Whittle had been in the early stages of pregnancy
according to the autopsy report. She had fallen onto railings and suffered
terrible injuries, but nothing to suggest they were anything similar to the
injuries on Shirley’s body. The verdict was accidental death through
misadventure. This is amazing how it could have suggested she might have been
climbing around the roof parapet and fallen off. My goodness he thought as he
closed the file, some of