August 18 - 8.00 AM – Greyton

The investigators wake up and leave the Inn in the morning.
They find themselves in the streets of the downtown area. The day is sunny and the air is cold. Leaving the town center and going towards the harbor, the houses of the local fishermen appear. This area looks like a settlement of improvised housing, mostly made by the cheapest kind of wood material. Some parts lack a formal street grid, house numbers, or named streets. Houses are mostly shoddy, neglected, poorly constructed and degraded by time. The buildings closest to the shore express the most visible decay.

As the group passes the fishermen houses and head towards the sea, they recognize the landscape depicted in Timothy´s drawings. The boy must have copied a picture of this place. The beach is about two miles long and goes from the harbor at South to the rocks at North, where the long breakwater begins.

At the harbor fisherman are preparing to leave with their boat to face the sea. The beach is deserted. Silence and tranquility reign. Beyond the beach is a moor of sandy soil, dotted with yellowed grass and shrubs. The moor continues internally for about five hundred yards. After that, a few wooden fishermen houses appear.
Walking along the beach towards the South end, just before the breakwater, the sandy ground ends, and begins a stretch of about fifty yards, formed by the rock mantle. Large rocks have been chaotically placed above the mantle. The same kind of rocks make the breakwater, which goes towards the sea and has a lighthouse at its edge.

The sea waters begin relatively far from the beach and from the rocks, indicating a low tide. The water level would probably reach and cover most of the rocks, were it not for the low tide.

The lighthouse stands tall on the rocky edge of the breakwater. The structure is ninety feet tall and nearly twenty feet in diameter and can be accessed through the trail covering the breakwater. The structure is painted red and white, as if it were a prisoner there, standing alone in its jailhouse clothes.
The breakwater´s trail end at the lighthouse door. Apart from the entrance, the perimeter of the lighthouse is in contact with the sea rocks. Due to the low tide, the break water has no contact with the sea, whose wave are extinguishing far from the shore.
The door is closed with a chain and a lock. It is white painted like the wall is, but the paint already began to detach at various points.

Near the door there are some shoe prints. They are footprint of a person walking away from the lighthouse. They lead to the nearby rocks of the breakwater. Then, they continue on the wet sand below. Here, they are much more evident and marked. They go towards the city and seem to disappear at some point between the rocks.

*to Mr. Edmond* "Hmmm, door locked from the outside, unlikely to be anyone inside. We may have to follow up our other leads and ask around to see who has a key to the lighthouse." Bending down, I examine some of the more noticeable footprints, looking for details."

The footprints are of adult size, but.... ... female shoes. Two different kind of shoes.. Two people walking together. Both of them female. They are recent. At high tide, this part of the beach is underwater. Considering that the tide makes its complete cycle in about 12 hours, the amount of time cannot be more than 5 or 6 hours.

"Well Bing, what do you say we stop by the station and let the boys know what we are up to, that we are searching for a missing kid, then on to ask Father Colby about Carson? We'll show Mr Edmond all the bright spots in Greyton!" Michael laughs at the thought of the police station being a tourist destination.

"That makes sense. Maybe they have seen something unusual, or can direct us to someone who, you know, keeps tabs on goings on around the town. There's always someone."

I laugh ha yes Michael would love to tag along so you can show me those bright spots

Michael claps Mr. Edmond on the back, "Off we go, then!" He turns to Bing. "Yeah, there is always someone. The secret to police work. . . . busybodies who know things."

Three investigators leave the beach. The police office is in the central neighbourhood, where the Inn is.
The downtown area comprehends the houses of the most important and influential people in town. This part of the city takes most of the profits from the ongoing economic expansion.
The buildings are enveloped in a dense and constant gray haze, looking like the city of London at the height of its commercial and industrial development.
Most structures are large Georgian houses, with hipped roofs, cupolas, and railed widow's walks. There are also white belfry of fairly well preserved brick structures, one of which, the fishpacking company, stands out as the most modern building.
Some important places of reference in the town center are located around the main square. These are the town hall, the market place, the Herder inn, the variety shop, the doctor´s office and the postal office.

Not far from the central square is Greyton´s police office, a brick structure with a second story build of wood. The ground floor consists of a large office in front, with a locked sturdy door between it and the jail cells in the rear. A barred old sedan parked in the driveway, just north of the jail, serves as the town´s police car.

The second story of the building holds an office, where the local policemen stay. The office contains desks and chairs, a phone, some file cabinets and a locked wooden gun cabinet holding 12 shotguns, two revolvers and ammunitions. The policemen faces and their rhythm of activity, suggest that Greyton does not have much to worry about in terms of law and order, in the criminal sense. They mostly function as a coastguard in the city. They principal issue seem to be dealing with bureaucratic processes related to security regulations for the sea vessels.

William Burns, the police commissioner, is sitting at the main desk.On the table is a notebook full of drawings and sketches, testifying the commissioner´s latest hours were probably a period of boredom. Next to the notebook is an ashtray full of cigar stubs.

Burns is a man with wavy hair and blue eyes. He wears a blue coat and trousers, black top hat and a black waistcoat. He has a big cigar in his mouth. At first glance, he doesn´t seem like a smart person, but rather someone who found a comfortable way to laze most of his time. He welcomes the investigators, showing some curiosity for being unfamiliar faces.

Michael reaches out his hand, "Hello commissioner, I'm Detective O'Shaughnessy from Portland, this is Bing, retired Portland chief of police, and Mr. Edmond, a relative of the missing boy we have come to ask you about. Six-year-old Timothy Gilbert disappeared from his school in Portland on August 16th. He had in his possession many drawings of the Greyton lighthouse. There also seems to be a former connection between his mother, now deceased, and a resident of Greyton named Jason Carson. Reportedly, Timothy was picked up by car near his school, and given his connections to Greyton, we think he may be here."

Burns welcomes the investigators.

"Nice to meet you.. I hope you´ll have a good time here in Greyton. Let´s see if I can be of any help for your case... hummmm A child disappeared.. this is something serious.... we don´t have those things happening here. The town is so quiet, very rarely, we, as law enforcement agencies, are called to deal with something serious. It is good for the town, but for us, you know what? It is almost boring. "

He laughs with the face of someone who seems to have little intelligence behind those smiling eyes. For sure, he has this position just because nothing happens here.

"But.. yes.. let me think about your case.... hummm.... Carson you said..?
Jason Carson... ah yes.... he used to live here in Greyton. An orphan raised by Father Colby, the city´s priest. Some time ago, he emigrated to Portland and never came back. I thought he was still there. But other than that... I have nothing here that might be related to your case. Sorry, man."

"Oh, that’s a real shame. If we can’t come up with any leads, I’m afraid the family will decide to go to the papers with this. Can you imagine the headlines? INCOMPETENT POLICE BAFFLED BY CASE. We should definitely try to avoid that kind of outcome. Surely there must be something, or someone we might talk to before this gets out of hand."

Mr. Burns do you think there's anyone else who can help us in this case? Do you think this isn't something serious this is very serious a child kidnapping.

Mr. Burns responds embarrassedly
"Oh... I never said that this case is not serious ... I just said that I'm not used to dealing with things like that."

"What leads you here is a suspect ... Jason Carson, right? Well ... he is no longer in town and he never got involved in anything illegal here. He used to lived with Father Colby, and as far as I know, Colby was the only person close to him. The priest adopted him as soon as he was born. The last time I heard of Carson... I heard that he left by sea. Captain Cornell told m ... about a year ago. I don't know anything else."

Burns tells investigators how to find Cornell and Colby. The priest lives in a house near his church, at the top of the hill. Cornell can be found at the port, if he has not gone out with his schooner.

I look at Burns and say Well thank you Burns. Which one do you think is closer to here?
I look at the other investigators hoping maybe they have an idea which ones closer or which one should we go to first?

"How about we check in on Cornell first, if he is out on the water we can check with the priest and try again later, if he is there then so much the better."

That sounds great we should check on Cornell

I say to Michael

Let's go!