Lost Half Hour — Laurence Meynell

Oliver Seaton was an up-and-coming Labour MP when his mother committed suicide by gassing herself. Oliver had lived at his mother's house and the inquest judge was keen to know what time he got home to find his mother dying. He had called an ambulance at 9.26pm.

Among the crowd at the inquest is Alan Strang. Oliver and Strang have had a private relationship in the past, a relationship that, if it came to light, could ruin the fast-developing career of the MP, not to mention his marriage.

When a muck-raking journalist elicits from Strang that he saw Oliver reach his mother's house at 8.55pm on the night she died there is a missing half hour to account for, and the danger for Seaton starts growing ...