A Disappearance in Baker Street

Variations on the same story screamed from every newspaper on the rumbling, crowded, over-heated train. ‘A Disappearance in Baker Street’, ‘American Girl’s Mystery Disappearance’, ‘Crime or Hoax? Scotland Yard Not Convinced’, ‘Where is Patricia?’, ‘Crime at Sherlock Holmes Museum.’  The photograph of the missing girl, just too far away for me to see without my glasses, accompanied the headlines. 

There really was no getting away from Sherlock Holmes, I thought. My book on his creator was now ten months behind schedule for completion, my publisher out of patience and my increasing exasperation with my subject matter was not helped by the saturation coverage of Sherlock Holmes in the media. When would the next TV series be filmed? Was there another film in the pipeline? I used to keep track of all this to add to the book’s conclusion about Arthur Conan Doyle’s continuing appeal. Now all this new interest was just a distraction. The missing American girl would never have made the front page of every paper within two days if she hadn’t disappeared form the Sherlock Holmes Museum. Now it featured prominently on page one of The Guardian, The Times and The Telegraph alongside two civil wars in the Middle East, the arrest of a group of student internet hactivists at Columbia University and signs of yet more instability in the international banking sector.  Whether the missing girl had engineered these fifteen minutes of fame herself or was a genuine victim of a puzzling crime, I felt sorry for her parents. The newspaper nearest to me showed a photograph of them, as blurred as their daughter from where I was sitting, so they seemed just shadows of worry and grief, haunting the carriage.

    I had studiously avoided picking up the paper at the newsagents’ stand when I got on the train this morning. An old friend from my college days was putting me up at her flat while I spent one more week in the British Library and the London Metropolitan Archives researching the criminal cases that had inspired Conan Doyle and the Victorian fascination with London’s underworld that helped make his stories so successful. Even the name of the underground line from the flat to the library was redolent of Holmes. The Bakerloo line was once the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway.  The man sitting next to me got off the train and left a copy of The Times behind on his seat. I picked it up and read the details of the girl’s disappearance. 

    ‘Patricia Grove was last seen on a visit to the Sherlock Holmes Museum in Baker Street with a group of friends on Monday June 16th. A curious aspect of the case is that the three girls who accompanied her on the tour insist that they left Patricia in the room known as Sherlock Holmes’ Sitting Room and waited outside for her. When she failed to come out after ten minutes, they went in to hurry her, but could find no trace of their friend.  Museum staff are adamant there is no other exit from the room and have cast doubt on the girls’ testimony. The museum manager alerted the police after a thorough search of the premises turned up no trace of Patricia. The museum has issued a press release stating that museum security has always been of the highest order. Inspector William Collins of Scotland Yard has told reporters that investigations are proceeding as in all such cases. When asked if this was a real life locked room mystery by a reporter from CBS, Inspector Collins stated that, “People do not vanish into thin air. If you are asking me was it possible for the girl to leave that room without being seen, the answer is no, someone saw her. Very often, people are not as observant as they think and genuine mistakes can be made. If, however, this turns out to be a student prank, the Metropolitan police will prosecute for wasting police time.” Patricia’s father, Mr. Frank Grove, has reacted angrily to the Inspector’s statement. Neither family nor friends have heard from his daughter for three days and Mr. Grove insists she is not the kind of girl to either play a prank of this kind or go away for days without contacting her family. Patricia has won numerous prizes and scholarships from an early age and has been a member of MENSA from the age of eight. She was 2007 state under 15 champion in floor gymnastics in Ohio and is also an accomplished cellist. When last seen she was wearing denim shorts and a tee shirt with the logo of the Prince Albert Gallery and carrying a large Paul’s Boutique handbag. From their home in Ohio, Mr. Grove and his wife Leanne have appealed to anyone with information to contact the US Embassy in London, who have set up a direct phone line for this purpose at 020 7499 9991.’