SPOILERS!!!
After hearing that Rupert Carew has been imprisoned for the murder of Parfitt, Hester wants to help. Despit the young man's life, Hester likes him, and he has problems thinking that he is a murderer. Scuff goes with her to talk to Crow, and it is through him that Hester comes into contact with the prostitute who Rupert was with the night when Parfitt was killed. Her names is Hettie Benson, and she tells Hester that she stole Rupert's cravat, but she refuses to say who she gave it to. She is too scared.
Hester tells Monk, who goes to see the woman, and Hettie describes the cravat in detail. To protect her, Monk takes her to Hester's clinic, and he gives instructions to keep her away from other patients. After that, with the evidence Rupert leaves prison.
Monk's objective is to go after the man who leads the ring, and he thinks it is Ballinger. What Monk knows is that Ballinger took the ferry that night to visit a friend, but he also knows that he could well have rowed to Parfitt's boat and killed him. Yet, he has no evidence.
After talking to a fisherman, Monk discovers that Tosh told Parfitt something, which is why he sent for Orrie Jones. Once again Monk questions Orrie, and the man says that all he knows is that Parfitt had some new business opportunity in sight and was happy. Then Orrie gives Monk the note that Parfitt gave him, asking him to pick him up. The paper contains the note of the person who intended to give him the opportunity for some new business, but it is not signed, and below that it is the note for Orrie. On the back of the paper there is a series of names in Latin, but Monk has nothing much to know who the paper belonged to. All he can tell is that the paper is good quality. When he shows Hester the paper, she is surprised because the list on the back is medicines which they needed for the clinic, and the hand is Claudine's. Hester says that Claudine wrote the list and then gave it to either Queasy or Margaret. Hester goes to talk to Queasy and he says that he has never seen the paper before, and when she asks Claudine, she says that she wrote the list and handed it to Margaret. She got the things but she didn't get the paper again.
Monk goes to talk to Rupert and forces a confession out of him. Rupert does that under duress because his confession will make him a social pariah as his friends will hate him for giving their names to the police. After that, Monk talks to Winchester, the lawyer who will be the prosecution if they accuse Ballinger. The man tells him that they need to be ready for a ruthless and intense fight, and Rathbone, who will no doubt represent his father-in-law, will go against anybody, including Monk and Hester. Winchester tells him that he needs to make sure that Hettie, their main witness, is safe.
Monk goes to the clinic and discovers that Hettie is gone. He looks everywhere, but she is nowhere to be found. Outside he keeps asking, and someone that they saw someone looking like Hettie with a woman, but Monk can't be sure it is her. Then he decides to return to Chiswick, where Hettie may have decided to return. And it is there that he sees a group of people, and on approaching he sees the body of a woman, dead in the mud. It is Hettie.
The novel is getting more and more interesting. Who has killed Hettie? Arthur Ballinger? And how did Hettie get persuaded to leave the clinic? Who was the woman she was seen with?
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