Chapter Two: Miss Livingstone, I Presume?

[Philulhu]

Saturday, October 26th, 1929 9.25am.
Main Street, Amesbury, Mass.

Thomas walked up to the neighbour’s door and knocked. After a few moments, the door was opened cautiously and the neighbour peered out. ”What do you want now?!” he snapped.

[Mr. Handy]

"I'm William Preston, Esquire," says William. "We just have a few questions for you, if you don't mind."

[Philulhu]

The old man’s eyes flicked from William to Bernie and Lawrence, and back again. ”Who are you?” he asked. ”You with the Police? The Feds? The IRS?”

[peper757]

"No." Thomas begins, "We're simply a group of investigators. We believe you can tell us about your neighbour, Mrs. Webster."

[Philulhu]

”I ain’t done nothing wrong! Don’t you come investigating me!” snapped the old man, and slammed the door shut in their faces.

As the young men took this in, they heard the sound of heavy tires crunching on the gravel road behind them. They turned to see an Amesbury PD car pulling up at the curb. The window was already down and a policeman with thick grey hair and a neat moustache looked out at them. ”You boys aren’t from round here, are you?” he said, matter of factly. ”Now what are you doing? Getting ol’ Henry all riled up?”

[Bullfrog]

Lawrence turns to address the officer.

"Well, sir, we have reason to believe this man poisoned his neighbor's cat. We've simply come to make sure that that isn't true."

[Philulhu]

The policeman gave Lawrence a flat look, then sighed, pulled on the handbrake and got out of the car.

”Now what’s this about? And why are bothering Henry; are you boys licensed investigators?” The look on his face suggested that he already knew the answer to that question.

[peper757]

"We're not investigating anything, we're just doing our civic duty." says Thomas.

[Philulhu]

The policeman raised a questioning eyebrow. ”Is harassing an old man a ‘civic duty’ now?” he asked. He looked at the five young men and his voice hardened. ”Now I suggest one of you come clean as to the reason you’re here or we’ll be continuing this conversation down the precinct.”

[HoneyDog]

Howard looks at Thomas. “Just tell him who you are!” he urges.

[peper757]

"Very well..." Thomas says. "So much for remaining incognito...", he adds under his breath.

"I am Officer Thomas Riddel of Arkham PD. We're following a lead in a missing persons case. Seeing that our person has already been missing for a time, please don't further delay our investigation."

[Philulhu]

”Well, Officer Riddel, you’re a bit outside your jurisdiction here, aren’t you?” said the policeman, who clearly had not appreciated being spoken to in that way.

He turned to the older man. ”Henry, you go indoors now. These gentlemen won’t be bothering you no more.” He waited for the old man to close the door and then rounded on Thomas.

”Now, I’m assuming that you’re not so dumb as to claim to be a policeman when you’re not, so I’ll take that one at face value. As a matter of professional courtesy though, you should have contacted us first and we could have talked about whatever you’re here for.”

“If it’s the missing boy who was visiting the girl next door, I can tell you he ain’t in Amesbury, because we’ve looked for him and there’s no sign. And don’t be thinking Henry had anything to do with it. I’ve been around here plenty of times when he’s told people he’s poisoned Mrs Webster’s cat - he’s crazy! She never even had a cat!”

“Henry’s three boys went off to fight in the war; Frank and Charlie are both buried over there, and Joe’s in the nuthouse - his brain got all fried by what he went through.” His voice softened as he continued. ”Ol’ Henry was never the same since he got the news...”

“Now as I understand it from Mrs Webster, that young man was due to come and see her lodger but never showed up. Perhaps that’s where you should be looking, not bothering folks around here!”

[HoneyDog]

“We don’t mean to upset anyone Officer” says Howard humbly. “To level with you, we were asked by our friend’s family to look into the matter. We’re real worried about him, he should have been in contact with one of us by now. Please, could you tell us what you know about it?”

[Philulhu]

The policeman looked at the five young men and nodded. ”I appreciate you boys want to find your friend but as I say, he ain’t in this town,” he said. ”Mrs Webster said he was on his way to see the young lady but he never showed. I guess that’s your starting point - find out where he went missing between Arkham and here.”

[HoneyDog]

"Are the state police aware of the case, sir?" asks Howard.

[Philulhu]

”I don’t rightly know,” replied the officer. ”But if I had to guess, the fact that you boys are here rather than than anyone else, suggests that someone wants to look after their family’s reputation and isn’t doing this through official channels. If it hadn’t been for Mrs Webster, we wouldn’t have been involved either.”

”It won’t be the first time a young man’s attention gets caught by a young lady and his family don’t approve, so he could just be lying low until the fuss dies down. It’s a long time to be missing though, so you boy’s go look for him pronto.”

[peper757]

"Yes, I think we should be moving on now." Thomas says, defeatedly. "Sorry for wasting your time."

[Mr. Handy]

"Yes, thank you, Officer," says William. "We'll get going and retrace his route."

[HoneyDog]

"Just one thing, Officer" Howard interjects. "It could really help us. Do you know of any motels or rooms a traveler might be likely to stay in if he would be en route from here to Arkham, or vice versa? I'm sure that you checked of course, but it might be a place for us to start.'

[Mallard]

"Maybe I should have checked those motels on the way up" smirks Bernie. "One of us should still stay here though, case the place, ya know... Unless anyone objects, Il'l stay, keep hidden, out of that cops face?"