What the book doesn’t say

The accession book was bound in dark cloth, worn smooth at the corners. A thin blue ribbon lay across a page of entries in several different hands. Miss Vokes followed one line with the end of a clean ruler.

“One large shell. Presented by Mr Halden. That's almost all.”

“Almost?”

“There's a date, and a number which matches the small label underneath. Nothing about where he found it.”

Barnaby studied the entry. The writer had left enough space beneath it for a generous account. That space remained blank.

“Did Mr Halden travel?”

“Possibly. He might also have bought it in a shop.”

“It has the air of having come a long way.”

“It has come a long way from somewhere. The book doesn't tell us how.”

Miss Vokes closed the ruler between her hands. She had sometimes imagined the shell packed among a traveller's clothes, with a handkerchief tucked into its opening and somebody worrying about the ridges. But she had no letter, no account, and no recollection from anyone who knew. She would not put her imagined traveller on a museum label simply because he made a pleasing companion for the shell.

An original extract from Night Round at the Fenwold Museum · about 1 minute to read.