Repeat Business

by Lyn McConchie

  “I was, Holmes, I do confess.” I may have appeared slightly crestfallen, for Miss Violet attempted to cheer me by saying that if it were relatives I sought, I need look no further than the Alders.

  “Mr. Alder’s brother has a long-standing grudge against him from previous to Daisy’s birth, and they have been at daggers drawn again for a year or two now.”

  “Have you ever heard the reason for this?” Holmes asked her.

  “Daisy spoke of it once; she seemed angered at both her father and uncle and forgot, I think, to whom she was speaking.”

  “What did she say?”

  “That when their father—her grandfather died—he left the farm to Daisy’s father, who is the elder brother. However, he added the proviso that one-half of the farm’s income must be remitted quarterly to his other son. I understood Daisy to say that it was logical as the farm is not large, and if the land was split, her uncle could not have afforded to build a house and outbuildings on his portion—whereas if he has reasonable employment, the additional income allows him to live quite comfortably.”

  “That seems fair,” I said. “In what way did it bring on a quarrel?”

  “The younger Mr. Alder did not agree. He thought that a half share in the land should have been his, and he contended that one of the newer outbuildings could have been easily converted to a home for his family. Daisy’s father selling some of the livestock and making an additional payment to his brother mostly resolved the quarrel. I gather both families were on moderate terms for many years after that, and Daisy’s uncle, his wife, and sons often visited the family farm to stay.

  “However, the trouble flared up again when Daisy’s father inherited from Mr. Okeshott. The younger brother said that since Daisy’s father was now wealthy as he saw it, a portion of the land should come to him since his brother could afford to buy more. I have met Daisy’s father on a number of occasions, I found him to be a kind and generous man with strong family feeling—but he is stubborn. I am sure that had the matter been put to him in a reasonable manner, he might well have done as was wished of him. But to be attacked as greedy and selfish before he had the chance to make up his mind was the gravest of errors.

  “He refused in rather violent terms, and the estrangement between the two families continues. In fact, I was told that a further outbreak of the hostility occurred only two weeks prior to Daisy’s disappearance. Mr. Holmes! You do not think Daisy’s uncle to be involved?”

  Holmes pressed the tips of his fingers together and looked thoughtful. “No, on the contrary; but I think I begin to see my way here. It will be necessary for me to come to Walsall and look over your school, if you will permit that?”

  “I should be very grateful, Mr. Holmes. We have several guest bedrooms in the teachers’ wing, and we can make both you and Doctor Watson very comfortable. I should say too that Miss Yelverton, my senior partner, is at one with me in this invitation.”

  “Then we shall catch the morning train.”

  With which decision Miss Hunter departed to her hotel for the night, and Holmes and I settled for a brief discussion before seeking our own beds. I could see no light in the tale we had heard, but I knew my friend saw otherwise. I questioned him before I retired.

  “There are a number of interesting points, Watson. For example, the dispute within the Alder family, the county in which their farm is situated, and the evidence of blood on the girl’s nightgown cuff and the signs of an apparent scuffle nearby.”

  I retired to bed to wrack my brains as to the points listed, but could see no way in which they could be of help.

  The following day we traveled to Walsall, being met at the railway station by the caretaker with the school dogcart. The school was a pleasant building in the shape of an E. The down-stroke held the main classrooms, while the center wing was given over to the teachers’ rooms and the guestrooms, with a large sitting room. The top wing was reserved for the kitchen, the laundry, and the sick room, and the lower wing in the E was used by the girls, since it contained a music room, a drawing room, a second and smaller kitchen, all with their necessary equipment, and two large sitting rooms in which the girls might spend time after classes. There were, so Violet informed us, thirty girls in residence aged between fifteen and eighteen.

  As we had also been told by Violet, the space between the wings was filled with a formal flower garden in one instance, and a kitchen garden for fruit and vegetables in the other. The domestic staff consisted of the cook, kitchen maid, two gardeners, the caretaker, two cleaning women, and a boy of all work. There were seven teachers besides Violet and her partner, while those girls who wished to learn to ride or to improve their riding went out twice a week to a riding master whose stables were close to the school boundary. A dancing master called to teach at the school twice each week from the nearby town, so that all in all it was a tidy, well-run school, and my first impression of the place was most favorable.

  It was then that Miss Violet conducted us to a private sitting room and we were able to speak to Daisy’s grieving parents. I liked both immediately. They were of the old-fashioned farming stock, decent, hard-working, sensible folk who had not been seduced by the money left to them. From what they told me, one-half of the unexpected windfall had merely bought several extra fields that had been for sale on their furthest boundary, thus increasing their land holding by some sixteen acres. They had added a new barn, a number of minor improvements in the house for Mrs. Alder’s convenience, and retired the farm pony.

  “A good ’un ’e have been to us, so now he’ll end his days in peace in ’t bottom field. Us have bought a new ’un, aye, and a new plough as well. All us wanted besides that were to have our lass educated proper so as she’d make a better match for herself when the time came.”

  It could be seen that his wife had been weeping. “Aye, but us’d give all the money and more besides to have our Daisy safe home again, wouldn’t we, father?”

  His tones were heavy. “Aye. Find her for us, Mr. Holmes, if you can, and us’ll be as grateful as ever you wish.” By which he signified that he would pay whatever we asked of him.

  Holmes put a hand on the farmer’s shoulder. “And what if she is unharmed after all? What if this was always some ploy of hers?”

  Both Alders turned to stare at him and I could see the man was thinking. At last he spoke slowly. “Why, then I’ll still be glad with all my heart that Daisy be safe. Mebbe I’ll tan her backside for her if she did all this to get her way in something, but she’s my lass an’ I love her. Just find her for us, an’ I reckon she’ll be welcome back whatever she done.”

  Holmes nodded briskly. “Good. Then if I may,” turning to Miss Violet, “I would examine the room in which she slept, ways of departure from that, and the grounds between the pupils’ wing and the canal.”

  “Of course, Mr. Holmes.” She led us towards Daisy’s room while the Alders remained behind too overcome with worry to be interested in our examining of areas they—and the police—had already seen a number of times without finding anything of significance.

  “Here is Daisy’s room,” Violet said, flinging open a door so we might behold a small room with a neatly made-up bed, a chest of drawers, and a small mirror on the wall. “The window may be large enough to allow her passage, but there was a frost on the night she disappeared. Had she gone out after that there would have been footprints showing in the frosty grass.”

  “Have you reason to think that might be so?” I asked.

  Violet nodded. “We keep the girls secure, Doctor Watson. The teachers have a roster and one of them checks the beds after midnight each night; they are experienced and are not likely to be fooled by tricks. Daisy was most certainly in her bed at that time.”

  Holmes crossed to the window and peered out. “A drop to the ground, Watson. Not a great deal of a fall, but some seven or eight feet, and such an exit would have left footmarks in the frosted grass, as Miss Hunter says.” He turned back to Violet. “Could the girl have
left using the door from this wing?”

  “We do not believe so, Mr. Holmes. The exit doors are all locked at dusk, and the teacher who does the bed-check carries a key to let herself in and out of the pupils’ wing.”

  I protested at this. “What if there should be a fire?”

  Violet smiled. “Do not fear, Doctor, we have a system if that should occur. At each end of the wing there is a small cupboard with a glass door, in which reside keys. In case of fire a senior girl is instructed to break the glass, and use the keys to let herself and her fellow pupils out of the building. However, the cupboards are locked and cannot be casually opened. If Daisy had done so there would be unmistakable signs, even had she succeeded in persuading another pupil to return the keys to their case.”

  Holmes merely nodded at the information. “Will you be pleased to show us now the outside portion of the wing directly below the girl’s window?”

  We followed Miss Violet to the outer area of the wing, where Holmes first looked about him, before turning to study the ground immediately under Daisy’s window. I peered at the same place, but could see nothing save a number of small indentations in the iron-hard ground. They would have measured perhaps an inch and a half square, and could have no relevance, since they were either so close to the window they were only a few inches from the wall, or they were at some distance. They could not have been the marks of a ladder, for they came in single scattered marks.

  Yet Holmes clearly considered them of some significance as he even got down on his knees at one point and studied them from the distance of a few inches. At last he rose and addressed Miss Violet.

  “I would wish now to see the quickest path to the canal from here.”

  Violet was very willing, and after first pointing out the line of trees in the distance which marked the canal, she set off towards them with Holmes and me behind her. As she had told us, the school and the canal lay only a short distance apart, and it was to the canal bank that we were led.

  “The nightgown was found here,” said Violet, pointing to a clump of bracken. “But the police could find no footprints leading from the school to this place, and while there were the marks of Violet’s slippers nearby, along with other marks which the police thought to indicate a violent struggle, there were yet no footprints leading away from this place. I believe they have fastened upon me as the solution since they are unable to think of any other.”

  “Quite likely,” Holmes agreed. “The police do not like to admit they have no answers, so we must find them an answer which absolves you of complicity.” A brief smile passed over his face that was seen by both the lady and me.

  “Holmes,” I said. “You know the answer, I am sure of it. Will you not tell us?”

  “Yes, I must, although I think us likely to be too late to prevent certain consequences of the events which have transpired here. But let us return and I will endeavor to explain what really occurred.”

  We arrived back to find the local police, in the person of an Inspector Johns, now present and asking loudly for Miss Violet. His manner was unpleasant and I placed myself between him and the lady before he could seize her arm. He then addressed her angrily.

  “Where have you been, and who are these persons? Your accomplices, I daresay, but I’ll have no more of it, you shall tell me where you have the girl hid or it’ll be the worse for you.” He then stared rudely at Holmes. “I know your face; who are you?”

  “My name is Sherlock Holmes, and this is my friend, Doctor Watson. We came at the request of Miss Hunter to examine the disappearance of her pupil and discover the girl’s whereabouts.” Holmes’ tone was mild, but I saw the steely look in his eyes as he stared down the inspector, who seemed to deflate like a balloon as he absorbed the identity of the man before him. When next he spoke, his voice was without the hectoring tone previously present.

  “Indeed, Mr. Holmes, I have heard of you and know you for a clever man. If there is any information you can give me I would be glad of it.”

  “Then let us repair to the sitting room with Mr. and Mrs. Alder. I have several questions to ask of them and then I think I will be able to reveal the true events of Daisy’s disappearance.”

  Inspector Johns nodded. “It shall be as you say, sir.”

  Throwing us a grateful look, Violet led us to the sitting room while the maid was sent to summon the Alders. Once we were all comfortably seated Holmes began his mild inquisition.

  “Mrs. Alder, tell me of your brother-in-law’s family; he has two sons, I believe?”

  “Why, yes, sir. That he has: James and Richard. They used to visit us before the quarrel and I was fond of them. Richard, in particular, is a clever boy and won a scholarship for a year. He used his time well and has been taken into employment with Huggens and Barr Engineering. They have their works only a few miles from the farm. There was nothing Dicky liked more as a boy than fixing machinery on our farm. Now I am told that he has invented a reaper to make the cutting of corn easier and quicker, and I’m sure, sir, maybe his father didn’t speak to my husband as he ought, but we think the world and all of Dicky and James.”

  “Has the boy asked to visit you recently?”

  Mr. Alder looked surprised. “Why, that he did, sir. Only two weeks back. He said as how he’d gotten a promotion and a bonus for his cleverness and wanted to see us and the farm again.”

  “What was your reply?”

  “I should not have said as I did, no doubt. But my brother had been at me again, saying some of the farm was his and it was ill done of me to cheat him of his birthright. I lost my temper, sir, that’s the plain truth of it. Dicky met me at the market and spoke of visiting us an’ the farm an’ I told him that’d be never, not so long as his father hung upon my sleeve asking for what weren’t his. I should not have spoke so and I regretted it later, but ’twas said and there weren’t no unsaying it.”

  “How old is Richard, and how long has he worked for his firm?”

  “He is just twenty-one, sir. But he’s been with his firm for nigh on three year.”

  “And did he say how it was he could visit your farm?”

  “Aye, sir, It was along of the bonus they’ve give him for his machine. He said they give him two weeks off to pay for all the extra work he’d done on the machine this past year.” The farmer’s face took on a shrewd expression. “I reckon with time off an’ a bonus an’ a promotion for the boy, they must be thinking they’ll make a fair bit o’ money from him and his ideas. I doubt not he’ll go a long way, will young Dicky.”

  Holmes developed a sudden twinkle in his eyes before he mused briefly on the information, then his questions took another path entirely. “Tell, me, sir. Is your farm near to the hops growing areas?”

  “Indeed it is, sir.” The farmer’s troubled face broke into a sudden smile. “From when they was small my lass and her cousins have gone to play there at times. There’s one farm as is owned by an old friend of our family, and the childer has allus been welcome there. My own farm is beasts, and crops like hay an’ corn an’ such, but aye, there’s hop farms aplenty around and about my land, sir. But now, can you tell me what’s become of my lass and where she might be?”

  “I can, Mr. Alder.” Across from us Mrs. Alder clasped her hands together in a sudden movement. Holmes turned to her. “You love your daughter no matter what she has done, you would never turn her away?”

  “Nay, sir. We love her, an’ if she’s been a fool that don’t change.”

  “Then I suggest you take either a fast coach to Gretna Green, or slower transport to your home to await her return with her husband, Mr. Richard Alder.” The couple sat with their mouths open, staring at Holmes. But it was the inspector who spoke first.

  “How do you make that out, Mr. Holmes? I made sure the girl had been kidnapped. What of the letter asking for money to return her?”

  “A ruse and a clever one. But note well from where it was posted.” Holmes leaned back. “It came about in this way. Daisy and Richard were
childhood playmates. As they grew older their feelings for one another deepened into more, but they were afraid to declare it. For many years their fathers had rubbed along, but I suspect that just about the time the two might have revealed themselves to you, there came a further quarrel and a complete estrangement between the families.

  “It was soon after that that you sent Daisy away to school. Miss Violet says she did not appear to be unhappy and that is likely so; a new place, new friends, all would have combined to distract her for some time, but she never forgot her cousin. He, on his part, could not see what he could do about it so long as both families were at loggerheads, until he was called into his firm’s offices to be told that his invention would be placed into production and that he was to be rewarded for it.”

  Johns suddenly gasped. “Of course, a holiday and money for the journey. But why do you say Gretna Green, sir?”

  I gave him a glance of dislike. I understood the reason behind the question. He was not asking why Richard should take Daisy to that particular township, but why he should bother to be wed to a girl so willing to run away with him. Both Holmes and I saw that the farmer and his wife, however, had understood only the first possibility in the question, so that it was to that which my friend made answer.

  “The road to Gretna Green is a main road most of the way. A man with money in his pockets can take the mail coach to Carlisle before hiring a private chaise to reach the Green. But if Daisy simply vanished in a way which showed she had climbed out of her window or left via the door, and of her own free will, then her parents might have hit upon the reason and prevented the elopement. No, it must seem as if she had been mysteriously abducted, so that time would be lost in seeking those who had committed the crime and discovering how they had done so.”

  “And can you tell us that, Mr. Holmes?” the inspector’s attitude was becoming subdued as he realized his case was not one to bring him praise or promotion.

  “I can. The mystery lies in the use of instruments found in the hop-growing region of Kent where both Richard and Daisy grew up. They are used to reach the vines many feet above the ground and those who do such work become very skilled.”