The Heron's First Nest

The case file

Sunday cold case, and the first night of the finale. Twenty years ago this week, the Port Merrow Seamen's Mission lost its fund: $8,000 for the widows of men lost at sea, taken from the office safe with its own key. The mission clerk, a boy of nineteen named Ambrose Kell, was dismissed for it. He was never charged, and he left on the Saltholm boat.

Cass Rendle found the mission's old daybook, with five statements taken that night. Five people were in the mission, one each in the office, the chapel, the dormitory, the kitchen and at the yard gate. Each had one thing in hand: the safe key, a lantern, a laundry bag, a Bible box or a coal scuttle. Ambrose Kell is now the director of Heron Holdings. One of the five lied then and is lying now.

Who was there

• Thaddeus Pengarth, mayor of Port Merrow, then mission treasurer. A large chin, a heavy chain of office, and twenty years of being believed.
• Ambrose Kell, director of Heron Holdings, then mission clerk. Silver-headed cane, a Saltholm tailor, and very still gray eyes.
• Mrs. Constance Daw, mission matron, then and now. Starched apron, gentle hands, and a memory for every sailor's widow by name.
• Rev. Elias Pender, mission chaplain, now retired. Stooped, kind, and troubled for twenty years by a thing he did not see.
• Sally Tonkin, baker on Fore Street, then a scullery girl. Flour to the elbows and a temper on Ambrose Kell's behalf.