Vanishing Girl

he saw, and he is certain that the girl was never held in Portsmouth. Then there’s Captain Waller’s St. Neots stationery. Yes, everything points northward.

But amidst all these puzzles, one rises above the others. It concerns the conduct of the kidnap victim herself. He keeps thinking about her unusual ways at the family dinner table and of her leaving home alone just past dawn the next morning. What role is Victoria Rathbone playing in this strange drama?

This time he takes the train all the way into the little brick station at St. Neots. There are only two tracks and platforms, one going north, the other south. A railway employee is nailing green, sharp-leafed holly on the walls. Up above the entrance, the big, white-faced iron clock says it is just past three o’clock. Sherlock is itching to get going, but he has to be smart. It is December 2^nd, three weeks before Christmas, and there are still a few hours before it gets dark. Remembering the beasts or whatever it was that lurked on the manor house’s grounds and the vantage point that Grimwood’s three residents have on their surroundings through their windows during daylight hours, he decides it is best to approach the mansion under cover of darkness.

But there is something vital he should do in the short time he has left. Within half an hour, he is in the field by the Great Ouse River north of town, the paper mill pushing smoke into the cold air not far away. Penny Hunt will be coming home soon. He crouches down in the tall grass.

The sun is getting low when he sees her.

Shouldn’t an employed woman, a mother, be happy, perhaps whistling a merry tune? But it seems she is never that way. She trudges forward, her head down. When she is close, he spots another bruise on her cheekbone. He rises. She almost screams, but then her face relaxes a little, just a little, for she is not pleased to see him again.

“Master Bell … or Holmes, isn’t it?”

“The same, Mrs. Hunt.”

“I am at least glad to see that you are still alive.”

“I seem to have eluded the curse of Grimwood Hall.”

Penny doesn’t smile.

“Why are you back, boy? I shall call the constable.”

“Please don’t.” He motions toward the hill. “I did indeed go up there last time, Penny … and I need to go there again.”

“No, you do not.”

“Those are just stories, legends.”

“People who live there and go there … die. A woman was murdered and a man was eaten alive. There are beasts loose on the grounds. That is NOT a story.”

“I have no choice, Mrs. Hunt. I saw someone up there last time … then I believed I was wrong about that person’s identity. Now, I’m not so sure.”

Her face turns white.

“Who did you see? Tell me, boy.”

Sherlock is taken aback by her tone.

“I can say this…. I believe the answer to a serious crime may be found in that manor house.”

“What crime?”

He might as well explain. He needs her help and he can’t be betrayed.

“The Rathbone case.”

She looks stunned.

“Was it her? Their daughter?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know?”

“What I saw was through the crack in a door in a dim light so I –”

“Then it could have been anyone?”

“It was definitely a girl and –”

“Definitely a girl?” She looks terrified. “My Polly!” She begins to cry.

“Now Mrs. Hunt, you shouldn’t assume –”

“What you have is just a theory! I know my daughter was up there. She was about the Rathbone girl’s age, reddish-blonde hair. The blacksmith was certain he saw her on the hill by Grimwood that last night. I dreamed those beasts killed her!”

“Help me, Mrs. Hunt, and I will go there and bring you back answers.”

“W-What do you need to know?”

“Has anything unusual been happening in town since I left?”

“There have been people around.”

“Yes?”

“They was asking questions, but doing it on the sly. Many folks didn’t even know they was in town until they left.”

“What people? Policemen? Inspector Lestrade again?”

“No.”

Sherlock sighs.

“There was a boy, a tall one with black hair, and two shorter boys with him: a blond lad, very quiet, and a dark-haired one, nasty looking.”

Sherlock’s heartbeat picks up.

“Did this boy affect a top hat, carry a walking stick and wear a black tailcoat?”

“How did you know that?” gasps Penny. “Are you mixed up in this more than you say?” She raises her voice. “You are just a boy, Master Holmes! How do you know these things? What is going on up there?”

“I want justice, that’s all. And if you want answers, you will keep talking.”

She pauses.

“They didn’t stay long. They were here the day after you were. But that was the last I heard of them.”

“Was there a girl with them?”

“A girl?”

“Yes, a … pretty one … respectable?”

“No, there was no girl.”

Sherlock is relieved.

“I never told you this,” continues Penny, “I watch the manor sometimes from my little parlor window, especially since Polly went. It is peaceful in my house when my husband is asleep, when he’s finally quiet. That’s when I watch. I’m not sure why, because it terrifies me so much to even glance up that way. Human beings is strange folks.” She touches the bruise on her face. “There has indeed been some funny goings on up there of late.”

“At Grimwood itself? What do you mean?”

“All three of them were gone for about a day once.”

“They were? When?”

“It was the very day you left. I remember lying awake, waiting for my husband’s snores to get deep and loud, so I would know he was completely asleep. Then I got up and went into the parlor. I have a stool I like to sit on near the window and look out. It must have been not long past midnight, perhaps two in the morning. Their lights usually went off a short time after we turned in, about eleven. But that night, after you were up there … their lights went out a little earlier … then came back on about two, and then went out again about an hour later. It was very strange. I was sleepless that night, thinking about Polly, and about you a little too, knowing you might be up there. I was imagining those beasts on the grounds. I didn’t tell you when I saw you at the station the next morning. I was just glad you were going home.”

“But you figured they’d gone out in the night?”

“I knew it for sure the next day – someone saw them returning.”

That was the day the culprits went to Portsmouth.

“Did all three return?”

“I don’t know. But it all went back to normal after that. I could see the dim light, glowing in the upper storey the next night, just a speck, and the other lights on in that area on the ground floor, shining bright, as usual. The