I had myself driven down to Union Station to meet the train, but she wasn’t on it. She wasn’t at Avilion either: I phoned Reenie to check, provoking an outburst: she’d always known something like this would happen, just because of the way Laura was. She’d gone with Laura to the train, she’d shipped off the trunk and everything as instructed, she’d taken every precaution. She should have accompanied her all the way, and now look! Some white slaver had made off with her. Laura’s trunk turned up on schedule, but Laura herself appeared to have vanished. Richard was more upset than I would have predicted. He was afraid she’d been spirited away by unknown forces—people who had it in for him. It could be the Reds, or else an unscrupulous business rival: such twisted men existed. Criminals, he hinted, who were in cahoots with all sorts of folks—folks who’d stop at nothing to assert undue influence on him, because of his growing political connections. Next thing you knew we’d get a blackmail note.
