At a luxury hotel in Harrogate, I was greeted by Sir Arthur and Mary Clarissa. She apologized for having discussed a sensitive topic with the old writer at a party at her house, but she had come to imagine that spiritualism would help me. By chance, Sir Arthur had received a letter in which a lady told a very similar story.
When I was Chief of Police in Brussels, I met the young Miller who was passing through Paris with her mother towards the East. We met again by chance during the War when I arrived on the island as a refugee. She was working as a nurse at the time.
She invited me to her house. In the conversation, between cookies and tea, I told her about a boy I had adopted in Belgium, an orphan.
- I always said, Mary Clarissa, that the reason for the crime is what is sought today; that I am an expert, actually, in the psychology of criminal affairs. Well, it's exactly the "why" that is missing here.
The boy, very happy and always willing to hear beautiful stories, had mysteriously disappeared during a ship trip we took on the Adriatic. There was a storm, and the waves seemed about to capsize the vessel; in the confusion, I left the boy in the cabin while helping calm the passengers; when I came back he was gone. We searched the whole ship, the captain and I, after things calmed down, we notified the police when we disembarked, I had hoped for months that they would find him.
Afterward, she and I didn't speak to each other for a while. One day, I got a call from her. She had lost her mother, her husband abandoned her, she told me we should meet. A.C.D. would be present.
They told me that Sir Arthur received from a friend in Dublin a letter in which she told that her neighbor Mrs. M., being ill, had decided to tell her the truth about her adopted son. The lady died, and the lady asked the writer if she should finally tell the secret as the other woman had requested.
Many years ago, on a journey across the Adriatic, in the midst of a storm, a six-year-old boy, of Belgian origin, took refuge in his cabin. He told her that a man had kidnapped him and was holding him captive. She ended up talking to the captain, and they both decided to hide the child. The next day, the boy began to say that it was all a joke and that he wanted his father. The captain thought it was a kind of "love for the criminal syndrome", or even fear of being discovered. A doctor present on the ship was consulted. At the same time, they were suspicious of the egg-headed Belgian policeman who was circling the ship very nervously. The doctor decided to medicate the child, and he was practically unconscious until they left the ship, which happened as quickly as possible.
Only after they arrived in Ireland, on her property next to the city, did she realize that the story about an adoptive father could be real. But, by then, her husband had already fond of the child, and she was too ashamed to reveal it to everyone. Finally, the boy was adapting himself, and his past become like a distant adventure.
Mary Clarissa, at that moment, was surprised by a musician from the hotel orchestra, who asked her:
- Aren't you that mystery writer?
We knew our peace was over. We parted ways, and I decided to go to Dublin to meet my son.
Afonso Jr. Ferreira de Lima
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