text: Ren Willi The Dissappearance fo Madeline Shultz A Short Story 
   
   
     
   
  December 23rd, 1952 
  	Tragedy has struck in the cool county of London and none other to the handsome and charismatic couple that is Mister and Madame Shultz. A couple that has touched a lot of people’s heart in one the way or another, yet, despite their loving nature they have not warm one frigid heart for their 6 year old daughter, Madeline Shultz, was taken on December 22nd by an unknown assailant.  
  	Of course the idea that she had simply awaken early and was maybe in the kitchen or at the stables had crossed the mind of the worried parents, but when she had not presented herself by noon it was obvious what happened, though they were reluctant to admit it.  
  	True, the possibility of her running away is the same as her being kidnapped, but Isidore Shultz assured us and the renowned Detective Greene that Madeline is not that kind of girl. She said, “Madeline is an obedient and happy child who would never leave home without her mother or father.” 
  	Detective Greene has stated that he will do his best to find Madeline Shultz, and this will not be a Christmas of sadness but of joy. But as the nights grow colder, will Madeline be home for Christmas? 
  Oscar Quinces sat the newspaper down on the table and looked over at his friend, Alice Bellicose, who was busying herself with making tea. 
  	“Isn’t that the saddest thing,” He said to her, “A child missing the week of Christmas. Have you ever heard a more depressing story?” When she didn’t answer he said. “Hello, Alice! Are you there?” 
  	“Pardon,” Alice said turning with two teacups in her hands. “Sorry, you know I tune you out when you read aloud,” She sat across from him and passed him his cup. 
  	“You’re joking! I read aloud for you all the time,” Oscar said. 
  	“I know, that’s why I tune you out,” She said 
  	“So you didn’t hear the article I just read to you about Madeline Shultz?” 
  	“Madeline Shultz?” she sipped her tea and scrunched her eyebrows. “You mean Isidore Shultz’ daughter?” 
  	“Yeah, that one.” 
  	“What about her?” She asked 
  	“She’s been kidnapped!” 
  	“Kidnapped!” She gasped.  “How awful! Poor Isidore.”  
  	“Poor Isidore? What about Madeline?” 
  	“Well, yes poor Madeline too, but Isidore is the mother, she must be heart broken.” 
  	“So that’s it? Oh, poor family, they lost a child, when’s the funeral?” Oscar scoffed. 
  	“What do you want me to do, get my magnify glass and finger print dust?” 
  	“Maybe,” he shrugged. 
  	“Since when am I that kind of person?” 
  	“Well, I just thought since you have all those books.” 
  	“What books?” 
  	“You know, Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.” 
  	“So because I have a few mystery books…” 
  	“More like all of them,” he murmured. 
  	“I'm sorry, but when am I suddenly Jane Marple?” 
  	“Look, I just thought it would be fun! You’re always looking for something fun to do around this time of the year, so I thought this might be it,” Oscar shrugged, looking down at his cooling tea.  When she didn’t say anything for a few minutes he looked up to see her giving him a wary look, a look that’s he has been seeing a lot lately. He said nothing, because he didn’t know what else to say, so he just looked back until finally she broke the silence with a sigh. 
  	“Ozzy, look, I know since you lost your practice you’ve been…upset,” 
  	“Not really,” Oscar muttered. 
  	“But you can’t get all…sad at this moment of your life. You should be getting out there and finding a job, any job, while you think about the next step,” She took a breath. “Look, I know you said no already, but David is still looking for an assistant…” 
  	“Why not just this once?” He injected.  
  	“Sorry,” Said a puzzled Alice. 
  	“What if we did find her, Madeline, before Christmas? Just listen,” He said before she could interrupt. “Remember last year when Sarah Flannigan was murdered? Three months it took them to find out it was Marie Flannigan, do you remember how long it took you?”  He paused. 
  	“Nine days, but…” 
  	“Nine days and you said ‘I bet it was her sister. They said she died of arsenic poisoning and she’s Dr. Sholto’s secretary. You know she’s always complaining about how Sarah got more callers than her.’ Remember?” 
  	“That was an educated guess.  It meant nothing.” 
  	"When isn’t an accusation an educated guess?” He exclaimed. When she didn’t respond he sat back in his chair and waited. In a moment her expression went from exhausted to excitedly happy. 
  	“Alright then,” She said 
  	“Really?” He was surprised. 
  	“Really, but…” 
  	“Oh no,” 
  	“If we don’t find Madeline before Christmas you must take the job as Davy’s assistant immediately,” There was a pause, a glare, and then: 
  	“Fine,” Oscar stretch his open hand towards her. 
  	“Deal,” She said clasping his hand. 
  	“Deal,” He said shaking it. 
  	“Then I guess we’re off,” 
  	“To where?” He asked. 
  	“To the Shultz,” 
  	“Ah, allons-y, then?” 
  	“Allons-y indeed,” 
  	Oscar and Alice reached the house by noon. The estate was quite large, Oscar noted, a place that seemed easy to get lost in. The door opened at the first knock to show what was left of Isidore Shultz. Her brown hair seemed greasy and distraught, purple bags lied under her red eyes, and her skin was a ghostly white. 
  	“Isidore!” Alice gasped at the woman’s appearance which was very unlike her. She was suddenly aware that she would have to tread carefully above the situation at hand. 
  	“Oh, Alice Bellicose,” Isidore Shultz croaked. “I guess you heard the news. Thank you for coming past, but I’m afraid we’re not taking condolences visits at this moment, so please…”	“Actually Isidore, I’ve come to help.” Alice said with a warm smile. 
  	“Help?” Isidore said surprised. “Help how?” 
  	“Well, I’m sure that Detective Greene is doing all he can, but I felt that he may need a little help finding Madeline, so Oscar and I came over. If you don’t want us to, that’s fine.” Isidore stared at both with confusion as Oscar began to get cold feet. Then Isidore broke the silence with a sigh.	 
  	“If anyone else had said that to me I’d close the door in their face thinking they’re a beggar. But,” She opened the door to let them step inside. “I know you Alice. You’re brilliant, although I know you don’t think of yourself that way. I’d be happy for your help,”  
  	Madeline Shultz had room that every little girl wanted. Its walls were painted light pink with tiny red roses scattered on the walls. In one corner was a large toy castle and a pink, wooden toy box. A pink tent hung from the ceiling over her small bed.   
  	“Madeline always kept her room clean, seeing as she’s in here all the time.” Isidore said. 
  	“Would you say she’s a…shy girl?” Oscar asked. 
  	“At times, but she said she does have some friends. You know, when we went to the market she said she met a new one, not so long ago,”    
  	“Did you ever meet him or her?” 
  	“Well, no, but she seemed so happy when it was time to go home and told me she had a new sister. Um, her name was something like Sara or Lisa…” 
  	Oscar asked her a few more questions as Alice looked around the room more the room, checking for details. The bed was perfectly made, too well for a child to do herself. 
  	“Did anyone touch this bed sense the disappearance?” Alice asked. 
  	“No, it was already like this when Charlotte, our maid, came in,”  
  	Alice nodded, and then continued the search for clues. The toy box wasn’t filled with that many toys, and the ones there seemed well used. When closing the box she noticed something strange on the wall next to it.  There was a door shaped creases on the wall. 
  	“What is it?” Oscar asked, coming up behind her. 
  	“I think it’s a secrete door,” Alice whispered, then aloud. “Isidore, has this house been in your family long?” 
  	“Uh, no actually, Michael and I bought it 8 months ago, when we came back from Paris with Madeline.” 
  	“Do you know much about its history?” 
  	“No, we thought it just looked nice and good place to raise Madeline. We didn’t care much for the history,” 
  	“Right,” Alice straightened and said. “I got all I need you know from here. Could we talk to your staff?” 
  	The staff consisted of four people; Grover the butler, Francis the cook, Charlotte the maid, and Pierre the gardener. Each one seemed surprising corruptive, answering each question without hesitation.  
  	Grover had his usual inspection of the house before retiring to bed at 8:05 p.m. He said there was nothing out of the ordinary with the exception of his keys. 
  	“The one to the back door was missing,” He said. “And the only time I don’t have it is when I give it to Pierre when he loses his.” 
  	“I have my copy right here,” Pierre said. “I can prove it is mine for I engrave all of my possessions with my initials, PI.” According to him, Pierre has never even saw Grover that day because he works outside a lot in the winter and Grover always has his keys on him. 
  	“I made three, fresh rolls of bread,” Frances said when asked if anything strange happened. “And they were no longer there the next morning. I was in the kitchen all day and went to bed at 7:54 p.m.” No one confessed to taking the rolls of bread. 
  	“Oh, I am so afraid for poor Madeline,” Charlotte said wiping a tear that fell from her eye.	 “She’s just a girl. I have no idea what could have happened, she wasn’t in her room or anywhere! This is all my fault,” 
  	“Why do you say that?” Alice asked. 
  	“Well, because…I left her window open,” 
  	“You what?” 
  	“It was a bit warm in the house,”	 
  	“It’s winter, how was it warm in the house?” Alice was incredulous. 
  	“Madeline said it was too warm, and I never deny her. I told her that if it gets cold then she has to close it.” 
  	“But the window was closed when officials came,” Oscar pointed out. 
  	“Yes, I closed it because I was afraid to admit what I had done,” Charlotte said.  
  	“Yet you’re telling us now. Why didn’t you want to tell Detective Greene?” Alice asked. 
  	“I was afraid of what might happen if I did. I was afraid Mrs. Shultz would hate me,” Mrs. Shultz had gone to her bedroom to fix her hair when they came to the kitchen. “Oh, don’t tell her,” Charlotte pleaded. “I already feel guilty enough, please don’t tell her,” 
  	“She’ll find out eventually,” Oscar said. “Right, Alice?” He turned to see her making this strange expression towards Charlotte. “What is it?” 
  	“You look familiar,” Alice said to Charlotte. “Have we met?” 
  	“No, I don’t believe so,” Charlotte said honestly. 
  	“Well, we’ve done all we can here,” Alice said, and without warning, she turned and walked towards the exit. “Tell Mrs. Shultz that we had a sudden emergency and we must be going,” She called back. 
  	“Wait, we’re just leaving like that,” Oscar said, running after her. 
  	“Relax, we’re not leaving,” Alice whispered. 
  	“Then where are we going?”  
  	“To find Madeline,” 
  	They walked quietly to the back door which was locked tight. Oscar opened it and looked in the back where a beautiful garden laid peacefully. The flowers were close to death because of the cold and lack of sun, though there were fresh Helleborus’ growing in their place. Oscar looked back inside to see Alice searching for something on the wall. 
  	“Don’t you want to look outside?” He asked her. 
  	“No, we won’t find anything there,” She murmured.  
  “How do you know?” 
  “I just do,” She said. She continued searching until she spotted a full body mirror that stood against the wall a few feet away from the door. “This is weird,” She said. 
  “It’s a mirror,” Oscar criticized.  
  “Who puts a mirror in this part of the house, though? I mean bedroom, fine, bathroom, fine, even the living room isn’t that bad but right next to the back door,” 
  “What do you think it means?” Oscar asked. 
  “I think it means,” She gave the mirror a hard push and instead of no reaction it creaked open just a crack. Alice pulled it and it opened more to reveal and tunnel. “We’re close. Do you have a…” 
  “Yeah,” Oscar said, pulling out a flashlight and turning it on. 
  “You brought a torch with you?” 
  “I brought finger dust to, if you need it,” 
  “No thanks,” She said, and took a step into the tunnel with Oscar following behind. The tunnel wasn’t too small, although Alice found that she had to duck just a bit. It was dusty, which was to be expected since it was a secrete tunnel, but there where clear spot on the wall of tiny fingers and small footprints on the floor. They walked and walked throughout what seemed to be an endless tunnel. For a moment Oscar felt like it was pointed when they came to a small, rectangular room. 
  In the room there was a bed and on the bed were two figures. One was Madeline Shultz and the other was… 
  “Madeline’s twin?” Oscar exclaimed, waking the two girls from there peaceful slumber. They both looked at them with alarmed expressions; there blue eyes wide and their mouths agape.  
  “Don’t be afraid,” Alice said. “We’re just here to help.” 
  “You’re here to split us up,” One girl said. 
  “You can’t we’re sisters,” Said the other. 
  “We’re not here to split anyone up, I promise,” Alice said. “We’re only here to make sure you’re safe. You two need to come out, you can’t stay in here forever,” She stretched out her hand. “Come on, I promise you’ll be okay,” 
  They both looked at her with wary stares, then one whispered something in the others ear. Oscar thought she might have said ‘I am hungry,’ but he wasn’t sure. They both then nodded at Alice, got up and took one of her hands each. They walked back toward the mirror entrance in silence. When they came out Alice led them to the kitchen where Mrs. Shultz and the staff were all gathered. Grover was saying, 
  “I don’t know, she just said that they found all they needed and then…” 
  “Mara!” Charlotte said when she spotted them in the doorway. 
  “Madeline!” Isidore said when she turned around. They both raced over to them and picked one up each. “Where were you?” 
  “She was in the secrete tunnels that were made in this house,” Alice said. “Probably created for personal reasons, keeping treasures safe and what not. They were probably forgotten long ago and that’s why when you bought the house you weren’t told about it. There are many different doors, one of them were in Madeline’s room, and her, being a child, spotted it,” 
  “But why would she go in there all this time?” Isidore said confused. 
  “Better question, why are there two of her?” Oscar asked. 
  “Both of the questions are linked, closer than you think. See I did recognize Charlotte but I never met her. I had seen her face in a newspaper about 7 months ago. It was a short article about how she had lost her daughter, Mara, in the market and couldn’t find her.  Because she was who she was there wasn’t that much of commotion about it, but I had always wondered what happened to Mara. And then, something Isidore said told me,” 
  “What did I say?” Isidore asked. 
  “That Madeline had met a friend in the market, and had called her her new sister,” Alice said. “And why would a child say that unless they thought it was true? See, there was another picture in that newspaper of Mara, and I knew as soon as I saw Charlotte what had happened. Mara and Madeline look almost identical, with the exception of the mole right next to Madeline’s right eye. When they saw each other they thought they truly were sisters, and Madeline convinced Mara to come and live with her. Somehow she got to the house and stay in the secrete tunnels, only coming out when Madeline knew it was safe. It was a good idea, and, obviously would have gone unnoticed, if it wasn’t for you,” She pointed at Charlotte. 
  “What did I do?” 
  “You noticed the similarity one day while you were searching for Mara and saw Madeline. You thought that the Shultz had taken your daughter when they came home from Paris and lied by saying they had her there. You applied for the job as a maid and waited for the right time to strike. And you did, and you almost got away with it but had made the mistake of leaving Madeline alone to open the window in her bedroom. Madeline took the three rolls of bread you had taken and went into the secrete tunnels to hide with Mara,” 
  “How dare you!” Isidore exclaimed. 
  “I just wanted to find my Mara,” She pleaded. “She’s my only daughter and when I saw Madeline I just wanted to get her back. I was sure when she saw me she would run to my arms but she looked at me like I was complete stranger, and now I know why. I’m sorry Isidore, I never meant any harm,”  
  “It’s okay, I’m sure she would have done the same thing,” Alice said. “Right Isidore?” Isidore sniffed and nodded. “Right then. That’s enough drama for one day. It’s almost Christmas!” 
  After that Isidore and Charlotte made an agreement for the girls to continue their friendship. The two moms eventually made up and Christmas was comfortable once more. Detective Greene took the credit, of course, for the finding of Madeline Shultz and Mara. Oscar told her that she should tell the truth, but she didn’t care. It was Christmas. 
   
   
   Text: Lauren Williams Images: Bioshock 2 All rights reserved. Publication Date: February 7th 2013 https://www.bookrix.com/-celadoor