A Voss and Pike Casefile
Section 32: What Jonah Found
He was back by five, pale under the streetlight, with a folder of photocopies gripped like an anchor.
"Edwin Fenn," he said. "Born 1966, Dockside. Father a docker, tag number 4471. And next door, one street over, born 1954: Helen Craddock. Mother a laundry worker at the Marsh Street steam laundry. They grew up eight doors apart."
He laid the papers on the desk. "Helen Craddock leaves the register in 1975. Nothing. And then in 1978, one 'Dr H. Crane, M.A., Marchbank,' is hired as Mistress of Deportment at St Aldhelm's." He looked up. "There's no such place as Marchbank. There's a Lower Marchbank Comprehensive."
You said nothing for a long moment.
"She wasn't teaching him a costume," Jonah said. "She was wearing one. Somebody taught her the same way she taught him." He sat down heavily. "I used to think identity was something you had. Now I think it's something you do. Every day. In front of people."
"Good," you said. "Now for the hard part. Don't fall in love with the theory."
Jonah's research: Edwin Fenn and Helen Craddock grew up eight doors apart in Dockside. Craddock vanished from the records in 1975; in 1978 "Dr Helena Crane, M.A. (Marchbank)" appeared, with a degree from a place that doesn't exist. Two invented people, one made the other.