He had travelled back with them from York to Hull, which was the original point of Emily’s arrest, and talked to the magistrates’ clerk, who had given him little hope unless the complainant agreed to withdraw charges. But Hugo Purnell had disappeared. He was not at his own home in Hessle or at his mother’s house and she did not know of his whereabouts. ‘I haven’t seen him since he went to York for the trial,’ Mrs Purnell complained at Philip’s enquiry. ‘He’ll be angry about the report in the newspapers, I expect. It said’, she lowered her voice, ‘that he wasn’t a reliable witness. What shame! I can’t believe anyone would say that of my son!’ ‘I shall go to London,’ Philip told Roger Francis and Mrs Edwards when they met in her home behind the flower shop. ‘I will ask at the Home Office what must be done to rectify this injustice. And if you could continue to look for Purnell, sir?’ ‘I will.’ Roger Francis looked strained. ‘I am anxious also about my daughter.
