Once we arrive in Exeter, we hail a bus and board with the mass of college students finishing for the day. After a good hour searching for transport to Baskerville, the closest network to the Moor from Exeter is this bus which terminates a good five miles away from the military base. It's now I start to realise how limited our resources will be down here.
We have to disperse on the bus and I find myself seated next to one of the college girls we followed on. She shuffles over and pulls her bag towards the window to make room for me to sit, but her eyes remain glued to her phone. The journey is long and tedious - we spend fifteen minutes on the same roundabout before the next fourty-five minutes is spent on one long, narrow, winding road which passes various small hamlets and villages before we get off in Moretonhampstead, a small town no bigger than the villages we passed.
"What now then?" John asks as we walk away from the bus and gather on the pavement, just a few meters away from the girl on the bus.
"I thought we'd check out the area surrounding Baskerville first," dad says as John comes back in. "See how impenetrable the base really is and how close we can get."
"It's a military base," I point out. "They're not just going to let us walk in - or the tourists that stumble across it." I consider for a moment. "Do we actually know where this place is located exactly?"
"Somewhere near Grimpen?" John suggests.
"That would narrow it down to about a fifty mile radius then." I lean back against the wall and sigh.
"You looking to get somewhere?" The girl from the bus speaks up at last and we turn to face her.
"Yeah," John says. "Baskerville. Have you heard of it?"
"Yeah," she nods. "Massive military base just a couple miles from my place. You got a map?" I nod and take out a map of Devon we bought at the train station. I open it up for her and she leans over her finger hovering above the map for a second before putting it down in the middle of an area of green. "Here," she points. "You won't get anywhere need it though. Closest I could ever get was Hound Tor." She moves her finger slightly. "Massive rock formation. Should be easy enough for you guys to get up to the top and look over." A family carrier draws up beside us and the girl looks up. "Do you want a ride?"
"Yes, thank you," Dad says.
"You sure it's not a problem?" John asks and she shakes her head.
"Not at all. We're going that way anyway and there's plenty of space in the back." We look to her Dad for permission and he nods.
"Yeah sure," he agrees. "Where you guys going?"
"Hound Tor," I say, getting in and moving into the middle while dad follows me in and John goes in the other side.
"Yeah, that's fine. I'm Cal, by the way, pleasure to meet you chaps and chapette. We'll have to stop off at ours first though but you are welcome to take our Landy up to the Tor later."
The girl turns around in her seat smiles.
"Sorry, yes, forgot to mention - I'm Elizabeth, but most people just call me Beth." She waves her hand in a mock wave before frowning and biting her lip, obviously considering whether or not to say the thought playing in her mind. "I didn't want to say anything on the bus," she says after a moment, "but you're Sherlock and Sophia Holmes and Doctor Watson, aren't you?" Dad nods and John smiles. Another follower on his blog. "I've visited the website - brilliant stuff on there - and the cases on the blog are really interesting! Is that why you're down here? Has something happened at Baskerville?"
"Don't know yet. That's what we're going to see," I tell her. "You know a Henry Knight?"
"Only in passing," she shrugs but her dad looks back at us in the rear view mirror as he drives.
"I do his car for him," Cal nods. "Nice guy but he's got some strange ideas."
"Is that the Beast of Dartmoor guy you told me about?" Beth asks and her dad nods. "So does he think it's come back?"
"He certainly seems to think so," I reply. "What's your thoughts on it?"
"I've always dismissed it as a myth," she shrugs. "Kind of thing you ask for as a scary story when you're a kid but it never really goes any further than that. I've never really looked into it."
"Do you want to?" I ask and I'm given three shocked stares.
"I'd love to!" Beth exclaims, glancing sideways at her dad who stays quiet. "But you don't normally have people tag along with you."
"We have John," I point out. "And besides, you probably know more about the area than we do. We could always do with the extra help."
"Dad?" she prompts and he takes a moment to consider.
"I don't see why not," Cal says and dad, John and I look expectantly at her for an answer.
"Then yeah!" she exclaims. "Thanks, that'd be great!"
The incident with mum several months ago has made me realise how lonely we really are - me especially. Besides those at school, I don't have the opportunity to interact with anybody my age. Dad has John. I have nobody, but hopefully I can build a friendship here with someone who seems similarly isolated socially but clearly has an interest in what we do. I think this could be beneficial to all of us.