Mysteries of the missing

by Edward H. Smith

Mrs. Small, waiting at home, did not get excited when her husband failed to appear at the fixed time. She knew he had been going through a busy day, and she reasoned that probably something pressing had come up to detain him. At half past seven, however, she got impatient and telephoned his office, getting no response. She waited two hours longer before she telephoned to the home of John Doughty’s sister. She found her husband’s secretary there and was assured that Doughty had been there all evening, which seems to have been the fact. Doughty said his employer had left the theater at five thirty o’clock, and that he knew no more. He could not explain Small’s absence from home, but took the matter lightly. No doubt Small would be along when he got ready.

At midnight Mrs. Small sent telegrams to Small’s various theaters in eastern Canada, asking for her husband. In the course of the next twenty-four hours she got responses from all of them. No one had seen Small or knew anything about his movements.

Now there followed two weeks of silence and waiting. Mrs. Small did not go to the police; neither did she employ private detectives until later. For two weeks she evidently waited, believing that her husband had gone off on a trip, and that he would return soon. Those of his intimates in Toronto who could not be kept out of the secret of his absence took the same attitude. It was explained later that there was nothing unprecedented about Small’s having simply gone off on a jaunt for some days or even several weeks. He was a moody and self-centered individual. He had gone off before in this way and come back when he got ready. He might have gone to New York suddenly on some business. Probably he had not been alone. Mrs. Small evidently shared this view, and her reasons for so doing developed a good deal later. In fact, she refused for months to believe that anything had befallen her husband, and it was only when there was no remaining alternative that she changed her position.

Finally, a little more than two weeks after Small’s disappearance, his wife and attorneys went to the Dominion police and laid the case before them. Even then the quest was undertaken in a cautious and skeptical way. This attitude was natural. The police could find not the least hint of any attack on Small. The idea that such a man had been kidnapped seemed preposterous. Besides, what could have been the object? There had been no demand for his ransom. No doubt Small had gone away for reasons sufficient unto himself. Probably his wife understood these impulsions better than she would say. There were rumors of infelicity in the Small home, and these proved later to be well grounded. The police simply felt that they would not be made ridiculous. Neither did they want to stir up a sensation, only to have Small return and spill his wrath upon their innocent heads.

But the days spun out, and still there was no news of the missing man. Many began to turn from their original attitude of knowing skepticism. Other rumors began to fly about. Gradually the conviction gained ground that something sinister had befallen the master of theaters. Could it not be possible that Small had been entrapped in some blackmailing plot and perhaps killed when he resisted? It seemed almost incredible, but such things did happen. How about his finances? Was his money intact in the bank? Had he drawn any checks against his account? It was soon discovered that no funds had been withdrawn either on December 2 or subsequently, and it seemed likely that Small had only a few dollars in his pockets when he vanished, unless, as was suggested, he kept a secret cache of ready money.

Attention was now directed toward every one who had been close to the theater owner. One of the most obvious marks for this kind of inquiry was John Doughty, the veteran secretary. Doughty had, as already remarked, been Small’s right-hand man for nearly two decades. He knew his employer’s secrets, was close to all his business affairs, and was even known to have been Small’s companion on occasional drinking bouts. At the same time Small had treated Doughty in a niggardly way as regards pay. The secretary had been receiving forty-five dollars a week for years, never more. At the same time, probably through other bits of income which his position brought him, Doughty had saved some money, bought property in Toronto, and established himself with a small competence.

That Small regarded this faithful servant kindly and was careful to provide for him, is shown by the fact that Small had got Doughty a new and better place as manager of one of the Small theaters in Montreal, which had been taken over by the syndicate. In his new job Doughty received seventy-five dollars a week. He had left to assume his new duties a day or two after the consolidation of the interests, which is to say a day or two after Small vanished.

Doughty had, of course, been questioned, but it seemed obvious that this time he knew nothing of his old employer’s movements. He had accordingly stayed on in Montreal, attending to his new duties and paying very little attention to Small’s absence. Less than three weeks after Small had gone, and one week after the case had been taken to the police, however, new attention began to be paid to Doughty, and there were some unpleasant whisperings.

On Monday morning, December 23, just three weeks after Small had walked off into the void, came the dramatic break. Doughty, as was his habit, left Montreal the preceding Saturday evening to spend Sunday in Toronto with his relatives and friends. On Monday morning, instead of appearing at his desk, he telephoned from Toronto that he was ill and might not be at work for some days. His employers took him at his word and paid no further attention until, three days having elapsed, they telephoned to the home of Doughty’s sister. She had not seen him since Monday. The man was gone!

If the Small disappearance case had heretofore been considered a somewhat dubious jest, it now became a genuine sensation. For the first time the Canadian and American newspapers began to treat the matter under scare headlines, and now at last the Dominion police began to move with force and alacrity.