There was a pause that went on for a lot longer than Harriet would’ve liked, but eventually Mr. Hartford did reply,

            “I’ll give you the facts of the matter, as I do know that this is a sensitive situation for, well, you. However, before I do that, I wanted to ask a few questions. Would that be alright?”

            A slight lull, Uncle H apparently signing given the delay to Big’s response. “…He’s fine. Go ahead.”

            “Where were you last night?”

            More silence, then Big spoke up again,

            “He was at the festival until around ten, came home closer to, around maybe eleven, twelve o’clock? He doesn’t remember too well.”

            “Alright.” There was a sound of something shifting around, Mr. Hartford speaking up again with another question. “By any chance, have you spoken to Katherine Van Tassel recently?”

            Katherine Van Tassel, Harriet, Brian, and Susie’s cousin from their mom’s side of the family. The sudden input of that name had both Harriet and Brian staring at one another; they couldn’t quite figure out how their cousin was fitting into all of this. It wasn’t even like she did much with them at family gatherings; Susie maybe talked to her a few times and the most she’d said about their cousin was I hope she finds someone who can keep up with her taste in clothes.

            So, again, the idea that this involved their more internally connected, but somewhat distant cousin seemed like a weird turn, Harriet and Brian exchanging glances as they kept listening.

            “About a week before Halloween, she came to him wanting to do an interview, said it was for a school assignment. Might’ve been in the afternoon, Saturday afternoon?”

            It seemed like an odd thing to do, especially since the ghost of Ichabod Crane was living at the Van Tassel home. Or, somewhere around it. Either way, to come out of her way to get the Headless Horseman seemed a little odd, both Harriet and Brian frowning as Hartford continued. “An interview, did she say what it was about?”

            Another break, though it wasn’t idle given that H was in the process of signing out his answer.

            “Colonial living in Sleepy Hollow, apparently, though H…” Another pause, the Horseman apparently giving more details. “Says that he thinks she might’ve not been honest with him on that.”

            “What gave him that idea?”

            “It started off fairly normal, but…” Big paused again, waiting for the Horseman to finish signing before he continued. “She started asking a lot of personal questions about him. H didn’t like that so he stopped the interview there and told her he wasn’t helping anymore.”

            “What kinds of personal questions?”

            There was another, long pause, before Uncle B spoke up, Harriet wondering if the Horseman was having trouble with his signs again.

            “…H, you got an answer for that?”

            Another delay, before the Hessian seemed to come up with some kind of answer, given the more stilted tone Big had when he started to speak. 

            “…He says that they were questions about things he remembers from way back, like when he first, y’know, came to be and all that. He wasn’t comfortable with it, and told her so. She kinda poked back at him over it, but he didn’t answer any of those questions. He says that the last thing he heard her say was ‘it’s almost like you have something you’re trying to hide’, and that’s the last time he saw her.”

            “I see…” Hartford replied, more rustling echoing up the laundry chute before he went on with another question. “You didn’t see her Halloween night? Or at all today?”

            “No. And he’s been with us, or with the kids and Moth, all of today. We can vouch for him on that.”

            Harriet couldn’t help nodding at Big’s words. If it weren’t for the fact that it would likely get her in trouble, she would’ve gone right down there and told Hartford exactly that. However, Brian didn’t even move, and Hartford asked another, somewhat odder question.

            “And, remind me again, what time did he leave the festival last night?”

            The reiteration made Harriet pause, as…hadn’t he already asked that one? She was fairly sure he had, so asking again didn’t make much sense. Unless he was trying to see if Uncle H would lie, or get the story wrong. Though thankfully for Harriet’s nerves, Big’s response stayed in line with his earlier words.

            “…Definitely around ten, but he made it back here around 11 ‘o clock, 12-ish. Honestly though, we thought he’d been mugged from how he was stumbling around, and H, you mentioned someone pulling a prank on you. Do you remember anything?”

            There was a bare pause, but it was broken too soon to know if Uncle H had said anything in an answer to Big’s question. Instead, Hartford seemed to speak up of his own accord.

            “…He told you that someone pulled a prank?”

            “He signed it, yeah. To me and Moth when we were trying to keep an eye on him. He wasn’t making a ton of sense, but I did recognize the sign for ‘prank’ and when one of us asked if that’s why his head was missing, he…got very upset, so my thought was the two were related.”

            Suddenly a softer voice spoke up, Harriet nearly unsure as to just who was speaking before it clicked: Moth.

“You said he smelled funny.”

There was a substantial pause in the talking, though judging from how there was a shifting of papers, chairs moving about, the normally shy cryptid had just become the center of attention. When picturing that, it didn’t exactly surprise Harriet that there was a much longer quiet, going on for a good few seconds, before Big gently cajoled his more nervous friend.

            “It’s alright, Moth. Just say what you just said again, please?”

            It took the Mothman a moment to gather himself, but he was able to, even with a slight stammer to his words as he elucidated, “Y-You said H smelled funny last night. He had a weird smell around where his head was s’pposed to be. I just remembered that.”

            “Did it smell like anything in particular? Chemicals or, alcohol, perhaps?” Hartford’s question made Harriet bristle a bit, this time for a different reason. It hadn’t been that long ago that Uncle H had talked about his, problem with alcohol specifically. Though Big hurried on before she could do more than notice the words.

            “Yeah, but like…not? Sorry, it’s just hard to describe. Like there was somethin’ else kinda mixed in. Alcohol’s already got a sharp enough smell, I could pick that out a mile away, but this time it had something…else…Like I said, I really don’t know how to describe it. But it’s definitely gone now.”

            This was definitely, weirdly illuminating, considering that no one had mentioned that particular thing last night. But before Harriet could do something like look up at Brian to see what he was thinking, Missus Edith’s voice spoke up from somewhere down below.

            “Will you have to call the Bureau?”

            There was a charged, tense silence that came from below, Harriet glancing to the side enough to see Brian’s hands clenching on the sides of the laundry chute opening. The word, Bureau, was something she had heard before; it had been at the heart of the talks she’d heard from her parents before they’d left. They’d needed to talk ‘to the Bureau’, but what they needed to do that for had ultimately remained a mystery. But here the word was coming up again, this time in relation to trouble that Uncle H was having…

            “Well, yes and no. Right now, this is a Missing Persons case, which leaves it in our jurisdiction, but if she’s not found within forty-eight hours then considering the circumstances, we will have to make the call.” Hartford’s reply was even-keeled as always, but there was a note of something like sympathy to it that made Harriet wonder just how bad it would be if this Bureau were to show up. However, her thoughts scattered again at another few words from Hartford.

            “What did he say?”

            Briefly Harriet’s mind scrambled to figure out what she’d missed, though it eventually occurred to her that Uncle H must’ve signed something again, her hypothesis only confirmed when Uncle B spoke up.

            “He says he wants to help look. All things considered, I’d take that help. H has gotten a lotta practice finding kids when they’re hiding.”

            Uncle H wanted to help look for Katie? It seemed like a fair thing to do, especially since if he’d really done something to Katie, going to try to find her seemed like the exact opposite of a smart thing to do. As she mulled over it, Hartford went on.

            “Alright, if you’re sure. Actually, I wanted to ask you about coming out to the Horseman Bridge, as that’s where we’ve found our first clue as to Katherine’s whereabouts. You might be able to offer some insight about what we’re seeing, being the resident horse expert and all.”

            Before Harriet could even think on what she was hearing, the sounds of people getting up and moving downstairs caught her attention, the girl jolting as Brian reached over and pulled her away. After letting the chute door gently close with no noise, Brian pulled his sister back into his room, where Big had initially set them down. When Harriet tried to speak up, her brother just hushed her and crept over to the window, having cracked it open enough that he could hear the sounds of people getting into a car. Must’ve been a big one, given that it seemed like Big was able to get in too. Briefly Harriet was a little peeved that it seemed like Uncle H, who’d promised that he was staying with her for the day, was leaving, but at the same time she couldn’t help being worried, both by what she heard and the uncharacteristic behavior from her uncles.

            However, before she could do more than realize how out of the ordinary the behavior was, she also noticed that Brian stayed at the window just long enough to hear the car pull away before heading back to the door to his room. Just as he opened the door, Harriet snapped out of her daze enough to talk.

            “Where’re you going?”

 “To the bridge. Figure we’re going to need to go meet them.” Brian replied, before turning a hard look at his sister as he continued. “Keep your voice down. Grandma’s still down there and if she hears us, she’s gonna make us stay home.”

            Harriet, to a degree, did agree with what her brother was doing, even if she still felt utterly swamped with questions. But she didn’t want to be left behind, so she followed quietly behind as Brian crept down the hall and went down the stairs. Brian gestured for her to wait at the foot of the stairs, creeping just a bit down the front hallway and listening. He stood there for about half of a minute, Harriet straining her own ears to hear what he might be trying to pick out. After a moment, she could hear her grandmother, Missus Edith, talking. On the phone, most likely, given that Harriet couldn’t hear a reply, but before she could do more than notice it Brian was hurrying back, grabbing her hand and pulling her through the living room, slipping through the kitchen and out the back door.

            Harriet caught sight of Jaeger poking his head back out of the stable, the girl instinctively motioning for the horse to stay quiet. And, well, never let it be said that Jaeger wasn’t a perceptive horse. But that left her and Brian with the somewhat tense task of skirting the backyard and getting to the garage without being spotted. Starting close to the house, the pair bolted, Harriet finally losing her patience once they’d reached the bikes.

            “What were they talking about?! What is the Bureau?!”

            “Bureau means not good for Uncle H. Which means that we need to get this fixed as quickly as possible.” Brian answered, pulling his bike away from the house. Eager to continue the conversation, and get more answers, Harriet kept up with him, pulling her own bike away too.

            “Why? Is it going to be bad if the Bureau comes?”

            “Well, yeah, because if the Bureau comes, they’ll take him away. That’s why Mom and Dad had to go to DC, to get him off the list of bad myths so he wouldn’t be considered a danger to people.”

            The words had Harriet halting completely in the driveway for a moment, the girl struck utterly dumb by what she’d just heard.

            “But Uncle H isn’t a danger! He’s—!”

            “Yeah, you know that, an’ I know that, but the weirdos who’re down in Washington don’t! And if they get called because of this, the first thing they’re gonna do is blame him and take him away. They’d probably lock him up with the Wendigo, all things considered.”

            The mention of the Wendigo added some definite weight to the conversation. In a world where myths and legends came to life, the notion of a cannibalistic or cannibalism inducing entity was something that still inspired terror, despite their uncles’ repeated avoidance of the topic. But Harriet had still heard the stories, mostly from other kids at school, about how there had been a time years before where ‘bad’ myths got taken away. The most she had heard was that people from the government, like the FBI or CIA, had done it, but she’d never heard of this Bureau before. Unless maybe it was another weird acronym?

            But, between all of that, Harriet was more than a little floored by the idea of her Uncle H, the Headless Horseman, being taken away from them, especially for something that he didn’t seem to actually have done. He wouldn’t have attacked or done anything bad to Katie, he wouldn’t have made anyone disappear. He was their uncle. And this Bureau, whoever they were, couldn’t take him away. Drawing herself up to her full, though admittedly not very imposing height, Harriet spoke with all the spitfire she could muster.

            “…Well they can’t do that. And they won’t, because we’re gonna figure out what’s going on and where Katie’s gone. Then they won’t have any reason to take him away.”

            Brian had glanced back as Harriet began talking, a grin cutting across his face as she finished.

            “…Yeah, kinda why I’m going out there. They said the Old Horseman Bridge, and we know some shortcuts. We’ll probably be able to meet them, but we really gotta go now.”