Ms Lane finds a frightening letter among the letters she brings upstairs. Her son Jamie has not come home, and the sender demands money for his return. When Puz checks the address in the letter, a quiet little street becomes the centre of a very strange puzzle.
A letter at home
Ms Lane had collected the letters and newspaper from the locked mailbox in the entrance hall of her building on Willow Court. One envelope carried her name and address, a stamp and a postmark. She opened it upstairs.
The writer claimed to have taken Jamie and demanded money by the following day. Ms Lane immediately called the police. Officer Reed stayed with her while other officers began searching for Jamie; Puz arrived to help examine the letter.
The instructions were unusually simple: put the banknotes inside an ordinary envelope, seal it, add a stamp and send it through the post. The envelope was to be addressed to “Mr Kent, 9 Mead Road.” There was no request for a bank transfer or a meeting. Officer Reed kept the letter; no money was sent.
“A name and an address,” Puz said. “Let’s find out who lives there.”
The end of Mead Road
While the search for Jamie continued, Puz and Officer Reed went to Mead Road. A colleague stayed with Ms Lane. It was a short street of houses with small front gardens. They checked each number, side entrance and lane, then walked the street again. There was no number nine.
The town’s address register settled the matter: the highest number on Mead Road was eight. There was no hidden number nine, recently demolished house or old address still in use. The residents had never heard of Mr Kent.
Back at the police station, Puz laid the letter beside a street map. Officer Reed had checked with the local post office. Its delivery map placed Willow Court and Mead Road on the same morning round.
An address without a house
“The sender wanted money,” Officer Reed said. “Why tell Ms Lane to post it to someone who doesn’t exist, in a house that isn’t there?”
Puz read the instructions again. A sealed envelope. A stamp. A street that was real, but a house number and name that were not. Then Puz put a finger on the delivery map.
“Find the mail carrier who delivers to Willow Court and Mead Road,” Puz said. “He is the person behind this letter.”
The officers acted on Puz’s discovery, and Jamie was brought home safely that evening. But what had Puz worked out? Why could the carrier receive the money without a real house or recipient?