Dear Jo,

The Samson’s have really got me thinking. It’s that day that things changed; their routine was displaced somewhat. It wasn’t just the fact that Mrs Samson was unwell either. There seemed to be some confusion in the kitchen as to what was cleaned and put away. It does appear that Miss Johnson had her morning drink after all, if Mr Samson washed her mug along with his wife’s glass.

There was a spillage identified in their cleaning records, wasn’t there? It was assumed to be water from the glass, when Mrs Samson coughed herself blue. This was outside Miss Johnson’s office. Very telling, don’t you think?

Another interesting point about Mr Brown noticing Mr Samson loading the van, because he may have witnessed the disposal of some evidence. I suppose that what he saw fall on to the gravelled drive, when he emptied the vacuum waste into the bag, could’ve been a detached pearl from Miss Johnson’s necklace. Alas, it has not been found.

I’ve looked at the photographs of the office, particularly the door, because I think there’s an important clue in the bottom edge. It’s worn on the inside, suggesting that the door wedge was placed there, so that it would need to be pushed outward to disengage it. If that was the opposite case, when the door shut, the wedge would have ended up in the corridor. 

What do we know? She had her drink. Maybe she spilt it outside her office. Could the wedge have loosened and shut on her as she walked into her room, causing her to spill the drink? And then there’s the necklace. We can’t forget that, can we?

Yours

Swan