Jenny stepped onto the platform amid cheers and thunderous applause. Rosen had to bullock his way towards her, removing his cigar to greet her then pumping her husband’s hand. As they headed for the exit, Colbeck and Leeming stayed close to the singer to prevent her from being jostled. They came out into the street and moved towards a waiting carriage but they never reached it. A shot suddenly rang out and the crowd flew into a panic. Colbeck’s first instinct was to stand protectively in front of the singer. Leeming moved in the direction from which the shot had come. Rosen urged Jenny and her husband to get into the carriage so that they could be driven away. Reaching the vehicle, however, proved to be almost impossible in the swirling crowd. Colbeck was tripped up, Goldschmidt was thrust aside and Rosen was distracted by a second shot. Hysteria now gripped the throng and they began to run in all directions. Rosen stood beside the carriage, holding the door wide open but the only people who reached him were Colbeck and Goldschmidt. All three looked around in consternation.
‘Where’s my wife?’ demanded Goldschmidt.
Colbeck squirmed with guilt. He and Leeming had failed signally to protect Jenny Lind. Assessing the situation, he reached a grim conclusion.
‘I’m afraid that she’s been kidnapped, sir.’
It was mystifying. Hundreds of people had been milling around yet not one of them could say with certainty what had happened. Jenny had somehow been hustled away in one of the many cabs that flitted around but nobody knew in which direction it had gone. Convinced that someone had tried to kill his wife, Goldschmidt railed at the detectives for their incompetence. Rosen added his condemnation, fearing that he would lose all the money he’d spent promoting the concert and laying the blame squarely on the shoulders of Colbeck and Leeming. All four of them adjourned quickly to the police station in Digbeth to alert the local constabulary and to institute a hunt for the missing singer. When he’d calmed the two men down, Colbeck began with an apology.
‘The sergeant and I accept the blame unreservedly,’ he said. ‘We were given a task that we failed to fulfil. It’s futile to claim that we could not have foreseen such an eventuality but one thing is clear, Mr Goldschmidt,’ he went on, eager to reassure him. ‘Your wife is not the victim of an assassination attempt.’
‘You heard those shots, man!’ wailed Goldschmidt.
‘They were some distance away, sir.’
‘It’s true,’ confirmed Leeming. ‘In fact, the second shot was further away than the first. Someone was just trying to spread alarm.’
‘Well, he succeeded,’ said Rosen.
‘But that’s all he was there to do,’ argued Colbeck. ‘If an armed man really had designs on Miss Lind, he would have got within range of her and made one shot count. We’re not looking for an enemy here. We’re after a … well, I suppose you might call him a friend of sorts.’
‘A friend!’ howled Goldschmidt. ‘Firing a gun and abducting my wife is a strange way to show friendship.’
‘Let me explain. Jenny Lind is one of the greatest singers in the world.’
‘She is the greatest,’ asserted Rosen. ‘It says so in all my advertisements.’
‘I’m inclined to agree, sir, and so does the kidnapper. My feeling is that he’s an ardent admirer who has let his admiration grow into an obsession. Knowing that she was coming here, he devised a plan to whisk her away so that he could hear her sing in private.’
‘My wife won’t be able to sing a note,’ said Goldschmidt. ‘Jenny will be terrified — and it’s all the fault of you and your sergeant.’
‘We will do our best to rectify our mistake.’
‘And how do we do that, pray?’
‘By drawing up a list of suspects,’ said Colbeck.
‘What’s the point of that?’ asked Rosen with a wild laugh. ‘This is a city with a population of 200,000 or more. Every one of them is a suspect.’
‘No, they’re not,’ said Leeming. ‘We can eliminate women and children for a start. People in the lower classes might know the name of Jenny Lind but none of them could ever afford to hear her sing. They, too, can be forgotten. I think that the inspector is right. The abduction was carefully set up so that she was snatched under our noses without coming to any harm.’
‘A number of accomplices were involved,’ Colbeck reminded them. ‘Apart from the person who fired the pistol, there were the ones who shoved us aside and those who actually spirited her away. We are searching for a rich man, gentlemen. He can afford to hire a number of reliable assistants. The vast majority of people at the railway station were devoted followers of Jenny Lind,’ he said. ‘One of them, alas, was rather too devoted. That isolates him at once. Only someone who worships her would go to such extraordinary lengths.’ He distributed a smile among them. ‘I fancy that our list of suspects will be very small.’
‘But how can you possibly draw it up?’ asked Goldschmidt.
‘Oh, I’m not going to draw it up myself, sir. I will be calling on people who can do that much more accurately. A love of music has driven this individual to such extreme action. And a love of music,’ Colbeck declared, ‘will be his downfall.’
Jenny Lind had been tricked. When the crowd scattered after the second shot, she was bumped into from all sides. A woman then took her by the arm and led her to a waiting cab where the driver was trying to control a horse frightened by the noise of gunfire. A strong young man almost lifted her into the cab, promising that her husband would join her soon and that they’d both be driven to their hotel. It was a ruse. Instead of waiting for Goldschmidt, he leapt in beside her and the cab set off. Jenny’s cry for help was drowned out in the pandemonium. She was soon being driven through the streets of Birmingham as fast as the traffic would allow.
‘Where are you taking me?’ she asked, trembling with apprehension.
‘There’s nothing to worry about,’ he told her. ‘You’re among friends.’
‘Is this how friends behave?’
‘It was the only way he could persuade you to accede to his request.’
‘Whose request are you talking about?’
‘Wait and see, Miss Lind.’
‘I have to give a concert this evening.’
He smiled. ‘Oh, you’ll be giving a concert, have no fear.’
The cab rolled on until the road widened and the traffic began to thin out. Birmingham was a major industrial city with a permanent haze over its factories but there was no sign of its manufacturing aspect now. They were in an exclusive part of Edgbaston where houses grew bigger and the air became clearer. When they turned into the drive of a mansion, she saw that it was screened from the road by a high wall. It made her feel more like a captive than ever.
‘At least tell me what’s going on,’ she begged.
‘He will do that,’ said the young man.
The cab stopped and he got out first then helped her to alight. The front door of the house was suddenly flung open and a tall, stooping man of middle years came out. He had gleaming eyes set in a cadaverous face and grey hair trailing carelessly to his shoulders.
‘At last,’ he cried with joy. ‘Jenny has come to sing to me.’
Colbeck had sprung into action. Since no witnesses to the abduction could be found, he concentrated on trying to identify the man behind what had been a well-conceived plan. To do that, he believed, he needed the assistance of a special group of people. Even in a city as large as Birmingham, there would not be an excessive number of them. Policemen were dispatched to round them up as quickly as they could. Colbeck and Leeming had been given the use of a room at the police station. Goldschmidt and Rosen insisted on being present. Both were sceptical.