Jeremy and Julie

[Erik Narramore]

Julie could also have pretended to be pregnant, I suppose.

Pursuing a vocation and wanting to be Lady of the Manor (whatever that's supposed to mean) aren't necessarily mutually-exclusive aspirations.  That said, I'm not quite sure what the relevance of such claims is.

Why did Jeremy disclose his plans to her?

[Erik Narramore]

Why not theorise Julie as an accomplice?

I merely say that an accomplice does not have to be present, ergo it would be an incorrect assumption if one were to argue that not being present rules her out of involvement.  She wasn't incapacitated if she could answer the phone at 3 a.m. or 3.15 a.m. or 3.30 a.m., or whenever it was when he was supposed to have rung.  Jeremy himself seems to have been quite the dope user, but he was not incapacitated by any means.  I still think it was strange that he rang her at that time at all and that she answered.  She also got it wrong in her first statement, claiming somebody else answered when in fact she did - which just deepens my suspicion as it seems convenient that she was on-hand to answer the phone at such an odd hour at Jeremy's first attempt.  She was then up at the crack of dawn, ready to go over to Essex at his command.

[Erik Narramore]

Overall, I find regarding Julie Mugford arguments less-than-convincing.  If Jeremy wishes to distance himself from the crime, he would not have discussed it with her in such a manner at all.  Telling her that he hired a hitman is hardly distancing himself.  If anything, it's worse, and he pins it on somebody they both knew, which is crazy.  If he can put on an act with others, he can put on an act with her, so why not just lie?  By confessing to her, even under cover of a quasi-fictitious story, he puts himself completely in her hands, for the rest of his life.  Then again, maybe he was just that foolish.  I don't rule it out completely.