A postcard arrived this morning, postmarked Hamburg. Holmes is still in the middle of Europe dealing with disruptive trains, and he still refuses to just text like a normal person. The postcard says he’s pulling on a new thread, although this time it concerns a very wealthy family.

They have an island, in Denmark, practically cut off from the world for thirty years, and for good reason. There’s a manor on it slowly collapsing into ruin, and no one from the mainland will go near it. Apparently the family blocks authorities from gaining access, but the locals fear it because of the history. There’s a name that appears in a newspaper, back in 1995, the last record of a man who rowed his own boat to the island before vanishing completely: Andrew Grey.

From what I’ve gathered so far, Grey was already a bit of an outsider among the locals. Perhaps that’s part of why no one’s tried to find out what happened to him for 30 years. But Sherlock says he’s been contacted directly by an old relationship of Andrew’s, maybe the grief was too much to bare, or the hush money’s ran out. Either way, he’s sent me ahead to get started while he navigates his way through European public transport.

I’m not particularly fond of boats, but I get the feeling this case will have me wading through more than just documents from the 1990s. We’ve dealt with wealthy families before, but reading up about the Veynes isn’t creating more excitement. This island has been keeping secrets for 30 years - let’s see if we can break them out.