A simple matter of deduction.

It's a long time since I've written non-fiction and in book form, never. Each chapter I treat as a treatise. It's a novel approach – well, it's literally, not. Cough.

I’m writing just an aside on Abberline, or so I thought. Most of the biographical accounts are the same but differ in writing style.

I’m stalled on Abberline’s wife, Emma. Blah, blah, merchant’s daughter ... I know, but which? She vanishes and re-emerges as if she were a ghost. I have to be looking at the wrong Beamont because if I’m not there’s something peculiar in her history. I’ve allowed today to research her and then I’ll return to Hutchinson. Or maybe just ignore these two, finish the book and then follow up.

Research is a distraction.

I think I know what happened that night of the double event, which explains Blenkinsop’s 1.30 am sighting, witness statement. Clock chimes vary on the quarter strike; a man sitting alone at night (St James Place) would recognise those bell strikes. I don’t believe he was mistaken. It was 1.30 am and not 1.45 as Sugden explains.