/ / THURSDAY - Morning / /

Phryne slept perfectly well on her own after three nights of sharing her bed with the Inspector. She was determined not to be dependent on his presence, so when she woke on Thursday morning she felt decidedly and pleasantly refreshed and well rested.

Dot came in with a tray of breakfast, which Phryne ate in bed, listening happily as her companion told her about the picnic Hugh had suggested for his day off later that week.

"That sounds like a wonderful idea," Phryne enthused. "You may take all the time you need."

Dorothy beamed, "Oh, thank you Miss," she said. "Now, what will you wear today?"

Phryne shrugged, "Oh I don't know Dot. Something comfortable. Trousers. It's cold, I think, and I might go out to meet Mac for lunch if she's available."

"The white ones, Miss? With the white blouse and the red cashmere?"

"An excellent idea, yes," Phryne assented with a smile.

Dot found the clothes and laid them out neatly before collecting the now empty breakfast tray and leaving Phryne to dress. Phryne paused to make herself up in the mirror of her vanity, drawing her eyebrows and painting her lips, and she selected gloves and jewellery before heading down the stairs happily. She called Mac and arranged to meet at the Adventurer's Club for a late lunch, then wandered into the kitchen where Dot now stood, a magazine open to a cake recipe she was trying.

"Baking, Dot?"

"Yes Miss," Dot nodded.

"May I offer my assistance?"

Dot smiled, "Of course Miss."

/ / /

Jack slept terribly. His house felt cold after three days of his absence, and his bed was hard and unfamiliar. He ate stale toast for breakfast and arrived at the station that morning in a foul mood only worsened by the weak station tea.

A knock at his door was a welcome distraction from his paperwork and he looked up to see Constable Wallace standing in the doorway.

"Sir?" asked the young man, "the man downstairs, Mr Fisher, he has been asking to speak with you."

Jack frowned, "What does he want?"

"To talk," Wallace said, "he says he's ready to explain everything."

The Detective Inspector groaned, realising Mr Fisher was probably about to tell him the alibi he wouldn't give to Miss Fisher. It would mean he was back to square one, with no leads as to who else could have killed Mr Hammond, but he was resigned to at least hear what the man had to say. Standing, Jack made his way down to the cell Orpheus Fisher had spent the night in.

"You wanted to talk?" he prompted, stepping up to the bars and peering in at Orpheus.

"Yes," Orpheus replied. "Phryne is right; of course she is. I can't just accept this when I know I'm innocent. You have to understand I had my reasons for trying to keep it all... hidden."

Jack nodded patiently and waited.

"I didn't come to Melbourne just for business," Orpheus began. "Of course there was the business, and it was important, but the truth is that I chose H.A. Windows and Glass because they are based in Melbourne."

"And why is that Mr Fisher?"

"I needed an excuse to make a trip here. Phryne, for one, but the other..." he faltered. "I left Melbourne almost twenty-five years ago..."

As Orpheus trailed off again Jack sighed.

"Come with me," he said, "let's take this to the interview room. Have you been given any breakfast?"

"Not yet."

Jack nodded and pulled a set of keys from his pocket, unlocking the cell and allowing Orpheus to step out. He led the man upstairs and asked a passing constable for the man's food to be sent to the interview room, where they then went and sat on either sides of the plain table.

"Tell me why you came to Melbourne," Jack said.

"To find... To find Phryne, partly," Orpheus began. "When I first left Melbourne it was 1905. Phryne was just, just a tiny thing then."

Jack nodded, "Go on."

"Well I got myself a job in Sydney; I was about fifteen at the time and I jumped at the chance to get away from Collingwood, and Father. My... my sweetheart, Celia, she came to me the day I was due to catch my train. She started begging me not to go; said she was expecting."

"Expecting a baby?"

"Yes. But I couldn't stay. Everything was set up, and I needed the money, needed the work. So I left, and I sent her what I could each month. Until suddenly she sent me a letter asking me to stop. I never heard from her again after that; I've no idea what happened to her, to the baby. Not even Mother would say what happened."

Orpheus paused a while, his fingers pulling at his cufflinks. Eventually he continued. "I came to Melbourne with hopes of, of finding her; finding my child. But I needed an excuse to make the trip. I've a wife and son in Sydney, I've never told them about it. I've never told anyone."

Jack wrote this down, "All right, Mr Fisher. Now that you've told me this, why don't you explain where you went after your meeting with Mr Hammond on Sunday?"

"I went to see a midwife. On Saturday I found Celia had moved around a lot, so I went searching for someone who'd know where she lived. Asked around the local pubs, in the shops, they wouldn't say a word about Celia, but one woman gave me the name of Verity Lane. They told me she worked at the ladies hospital now, and she would give me my answers."

"Verity Lane," Jack repeated.

"Yeah. She was a midwife, so on Sunday with everything else closed I tried my luck at the hospital. Babies don't wait for anything, day of rest or not."

"And was she at the hospital?"

Orpheus nodded, "She was. Sat with me outside for hours, I told her- well, almost everything, all about Phryne and the baby and Celia."

Jack stood then and called out the door for Constable Collins. Hugh appeared quickly and stepped into the room.

"Call the Queen Victoria Hospital, Collins, and ask for Verity Lane to come in at her nearest convenience."

/ / /

Phryne's offered help back in her St Kilda kitchen mostly extended to reading each step of the recipe as they came to it, and tasting the batter before it was poured into the cake tin. By the time Dot was placing the tin in the oven it was time for Phryne to think about leaving for her lunch.

The telephone rang as she climbed the stairs, and Dot answered it.

"Miss!" she called out suddenly, stopping Phryne before she'd reached her bedroom. "It's Mr Fisher, Miss."

Phryne frowned and moved quickly back down the stairs to take the receiver from her companion.

"Hello?"

"Phryne, I did as you said," Orpheus told her from across the line, "I gave in and told your policeman who I was meeting, and he went and found her and so I'm free to go. But my damn hotel has said being arrested at all is a breach of what they will put up with. I have until the end of the day to collect my things and go elsewhere."

Phryne considered this a moment, then smiled. "I would be happy to lend you Dot for the day, and extend an offer to stay with me until you need to return home, Orpheus..."

On the other end of the line Orpheus frowned suspiciously. He knew he had crossed some line with his sister, provoking her policeman during his interrogation, misguidedly breaking into her house before that. And even before all of that she would have been well within her right to refuse him refuge.

"And what do I have to do for you to deserve such generosity?"

"Tell me this delicate alibi of yours. But of course you don't need to, brother dear. You have been let off the hook; my case with you is over, and you can therefore pay me my fees –and for that vase you broke- and find your accommodation elsewhere, if you wish."

"I'll tell you whatever you need to know, Phryne. In fact, I may require your assistance... I'll fill you in."

"Good. Now, I'm due to lunch, so I'll send Dot to meet you at the Scott's; you may talk to me once you've relocated your belongings here."

She rang off feeling smug then rushed up the stairs to dress.

Just forty minutes later (and only fifteen minutes late) Phryne arrived at the Adventurer's Club and stepped neatly inside. She found her friend sitting at a table with a glass of good whisky in her hand, and Phryne greeted the doctor happily.

"Ah, Phryne," Mac said upon seeing her. "How nice of you to join me."

Phryne rolled her eyes, "I had an important telephone call and was held up."

She sat and Mac's lips turned up in the hint of a smile, "I don't suppose it was from Inspector Robinson?"

"What are you implying?" Phryne asked with a mischievous smirk that oddly did not reach the usual sparkle in her eye. Mac didn't observe this, however, and instead took her turn to roll her eyes.

"I simply meant that I had a nurse of mine summoned to City South to meet with one Detective Inspector Robinson on a delicate matter. I thought you may be privy to the details."

Phryne shrugged, "I've no idea."

"Verity tells me it was concerning the alibi for a Mr Fisher," Mac continued dryly.

She looked to her friend with a plain but commanding gaze and had a sip of her drink before asking, in a kind way, "Phryne, your brutish father hasn't followed you home and caused trouble, has he?"

Phryne shook her head. "No." She murmured, "No, it wasn't Father, thank Lord. It was Orpheus, my brother... What did your nurse say about it?"

"That a man had been arrested, but he had been with her during the time of the crime," Mac said.

"I wonder what Orpheus was doing with a nurse on a Sunday afternoon?" Phryne asked. "He said his alibi was delicate... You don't think they were-"

"No," Mac cut in quickly. "Your brother would not be to Verity's interest, let me assure you."

Phryne grasped this knowledge with a sly smirk, "Oh, Mac dear? And who would be to her interest do you think? A certain auburn haired doctor, perhaps?"

And in an instant Orpheus and his illusive alibi was forgotten, and Phryne was instead focused on teasing her friend gently about the apparent Sapphic nature of one Miss Lane, and the blush on the doctor's cheek when Phryne pointed out the familiarity of having called her Verity.