Richard Jury is meeting Tom Williamson at Vertigo 42, a bar on the 42nd floor of an office building in London's financial district. Despite inconclusive evidence, Tom is convinced his wife, Tess, was murdered 17 years ago. The inspector in charge of the case was sure Tess's death was accidental, a direct result of vertigo - but the official police inquiry is still an open verdict. Jury learns that a nine-year-old girl fell to her death five years before Tess at the same country house in Devon where Tess died.