They arrived in front of the gray stone building that housed The Grimsby Tavern just before eleven in the morning, and even at such an hour for a tavern it was bustling with activity, when they walked through the door, the older gentleman behind the bar immediately took notice of them. He was a short fellow with a round face and bald to thinning hair from the top of his head to the sides, his round spectacles made him look much older, his name was Julius Furlong the owner and proprietor of The Grimsby Tavern, he gave Dr. Gideon Phillar a nervous look, as he approached the bar they exchanged a warm greeting before Julius informed him that one of his barmaids was missing. Her husband came looking for her when she failed to go home last evening, and no one had seen her since the evening previous. He told them that there had been a photographer come through town a couple of months ago, and he paid them to take everyone's picture at the Grimsby tavern, He showed Dr. Phillar the photograph and pointed to a woman in the picture.
"Third one from the end Gideon, her name is Bessie Todd, Bessie's a good girl, everyone likes her, likes her husband, good people. lord help us. I pray she's okay."
He leaned forward up against the bar, looking Julius Furlong in the eye then.
"Julius, have you seen any strangers that may have looked out of place come through here recently?"
"Not as I can recall, anyone in particular?"
"No, but he would be tall, very tall, barefoot, disheveled clothing, perhaps. He would look different, stand out."
"No… No one like that, I would have remembered seeing such a man. do you think this man you are looking for murdered those four women?"
"Nothing as of yet is for certain, we are only in the early stages of making our enqueries."
Julius Furlong leaned forward.
"I heard Inspector Pendergrass himself say that the four women were all murdered in the early to mid-evening, if that tells you anything." He said.
Then it was Dr. Phillar's turn to lean forward.
"Indeed it does Julius, it tells me our fiend hides under the cover of darkness to hunt his prey, probably keeping to the alley's to conceal his identity, waiting for just the right time to strike."
He nodded toward the photograph.
"I will look into Bessie's disappearance as well, Julius, Thank you for your time, my friend."
They returned to the buggy and headed to Pemberton Row, he was going to need to be speaking with Inspector Pendergrass to see if there were any new developments on his end. They arrived at 1411 Pemberton Row just before the one o'clock hour, they both went inside to see if Pendergrass was on the premises, the front desk officer motioned them to Pendergrass's office the three exchanged brief greetings before Doctor Phillar and Sebastian sat down in front of him. The good inspector did not look pleased, he passed the morning newspaper to Gideon.
"Have you read it yet?" He asked.
"Yes Nathaniel, I have, are you aware of the missing girl?"
Nathaniel Pendergrass gave him a surprised look.
"No Gideon, I was not informed, Who is she?"
Doctor Phillar passed him the photograph.
"The third girl from the left side of the photograph, she's a barmaid at the Grimsby, her name is Bessie Todd, her husband said she never made it home last night."
"I'll keep my ears to the ground, and have someone look about to see what they can dig up. in the meantime I have a new problem all my own, someone in this office is relaying information to the newspaper, I had only dictated this information about increasing patrols of the city watch in an internal memo, we are already terribly undermanned in this department now I have to commit to spreading our resources even thinner. Someone in this office is spying for the newspaper."
Two officers entered, and while they discussed several details with Pendergrass, Doctor Phillar busied himself with reading some more of the stories from the morning newspaper, there were two articles about the church of Ellery Carroll, there were two stories about the county commissions meeting on Thursday, another about the Old Crown road bridge being washed away and when the possible rebuilding could get underway, there were a few personal ads taken out about missing pets, about people needing gardeners, and the Prager Butcher shop had an employment position for a new Butcher's apprentice opening up in the nearby village of Bella Doras. It was then that something odd struck Doctor Gideon Phillar, he patiently listened and waited for the two officers to leave, He calmly placed the newspaper in front of Nathaniel Pendergrass, he gave Doctor Phillar a puzzled look.
"Nathaniel, I believe I may have just happened upon something that we may have overlooked. Were all four of the murder victims from Northwich?"
Inspector Pendergrass removed a stack of papers from his desk drawer, bound together in a paper folder, he opened them up to read, his stare slowly glided up and down each page studying the information carefully. His eyes slowly rose to meet Doctor Phillar's.
"None of the Victims were from Northwich, Three of them brought carriages from the village of Bella Doras, the fourth rode a carriage from Papridge a coach station between here and there. None of them were from here, Gideon."
"And perhaps neither is our murderer, perhaps all four of our victims were followed here from Bela Doras, and it is becoming increasingly likely that they may have all four crossed paths with him somewhere in the village because he lives and works there. And they may have conducted daily business with him, he may have been studying each of their movements days before following them here and ultimately murdering them."
It was the first solid lead in the case that Inspector Pendergrass would have, there was still the missing girl to consider, He would have to concentrate further on finding her while Doctor Phillar and Sebastian Mills would take the buggy the following morning and drive to Bella Doras. It was late afternoon when the returned to Blackpool Terrace, it was later in the evening, one hour past nightfall, when Doctor Phillar heard a rapid knock on the side entrance door of the building nearest the kitchen. He rose from his chair and went to investigate when he swung open the door, even in the failing light he could see it was a young woman panic-stricken, she asked him if he was Doctor Gideon Phillar, the one who was helping the police, when he nodded to the affirmative the young woman told him that her friend Bessie was in hiding in her flat and a man who had been following behind her after she left the Grimsby Tavern the previous night tried to grab her, she got loose and ran to her house where once inside they locked the doors and shuttered the windows, Bessie Todd was terrified but still very much alive.
~Scratch A.B.T. copyright© 2022.~
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