Whim Manor And the Boy Who Wasn't.

There's Nothing about Mary

Bun Bun had soaked up rotten vegetable juice like a sponge, black stickiness matting his plush white fur, so that I had to work the shampoo in with my fingers to get it all out. It was gross but I didn't care. I just needed him to be... back to the way he was.

Once I'd scraped it all off, I cleaned my nails, changed into my other suit, the one that wasn't sopping wet, and gave Bun Bun a good blow drying.

Then I took my laptop to the back corner of the library, and began looking up 'Mary Adler.'

The top Google hits were all some ad executive in her forties, obliviously not Whim. I thought it might be her mother, but the woman was still alive and well, and I found a photo of her family, which didn't include anyone Whim-like in the slightest.

Changing tactics, I looked up 'caught in blizzard fatal adler' and found this from eight years ago:

Minneapolis Minnesota.

The Adler Family — Parents, William and Theresa, and Daughter Mary, 7, — disappeared Dec. 5 as they drove from Brainerd to Lake Garrison, just north of Nicholas Pass off Interstate 5. Theresa Adler and Mary were found Dec. 14with their car after being stuck in the snow for nine days with few supplies. William Adler was found dead two days later in a creek. He had walked more than 17 miles in the cold and snow in a futile effort to get help. Theresa Alder died Dec. 16 due to complications from frostbite. Mary is in stable condition. If you wish to donate, use the link below.

The link was 404, leading to a missing web page.

I looked up William and Theresa. Both were from Minnesota, William had been a mechanical engineer, Theresa, a school teacher. There was a picture of them with a little 7-year-old blonde girl, looking very Whim-like, holding a white, stuffed bunny. All three were smiling.

And I remembered... Whim's accent had changed when she'd spoken to Locke in the chocolate shop. From something not-quite all British to something not-quite American. I thought it Canadian at the time, but I looked up Minnesota accents instead. The examples I heard were caricatures, too thick, but a lighter version might be close.

Looking up 'Manor family name,' returned two origins: Either a variation of the German name 'Menard,' meaning 'strength' or 'might,' or a variation of the Hebrew name 'Mayner' meaning 'loom.' It wasn't very common either, with only a few hundred people named 'Manor' in the UK.

On a name search site, I entered 'Wilhelmina Manor,' and got nineteen thousand results: birth, death, and marriage certificates, the most common being for 'Wilhelmina Minor.' I sighed at the auto-correction. It wouldn't let me do an exact search.

"Ahem," a voice came from over my shoulder. I looked up and saw Ms. Windsor. "You missed lunch. What are you up to?"

"Oh..." I put my hand on my laptop, so I could close it quick, then seeing Ms. Windsor's eyes narrow, I turned it toward her. "Looking up 'Mary Adler' and um... 'Wilhelmina Manor.'"

Her eyes softened. "Find anything?"

"Nothing new."

"Okay," she said and returned a few minutes later with a plate of sandwiches.

* * *

Hours later, my eyes glazing over, I'd gotten through five thousand records when my phone buzzed.

[Incoming spam] from an unknown number. Unusual, but I shrugged it off.

It buzzed again, and the caller ID changed from 'Incoming spam' to 'Harper, I need your help.'

"Hello?" I answered.

"Harper?" asked Whim's voice, or rather "Mary's".

Remembering Doctor Singh's warning about playing along with her fantasies, I believed him in my head, but still couldn't bring myself to call her any other name. "Yes?" I said.