Bunny Lake Is Missing Page #5

Ever since Miss Ford retired.

The parent fills out the entry form

and returns it with the fees.

Just the first months.

Then the childs name is put on a card

which records its progress...

health, absences,

dental treatment, and conduct.

And the ledger?

Every penny received

over the last 12 months.

Mr. Newhouse,

I think this might interest you.

My sister bought it this morning for Bunny.

What time did she buy it?

Before the child was missing,

if that's what you mean.

Yes, that's exactly what I mean, Mr. Lake.

It would have been more useful

if it had turned up earlier.

She hid it for a game of Hot and Cold

and forgot all about it until now.

- Hot and Cold?

- It's a sort of treasure hunt.

Ann and I used to play when we were little.

Now she plays it with Bunny.

Odd how the most improbable things

suddenly seem quite reasonable.

Then you'd agree with me she'd scarcely

buy playthings for a nonexistent child?

Nonexistent? Did I say that?

You suggested to her perhaps

Bunny's things were never in the apartment.

You also asked her for a list of everyone

who had seen the child.

Yes, I did want that.

Then find the conductor and passengers

on the 13 bus that left Frogmore End...

around 9:
15 this morning...

and stopped at Finchley Road tube station

and let Ann and Bunny off.

Passengers are difficult to trace,

and bus conductors are rarely observant.

They tend to be dreamers, philosophers,

that sort of thing.

Self-protection, I suppose.

Youre not going to check it out?

We have checked every bus

that passed Frogmore End...

between 8:
45 and 9:30 this morning.

The fact that none of the conductors can

recall our mother and child is not unusual.

Neither does it invalidate your sisters

statement that she was on board.

However, I think weve found something

of greater importance...

- and I'd like your views on it.

- Well?

Weve been through all the records

of every child entered for this nursery...

during this past year.

Weve also been through the receipt

for all checks paid for fees in advance.

Were Bunny's fees paid for in advance?

Yes, for the first month.

- In currency?

- No, a check.

And the entrance form, was that sent back?

- Yes, I mailed it in with the check.

- You did?

My sister was still in America.

- Besides, l...

- Besides?

I always take care of these things for her.

Can you give us any idea

of when it was sent?

I can give you more than an idea.

Here it is:
Little Peoples Garden.

L9 and nine shillings.

Sent two weeks ago. Satisfied?

I'm afraid, Mr. Lake, theres no record

of that ever having been received.

The childs name is nowhere in our records.

What a convenient discovery.

Just at the right time, too.

I take back what I said this afternoon,

Miss Smollett.

Your track records looking up.

You are all in the clear

no matter what happens...

because you don't have Bunny's name

in your records.

She's not in your index,

so she doesn't exist.

What are you suggesting?

You tore up the card and changed

the ledgers when there was trouble.

- Superintendent, you don't believe...

- It is possible.

Look, either the school is lying or we are.

They have a reason to. They lost a child.

But what possible reason

would my sister have for lying?

I was hoping you could give me a reason.

You know that teachers lying.

She has to admit it.

What do you suggest?

We no longer have the rack.

You don't seem to be taking this thing

very seriously.

I assure you that I am.

It's very easy

to tear out an incriminating page...

from a loose-leaf ledger.

You said so yourself.

No, I didn't. By the same token,

it's possible to tear out a blank check form...

and write anything you like on the stub.

If that's what you think,

ask the bank about it.

I may, but you could just say

the school never deposited it...

and they tore it up

along with the application.

Are you calling me a liar?

I'm not calling anybody anything, Mr. Lake.

Not yet.

One thing I can guarantee: If this child

isn't found by tomorrow morning...

I'll stir up the damnedest mess

you ever saw.

How?

By simply doing my job as a journalist.

American child disappears

in broad daylight...

right in the middle of London.

Police do nothing. That sort of thing.

Sounds conventional. A bit dull, too.

It won't be dull for you.

I'll go to the American ambassador.

I'll hire detectives.

Yes. You'll hire. You'll complain.

That would be normal procedure.

You do everything for your sister,

don't you?

Pay her bills, fill up her forms...

hire detectives to solve her little mysteries.

What's wrong with that?

- How did she get to England?

- She?

I'm sorry, they. How did your sister

and Bunny travel from America?

- By ship.

- What ship?

The Queen Mary. They arrived last Thursday.

Tell me about you and your sister

when you were children.

What are you doing here?

Carrying out

my landlords right of inspection.

The police were here.

I don't care for the police.

My little girl, she's lost.

Theyre trying to find her.

Your little girl?

Mr. Lake, I understood, had a little girl.

A little sister.

And that, duchess, turned out to be you.

But your having a little girl...

that comes to me

as a most unwelcome surprise.

No cage birds, I stipulated. No cats.

No livestock of any kind.

Somebody got in here and stole her things.

Somebody took Bunny's things.

- Bunny?

- Did you see anyone?

They came up here while I was out.

What sort of a name is that?

Bunny rabbits,

with those long, mean heads...

and those wet noses

going up and down all the time.

Just who is this Bunny?

How can you make jokes

when I told you she's lost?

Bunny is my little girls name.

And you, little duchess,

what exactly does that make you?

I'm Bunny's mother.

And I'm expecting a phone call

from the police and my brother.

Probably my brother first.

The telephone,

that miracle of modern communication.

I often wonder why it is...

that we communicate so much less

with all these marvels at our disposal...

than we did in a more primitive day,

without the wireless and the television.

I appear on the television, you know.

They pay me

to make use of my melodious voice.

I sing rude old Welsh ballads.

I recite a few things of my own...

and then I give them Elizabethan drama.

And all in exchange for one whiskey...

served to me in the first aid room.

I could, if you like...

give you a private performance.

Please, just go away.

I'm told that my voice...

is extremely seductive.

It seems to unleash

whole hurricanes of passion...

in the breasts of the females

who watch me on the BBC.

Perhaps you should sample the wine...

before sending the bottle back to the cellar.

Anyone else in the family?

No, except for Bunny.

Of course. What about your parents?

Our father was killed in the war.

Went right up to V-E Day without a scratch,

and then got hit by a tank.

One of ours.

My mother, she was kind of peculiar.

Any special way?

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