In 1924, COMMISSIONER CARPE of the Vermont State Police mourned the death of his daughter under mysterious circumstances. The official report stated that the girl had died of suicide by drowning at a woodside lake in the Green Mountain National Forest, but the body had never been recovered. The loss turned Carpe into a wreck for months, and it was only by the good graces of the governor that he retained his post. He was consoled by his friend DETECTIVE RYAN, a private investigator whom Carpe had hired to look into his daughter’s death—or disappearance.