by Rhys Bowen
“He didn’t happen to give a description of the man?” I asked hopefully.
“Didn’t really see much. It’s dark on the platform. Big chap,” he said. “Not high society. Workman’s boots.”
At this moment the current porter, a pimply lad with a perpetual inane grin on his face, returned with the package. “For Mr. Van Aiken, you said, right?”
“That’s correct.” I took the package from him and thanked him, handing over a small tip and making him flush with embarrassment.
I left the station and wandered into the street, amusing myself by looking in the shops until Daniel reappeared. I was eyeing a smart fountain pen in the stationer’s window when the shop door opened with the jangle of a bell and Sid and Gus came out.
“Molly, you are constantly taking us by surprise these days,” Gus said. “We are doing some last-minute Christmas shopping. Our first directive was no presents. But then one of our friends announced that it would be fun to have a bran tub with gifts so we are looking for small knickknacks.”
“This little shop was surprisingly well stocked,” Sid said. She held several neatly wrapped packages in her arms. “We bought some of those little glass-fronted puzzles—you know, the kind where you have to roll balls through a maze. We thought they’d be fun.”
“Oh, yes, they would be,” I said. “Maybe Bridie and Mrs. Sullivan’s girl, Ivy, would like one of those. I’ll go in and see.”
“And they have snow globes,” Sid went on. “Gus can never resist a snow globe, can you, my sweet?”
Gus grinned. “I like anything magical. As a girl I had a snow globe with a little girl dressed like Little Red Riding Hood in the middle of a forest. I used to picture myself as that little girl and wonder if the wolf was hiding. And they have an almost identical snow globe in this store.”
This, of course, reminded me of the Van Aiken child. “Daniel and I are trying to see if there is anything we can do to further the case of the missing Van Aikens’ daughter,” I said.
This made them laugh. “You and Daniel?” Sid said. “My guess is that you are at best forcing Daniel to be a co-conspirator.”
“Probably true,” I agreed, “but I did make some headway just now in the station. The porter at the time saw a man carrying a child bundled up in a blanket get on the train going upriver. The man was described as being not of the upper ranks of society. Wearing workman’s boots.”
“So you think he might have been kidnapping the child?”
“It’s possible.”
“In which case, why was no ransom note sent?”
“Perhaps something went wrong,” I suggested. “Perhaps he killed her by mistake. She cried out. He put his hand over her mouth to silence her and…” I paused. “I know of one case where this really did happen.”
“Poor child,” Gus said. “But then he must have disposed of the body.”
“Weighted it down and threw it into the Hudson?” I suggested.
“All too probable,” Sid agreed. “What a sad case. No wonder the poor mother still grieves.”
A brilliant thought had just occurred to me. “Perhaps I could enlist you as my assistants,” I suggested. “There was one thing said that might be relevant to this case.”
“You know we always love to help,” Gus said, giving Sid an excited glance.
“Well, one of the gardeners who worked at Greenbriars went missing around the same time that the child vanished,” I said.
“So he was the one in workman’s boots who took her on the train?”
I shook my head. “No. His body was found much later, in a snowdrift by the river nearby. He was known to like his tipple and it was thought that he was drunk, lost his way in a blizzard, and froze to death. His body was soon covered in snow and not found until the snowmelt in spring.”
“And no child’s body was found, I take it?” Sid asked.
“No.”
“He could have been part of the scheme,” Sid continued. “His job was to remove her from the estate, deliver her to the station. He was then paid handsomely and spent his money on drink, after which he found that the wages of sin are death!”
“How terribly biblical of you,” Gus exclaimed, laughing. “But we can certainly look into this man. Do you happen to know his name?”
“Just that he was a gardener at Greenbriars. I imagine his story is well known around here.”
“Then we shall do our sleuthing and report our findings,” Gus said. “And perhaps enlist our friends to ask questions around the neighborhood.”
“Oh, please, no,” I said, holding up a hand. “I think the Van Aikens would not take it kindly to hear that strangers had been poking their noses into their history. Discreet inquiries from the two of you is one thing, but from strange women all over Scarborough is something else.”
“Point taken,” Sid said. “Oh, look. Here comes your beloved. We’d better make ourselves scarce. He will probably not be pleased that we are close by and extending our bad influence over you.”
She grinned.
“Daniel doesn’t feel that way,” I said.
“Oh, but he does,” Sid said. “Has he ever called one of us by our first names? Has he ever looked pleased to see us?”
“He does appreciate what you do for me,” I said. “He’s just not very good at expressing it.” We looked up at the crunch of Daniel’s approaching footsteps on the snow. “Well, good morning, Captain Sullivan,” Sid called, maybe a little too heartily. “A lovely day, isn’t it?”
The look on Daniel’s face almost made me laugh out loud.
Fourteen
“Did you know that your neighbors were going to be in this neighborhood?” Daniel had waited until we were back in the carriage before putting this question to me. He had exchanged pleasantries with Sid and Gus in a most civilized manner. He had accompanied me into the little shop and waited while I purchased snow globes for Bridie and Ivy.
“Isn’t Ivy meant to be a maid?” he did ask as I was paying for the globes. “Does one normally shower the servants with gifts?”
“One snow globe is hardly showering her with gifts,” I said, feeling definitely testy now. “And besides, she is at your mother’s side as a companion here. She’ll watch Bridie open her gifts. It’s not fair to give her nothing. And besides that”—I added—“the poor little girl won’t have had many presents in the orphanage. Just hand-me-down clothes and a Bible, I expect. And besides this—”
Daniel held up his hand. “Please, no more besides … I can’t take another one.”
“You were the one who started this,” I said. “I was going to say that I like the child and I want to give her a present.”
Then I stalked ahead of him, back to the carriage. We waited in silence until it took off, bouncing us over packed ridges of snow.
“So did you?” Daniel asked.
“What?”
“Know our neighbors were going to be in the neighborhood? It just occurred to me now that maybe that was why you were so keen to accept my mother’s invitation. Or were you the one to suggest that my mother secure an invitation for us?”
I felt the blood rising in my cheeks. “In answer to your first question,” I said frostily, “I knew nothing of my friends’ whereabouts until I bumped into them at the party last night. We were both extremely surprised and delighted. In answer to your second question, it was you, I remember, who was so keen to accept your mother’s invitation when I would have preferred to stay home. If I remember correctly, your words were something along the lines of ‘Of course we must go. My mother is still feeling frail and would welcome us there.’ Am I correct?”
There was a chilly silence in the carriage to match the weather outside.
“Well?” I said again.
“Yes, I have to admit you are correct. I did say those things.”
“Then an apology would be nice,” I said. “Although why I would have to be chastised for wanting to meet my dearest friends I don’t know.”
Another long and frosty pause. Then he cleared his throat. “No, you are right and I am wrong. I know how dear these women are to you and I do appreciate how much they have helped you through difficult times. But I sincerely hope we will not be conveniently running into them every few minutes of our stay here. I did mention to you earlier that it would be a bad idea for them to come and visit at Greenbriars.”
“Of course they understand that,” I said. “And I’m sure they would have no wish to come visiting. They are here because they want to share Christmas with dear old friends. They’ll be enjoying themselves far too much to think of us stuck in that gloomy palace.”
We continued on in silence until I asked, “So did you pay your respects to the local policeman?”
“I did. Nice sort of fellow. Not too sharp, I would say.”
“Was he here at the time of the girl’s disappearance?”
“He was. I told him I’d been a young officer in New York and we’d been asked to keep an eye out for her, but we’d never heard any more and all these years I’d wondered what had happened.”
“Well put,” I said. “What did he say?”
“Not very much. He said he wished he could give me a happy ending but he couldn’t. They’d never found a trace of the girl. Posters had been put on stations up and down the line but no one reported seeing her. No child’s body had been recovered and God knew they’d been over the woods around Greenbriars enough times.”
“Did he mention the gardener who vanished around the same time?”
“He did. Harris was the name, but he said it wouldn’t have been the first time the guy passed out drunk, and he couldn’t see how a man fallen into a snowdrift near the riverbank could have anything to do with a missing child.”
“So we’re none the wiser,” I said.
“Molly, they’ve had people working on this for ten years. If no clues have emerged by now, they are not going to. Something tragic happened to the child and we’ll never know what.”
“I think there’s something we’re not being told,” I said.
“By whom?”
“I don’t know. I just feel there is one piece of the puzzle that is missing. Why wait two days to report her missing?”
“Because they assumed she had wandered out into the grounds and simply lost her way,” Daniel said.
“A three-year-old girl puts on her own cloak and shoes and goes off into the dark? Can you picture Liam doing that? He’s going to be three this year. Someone helped her, Daniel. Someone at that house knows something.”
* * *
We came back into the warmth of the house to hear raised voices coming from a distant room.
“She doesn’t need your help!” a man’s voice was booming. “You tried to meddle before and now you think you can come back and do the same thing.”
“She’s not happy. She should be taken away before something bad happens.”
“Nonsense. She was quite content before you showed up here.”
“Not content, Jacob, resigned. She has given up on life, can’t you see that?”
Daniel and I stood in the front hall feeling awkward as one does when overhearing strangers arguing. We glanced at each other, deposited Cedric’s package on the front table, then started to tiptoe up the stairs. We were halfway up, at the bend, when we heard the tap of footsteps and Aunt Florence emerged from the drawing room on the right.
“Insufferable man,” she muttered to herself then stalked on through to the gallery without noticing us.
“It seems that the aunt’s arrival has stirred up a hornets’ nest,” Daniel said once we were safely in our own bedroom. “I thought she might be a troublemaker.”
“I have to say I agree with her,” I said. “Winnie does give the impression of one who has given up on life. She can’t be any more than thirty, Daniel. Scarcely older than I. And yet she has no friends; she can’t go out apparently without her husband’s permission. She’s a prisoner. No wonder she’s depressed.”
“I think you are exaggerating a little,” Daniel said. “Maybe it is she who doesn’t want to go out and make friends. Maybe the shock of losing her child has plunged her into a deep depression from which she can’t emerge. And perhaps her husband does not want to let her out alone because of proven erratic behavior. She could have tried to kill herself or do herself harm, you know.” He paused, looking at me while I digested this. “I do think an alienist may be able to help her if they find the right one.”
This conversation was interrupted by the sound of running feet and the appearance of Bridie and Liam. Liam’s little face was lit up with excitement. “Horsey,” he said. “Go fast.”
“We were exploring and we found an old nursery,” Bridie exclaimed.
“I don’t think you should have been prying behind closed doors,” I said. “Did Mrs. Van Aiken give you permission to go in there?”
“She said we could explore so we looked in the rooms up near where Ivy is sleeping. Not the grand rooms like on this floor. Just old bedrooms and things covered in spooky dust sheets.” Bridie’s face was pink with excitement and embarrassment. “We made ourselves quite scared by daring each other to pull dust sheets off things. And then we found the nursery. It’s in the corner above this room. And guess what—it has a huge rocking horse, almost big enough for Ivy and me to ride. But we didn’t because we’re grown-up now. But we put Liam on it and he loved it.”
“Horsey,” Liam agreed, still beaming. “Giddy-up.”
“It wasn’t on rockers like most of them are,” Bridie went on, more animated than she usually was. “It was on gliders and it looked as if it was flying. Ivy was so funny. She said since it was a flying horse we’d have to call it Pegadus. I told her she meant Pegasus. ‘Are you sure?’ she asked. Wasn’t that funny?”
“You shouldn’t make fun of her,” I said as Daniel scooped Liam up into his arms. “In an orphanage she wouldn’t have the same access to books that you have. Would you have known about Pegasus if you’d continued to live with your aunt Nuala in the Lower East Side?”
“I wouldn’t have known about anything except bad words and getting drunk if I’d lived with her. I think I would have run away.” She stopped and the smile vanished from her face. “If you hadn’t taken me in, I don’t know what would have happened to me, Molly. You saved my life.”
I put my arm around her. “I think you’d have turned out just grand wherever you were,” I whispered. “But I’m glad I got the chance to watch you grow into such a lovely girl.”
“Don’t say that.” She looked away. “I don’t want to think about it.”
“Then don’t. We’re going to put all worrying thoughts aside and have a marvelous Christmas.”
“Horsey? More?” Liam asked, reaching out from Daniel to be put down.
The clock in the foyer chimed twelve.
“We should probably go down and see about feeding this young man. If he doesn’t get a nap soon he’s going to be overtired.” Daniel hoisted up Liam, holding on to him tightly.
“Good idea. Maybe we can feed him in the kitchen, where you had your lunch yesterday, Bridie,” I said. “I don’t want to bother one of the servants with having to bring up trays for him all the time.”
“I’ll show you the way,” Bridie said, going ahead of us.
As we came down the stairs we saw Winnie coming from the back of the house. “How was your excursion into town?” she asked.
“Uneventful,” I said. “We picked up your husband’s package and did a little shopping. The shops look quite festive, don’t they?”
“Yes, I suppose they do,” she said. “In their own small way.”
“You should see the decorations in New York,” I said. “We made a point of going to look in Macy’s windows and then visited the FAO Schwarz toy store. They were impressive, weren’t they, Bridie?”
Bridie nodded. “Macy’s had skaters in the windows and they really skated over the ice although they were only dolls.”
“A
nd Liam went mad for the train set at Schwarz,” Daniel added. “The train goes all around the store.”
“You should come down to the city for a couple of days next year,” I said, still attempting to sound bright. “You’d love it. You could go to a show and do some shopping.”
“Yes, it does sound like fun,” Winnie said wistfully, almost as if I’d been describing a lovely dream to her.
“I’ll take you around, if you like,” I went on. I almost added “I’ll be your chaperone” but then I stopped short. Why should she need a chaperone? She was a married woman, with her own money. Or it should have been her own money. Perhaps she had become too accustomed to having her father and husband control everything for her.
Before she could answer this, Cedric appeared from the other side of the hall. “Ah, you found my package for me.” He picked it up from the hall table. “Excellent. My new waistcoat. I shall wear it for Christmas.”
He beamed at us, all affability now. “Did you have a good time in our little township?”
“My wife did find a couple of gifts at one of the shops,” Daniel said.
“And I ran into some friends who are staying at the Briarcliff Lodge,” I said. “So all in all a most pleasant morning.”
“Splendid. Splendid.” Cedric beamed at us again. “And this afternoon I had promised to take the children to build a snowman, but the way the snow looks now, it will have to be a very small one. Perhaps a snow-dwarf!” And he chuckled at his own joke. He glanced up at the clock. “Time for a sherry before luncheon, I think. Shall we go through?”
I turned to Winnie. “I thought I might feed Liam in the kitchen, where the girls had their meal yesterday. Then I can put him down for his nap.”
“If you wish, although I can easily have one of the maids bring up a tray for him.”
“I don’t want to be any trouble,” I said. “Bridie can show me the way and maybe the cook can find him some more of that delicious soup.”