Six months ago, Matthew Dozier had accompanied Jared on one of his weekly jaunts on the Thames. Jared had admitted that he and his partner had been in their cups, having polished off two bottles of wine while trying to come to an agreement on which way Fleming’s was headed.

The next day, FME Jeffries confirmed that alcohol intake when he found a high level in Dozier’s bloodstream after dragging his body from the river.

Jared Fleming had certainly been inebriated the previous evening when he phoned the Yard to tell them his partner had taken a drunken misstep and fallen overboard into the dark waters.

Austin Grant was convinced Jared Fleming had helped Dozier over the side.

The first thing that convinced him was the bruise on the right side of the dead man’s head. Jeffries said it could have come from a blow struck by a strong left hook. Even though the FME also pointed out that the bruise could have been Dozier hitting his head on the side of the boat when he stumbled overboard, Grant’s mind was made up. Especially since Fleming was left-handed.

Even more damning, as far as Grant was concerned, was the behavior of Liz Dozier—a new widow who didn’t seem all that broken up by the sudden demise of her husband. She’d readily accepted Jared’s explanation of the accident without bestowing an ounce of blame on him. She didn’t find fault with him for liquoring up her husband on their fatal journey or for failing to prevent him going over the railing.

Liz Dozier had told Grant that she was just seeking comfort and friendship from her dead husband’s dear business partner.

Grant didn’t believe it—and therefore neither did Hawley.

When the good sergeant unearthed evidence of Jared and Liz having spent a weekend at a bed and breakfast under assumed names in the village of Chipping Camden, Grant took it a step further.

He brought a charge of murder against Jared Fleming.

Nothing would have pleased Grant and Hawley more than to slap Liz Dozier with coconspiracy. But try as they might, they couldn’t place her in the vicinity of the boat; on that fateful evening Liz had conveniently been enjoying a five-course supper with a friend in Chelsea.

The ensuing trial had been a media circus. Reporters like Monte Ferguson had dined out on the scandalous nature of it all, and despite Grant and Jeffries (along with any other expert witness the prosecution could drum up) doing everything in their power to secure a guilty verdict against Fleming, the tobacco heir was acquitted in less than an hour once the case went to the jury.

Ferguson and his fellow journalists had taken Grant to task in the papers, blaming him for pushing a flimsy case to trial in the first place.