“How did you know?” Margery asks rhetorically.
“It seems all roads lead toCavalcade,” Ngaio replies.
“All hail the royal procession!” Margery calls out, and I return to the parlor with tea just in time to witness her mock salute.
We chuckle. The evening has been long, and even this desperate attempt at levity is welcome. I rub my temples; all this intense reading is making my headache flare. I feel Agatha’s hand on my arm. “Is this too much for you?”
“No, no,” I protest. I do not want to miss a single minute of this sleuthing. “In fact, I think I should share my findings next. I have the files recounting the night of Miss Denning’s disappearance.”
Emma sits up straighter. “I suspect we will find Louis Williams there.”
“You suspect correctly,” I say. “After the performance ofCavalcadein question, many members of the cast and crew headed to Café de Paris for a nightcap. We learned from Sir Alfred that this was their wont. Even though she was only substituting for the night, Miss Denning was invited along. The police interviewed around fourteenCavalcadetroupe members, eight members of the orchestra, and an assistant director who were all there, most of whom didn’t recall her. The only exceptions were a trumpet player, the cellist who invited her, and a chorus member.”
“What about Louis?” Ngaio asks. She might be as impatient as I am. “They interviewed him, right?”
“Ah, I’m getting to him. Louis was identified by the chorus member as talking with Miss Denning. A group of well-to-do men seems to have been hanging around theCavalcadecast at the Café de Paris, although it’s unclear whether the men came with them from the theater or chanced upon them. The police interviewed them as well.”
“What did Louis say?” Agatha asks.
“Just a night out with some friends, he maintained. He claims to not recall Miss Denning,” I report.
“Of course he doesn’t recall her,” Ngaio says with a snort of disbelief. I’ve come to realize that each of her snorts conveys a different message, and I’m getting quite adept at interpreting them.
“Who were the friends?” Agatha asks.
“It looks like two other principals from Mathers Insurance.”
Margery stands up and begins pacing Ivy’s parlor. “It cannot be mere happenstance. Two missing girls—both young single working women out in the world—and Louis Williams has ties to them both?”
“He could be a predator but not a killer,” Emma suggests.
“It seems increasingly unlikely,” Ngaio says, adding her usual refrain, “Still, we need that dang proof.”
“What are the circumstances around Miss Denning’s disappearance?” Agatha asks about the next event in this chronology.
“That’s where my files come to an end,” I reply.
Emma holds up a manila folder. “I’ve got the details on that. Miss Denning hadn’t made much of an impression on theCavalcadefolks, and then she simply wasn’t there. Those who had registered her presence at all assumed she went home.”
“Who first noticed that she was missing?”
“Her landlady. Miss Denning never made it home that night. She was a very responsible young lady, and when she didn’t appear by nightfall the next day, the landlady contacted the girls’ parents and the police,” Emma says, summarizing the thick sheaf of pages.
“And?”
It’s Agatha’s turn. “Her poor parents made public pleas in newspapers and on radio programs. All sorts of reports poured in—”
“Let me guess,” Ngaio interjects. “Most of them phonies, submitted by crackpots?”
“Spot-on,” Agatha replies. “But then the parents received a letter. Ostensibly from their daughter.”
“What did it say?” I ask.
“That she’d eloped with a young German fellow. That they’d traveled to Scotland, where the marital process is simpler. The letter implored the parents not to worry, and Miss Denning assured her parents they’d come by when they returned from their honeymoon,” Agatha says.
“So the mystery was solved,” Margery says with evident relief.
“Not exactly,” Ngaio replies, consulting her records. “The parents were extremely skeptical of the letter. They’d never heard mention of a young man, and this so-called marriage and trip took place during the middle of Miss Denning’s term, about which she was extremely diligent. Not to mention that she simply vanished after this gathering at Café de Paris.”
