Whose Body Part II

 Peter is dismayed when Thipps and his maid, Gladys are both arrested by Suggs since he is quite sure the body is not Sir Reuben and that neither of them is capable of murder.  Old Mrs Thipps who is very deaf, has noone to look after her and is very upset, so Peter takes her to Denver to his mother's house and the Duchess takes the old lady in.  

He discusses the case with the Duchess, and she tells him that she actually used to be quite good friends with Sir Reuben's wife, Christine.  They were girls together in Hampshire, and there was quite a fuss when Christine fell in love with a Jewish businessman who was not that well off at the time.  The Duchess tells him that the family had hoped that she would marry Julian Freke who was an up-and-coming young surgeon of good family, but she was in love with Levy and insisted on marrying him.  She tells Peter that Levy became very rich and successful but her own husband, the Duke of Denver, didn't like business people and so she didn't see much of Lady Levy over the years.  

Peter wonders if there is any connexion between the Levy case and the body, but cannot quite see how it would work out. 

At the inquest, Mr Thipps scared by the hints about murder, tells the truth about where he was the night the body appeared in his bathroom.  He had gone with an old school friend to a nightclub, which was raided by the police.  Thipps is a shy nervy man and not the sort who goes around nightclubs, but this clears him as there was a record of the raid by the police. 

It emerges, through the evidence of a young prostitute, that Levy was seen in Battersea, the night that he disappeared.  

Peter learns that he has another link with the Levy family via his friend Freddy Arbuthnot, an amiable society idiot who dabbles on the Stock exchange.  Freddy knows the Levys through the investments angle, and is in love with Rachel, Levy's only daughter.  He tells Peter that Sir Reuben is Jewish and self made but he's a good husband and father and a decent soul. Sir Reuben is not keen on Freddy as a son in law however because he's not Jewish and he is something of an upper-class twit.