home, not as
anything remarkable, but just as one mentions an item of gossip. The
only one who appears to have attached any meaning to the affair was
Jetson's youngest daughter, then a girl of eighteen. She asked one or
two questions about the man, and, during the evening, slipped out by
herself and ran round to the Hepworths. She found the house empty. At
all events, she could obtain no answer, and the place, back and front,
seemed to her to be uncannily silent.

Jetson called the next morning, something of his daughter's uneasiness
having communicated itself to him. Mrs. Hepworth herself opened the
door to him. In his evidence at the trial, Jetson admitted that her
appearance had startled him. She seems to have anticipated his
questions by at once explaining that she had had news of an unpleasant
nature, and had been worrying over it all night. Her husband had been
called away suddenly to America, where it would be necessary for her to
join him as soon as possible. She would come round to Jetson's office
later in the day to make arrangements about getting rid of the house
and furniture.

The story seemed to reasonably account for the stranger's visit, and
Jetson, expressing his sympathy and promising all help in his power,
continued his way to the office. She called in the afternoon and
handed him over the keys, retaining one for herself. She wished the
furniture to be sold by auction, and he was to accept almost any offer
for the house. She would try and see him again before sailing; if not,
she would write him with her address. She was perfectly cool and
collected. She had called on his wife and daughters in the afternoon,
and had wished them good-bye.

Outside Jetson's office she hailed a cab, and returned in it to Laleham
Gardens to collect her boxes. The next time Jetson saw her she was in
the dock, charged with being an accomplice in the murder of her husband.

* * *

The body had been discovered in a pond some hundred yards from the
unfinished end of Laleham Gardens. A house was in course of erection
on a neighbouring plot, and a workman, in dipping up a pail of water,
had dropped in his watch. He and his mate, worrying round with a rake,
had drawn up pieces of torn clothing, and this, of course, had led to
the pond being properly dragged. Otherwise the discovery might never
have been made.

The body, heavily weighted with a number of flat-irons fast