Of course I made further enquiries, even to the extent of employing private detectives. Their first reports were quite without substance. There was at least no record of the death of Mrs Ronald Milne-Thompson. In due course however they did find out that Elaine had left her husband some time before his suicide, that she had then disappeared.

Time went by and I seemed to be getting nowhere.

And then one night – even now I find it difficult to write about it; I’ve been sitting here for half an hour trying to summon up the resolution to go on. I had eaten with two friends from South Africa. We had seen a show, drunk rather a lot; I had shared a cab with them to their hotel, wished them goodnight. It must have been about two in the morning. Even London was asleep. I decided to walk home – I remember it was a clear night – for I wanted to think. I suppose it was a bit risky to go on foot, the route between my hotel and theirs passing through a rather sleazy district. However, I dismissed the cab and began to walk. Halfway through the district, with its long lengths of shadow between the infrequent gas lights, I began to wonder if I had been wise in paying off the cabbie.

I was almost out of that district when a drab left the shadows and accosted me. If she had seen me clearly under one of the street lights she would have hastened away but at that moment all she could have seen was a tall well-dressed gentleman, his face in shadow. To say I recognized her immediately would be a lie. Her appearance, her voice, her face had so changed that it would have been difficult for me to know who she was. It was her sharp cry of utter torment and despair when I quickly turned my head towards her and she saw my face illuminated by the nearest gaslamp that alerted me to seize her arm as she tried to retreat back into the shadows and escape.

My feelings when I recognised her are indescribable. It is sufficient to say that in one moment my whole world shattered. In the next few days I learned that Hell can come to live with you. It can live with you while you try to take care of the sister you once knew as a beautiful high-spirited young woman and who is now a diseased, broken, cocaine-addicted drab screaming for her drug, suicidal with remorse for what she has done to earn money to buy fresh supplies.