The contact information in hand, Theodore, and Lila kickstarted their search for answers by phoning the scholar in question, Arthur Williams, he didn't expect inquiry into his uncle's disappearance, but he noted that he wouldn't come to the town, rather he'll meet them in Chester, it's south, about a thirty-minute commute on the train.
They'll meet in public, Arthur wanted a café, it's familiar to him, and it was agreed.
With the meeting set, Theodore and Lila made their way to the train station, bought tickets, and the daily train came from areas further north, as Arthur said, it's thirty minutes to the second, before they arrived.
Unlike the town they came from, Eden, Chester didn't grow exponentially, remaining stagnant, though the excess of people coming down from Eden slowly grew Chester, it wasn't drastic compared to Eden, formerly a humble village.
Smaller than Eden, Theodore and Lila easily found the café that Arthur agreed to meet them in and inside, the smells reminded Lila of Thanksgiving with her grandparents, down to the jars filled with jams made with fruits that season on the shelves hanging on the walls.
Looking around, the café wasn't terribly big, they shouldn't have issues finding their contact, his icy blue eyes moving through the café, Theodore searched for Arthur Williams.
Among the café patrons, there's hardly anyone who stood out to Theodore as Arthur Williams until he sees a man, about his sixties, combed darkened reddish hair, sitting alone at a corner table, wearing maroon sunglasses.
Call it a hunch.
Walking with his arm interlocked with Lila, he went towards the table with the man, the moment they reached the table, without them calling out, the man spoke first, asking if he's the Doctor.
Nodding, Theodore tells him that he is and the man responded that he recognized the voice from the phone call.
Sitting at the table, Theodore inquired Arthur about the dispute between him and Harold.
"My uncle received an invitation for the second's party some years ago," began Arthur, "I was working when he went, when he didn't return home, I called to what used to be the manor, but no one came forward, and the police weren't helpful."
His beloved Uncle Irvine, took him in when he lost his parents, raised him as his own, helped him get a foot through the competitive door of Oxford, and it stings him still that there's no closure over his uncle's disappearance.
"And Harold Thornton the Second didn't know anything about it?" Theodore summed as Arthur affirmed that he had trouble getting the man to tell him anything, he swore that he didn't know what happened to his uncle, and the police didn't find evidence.
Everyone at the party claimed seeing his uncle there, but the police casted their doubts in the report because of the liquor served, and despite Arthur's attempts, his uncle remained missing.
"So, what about the Third, what does he have to say about it?" Lila asked about William's attempts with the third Thornton and William told her it was the same, he claimed he didn't know anything about the disappearance, tried to hand wave it that his late father didn't know anything.
Arthur's tried everything he can to force the issue, but without evidence, he can't do much, and there's no chance that Harold Thornton the Third's letting him through those doors.
"Hence, why you stole the invitation," Theodore summed how Arthur concluded he needed to steal one of the invitations to Harold's celebration, which Arthur didn't deny.
He's friends with elective people, no surprise when one of them garnered an invitation, and Arthur took a chance, stealing it, forging Theodore's title on it.
"How did you hear about him?" Lila asks Arthur how he came to know about Theodore and Arthur explained that he started hearing about him in his circle.
Hammond didn't think it was a good idea looking, but Arthur didn't know what else to do, so he had him look around for anything regarding the Doctor, here they are.
"H-Hammond?" Lila says with hesitation, before Arthur tells her that his old friend didn't care to be called by his first name, only his last.
Odd friendship, that.
His uncle thought he needed someone to guard him because of his progressing condition, so he hired Hammond, figuring his unruly nature kept most people off Arthur's back.
Rough around the edges, but a good man, nonetheless.
Unfortunately, Arthur couldn't sneak to Chester without Hammond finding out, so that said, he asked for their forgiveness, Hammond's nature gets him into trouble, more than once.
"Aye, but at least I didn't walk into the closet," they heard a gruff man say as he stepped towards the table after coming out of the bathroom.
Brawny, thick mustache, piercing eyes, Uncle Irvine knew how to pick them.
Sitting down next to him, Hammond immediately took notice of Theodore and Lila, his piercing eyes looking them over, until Arthur informed him that these are the people he wanted to talk to about his late uncle.
"Forty something years and he never gave up," Hammond tells them that despite the authorities telling Arthur the same thing, he wouldn't stop his quest for answers, putting his degrees to good use.
Over coffee and tea, Theodore and Lila told the two what they found during their short time at the mansion and hearing about the hidden basement, Arthur noted that it's common for builders in this area.
Unless there's significant damage or chances of caving in that requires everything being demolished and removed, they'll close off the old basement, and simply build over it, turning it into a base for the basement to sit on, and seal up the entrance points, make sure no one accidentally finds their way into it.
The hidden walls, not surprising, plenty of socialites and the like needed to steal themselves away in the mansion, political intrigue's like flies for it.
Comes with the turf of being one of the more elaborate places in the north region.
"That include the creepy statue?" Lila asked about it, describing it, and Arthur replied that in one of the letters he received from his late uncle, that the statue looked like a Valkyrie of some sort, but the description didn't match any Valkyrie that Arthur found.
Lady Thornton and her family primary originated from France, no blood ties that would've warranted her creating the statue, and it's unusual enough that Arthur found she's the only one who made something like it, no one else.
Truly, a question for the ages.
"We heard she suffered from a mental illness, perhaps formed from stressors," Theodore recalled what Harold and the book described and Arthur affirmed he heard the same, he believed there was kernels of truth in it, as there has been instances of similar happening.
Whatever happened to her, Arthur couldn't say, but it wouldn't surprise him if in her madness drowned herself in the river north of the mansion.
"And the paintings?" Theodore asked about them, as it's surprising that for someone who loved his family history, Harold Thornton the Third didn't bring them up after purchasing the mansion, but Arthur replied that if they've been contaminated by the poisonous fruits rotting, it's no surprise they're left down there, too much of a risk bringing them up.
Given that there's an access point into the basement, Arthur thinks that's what saved the two from prolonged exposure.
The threat of exposing builders to the remnants of the poisoned fruits's more enough to make them build over it and seal off the points, but either the Second or Third unsealed one of the points, the one Theodore and Lila went through, because the authorities didn't mention it to him.
"Were there any disputes between your uncle and the Second, something that might've had to do with his disappearance?" Theodore asked Arthur about anything that'd explain it.
Sighing as he pulled his cup of tea towards him, Arthur replied that his uncle tended to be stubborn, unsurprisingly, but knowledgeable in his field, the Second thought he'd be able to help with some discrepancies, from what it sounded in his letters, Uncle Irvine never mentioned anything negative about the Second.
Thus, the confusion and intrigue over Uncle Irvine's disappearance.
"What were these discrepancies?" Lila asked him as he rested his empty cup of tea.
As Hammond had the waitress refill the cup, Arthur tells Lila that the Second suspected someone's trying to pass off fake art, but he needed a second opinion from someone who had authority.
Hence, Uncle Irvine.
Arthur wanted to do more, but Hammond kept him from doing anything rash, as Hammond pointed out that Arthur risked getting hurt.
Shaking his head, Hammond says, "Your uncle hired me in good faith, what would he say if I didn't?"
As he sighed, Arthur tells Theodore and Lila that his uncle meant well, but he learnt to adapt to his condition over time.
Leading Hammond to retort, "Locked in the closet!"
Some things, never change.
Despite his insistence, Hammond wouldn't let him go up to the mansion, not even on his own, the fact that he got locked in the closet by mistake, that if he gone up there, he would've become lost in the tunnels behind the walls.
Causing Arthur to tell Hammond, "That's why I opted to find the Doctor, Hammond."
He might've not been able to do it in his condition, but the Doctor's supposed to be the Jack-of-all-trades, more than enough to find the answers that vexed him.
"I had him look for anything about you, you're quite a traveler, aren't you, Doctor?" Arthur recalled the difficulty finding anything about Theodore.
Shrugging, Theodore responded with, "I've seen even the stars!"
Quite true, last week, he and Lila saw the formation of a new star, quite the show it was.
"Yer sure about this?" Hammond asked if Arthur still wanted Theodore's help, Arthur affirmed that he had a hunch.
With context and what happened, without hesitation, Theodore agreed to help Arthur find proof of wrongdoing, despite Hammond's reservation.
Though, after the Third kicked them out, it left Theodore in a predicament, they couldn't go back to the mansion, and both he and Arthur doubted Eden had anything left, in an attempt at keeping the mystery and allure of the mansion going.
In the distance, they started hearing the familiar sound once more, the low rumble of thunder.
Cogs turned in Theodore's head as he spoke with Lila on his plan on getting back inside the mansion.
TO BE CONTINUED…
"An Empty Tomb"