‘That’s what Alf told us when he came to the dance hall, looking for her. He looked bothered,’ Finn explained.

Blackie interjected, ‘She was there at one moment, ’cos Sarah Clough saw her going to the ladies, then later Sarah had spotted her sitting on a bench drinking a lemonade.’ Blackie glanced at Finn. ‘And ye said, ye saw her leave, sure and ye told me that, and Sarah, too.’

‘When did Alf arrive?’ Patrick wondered aloud.

‘Mebbe ten minutes later. So they can’t have met outside, because they’d have come back into the dance hall,’ Finn pointed out.

‘True enough,’ Blackie said. ‘And when Alf came in alone, he said there was not one soul on Town Street and he’d have bumped into her if she’d been going home.’

‘I understand, and so what did Alf do after that?’

‘He said he’d go and look in the streets around Ridge Road,’ Finn told Patrick, pulling a face. ‘So we volunteered to go too.’

‘I see. And there was no sight of her, was there?’

‘No, Uncle Patrick, there was no one about last night. Empty streets. So we broke up. It was dark by then and I walked Sarah home.’ A deep sigh escaped Blackie and a grim expression settled on his face as he added, ‘’Tis a mystery to me, on the heads of the Blessed Saints it is, and it don’t bode well with me either. Something’s amiss here.’

Patrick stared at his nephew, a puzzled look crossing his face. ‘Are you suggesting some sort of foul play?’ he finally ventured, not liking the sound of this story at all. It alarmed him. And he was concerned about the lad who worked for him.

Blackie took a deep breath and plunged. ‘I can’t help thinking she was grabbed, taken.’

‘By a stranger?’ Patrick’s eyes bored into Blackie. ‘But Upper Armley is the safest place I know, and I travelled the world in the navy.’

‘How do ye knows it’s safe, Uncle? These days anything can happen … anywhere. Only last week I read in one of your newspapers that a girl had been taken in Harehills. Never seen again, body never was found. So far.’

‘I missed that story,’ Patrick replied, an undertone of worry in his voice. ‘Are you certain she was never found?’

‘Sure and I am, Uncle Pat. There are all sorts roaming the streets, weird people in our midst, and ye are the one allus telling me it’s a dangerous world we live in these days.’

‘Aye, that’s true, I am saying that and I mean it.’

Finn now volunteered, ‘There is one other thing, Blackie. Don’t ye remember Alf said they’d had that tiff the night before; also there was an idea passed around that she might have gone off with another lad.’