Chapter 2 – The Woodcutter

*.*.*.

In a way, Jack Robinson never expected to hear from Miss Fisher again. He did reissue Phryne Fisher's missing person file, sent out notifications to the other police forces and went back to his other cases fully expecting that to be the end of the matter. Even if the other Miss Fisher was somehow still alive, she'd clearly forged her own life by now and had no interest in getting in contact with her family.

A few days later Collins took a phone call from Miss Fisher, asking him to visit her at her aunt's house where she was staying while she was back in Melbourne. Jack checked his watch when Collins relayed the message. He had a meeting with his barrister that afternoon but he did have the time to visit her first.

The house surprised him. The oddest thing about the Fisher case was the inconsistency between the family on file and the well-to-do sister who had visited him. The house she was staying in was that of a rich person. He was dimly aware of the Stanleys, not through himself but he knew that his wife and father-in-law had some connection to the family. He knew that his wife's family had occasionally been invited to events thrown by Mrs Stanley but Jack had always been too busy with work to attend, or at least he had been back when his wife still asked him to go with her to social gatherings. Henry Fisher and his family did not sound from the file he read as if they moved in these sorts of circles. However, the butler on the door was expecting him and led him through to the parlour where Miss Fisher and an older woman, who Jack assumed was the aunt, were waiting for him.

"I don't have long, Miss Fisher," Jack told her as he sat after introductions.

"That's all right, Inspector, it won't take very long. You asked if there was anything else strange I remember from when Phryne went missing?"

Jack raised an eyebrow. "You remembered something?"

Miss Fisher nodded. "There was a man… I don't know his name. I was keeping watch for Father one day and he started speaking to me. He gave me a ticket to the circus. Phryne and I snuck in all the time, so Phryne gave the ticket to our cousin, Arthur Stanley–"

"Something I will reprimand you for later on, my girl," Mrs Stanley warned, although Jack noted there was warmth in her scolding voice. He suspected Miss Fisher was in for nothing more than a talking to.

"Yes, well, Cousin Arthur… you'll probably want to speak to him, so you'll see…"

"He is not well, Inspector," Mrs Stanley informed. "He has many issues, physical and …"

"He's still like a child," Miss Fisher finished for her aunt, "but he doesn't lie, he doesn't really know how to. But because he couldn't be as sneaky as us, and he wanted so much to go to the circus, Phryne gave him the ticket and we went one night not long before she disappeared. I'd forgotten all about it, about him, but Arthur reminded me yesterday. The man was at the circus, you see. He called me over and started talking to me but, while it had been me he had first taken an interest in, I could tell that his attention switched to Phryne. She's what we talked about in the end. Arthur saw us talking but I don't know that Phryne ever saw the man, she was watching the show the whole time."

Jack took all this in. "So you think this man might have taken your sister?"

"I don't know but Arthur says he saw him hanging around the house the other day. You'd be surprised at how good Arthur's memory is, Inspector, so there is a good chance he did see the same man here."

"This trip to the circus, how long was that before your sister disappeared?"

"We went on the Friday night," Janey told him. "Phryne vanished the following Monday."

Jack thought this over. It certainly seemed more than a coincidence, especially if the same man was back for some reason. He could see that the women were trying to protect this Arthur from being interrogated by him but as he was the primary witness, he couldn't just take Miss Fisher's word on things. "I think I will need to speak to Arthur, then."

Miss Fisher stood. "I'll get him but please be gentle, Inspector. He struggles."

Jack smiled at her. "Just a talk, I promise. I need to hear it from him."

She nodded and walked out of the room, leaving Jack alone with Mrs Stanley.

He turned to the matriarch. "There's something I don't quite understand, Mrs Stanley. It may have nothing to do with the case, I know, but from the file on your niece I thought she came from a struggling family and yet clearly that is not the case."

Mrs Stanley sighed. "You are right, Inspector. My sister and I came from a good family. My own husband, Edward, made quite a bit of money to set us up as you now see. Henry Fisher, unfortunately, was a no-good trickster, sailing by on his questionable charm and nothing else. Until a cousin of his died and he inherited the title of Baron of Richmond and some land back in England. He took my sister and their remaining daughter over there once he had the money. Janey has turned into a proper little lady now but Phryne, God help her, if she is out there, will have nothing and have had very little education. As much as Janey is desperate to find her, I do wonder what life she would have lived. Integrating her into the society her family now moves in might be next to impossible."

"She's still a girl from Collingwood," Jack mused. "Not an honourable Miss Fisher like her younger sister."

"I don't think Janey has really considered that, how different the paths their lives took are. If you find her alive, she's liable to be greatly shocked by who her sister now is."

Both of them, Jack thought to himself, assuming of course that Phryne Fisher would have no clue that her family had jumped up in social rank since her departure. He stood up as Miss Fisher returned with Arthur by her side.

"Arthur, this is Inspector Robinson. He's trying to help us with the man you saw."

Mrs Stanley walked over to Jack and spoke in a hushed voice. "Try not to mention Phryne if you can help it, Inspector. It upsets my son greatly."

Jack nodded at her soft words and turned his attention to the man with Miss Fisher. "Your cousin Janey tells me that you saw a man around here, one that you recognised from years ago?"

Arthur nodded, which moved his whole body. It seemed so strange that a family that took such great care over a man like Arthur would be a family another child would run from. However Jack tried to cling to the idea that Phryne had simply run off after one too many beatings. Miss Fisher seemed like a lovely young lady, he didn't want to have to tell her that her sister was dead. He had to accept, though, that if this man that Arthur had seen had taken her that option seemed more likely.

"The woodcutter," Arthur announced with some difficulty.

"Arthur loves fairytales," his mother told the Inspector in explanation.

"What was he doing here?" Jack asked Arthur.

"I don't know. He…he was looking for something. He…he gave me a toffee apple but I'm not supposed to have sweets so I hid it from Mother."

"Did he tell you what he was looking for?" Jack asked.

"No," Arthur replied, "but he…he asked about the party. Guy's having a costume party, I'm going as Hansel and Marigold's going to be Gretel!"

Jack smiled at his delight. "What did he want to know about the party?"

"He wanted to know if Janey and…and Phryne were going but Phryne… I want Phryne!"

Arthur suddenly switched personas and went into a rage. He threw a nearby side table across the room then fell onto the sofa and sobbed, all before Jack could react. Mrs Stanley sat down beside Arthur and pulled him into an embrace and he started to quieten down as she held and shushed him.

Miss Fisher stepped over to Jack. "He still calls for Phryne sometimes. You have to understand, Inspector. Everyone else shunned Arthur, even his own brother. Phryne never did. She looked after him as much as she did me, he depended on her. We both did."

She almost looked like she wanted to cry herself. This missing woman had clearly had made a profound impact on her whole family, although Jack had to wonder why it had been left to her sister to find her rather than her parents.

"Well," Jack said gently, "the good news is that if this is the same man, it sounds like he's looking for your sister himself, so he doesn't know where she is."

"Unless it's me he's after and he's just mentioning Phryne as a red herring," Miss Fisher said forlornly.

"True," Jack admitted, "but from what you said, if it was you he'd wanted he would have taken you at the circus while your sister wasn't watching. It's almost like you were his intended target at first and then he switched to your sister for some reason."

"Or it's a coincidence, Inspector," Mrs Stanley called over from the sofa.

Jack nodded. "You're right, Mrs Stanley. An altruistic man could have just given a young girl a free ticket to the circus, spoken to her there and then turned up 15 years later looking for her again."

Mrs Stanley glared at him. "It might not be the same man."

"It was!" Arthur sobbed in her arms. "It was the woodcutter!"

Jack walked over to him, kneeling so as to be on his level. "Arthur, can you describe the man for me? If I can find him, I can stop him and make everyone safe."

Arthur shook his head. "He looks like…the woodcutter."

Jack sighed and stood back up, walking over to Miss Fisher once more. "You're the only other person who's seen this man, Miss Fisher."

Janey shook her head and folded her arms across her chest. "I'm sorry, Inspector, I really can't remember. If it hadn't been for Arthur I would never have even remembered he existed."

Jack nodded. "Thank you. Anyway, it's still a possible lead. If you, or Arthur, remember any more, do get back in touch. I will look into it, I promise."

He picked up his hat which he had taken off on entering and made his way out of the house to get to his next appointment.

Of course, he amended his earlier thought that he'd had on entering the house; the Stanleys would very soon be acquaintances of his former wife and father-in-law.

*.*.*.

Jack was accosted by Collins almost as soon as he walked into the station the following morning.

"Sir, you asked me to look to see if any other girls went missing around the time as Phryne Fisher?"

"Yes, Collins. Have you found something?"

"Maybe." Hugh followed him into his office with a file in his hands. "Murdoch Foyle. He was convicted of kidnapping a young girl, Myrtle Hill. She somehow made her way to a church, she was found there, drugged, but she remembered Foyle and identified him. Miss Fisher went missing after Miss Hill escaped him but before he was caught and sentenced."

"What happened to Foyle?"

"He was incarcerated, sir, but he got out a few months ago. Early release for good behaviour."

Jack took the file, interested. "So if it was him, he would be free to go to the Stanleys now. But why? If his interest is in young girls, why would he still be interested in either Miss Fisher?"

"Maybe he thinks they know too much, sir?" Collins suggested.

"Possibly, except that the younger Miss Fisher was too young to remember much about the event and the elder Miss Fisher, if she's even still alive, does not sound like someone likely to talk to the police."

Jack pulled Foyle's picture out of the file and held it up the light. It was no good, neither Arthur Stanley nor Janey Fisher had given him anything close to enough to a description to help him identify Foyle as the mysterious man. What did a woodcutter even look like?

"I'm going back to the Stanleys. Hopefully Miss Fisher will be able to identify him from this picture. In the meantime, can you pull any other missing girls in the same area for the three years around Miss Fisher's disappearance? He only got put on trial for one girl, but if he took Phryne as well there could have been even more."

Collins looked sad. "You think he killed her, don't you Inspector?"

"No," Jack replied thoughtfully. "I'm beginning to think he didn't. I think he might have tried to take her that day and she escaped and decided that she wasn't safe at home so didn't go back. It sounds like her father was very violent, particularly to her. I wouldn't blame a child for not wanting to go back to that."

"Why do you think she escaped, sir?"

"Because if Foyle is the woodcutter, he's looking for her. We just need to find her, or him, before he does finally get her."

*.*.*.

Janey was busy trying to help set up for the party. With the help of the maid, Marigold, Arthur had calmed down following the events of the last couple of days and there had been no more sightings of the woodcutter. Her aunt had scared off another housekeeper, so Janey fell into that role for her for the immediate future at least. She didn't mind, she always felt a bit of a fraud as the honourable Miss Fisher.

She was surprised when Marigold told her Inspector Robinson was back. She felt a little more comfortable in her apron than she had dressed up like a lady. The parlour was a mess as they prepared for the party and she immediately apologised for the way she was receiving the Inspector.

"It's fine, Miss Fisher. This is a flying visit. I have a lead on Arthur's woodcutter. Now, I know how distressing this is on him so I'd like to avoid speaking to him if possible so I hope you can help me."

"If I can," Janey replied, mystified.

Robinson took out a picture. "Do you know this man?"

Janey took the photograph from him. She squinted at it. He looked familiar. She tried to remember. "Yes! Yes, Inspector, that's him, that's the man who gave me the ticket!"

Robinson took the picture back from her. "Thank you, Miss Fisher. That's what I thought you'd say."

"Who is he? Was he the man Arthur saw lurking around the house the other day?"

She watched the Inspector's unreadable face. Such a careful man, she found herself liking him. "Without questioning Arthur we can't know for sure and to be frank with you Miss Fisher, I'm not sure your cousin would be considered a credible witness. He saw the man from the circus and you have identified him as Murdoch Foyle, that is enough for me to go on for now."

"Why was he after me or Phryne?" Janey asked him.

"At this stage I don't know. He was convicted for the kidnap of another girl some time after Phryne's disappearance. That's all I know at this point in the investigation."

Janey found herself about to cry. "Did he kill my sister, Inspector?"

She closed her eyes to stop the tears and when she opened them again she saw the Inspector offering her a handkerchief. "I have no proof of that, Miss Fisher."

"No proof that he didn't, either," she muttered.

"You seemed so certain she was alive before," he replied almost cheerfully, trying to lift her spirits.

Janey smiled and dabbed at her eyes. "I thought she'd run away, that Father had beaten her once too often. If he took her…"

"At this stage we don't know that he did," the Inspector said comfortingly. "It's just an angle we're investigating, and that's because of you, Miss Fisher."

He stepped away but Janey found herself craving his company. Guy's friends had started arriving and she had no interest in spending the evening with them. She knew she'd have her aunt and Arthur with her but she'd also have to endure the attentions of Guy's male friends, and surprisingly one or two of the female ones had said some things that had greatly shocked her.

"I… if it would help, I can give you an invite to the party tonight. Maybe someone will know something or Foyle might use the crowd to sneak in again?"

His eyes widened and he seemed surprised at the invitation. "Oh, er, no, thank you, Miss Fisher. I don't think a police presence is what this party needs. Besides, I have more leads to follow up on and I have a court case this afternoon which might go on late."

Janey nodded. "No, that's perfectly understandable, Inspector. I was just hoping to be able to give you this handkerchief back, that's all."

He smiled. "No rush, Miss Fisher. We'll speak again and if you do think you see Foyle at your cousin's party, call the station. We'll get him."

Janey watched him leave, feeling disappointed. Since arriving back in Melbourne he was the only new person she'd met she actually liked. Her aunt would point out that was just because she hadn't been out in society much, concentrating instead on trying to find out what had happened to Phryne and spending time with Arthur but Janey had always preferred the quiet life.

"Janey!"

She turned to see her aunt with five young women. "These are some girls from our gratitude programme. Without Mrs Truebody I thought we could use the extra help."

"Oh, yes, aunt. That's a brilliant idea." Her aunt had told Janey all about the scheme. They took the more promising girls from the Magdalene laundry and found them decent work placements. The poor girls, none of whom looked to be more than 20, were all skinny, pale and battered looking. Janey started to wonder just how kind this system was.

"This is Catherine, Helena, Laurentia, Sarah and Theodora. Girls, this is my niece, Miss Fisher. She will tell you what needs to be done."

With that, her aunt walked away and left her with the five sad looking girls.

"Well," Janey started hesitantly, still not used to being the one in control, "I suppose we ought to start with finding you some maids' uniforms. Come with me."

TBC...