If all had gone well, it
would have accounted for everything. After leaving Laleham Gardens
she had taken lodgings in a small house in Kentish Town under the
name of Howard, giving herself out to be a chorus singer, her
husband being an actor on tour. To make the thing plausible, she
had obtained employment in one of the pantomimes. Not for a moment
had she lost her head. No one had ever called at her lodgings, and
there had come no letters for her. Every hour of her day could be
accounted for. Their plans must have been worked out over the
corpse of her murdered husband. She was found guilty of being an
"accessory after the fact," and sentenced to fifteen years' penal
servitude.
That brought the story up to eleven years ago. After the trial,
interested in spite of himself, my friend had ferreted out some
further particulars. Inquiries at Liverpool had procured him the
information that Hepworth's father, a shipowner in a small way, had
been well known and highly respected. He was retired from business
when he died, some three years previous to the date of the murder.
His wife had survived him by only a few months. Besides Michael,
the murdered son, there were two other children--an elder brother,
who was thought to have gone abroad to one of the colonies, and a
sister who had married a French naval officer.
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