Dark Places: Edge of Reason

Part Six

That evening, Trixie decided to talk things over with Honey. She felt like she needed a sounding-board and her best friend was the perfect candidate for the job, despite their distance apart. She took the time to drive into the next town, where she would be able to get phone reception and give her friend a call.

“Have you found out anything new from the newspaper?” Honey asked, a slight hint of apprehension in her voice.

Trixie made an affirmative noise. “No one seemed to pay much attention to it, but the man who examined the building said that the wall had been weakened by the damage done to it in the break-in and that it looked like it had been disturbed again recently – well, recently at the time that he examined it, not recently now. He said that in his opinion, the wall wouldn’t have fallen without some kind of trigger, such as a heavy blow. Only, that spot was in kind of an alley-way – it was only wide enough to walk through, not for anything big to hit the building.”

Her friend’s breath caught. “Does that mean that he was doing something to the wall at the time that it fell on him?”

“It looks like it,” Trixie replied, grinning to herself with excitement. “I think he was doing the same thing he’d done at the back of the building before – slowly working on removing bricks in preparation for a break-in. You know what that means, don’t you Honey? It means he was the one who stole the safe. There’s a diagram of the place where he was found and I’m pretty sure that in that spot he’d be able to get under the floorboards and into where the safe was.”

Honey paused, absorbing this theory. “But the wall isn’t fallen-down now. How did it get rebuilt, and how did the people rebuilding it not notice that there was a huge safe fallen down through the floor?”

“There was something about that in one of the newspaper articles,” Trixie explained. “It was kind of a shame-on-you editorial comment. I guess it only took that not-so-subtle hint to make the townspeople get onto it. They just repaired the building themselves, and the man who had it sold it to someone else, who used it for something different. And they wouldn’t have seen the safe because it was only the top part of the wall that fell down and not the very bottom. It would have been dark down there, too, in the shadow of the opposite wall and the floor. Even if they took the wall down to ground level they may not have noticed.”

“I guess they might not have known what it was, even if they saw it, too,” Honey conceded. “Okay, so he was doing something to the wall and made it fall down on himself. Why do you think he was doing it?”

Trixie frowned. “That’s the trouble: I haven’t thought of any good reason why, yet. He’d gotten away with the crime. From what I’ve seen so far, it doesn’t look as if anyone suspected him. If they did, they didn’t do anything about it, it seems. No one seemed to have known where he’d gone, so if he’d stayed there he probably would’ve been safe, even if they did suspect him.”

“Maybe he wanted to put it back,” Honey suggested. “The ring, I mean, not the safe.”

“But he didn’t have the ring,” her friend objected. “Sarah had the ring – or, at least, Sarah’s sister did, if Sarah had already gone back to Crabapple Farm. Unless he was planning on getting the ring back from Sarah so that he could put it back.”

“Didn’t you think it had taken him more than a day to wreck the wall the first time?” Honey reminded her. “What if this is the same thing? He starts making a hole, hoping that he’ll get the ring back, so he can put it back.”

“Or he came back to steal more stuff from the safe,” Trixie added, darkly. “He would have known what was in there and what it was worth.”

“Well, I guess we’ll have to wait for the safe to be opened to deal with that possibility, too,” Honey suggested. “When we know what’s actually in there, we’ll have a better idea of whether it was worth breaking into to steal from. I wonder how difficult it would be to break into a safe like that?”

Trixie frowned. “That’s a good point, Honey. I’ll have to remember to ask when the man comes to open it.”

“I guess that’s the main thing we’re waiting on, now, isn’t it?” Honey mused. “We can’t really go any further until the safe is opened.”

“No,” Trixie answered. “And I’m not enjoying that wait. I really want to know what’s inside.”

When she returned to the church the next morning, Trixie found that the paper had been altered once more. She noted the differences and went off to try to figure out what they meant. She sat with Mart at the table in the room where they kept most of their supplies and stared at the map that Jim had drawn.

“Look,” she pointed out. “This is the building that we saw the man break into yesterday. Now, on the paper, someone has written an ‘M’ next to a few of these numbers. What do you think? Does that mean that the place he broke into is one of these numbers in their code?”

Mart nodded. “I’d guess so. The ones that he’s marked are in numerical order. Do you think they’d be this row?” He pointed on the map to the stretch of road that they had been on. “Say the one we saw him in was the first one he did, maybe it would be the lowest number and they’d rise as they went along.”

Trixie stared at the page. “And we know that our own building was number 16. Maybe they’ve numbered them in this order.” She drew her finger across the map in a zigzag, counting as she went. “That would work.”

“Well, then, let’s try assigning the letters to the buildings and see if it makes any sense,” her brother suggested.

Mart read out the number-letter combinations and Trixie looked at the map. It only took her a couple of minutes to deduce part of the meaning of the code.

“I think ‘R’ means ruin.” She looked up, eyes shining. “We’d already guessed that ‘L’ was locked, and that looks good. Since some of the numbers have more than one letter, what do you think of the idea that the ‘M’ and the ‘T’ are the initials of the two men? Maybe they’re taking turns to search and this lets the other know where to do next.”

“Sounds reasonable. Can we keep going? Something else might turn up.”

They continued until they had figured out the numbers of most of the buildings. Trixie’s first guess had not been exactly right, but it had been close enough as a starting point. When they had finished, the pair sat back and wondered at what they had discovered.

“It makes me wonder what they think they’re going to find, to go about this in such an organised way,” Trixie mused. “They seem to have already looked at the building where the safe is, so I’m pretty sure they don’t know about it.”

“We’re going to have to keep an eye on them, I think,” Mart decided.

Trixie, Mart and Dan were ready and waiting on the street when the workers arrived to open the safe. They stood together outside the building, Dan and Mart chatting in a casual manner as they waited. Trixie was too tense to talk. She shifted impatiently from one foot to the other, frowning at any delay, as a variety of professionals did their own part of the proceedings. When the locksmith arrived, she unwound enough to have a conversation with him while he waited for his turn.

“I was wondering how hard it would have been for an amateur to break into this kind of safe, back in the days that it disappeared,” she asked, after introducing herself. “Would it be possible?”

The man shook his head. “Not at all likely. It was a good, solid safe. Someone with some experience could have done it without much trouble, but not a beginner.”

Trixie absorbed this for a moment. “Can you check to see if there are any signs that someone tried? Do you think there might be some evidence there? Scratches, or something?”

He shrugged. “I’ll look,” he answered, “but I doubt it.”

Thanking him, she went back to her impatient wait. Eventually, the locksmith was able to do his part and the old lock yielded. He reported that there was no evidence of tampering. From there, it remained to extract the contents and examine them.

The examination would take place in a nearby building of rather better condition, which contained little other than tables and chairs. Mart and Dan had already cleaned off the furniture, given the room that would be used a hasty sweeping and arranged it in a sensible fashion. Piles of boxes were lowered into the pit, filled from the safe and then carried to the other building to be laid on a table for scrutiny.

Only when this process was finished did the three Bob-Whites get a chance to be involved. They each chose a table and began to set out the items retrieved from the safe in a systematic manner. The majority of the contents consisted of small bundles of paper held together with paper bands or red tape. These bundles they left intact, only arranging them alphabetically for checking against a list that Trixie had located while researching the crime.

More than an hour later they had sorted the contents and verified them next to the list. Every set of documents named on the list was accounted for, and all of the small items of property were also present, with one exception. A golden ring, set with a half-carat diamond, was nowhere to be found. The box which supposedly had contained it was there, held closed with red tape tied in rather complicated knots, but the ring was not inside.

The supervisor of the job looked grim. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to make of this,” he grumbled. “It sure looks like the box had been tied up all this time, but I can’t see how someone took the ring. I was watching closely when you opened it. But I’m going to find that ring if I have to search every person in this room.”

“I don’t think that will help,” Trixie told the man, as the subordinate who had done the opening squirmed. “I’m pretty sure that the box was tied up that way when the safe was opened, and that the ring wasn’t inside. In fact, I think I’ve already found the ring somewhere else. Do you want me to go and get it?”

He looked suspicious. “How do I know–”

“Here,” Trixie interrupted, handing him a key. “Why don’t you go and get it yourself? We’re staying in the third building along from here – a big, ugly, red brick one. Go in through the front door, behind the counter and through the door; take the second doorway on the left, open the closet and you’ll find it on the third shelf from the top. It’s inside a little wooden box.”

The man frowned and looked around the room. “You,” he said, pointing to Dan. “You heard her. Here’s the key – go and get it.”

Dan took the key and did as directed. The wait for him to return was awkward, with none of those present knowing what to say or do. After what seemed a very long delay, but was in fact only about five minutes, his footsteps could be heard on the threshold.

“Here it is,” Dan announced, handing the ring to the supervisor. “Though, I don’t know how you’re going to tell if it’s the right one.”

“There’s an inscription,” Trixie answered, before the man could speak. “It’s written here on the inventory and I’m pretty sure that it’s the same as what I read on the ring. It’s kind of worn, though, and hard to read.” Almost to herself, she muttered, “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that before.”

While this exchange was going on, the supervisor had carried the ring to the light of a nearby window and was squinting over the tiny engraving within. He transferred his gaze to Trixie, then to Dan and back again.

“It’s the one,” he announced.

Trixie gave a triumphant grin. “I knew it.” Having learned all that she wanted to know, she started leading the way back to the place they’d chosen as home base, but stopped short in the doorway.

“Hey! You! What are you doing?” she called, seeing a man peeking into the building where the safe was.

He looked up, startled, and she recognised him as the man they had seen searching the houses.

“Nothing,” he answered, backing away. “Just taking a look. No harm in that.”

“Maybe you should go look somewhere else, then,” Dan suggested, in a most non-threatening tone of voice. “There’s really nothing of interest to see here.”

“But …” the man began and trailed off. “That’s a safe, isn’t it? I might have heard a story about this town…”

Trixie nodded. “There is a story about a missing safe and that was it. Shame, though. The valuables were stolen before it went missing. There’s nothing of value here at all.”

He swore under his breath, but then a devious look came to his face. Trixie could almost see the wheels turning and the idea of trying to rob them forming in his mind. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

“The lady’s telling the truth, and I’d ask you to move along, now.” The supervisor had come up behind them with barely a sound. “Go on, then.”

As the man sidled away, Trixie turned to thank the supervisor, but the words caught in her throat as she saw the expression on his face. He was glancing from the stranger and back to her, as if measuring the likelihood of a connection between them. Without another word, she continued her interrupted journey back to the place they were staying. They lingered in the front room for a few minutes, watching to see if anything else would happen, until they saw the man walking back in the opposite direction with a bundle of belongings over his shoulder.

Away from the scrutiny of the suspicious supervisor, Trixie began to really work on the problem of the ring. As the two men prepared themselves some lunch, she talked the situation through to anyone who would listen – or to herself, if they both turned away.

“The only thing missing from the safe was the ring,” she recapped, “and it was missing before the safe got dropped through the floor, because once it was down there, you couldn’t open the door any more. The ring was missing from its box, but the box was all tied up in tape, and the safe was properly locked. There wasn’t any sign that anyone had tried to open the safe – only that they hid the whole thing. So, the ring must have been taken before the safe was hidden, and probably sometime when the owner of the safe had opened it himself.”

She paused, tapping a finger against her chin, as the other two went about their business around her. “But how did the ring get to be in Ruby’s home? Did someone in her household have any opportunity to steal it? Did someone else steal it and leave it there? Did someone hide it among her things after she’d died?”

“Who’s Ruby? And what does this mean for us?” Mart asked. “You found the ring where?”

“The brick building, all by itself at the end of the main street,” she explained. “Ruby was Sarah’s sister. And Sarah was John Nancarrow’s fiancée. I think it’s all starting to become clear.”

“I’m glad you think so,” her brother grumbled. “It’s as clear as mud to me.”

Trixie smiled. “Well, maybe you’re not thinking hard enough. What do we know? The ring was found in the house where the former fiancée of the man who died next to the building used to live. And it’s not all that big a jump to think that maybe Sarah was the one who had the ring and that most probably she’d been wearing it.”

“So, you’re saying that he steals the ring from his employer’s safe to give to his fiancée? Then what? They break up, so shouldn’t she give the ring back?”

His sister nodded. “You’d think so, if they actually did break up before the robbery, but it seems that she didn’t ever give it back. I don’t know why, any more than I know why they broke up, or if it just ended between them because he was gone.”

Mart frowned. “But why hide the safe? Shouldn’t he just get the ring back from her and put it back?”

“Well, that’s the question. Maybe there was some reason why he couldn’t get it back from her.” A thought struck her. “I wonder when it was that she went back to Crabapple Farm. Do you think it might have been around the same time?”

He shook his head. “How am I supposed to know? You were the one who read the letter.”

“I don’t think it had a date on it,” she answered, frowning. “I wonder how I could find that out. Oh! I know – she went back home after her brother died. If I could find the date of his death, it would be not long after that. I’m going to go over all the papers again, though, just in case there’s something I missed the first time, but the next time I’m talking to someone in Sleepyside, I’ll get them to look up about the brother’s death.”

Without delay, she started on rereading the letters and other things she had found. Trixie felt pleased as she planned the next phase of the investigation. It was gratifying to find that the area of her interest was now coinciding with what she was being paid to discover. As she settled to her task, she heard the faint roar of a motorcycle being ridden away.

When the next Friday night arrived, the rest of the Bob-Whites returned to the town, with Di bringing news of Will Belden’s death reports and obituary in The Sleepyside Sun of 1919, as well as for Sarah’s wedding to a local man in 1923. Honey, upon seeing her brother, launched into a fresh assault on him with regard to his taking the place over.

“How was your research time, Jim?” she asked. “Did you make good progress on getting established here?”

He frowned at her and shook his head. “It’s such a long way from home,” he pointed out. “There are quite a number of difficulties, too. I’m really feeling that this is not the best site.”

“Even if it is a long way from home, it would be the perfectly perfect place for your school,” his sister wheedled. “Just look at all of the things that it has – school buildings, houses for staff accommodation, a nice, big town hall, where you could have school concerts and things, plenty of room for sporting fields.”

“No, really, Honey,” Jim told her, earnestly. “I’ve made up my mind. As much as some of the facilities are very good, this is definitely not the place for my school. I’m sorry, but that’s just how it is.”

Her brow creased. “But where else would you get all of these things without having to build them yourself?”

Jim smiled and patted her arm. “This is not the only ghost town in the country, you know. And you don’t just find abandoned school in ghost towns; there are plenty in other places, too. For that matter, there are lots of kinds of buildings out there that I could adapt.”

“I don’t want you choosing some creepy old building somewhere, that no one wants because it feels so horrible and it has a terrible history and probably stories of ghosts.” She looked up at him with pleading eyes. “It needs to be somewhere like this, Jim, where I’d feel comfortable.”

“I’ll do my best,” he answered, smiling. “I’ll even let you see it before I purchase, okay?”

She still seemed disappointed, but she nodded. “Remember: nowhere creepy.”

“I promise to try to avoid creepiness of any kind,” he vowed. “I also promise to run it by you to check for any creepiness that I am unable to detect.”

“I suppose that will do,” she decided. “Especially the second part, since you don’t seem all that adept at the detection of creepiness.”

“Well, any kind of detection, I think I’d have to defer to you and Trixie,” he told her with a smile.

As they went inside, some of the group drew ahead, leaving Honey with her best friend and Mart still outside on the street. Honey gave a regretful look in the direction of the school and turned to follow. “It would have made such a good school for Jim,” she mourned. “And I loved that little house with the tower. I’d have liked to visit him there if he lived in it.”

“Never mind, Hon,” Trixie comforted. “I’m sure we’ll think of something to do with them. You’re right: this is too good a town to leave to crumble into dust.”

“If only we were all artists,” Honey continued. “We could have a commune together and have so much fun.”

A look of mischief crossed Mart’s face. “Or maybe we could all be part of a crime syndicate. It’s a great spot for that – isolated, seldom visited.”

Honey swatted at his arm, but he jumped out of the way. “I, for one,” she told him, “have no intention of being on the wrong side of the law, and I don’t think you do either, Mart Belden, and even if you were, I don’t think that’s a very nice thing to joke about, especially since the Bob-Whites have always been on the side of law and order, and we helped catch criminals.”

“All the easier to catch them if we are the criminals,” Mart quipped. “A whole lot less dangerous, too.”

“Clown,” his sister pronounced, turning away from him. “Anyway, as I was saying, I’m sure we’ll think of something to do with the town. Somebody must want a quiet place to live and work, away from all the stresses of modern life, even if Jim doesn’t think it’s the place for his school.”

Late into the night, after all of the others had gone to bed, Trixie sat up alone and tried to work on the case. She stared at Jim’s neat labels on the rough map he had drawn. Abel had supplied names for all of the homes and businesses, including those of the previous owners in some cases. Trixie had easily deduced from her papers which households Ruby dealt with the most and of those there was only one still standing that she had not searched. When there was no reason to enter the Reynolds house, she had only felt the slightest curiosity about it. It had barely entered her head to go inside – it was the kind of idea that is dismissed at once. Now that she was desperate for clues, that half-fallen-down house became an object of desire.

She closed her eyes and pictured the house, trying to dissuade herself from a foolish course of action. The noticeable lean, the fallen gutters, the broken windows and sagging porch were clear in her mind. Still, an image came to her of the view through one of the back windows. It was true that the room was littered with fallen leaves and most of the remaining contents were weathered grey, but in one corner was a roll-top desk, like the one she had seen at Ten Acres years before. The thought of its potential contents called to her. It did not matter that it may be just as empty as its long-destroyed counterpart. It did not matter that it would be a risk to set foot inside the derelict building. All that mattered was that the search was on and here was a way to break the deadlock.

Her eyes snapped open and her decision was made. While the others slept, she would go and see what she could find. Trixie eased her way out of the room and tiptoed to the front door. It opened without a sound and she was soon outside. The gravel crunched under her feet, but there was little she could do about that. Her flashlight beam, partly shaded by her hand, was enough to show the way to the ruin. At one point, she stopped, thinking that she heard someone behind her. The wild beating of her heart made it difficult to make out other noises. At last, she decided that there must be an animal of some kind and she continued.

The old house looked even more forlorn in the moonlight. She paused outside the front, gazing at it, wondering whether she really wanted to go inside. With a slight nod, she started around the side. She had not even reached the back when she heard the distinct sound of another person behind her.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Dan’s voice was stern. Turning to look at him, Trixie found that his stance matched.

“I need to see inside this house,” Trixie asserted, holding her chin high. “There could be valuable clues in there.”

“There could be falling walls in there, if you go inside,” he countered. “It’s not worth it, Trixie, not like this. Leave it until we can get the place shored up properly.”

She huffed in frustration. “There’s no way that any qualified person would allow that kind of thing. The only way I’m going to see inside is if it’s done in secret, which is why I’m going in there right now.”

“And what happens if the walls do fall down on you?” he asked. “Who’s going to know that you need rescuing?”

“Now that you’re here,” she answered with a toss of her head, “you will.”

He shook his head. “I’m not letting you go in there.”

Trixie frowned. “Try stopping me.”

“Come on, Trix. It’s not worth the risk. Especially not at night.”

“Fine. I’ll come back at first light,” she answered. “Alone, if I have to.”

He shook his head once more. “Please, Trixie. If you really have to do this, at least take someone with you.”

She eyed him for a few moments. “Would you do that for me?”

He only nodded.

“Thanks, Dan. I’ll wake you before I leave.”

“I’m going to regret this, I can tell,” Dan muttered, as they walked back together.

They did not speak further, but walked in silence. The door to their building opened without a sound and Trixie’s foot was across the threshold when a low voice made her jump.

“Where the hell have the two of you been?”

“Mart!” she whispered in return. “You scared me.”

“Are you going to answer the question?” he countered.

“Trixie wants to explore a dangerous ruin,” Dan answered, before Trixie could get a word in. “I’ve talked her out of it for tonight, but she’s going back in the morning.”

Before she could even object, her brother had her by the arm and was dragging her out onto the front porch.

“Did I hear that correctly?” he asked, once the front door was closed behind him.

“It’s not that big a deal,” Trixie told him. “I just need to take a little look at the place. It’s not all that dangerous.”

Mart let out a growl. “Not all that dangerous? Trixie! You promised Mr. Wheeler.”

She expelled a breath. “I’m not really breaking my promise, just bending it slightly. It won’t be that dangerous, Mart.”

“What can I say or do to make you reconsider this?” he asked.

“Nothing! I really need the information I could get from this house,” she answered. “You can’t stop me, Mart.”

There was a long silence. “Okay, then. I’m going to come with you and see the place. And if I think it’s too dangerous, then I’m not going to let you go in.”

“You can’t stop me,” she repeated. “I’m really going to do this.”

“Well, let’s all get to bed,” Dan suggested. “Morning comes soon around here and I think we’re all going to need the rest.”

Continue to part 7.