Chapter 4, Uncertanties

Outside the bakery, Martha asked the cabbie to please wait for them, they would not be a minute. He tipped his cap and put his whip down across the roof of the cab. The two curious ladies walked into the bakery.

In less than fifteen minutes they walked back outside with two small packages of rolled paper and a bit of new information. Their loyal cab driver was patiently waiting where they left him, so Ellie reached up and handed him one of their packages: "that is a strawberry tart for you my good man, and we need you to take us to St. Pancras Station at the quick."

The cabbie was making good time, and the ride was bumpy. Martha listened to the horse's steel shoes thump the pavement, and she matched the noise to the pounding of her heart.

"Martha… I say, Martha, are you listening to me?"

Mrs. Hudson snapped back to the present, as she was called back into focus by the sound of insistence in Ellie's voice.

"Yes, El… I am sorry, what did you say?"

"I said, here we have a man murdered but money does not seem to be the motive, so in my mind only love, or revenge could crowd out the Queen's coin as motivation… what do you think?"

Mrs. Hudson paused and thought about Ellie's statement; it was true what she proposed, about motive, except that revenge and love could be intertwined, or two sides of the same coin. She hesitantly started thinking out loud as she tried to collect and organize what they knew about the killing.

"Mr. Holmes is always saying that you have to 'reason backward' if you are to solve a crime. So, we must follow what we know in reverse. We know the poor bird-feeder was leaving today with his love Laura. We know it was a sudden decision, as her workmates said that Laura unexpectedly gave notice this morning. We know Mr. Solabrini was murdered in daylight, in the middle of the park, and was not robbed of his valuables. It would seem that the murderer acted to prevent Mr. Solabrini and Laura's departure."

"Unless it's an awful coincidence'" replied Ellie.

Martha looked at Ellie and nodded her acknowledgment. They best not try and be too clever, they were not detectives and certainly were not Mr. Holmes.

The sights and smells of London either flew past the cab or else struck them dead on: horses, manure, sulfur, smoke, and humanity.

"Still, we don't know how the murderer found out about the lover's plan to flee," said Ellie with appropriate gravitas.

"No, but if this is about love, then perhaps he will show himself here at the train station" replied Martha as the Hansom pulled to a stop outside St. Pancras.

The train station was a loud, bustling place, as throngs of travelers, well-wishers and workers were all bent on going, arriving or assisting those who wished to do one or another. The two women found the train platform marked on the tickets and decided to wait and watch.

"I suspect, she will be young, simply dressed and carrying only a bag or two," said Martha, as they scanned the platform for a woman who met her assumption. It was almost four o'clock when Ellie spotted a young brunette who matched Martha's guess to a tee. The young lady walked along the platform and took up a position away from the tracks and towards the newsstand. She set her carpet bag, and small valise down and anxiously looked up and down the platform. She was looking for someone, or more specifically, she was waiting for someone.

"There Martha, that girl in the navy dress… by the newsstand."

Martha located the girl and clutched Ellie's arm in excitement.

But now what to do, thought Martha. Should they go talk to her? Was it their role to tell her the truth and dash all her dreams?

Then Martha saw him; a man was standing back away from the platform, to the rear of the newsstand. He appeared to be watching the woman they supposed to be Laura. He was a large man, wearing a simple cloth cap and a workman's clothes with his collar turned up. He held out an open newspaper but was looking over the top of it towards Laura. There was something sinister about his bearing, about his look.

Martha tugged at Ellie's sleeve and having gained her attention, nodded towards the man. She cautiously glanced over towards the newspaper-man and then back at Martha. Ellie's expression betrayed her immediate suspicion.

The time was now ten after four, and it became apparent that Laura's anxiety was reaching a pitch level as she was repetitiously looking up at the station clock, and then back and forth down the platform. Her eyes were searching for her companion in increasing worry.

Martha was struck by the sadness and pending finality of the melancholy scene as it played out before her. The young woman was nervously looking for a love who would never arrive; her increasing anxiety as she dismissed his absence as the result of a slow cab. Then, confusion and disbelief, as the conductor called out final boarding and the train coughed up its great clouds of steam. Finally, grief and horror as the train pulls away and she realizes that he is not coming: but why?

It was the not knowing that gave birth to the horror. People's ability to either engage in the fancy of beautiful outcomes or build the monsters of their fears, are the only certainties in uncertainty.

Ellie looked at Martha, her eyes glistening with empathy for the poor girl. Martha knew what Ellie was about to do, and she took a firm grasp of El's wrist to prevent her from going to Laura.

When Ellie had received the bad news of the sinking of her husband's ship, and that no survivors were recovered, she stubbornly refused to believe the news. His body was never recovered. She remained in a state of denial for two years, as she firmly believed he had survived and was going to come home to her. Ellie understood the shock of loss and that hope can be a sentence.

Laura remained at the platform after the train had departed the station. She looked around as a child waiting for a parent to give her guidance; in fact, she was lost, as the road to happiness so gaily run down this afternoon, had been snatched away and she was left standing in an unknown and hostile land.

Hesitantly, she reached down, picked up her two bags and started back down the platform from whence she had come. And as inevitably as night follows day, the man with the newspaper tucked his paper under his arm and started walking after her.

Martha started out behind him, initially dragging Ellie along until El caught on as to what they were now doing.

Young Laura mechanically walked out to Euston Road and stood at the omnibus stand as the newspaper-man followed her from a distance. Martha and Ellie looked at one another as this was the moment of choice: contact the girl or follow the man?

New chapters to be added shortly!