Antonia Crouch could find things – people, for example. Sometimes dead people. But it was a while before the authorities would take her seriously. It was understandable. Many found it difficult to accept that this seemingly ordinary woman was able to locate lost things simply by looking at a map. Antonia discovered her facility by chance. She happened to be looking at the London A to Z one day when a radio news item reported on the disappearance of a four year-old girl, Kim Roberts. A strange feeling came over Antonia as she was studying the Isle of Dogs in London’s docklands. Kim’s tiny lifeless body was found three days later in a park off Westferry Road, Isle of Dogs.

Six months later another girl, Wendy Tate, was abducted from her home in East Devon. On hearing the radio report Antonia sat down with her Atlas of Great Britain and prepared to study every page.  On page seven she got the same weird feeling. Running her finger systematically across the page, she pinpointed the location that was creating this effect – Eames Mill, just to the north of the Somerset market town of Ilminster. She wrote a letter, marked ‘URGENT’, to the police in Exeter. It was placed in the case file with “CRANK” scrawled across the envelope. Wendy was found unharmed four days later at Eames Mill. An officer working on the case remembered the letter. The Kent County Constabulary was contacted by the Devon Constabulary and Antonia was taken in for questioning. After eight hours she was released, again being dismissed as a crank.

Her third ‘find’, and second letter to the police, was taken more seriously when her assertions were verified six days later by the discovery of the body of a bankrupt businessman at Dungeness, Kent. Four months later she found the body of Julie Butcher, a prostitute – missing for nearly a hundred days. Two police officers found the body at the location given by Antonia - one of many stone circles on Ilkley Moor, in West Yorkshire. She also established the whereabouts of Father Byrne who had left the Church of St Joseph one evening without saying a word to anyone shortly after hearing confessions. Antonia told the police she believed he was in Pisa, in a hotel not far from its famous leaning tower. The Interpol network stirred itself, and Father Byrne was spotted the next day roaming the streets of the ancient city. He had suffered a mental breakdown.

There were some failures. In fact more failures than successes. A straight run of six disappointments – ‘wild goose chases’ the police declared - tarnished Antonia’s reputation, and she lost all credibility with them. The scientific community also lost interest in her talents. She could never perform under laboratory conditions. The failures led even Antonia herself almost to dismiss the successes as pure chance. She decided to have nothing to do with missing people, dead or alive. But she found it difficult, sometimes almost heartbreaking, to watch relatives pleading on television for anyone who could throw light on the whereabouts of their daughter (it usually was a daughter). For friends and colleagues she continued to look for, and often found, the occasional misplaced mobile phone or missing cat.

One Saturday afternoon Antonia was indulging in her favourite Saturday afternoon pastime – lying on the sofa, watching 1950’s films, either in black and white or in impossible Technicolor. Her doorbell rang. She opened the door to a smartly-dressed middle-aged woman. The woman had an attractive face framed in ash-blonde hair, but her powder blue eyes revealed someone who was tired and desperate.

“Yes?” said Antonia, suspiciously.

“Are you Antonia Crouch?”

Antonia’s mind sped through the possibilities: journalist desperately trying to breathe life into a dead story, Open University student doing research into the paranormal, New Age crank!

The woman interpreted the lack of denial as confirmation. “My name is Petra Deakin. I’m hoping you can help me.”

“Well, Mrs Deakin,” Antonia started.

“Doctor, actually,” interjected the woman. Doctor Deakin had used this device many times to put someone on the back foot, to grab their attention. “Please, could you spare me ten minutes? Please.”

“What’s it about?” Antonia felt she was not going to like the answer.

“Please, may I come in?”

Antonia said nothing, but stepped back to open the door wider.

“Thank you, thank you so much,” said the woman in a quavering voice that made it difficult for Antonia to distinguish between relief and desperation.  

Antonia gestured for Dr Deakin to go into the living room. She followed her in, picking up the remote control to switch the television off.

“Please. Sit.” Antonia was now wishing she had been more assertive. “How did you find me?”

“I’m sorry, Miss Crouch, but with electoral rolls and the internet, there’s probably no-one leading a regular life these days that can’t be found. I suppose it’s those living on the margins, no fixed abode, and so on, who are difficult to track down.”

“Or those who aren’t living at all.” Antonia immediately regretted saying this.

“Ah, yes.” The woman was looking at her hands which were entwined as if in prayer, but she could have been focussing on something two hundred miles away. Suddenly, she seemed to pull herself together and looked up at Antonia.

“Look,” said Antonia, trying to pre-empt anything Dr Deakin might want to share, “I really don’t think I can help. Whatever you’ve heard, I can’t, I really can’t get involved in anything anymore.”

“Please hear me out first, before you shut me out.” Dr Deakin was more composed now.

“It’s my brother, Paul. He’s been missing for nearly four months now. You probably won’t have heard about him. He works for the Canadian Space Agency.”

“Canada has a space agency?” Again, Antonia felt she could kick herself for saying anything that might indicate an interest.

“Many large countries have a space agency, even if they don’t have their own space programme. I’m an astrophysicist myself - with the European Space Agency.”  Dr Deakin was anxious to maintain the flow of the conversation. “Paul went missing one day – just failed to turn up for work. He’s disappeared without a trace. The Canadian police have done everything, but they’ve come to a dead end.”

“When did you last hear from him?”

“He was over a couple of weeks before he went missing. In fact he had to cut his break short. He had a call from the agency telling him to get back as soon as he could.”

“Oh?” said Antonia.

Antonia was intrigued. “All right, I’ll see what I can do. But I think we’ll be wasting our time. Come up to the back room”.

Antonia led her visitor upstairs to the small room that she used as a study. A desk stood against a window overlooking a small garden. Books and maps were piled everywhere.

“You can hang your coat here,” said Antonia, offering the doctor a coat hanger, and nodding at a coat hook on the back of the door. She heaved a full wash basket from the seat of a wooden chair, which she placed next to her office chair by the desk. Dr Deakin sat down and watched as Antonia wiggled the mouse on her computer. The screen changed from black to display a springtime scene of bluebells in a wood.

“How do you do it? I mean, what do you feel during the search?”

“At first I used an atlas. When the police took me more seriously they provided Ordnance Survey maps and I found I could get closer.” I know it sounds daft, but when Google maps and satellite views became available it was fantastic, so much faster. It’s hard to describe the feeling – it’s a sort of rush of excitement.”

Antonia called up Google maps and a map of the UK and nearby Europe popped up. She scrolled the map westwards until Canada came into view.

“Whereabouts in Canada does your brother live?”

“Quebec.”

Antonia centred the map over Quebec and stared at the screen.

“I’m not getting anything.” Antonia’s head gave several small shakes while her mouth tightened with concentration. She slid the zoom bar until the whole of Canada was displayed. After ten seconds she said “Still nothing, I’m sorry.”

                “And if you look at the whole world map?” asked Dr Deakin.

Antonia zoomed the map to its maximum.  The familiar Mercator’s projection appeared. Antonia stared at the map for almost a full minute.

“I’m really sorry,” she said, “I’m just not getting anything.”

Both women were silent for a period. Antonia felt that Dr Deakin wanted to ask something.

“What is it Doctor?”

“Please, can you try something for me?”

“All right, what is it?”

Doctor Deakin leant over the computer and typed in a URL – “www” something or other so long and complicated that she needed three goes at it. Eventually a map of the night sky appeared. Antonia recognised the ‘W’ shape of Cassiopeia at the top. The constellation below was labelled “Andromeda”. At its heart was M31, the Andromeda nebula, our nearest galactic neighbour.

Antonia stared at the screen for ten seconds, and then turned her head to look into Dr Deakin’s eyes, now an intense steel blue.

“Yes,” she said, “I know where your brother is!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua, 1195-1231
Patron Saint of Lost Things.

It’s said that when you misplace your car keys or purse, you should sit down, close your eyes, and recite the following prayer:

“Something's lost and can't be found
Please, St. Anthony, look around.”

Why not try it – what have you got to lose?