"Surely her family must have some idea who her friends were. There must have been someone she'd seen more of than was proper."

"Neither her sister nor her sister-in-law had any inkling that there was someone. And the friends we've spoken to tell us the same thing," Inspector Herbert replied. "On the other hand, it's more than likely that when she was with this man, she'd avoid places where she might be recognized. Otherwise there could have been gossip, which might even reach her husband's ears in time." He paused. "You're a woman. Where would you look for help if you were in Mrs. Evanson's shoes?"

"I can't imagine that I'd turn to the man's family. I'm sure they were kept in the dark as well. I'm not sure about friends either. I'd be afraid they would stand in judgment of me. I expect I'd go somewhere I wasn't known, and pose as a war widow. People might be more kind in such circumstances. I'd be frightened about doing anything until I'd told my lover. And perhaps even after I'd told him."

"Frightened of him?" Inspector Herbert asked sharply.

"Frightened for myself and what was to come. I couldn't count on him, could I? He might be married. And even if he were not, I couldn't be sure he'd stand by me and marry me when-if-my husband divorced me. I'd have to face everything alone-my family, my husband, my friends. There's nowhere else to turn, then. And there's the child to think about. I wish now I'd caught up with her outside the station. But that's hindsight, of course. She wouldn't have confided in her husband's nurse, would she?"

"Quite. At least, thanks to you, we've discovered she was with someone later that day. That leaves only five or six more hours to account for. It had been ten, in the beginning. And in ten hours, she might have gone anywhere and still returned to London in time to be murdered. A needle in the proverbial haystack."

I remembered Sister James's comment. "I don't like to suggest-but there are men who prey on women, and if she had nowhere to turn, literally, if she sat crying on a bench along the Thames, or walked in Green Park-"