The Vanishing of Betty Varian

by Carolyn Wells

  CHAPTER VII Minna Varian

  It was not until after the funeral of her husband that Minna Varianreally came to herself. The three intervening days, she had been freefrom hysterics but had been in a state of physical exhaustion andincapable of any exertion.

  But on the day after the funeral, she seemed to take on a new vitality.

  "I have come to life," she said, speaking very seriously. "I have at lastrealized what has happened to me. I was dazed at first, and couldn't seemto get my senses. Now, we will have no more hysterics, no more emotionalscenes, but we go to work to find my child,--to save what I can from mywrecked life. It is a wonder that I didn't lose my mind utterly. Think ofit, Herbert, to lose my husband by death and my child by a mystery farworse than death----"

  Minna showed signs of breaking down again, but forced herself to controlher voice.

  "I have made up my mind," she went on, "to go about the search for Bettysystematically and immediately. The detectives can do nothing,--they haveproved that. The sheriff and that Mr Dunn are at the end of their rope. Idon't blame them,--it is a baffling case. And I know they think Betty'sdead body is hidden somewhere on the premises. Though how they can thinkthat, I don't see, after the search that has been made."

  "They think it," Janet said, "because there's no other possibleconclusion. You know, yourself, Minna, if Betty were alive we would knowof it by this time."

  "Never mind theories or conclusions," Minna said, determinedly, "actionis what I want. I _know_ my Betty never killed her father! I know that aswell as I know that I'm alive. And Betty may be dead or alive,--but I'mgoing to find her in any case. Now, first of all, I suppose you peoplewant to get away from here. Herbert, your practice is calling you, ofcourse. I'm not going to keep you. But I'm going to stay here, on thesepremises, where my child disappeared, until I get some knowledge of whathappened to her."

  "But, Minna," Varian objected, "you can't stay here alone----"

  "Then I'll get some one to stay with me. I can get a companion or a nurseor a secretary,--you see, Herbert, there's a lot of business to beattended to in connection with Fred's papers and affairs. He left me verywell off, but the financial settling up will call for the trained work ofa good lawyer or accountant."

  "Young Granniss spoke to me about that," Doctor Varian said; "he's abright young lawyer, you know, and he thought perhaps you'd employ him,and then he thought he'd help you in the search for Betty."

  "I'd like that. Rod's a nice chap, and truly, Fred had nothing againsthim, except that he wanted to take Betty away from us. It would be noslighting of Fred's wishes if I should have to do with Mr Granniss,--andnobody could be better help to me in my search."

  "I can't see, Minna," said Janet, "what you hope from that search. Everynook and cranny of this whole place has been thoroughly examined, and asnothing has been found----"

  "That's just it, Janet," Minna spoke patiently, "because nothing has beenfound is the very reason I must search more and further. I shall, firstof all, offer a large reward. The size of the reward may bringinformation when no other means would."

  "Make the offer as large as you like, Minna," Varian said, but notunkindly, "for you'll never be called upon to pay it. Why, child, there'sno hope. I don't want to be brutal, but really, Minna, dear, you oughtn'tto buoy yourself up with these false hopes, that never can be realized."

  "Look here, Herbert, what do you think happened to my child? Who do youthink killed Fred?"

  "Since you ask me, Minna, I must say, in all honesty, that I can't seeany possible theory or any imaginable explanation except that Betty shother father, and then shot herself."

  "Where is she, then?"

  "Hidden in some secret cupboard in this house, that she knew of, but thatwe haven't yet found."

  "I can see, Herbert," Minna spoke slowly, "how you can believe that,because, as you say, you can't think of any other case. But I know,--I_know_ Betty never shot her father. I know that,--and I shall yet proveit."

  "But, Minna, there must have been more enmity between Fred and Betty thanyou know of, to make him leave the Varian pearls to Eleanor."

  "That is incredible," Minna mused. "I can't understand that and Ishouldn't believe it, if it were not right there in Fred's ownhandwriting. I haven't seen the pearls for some years. I've been too muchof an invalid to wear them often, and they've stayed in the safe depositfor the last five or six years. But I meant Betty should wear them nextwinter. Of course, I was sure Fred would leave them to her in his will. Ican't understand it! It isn't so much the loss of the value that affectsme, as the appalling fact that he wanted to leave them away from Betty.As you say, there must have been something between those two,--somethingdesperate that I don't know about."

  "But what could there be?" Janet said, a blank wonder on her face.

  "That's the very point," said Minna. "I know there has never been anyspecial or particular ground for disagreement between those two except asto the matter of Betty's getting married,--or engaged. Fred never wouldconsent to that. But of course he would have done so, later. He didn'tapprove of very early marriages,--but more, I think, he dreaded the ideaof Betty's going away from us."

  "Yet that only proves a special and even selfish fatherly love," Variansaid, "and in that case, why take the pearls away from her?"

  "I can't understand it," said Minna again; "it is too amazing! He adoredBetty, and what ever possessed him to give the pearls to Eleanor,--heliked Eleanor, as we all do, but he never seemed especially attached toher. Not to put her ahead of Betty, anyway!"

  "Of course she shall never take the pearls," said Janet, decidedly. "Ithink Fred was temporarily out of his mind when he made that will, or hewas temporarily angry at Betty. When is it dated?"

  "That's the strange part," said Minna. "He made that will ten years ago."

  "When Betty was only about ten years old! He couldn't have been angry atthe child then!"

  "I think that is the only explanation," Doctor Varian said. "I can'tthink of any other explanation except that Fred was foolishly angry atthe child, and in a fit of silly temper made the will giving the pearlsto Eleanor, and then forgot all about it."

  "Forgot the Varian pearls!" cried Janet; "not likely. But I never shalllet Eleanor accept them."

  "Don't say that, my dear," remonstrated her husband. "If Betty never isfound, of course it's right Eleanor should have the pearls. I am the nextVarian to Fred, and my daughter is the rightful heir,--after Betty."

  "That's true," said Minna. "But let that matter rest for the present. IfBetty is never found, Eleanor ought to have the pearls. If Betty isfound, I shall be so happy, I don't care what becomes of them!"

  "You're right, Minna," Doctor Varian said, "in thinking I ought to getback to the city. But Janet or Nell or both will stay here with you aslong as you need or want them."

  "Only till I can get somebody else. I've about concluded to take RodneyGranniss as secretary and have him settle up Fred's estate. With theco-operation of Fred's own lawyers. Then, I'll have a sort of nursecompanion who can look after me, and then, I shall devote my life and, ifneed be, all my money to solving my mysteries. I shall get the bestdetectives in the country. I shall follow out also some ideas of my own,and if success is possible, I shall attain it."

  Minna sat upright, her eyes shining with a clear, steady determinedlight. She seemed another being from the one who had screamed inhysterics at first knowledge of her sorrows.

  "I've found myself," she said, in explanation. "I've risen above my deadself of grief and sorrow. Why, my desolation is so great, so unspeakable,that I must do something or go mad! I'm not going mad,--I have too muchto do. Now, Janet, if you and Eleanor,--or one of you, will stay a day ortwo longer, I'll get a nurse up from the city, and as soon as she arrivesyou can go. I know you'll be glad to get away from this place ofhorrors----"

  "Not that, Minna, dear, but we have several engagements----"

  "Yes, of course, I know. We
ll, plan for two days more,--I'll be settledby that time."

  And she was. Inside of forty-eight hours, the now energetic woman hadRodney Granniss installed as her secretary and man of business, and hadsecured the services of a capable and kindly woman as nurse andcompanion. Her new household made up, she let her relatives go back totheir own summer home, and devoted herself to her life work.

  "Of course," she said to Granniss, "we must go ahead on the suppositionthat Betty is alive."

  "And she is, Mrs Varian," the young man said, earnestly. "For, North andI have been all over this place, and North is a sort of an architect, youknow, and I'm sort of a detective, and we can't find any place where anyone could be concealed. Now, it doesn't do any good, as some do, to saythere must be a secret passage, or secret cupboard. If there were, wemust have found it. And it's too ridiculous, even to think for a minutethat Betty killed her father! I know Betty, even better, perhaps than youor her father ever knew her. We have been sweethearts for nearly a year,and I tried many a time to persuade Betty to defy her father, andannounce her engagement to me. She would have done so soon, I'm sure, butit was her love and respect for him that made her hold off so long. As totheir little squabbles, they meant nothing at all. To imagine that girlshooting anybody is too absurd! I could rather imagine----"

  Granniss paused, and Minna took up his thought.

  "You could rather imagine her father shooting her! I've thought thatover, but you see, it's impossible, because there was no weapon found."

  "It's the strangest case I ever heard of! Now, about the reward. It'stime that was attended to."

  "Yes; and I think we'll make it as high as ten thousand dollars,----"

  "For Betty's return?"

  "Yes, that is, for any information that may lead to knowledge of whathappened to Betty and where she is now."

  "Nothing about apprehending the criminal?"

  "You know, Mr Granniss, they make fun of me for imagining this'criminal.' How could there be one? How did he get in the house? How didhe disappear again? You say yourself there's no secret passage,--we knownobody came in through the regular way,--how, then, even suggest a'criminal'?"

  "Yes, but why offer a reward, if there's no one who could by any chanceappear to claim it?"

  "That's the point Doctor Varian makes. He says it doesn't matter howlarge we make the offer, for it never will be claimed."

  "Then we'll just assume that criminal, and go ahead with the rewardplan," said Granniss, cheerfully. "I'll attend to it, and we won'tspeculate on its result at present. It surely can't do any harm. But, MrsVarian, we must do more than that."

  "What, for instance?"

  "Detectives. I think you should get the best one you can and get him uphere at once."

  "Please do that, Mr Granniss. What do you do? Apply to a city agency?"

  "Yes; or get a private detective. I know of one,--the best there is inthe country, but we might not be able to get him."

  "Try, anyway. Offer any price,--any bonus. Only get him."

  "Very well,--I'll try. I have to go down to New York soon, for there aremany important matters to see to with Mr Varian's lawyers. I'll see aboutthis detective then."

  Minna had replaced the servants who had left her with maids from thevillage. There were some who were glad to go to a house suddenly madefamous by such an astounding mystery. Others declared the house washaunted, and wouldn't go near it.

  Among those who inclined to the haunted house idea was the new nurse. AMrs Fletcher: she was of a psychic turn of mind, and while she didn'texactly believe Betty was carried off by spooks, yet she thought the girlmight have taken her own life, and perhaps her father's, because ofsupernatural influences or directions.

  "Rubbish!" Minna Varian told her. "My Betty was,--is,--a healthy, normalgirl. She has none of those foolish notions of the occult orsupernatural."

  "It's the only explanation," said Mrs Fletcher, doggedly. "And I do thinkthe house is haunted,--I heard mysterious sounds last night,--likerustling of wings."

  Minna Varian only looked amused at this, but Granniss, who was present,said, "That's interesting, Mrs Fletcher. Tell me about it."

  The account, however, was merely a vague idea of sounds, that might havebeen mysterious, but were more likely made by the servants going about atnight.

  Sheriff Potter and his colleague, Bill Dunn, had practically given up thematter. They pretended to be working on it, but as they themselves putit, "What can you do when you can't do nothin'?"

  There was room for much discussion, but when it came to action, what wasthere to be done?

  You can't hunt a criminal when you've no reason to assume any criminalintent. You can't hunt for a missing girl after you've scoured all theplaces where she could by any possibility be found. You can't hunt forthe murderer of a man when there was no way for a murderer to be on thescene.

  "Then are you going to give up the quest?" Granniss asked of the sheriff.

  "No, not that," Potter said, uneasily. "We're open to suggestion,--we'rekeen for any new clue or testimony,--but where can we look for such? Youmust see, Mr Granniss, that it's a mighty unusual case,--a mostmysterious and unsolvable case."

  "I do see that, and that's why I'm going to get expert assistance."

  "Go ahead," said Potter, agreeably. "I'll be glad to see any man who canhandle the thing. Why, there's no handle to it. No place to catch hold.Here's a man killed, and a girl missing. Now, we've no more idea whathappened to those two people than we had at the moment of the discoveryof the situation."

  "That's perfectly true."

  "And what's more, we never will have. That mystery will never be solved."

  "You're saying that, Mr Potter, doesn't necessarily make it true."

  "No; but it's true all the same. If Miss Betty was in any way toblame,--which, I can't believe,--you'll never find out anything. Because,if she's alive she'd have shown up by this time."

  "Go on,--and if Miss Betty was not to blame----"

  "Then, whoever was to blame made a blame good job of it,--and you'llnever catch him!"

  "That's the principle I'm going to work on,--the idea that somebody diddo it,--that he did make a good job of it,--and that I am going to catchhim!"

  "Fine talk, but there's the same old stumbling block. You can't argue anoutsider,--an intruder, without allowing a secret entrance to thathouse,--and you say there isn't any."

  "There sure isn't."

  "Well, suppose your criminal didn't arrive and depart in an aeroplane?"

  "I've thought of that,--but it isn't possible. You see there were half adozen people looking on all the time. I wish I'd been there!"

  "'Twouldn't have done any good. You couldn't 'a' seen more'n anybody elsedid. There was nothing to see."

  "No," agreed Granniss, "there was nothing to be seen."

  Lawrence North came up to the house again at Rod's request, and once morethey looked for a secret room or cupboard.

  Armed with a yardstick and measuring tape, they went through the housefrom roof to cellar. They paced floors and measured walls and tappedceilings, and proved to their own conviction that there was no foot ofspace in the whole structure unaccounted for.

  "It isn't," said North, "as if it were an old English manor house or amedieval castle. It's modern, it isn't built with any sinister plan orany desire for secret maneuvers. There never was any smuggling going onup as far as this, and, anyway, this is a simple pleasure house, builtfor a pleasant simple family life. I've looked up the builders, and theysay it was built by a commonplace man with a commonplace family. Theymoved out of the state long ago, but there never was anything secretiveor mysterious about them."

  They spent a long time in the cellar, but here, too, there was nouncertain space. Everything was built four-square. Every room, bin orcupboard was as plainly defined as those above, and there was no hidingplace possible.

  Granniss looked down the old dried up well. "Dunn went down that,"Lawrence said; "nothing doing."

  "I've
got to go down myself," returned Rodney, shortly, as he took offhis coat.

  "Be careful, then," North admonished him. "I'll hold the light."

  A good, strong flashlight illumined the old well, and Rod Grannissclambered down its stone sides.

  But he returned with the same message Dunn had brought.

  "All dried up; nothing down there but a muddy bottom and moss-grownstones."

  "No stones missing?"

  "No; all solid and complete. I gave it a most careful scrutiny, for Idon't want to have to go down again."

  "Well, that finishes the cellar, then."

  "Yes; and finishes the house. You must admit, Lawrence, there's nopossible chance of Betty Varian being in this house, dead or alive."

  "Of course, I admit that,--but, what, then?"

  "I can't even suggest! Can you?"

  "There's nothing left but that she went away,--managed somehow to eludethe watchers,--perhaps they were not noticing the house."

  "You talk as if she could get down from this headland by any other routethan right past where the crowd were waiting."

  "Maybe she hid here in the house, until after dark----"

  "Oh, don't suggest such awful things! Betty kill her father, and then,hiding until dark, make her way out and down to the village and away fromthe Harbor--oh, impossible!"

  "Alternative?"

  "I don't know! The more I think it over the less I can see _any_solution!"

  "What about the haunted house idea?"

  "That doesn't mean a thing to me," Granniss scorned it. "In fact, Iusually come back to the idea that Mr Varian in some way killed himself."

  "Weapon?"

  "I know, but I mean, maybe he shot himself, and Betty, who might havebeen trying to prevent it, took the pistol and ran away."

  "Why?"

  "Oh, I don't _know_! You are too exasperating, Lawrence! You just standthere and say 'why'? Stop it."

  "Keep your temper, Rod. I'm only trying, as you are, to find some way tolook. It is indeed impenetrable!"

  "And then that matter of the pearls."

  "To me that is the strangest revelation yet. No matter how much thefather and daughter had little disagreements, even quarrels, how could heleave that great treasure away from his child and give it to his niece!"

  "I think that very thing is a key to the mystery."

  "How do you mean?"

  "I don't know. You know I don't know, Lawrence; if I did I'd have toldlong ago! But I believe when the worthwhile detective that I'm going toget for Mrs Varian takes hold of the case, he'll work from that strangebequest of the Varian pearls."

  "Maybe he will,--but to me,--while it's passing strange, it doesn't seemto indicate anything definite."

  "No, nor to me. But we haven't the trained mind of the real detective."

  "Who's the man you're going to get?"

  "Pennington Wise, the best in the country."

  "I've heard of him. Well, it will be interesting to see how he goes aboutit."