Old windmill

The Old windmill is a long-abandoned marsh-drainage pump whose apparent emptiness conceals Carl Brenner’s wildlife-trapping operation. It becomes a crucial, misleading point in the search for Jenny Hammond: the police target it as one of several possible locations, find cages of animals but no person, and must continue looking elsewhere.

History and Setting

About 150 years before the events of the novel, the Old windmill was among the wind-powered pumps used to drain marshland across The Norfolk Broads. It was not a mill for grinding corn, but part of the infrastructure that altered and maintained the wet landscape around Manham.

By the time of the investigation, its former function and stature have almost disappeared. The vanes are gone, leaving a gap in the crumbling masonry, and scrub woodland has spread over the waterlogged ground until the tower is nearly hidden. The building’s decay is therefore not merely a sign of age: its overgrown, isolated setting makes it easy to overlook and difficult to approach.

That visible abandonment is deceptive. The tower has not been entirely unused, and its secluded position gives Carl Brenner a place to conduct an operation beyond ordinary view. The contrast between a structure reclaimed by scrub and one still occupied for illicit purposes turns the landscape itself into part of the concealment.

Use by Carl Brenner

Carl and Dale Brenner are involved in trapping rare birds and other animals, including otters when they can catch them. Dale explains that Carl does most of the trapping and keeps the animals at the Old windmill. Their purpose is commercial: they believe there may be buyers among collectors for live animals as well as eggs.

The windmill is also a storage point for the operation. When the search for the missing women makes Carl fear that investigators will examine the building, he has Dale help move the animals to other locations. Dale says that most are brought to outbuildings at his family home, where they remain for a few days while the police search the windmill. Dale’s injured foot prevents him from accompanying Carl afterward, so Carl has to return the animals to the tower himself.

The temporary relocation reveals the practical vulnerability of the scheme. Carl normally keeps Dale at a distance from his trapping work, but the search forces him to involve his brother and move the animals. Later, Dale reports that the wildlife is back at the windmill because the police presence makes another move too risky. Carl continues visiting daily to keep the animals alive, although they have not managed to sell many. The building thus serves not just as a hidden lair but as a working, precarious holding place for the illicit trade.

The Search for Jenny Hammond

Once David Hunter learns from Dale that Carl is still using the windmill, the location becomes part of an urgent attempt to find Jenny Hammond alive. Mackenzie’s plan is to raid the Old windmill, The Brenner house, and the cottage where Dale lives simultaneously, so neither man nor their family can warn the others. The intention is to apprehend both Brenners while improving the chance of recovering Jenny.

Mackenzie accompanies the tactical teams assigned to the tower. As dusk falls, officers in body armour approach with an armed response unit, paramedics, and an ambulance ready to take Jenny or anyone else to hospital. The narrow, overgrown access track prevents vehicles from reaching the building, so the teams park at the edge of the woods and continue on foot. They wait among the trees while officers take positions around the doors and windows; after receiving confirmation that the teams are in place, the officer in charge gives the signal to enter.

The raid does not find Jenny or either Brenner at the windmill. Mackenzie is left among cages of frightened birds and animals as a sergeant reports that the search has found no one. The result confirms that the tower is being used for the trapping operation, but it cannot explain Jenny’s disappearance or reveal where she is being held. Its importance to the investigation is consequently double: the windmill exposes one criminal activity and gives investigators a concrete lead, yet searching it does not resolve the more urgent case.

Narrative Significance

The Old windmill concentrates the novel’s tension between appearance and knowledge. Its ruin seems to certify abandonment, while the hidden cages demonstrate that the appearance is incomplete. Because the wildlife operation is real, the windmill offers a plausible focus for the investigation; because Jenny is not there, that discovery also threatens to divert attention from the danger facing her.

Its historical function deepens the setting without making the building’s past a solution to the crime. Once a pump used to drain the marshes, it now stands almost swallowed by the wetland landscape, while people use its isolation to keep animals out of sight. In the investigation, the same remoteness that protects the trapping operation makes the site an obvious place to search—but the empty raid shows the limits of any single lead. The Old windmill is therefore both evidence of concealment and a false destination in the effort to find Jenny.