Friday 4 March 2016

J&L: Curse of the Pharaoh (3)

St. Thomas' Mortuary
Located below street level, the mortuary was practically silent, devoid of the background sounds from the metropolis above. the only exceptions to this reverential hush, the slow steady drip of the drains, and the footsteps of the Professor and Inspector Quick. The inspector wore the uniform of his office, though with his helmet stored casually in the crook of his arm, while the professor had donned a surgical apron and elbow length gloves.

"Do you have any details about this poor unfortunate?"
"Well Professor, the victim is an elderly female, approximately 67 years old. She has been identified as a Mrs. Hettie Stubwick, maiden name Molone. She was known as 'Maria' to her friends."
"How odd! Dashed queer nickname. Do continue, Inspector."
"Mrs. Stubwick was found dead at her familial home late yesterday evening. The doctor on call believes she died of natural causes, and we are not yet treating her death as suspicious."
"I take you suspect foul play, or you'd scarcely have needed me here at such notice. Care to elaborate on you theory?"
"Actually, Professor, I'll save that until after the examination, if you don't mind. Don't want to cloud your judgement unduly, after all."
"Very well, Quick. In which case, I shall get to work!"

Edmund Erkson's Dressing Room, New Regency Theatre
"Henry Gordon Jago, this is an outrage! Scandalous and scurrilous behaviour! Up with this I will not put!"
"Please Mr. Erkson, Edmund, be reasonable. Surely we can handle this like gentlemen, no need for raised voices. You'll worry the dancing girls, they're shaken up enough over Mary vanishing into the night. And you're upset over a photograph?"
"Sorry, Mr. Jago, maybe I am overreacting slightly. You're right, you do have a bigger problem with that missing young girl. I don't suppose she could have run off with a suitor?"
"Nothing so innocuous, I fear. She loyal lover living locally, and he claims not to have heard of her. Scotland Yard say there hasn't been sight nor sign of her, and they've had officers of the law watching every nearby train station and dock. No, unfortunately their inestimable experience points towards finding her washed up on the banks of the Thames. They've already given her description to the more convivial and cooperating Mudlarks."
"Poor thing. She was a brilliant girl. What a loss..."
"She was the light and life of any setting. Such fine and fair a female could not be found in the furthest fringes of the Empire. A terrifically talented dancer of tap or troupe, her kindness and compassionate candour matched only by her magnificent m.."
"That's enough, Jago. I knew her too....  We were discussing my photograph though, like 'gentlemen'."
"Ah yes, lovely image. Splendid. I assume the chap to the right is young Howard Carter? Some kind of archaeologist in training, you said."
"And a dear personal friend. The problem, Mr. Jago, is in the left side of the image!"
"I fail to see anything untoward. Just a tomb wall with some symbols I can't make head nor tail of."
"Yes. But when I was given this image, by Howard himself, I must add, there was a statue there."
"Are you sure?"
"Of COURSE I'm sure!"
"Well, I doubt it just toddled off."
"Thank you for your infamous investigative opinion, Mr. Jago. No, this photograph has been wedged in my dressing room mirror all week, and two days ago it changed. I think one of your staff is playing tricks. I cannot perform under these conditions! I bet it was Casey, that little Irish..."
"I doubt it, he spends his intervals from work imbibing inordinate quantities of intoxicating liquors. He's too busy to manage malign mischief, let alone the skills. Is it possible that Mr. Carter gave you a trick photograph instead? I've seen it done before, as a fairground trick. Certain chemicals applied during the photographic exposure can evaporate, leaving an image blank."
"No, Howard would never... Surely not... I, I think I'll need some time to think, Henry. Alone."

St. Thomas' Mortuary
"I'm afraid I can't shed any additional light on the situation Quick. My examination was most thorough. A few unusual anatomical oddities, such as the left arm, badly set following a bone break, but nothing suspicious. Mrs. Stubwick died of natural causes, the human body does break down, given time. heart failure, in this case, but nothing untoward, not at her age."
"Ah, therein lies the rub, Professor. It's her age that has me concerned. She's nearly fifty years too old!"
"What?! I'm afraid I can't seem to grasp your tenuous logic."
"Her nickname was 'Maria', which is another form of 'Mary'. So, I wonder, she changed her name to 'Hettie' around the time she married."
"In that case, her name would have been 'Mary Malone'. Egads, you don't think she could be a relation of the poor girl who went missing from Henry's theatre, do you? It's hardly a coincidence. Oh Quick, that's brilliant! But why haven't you followed up on this lead officially?"
"There's more, Professor. This picture was found in Hettie's purse. Before you ask, yes it is a photograph of young Mary Molone, with the date written on the back of the picture indicating it was taken last year."
"Further proof that the two ladies knew each other."
"Look closer. The paperstock is weathered and worn, and yellowing. This photograph seems old. Impossibly old, maybe even fifty years old."
"Poppycock! That's impossible, absolutely tommy-rot!"
"My theory is that they are the same woman! That's why we haven't found the body of young Mary... She became old Maria."
"I can see why you want to keep this investigation unofficial, Quick. They'd have you locked up in Bedlam for such a claim! How, pray tell, do you think she aged five decades overnight?"
"My working hypothesis is some form of Time Ray..."
"A 'Time Ray'? What exactly is a Time Ray, and what could it's possible function be?!"
"A device that could be a weapon, or harnessed to turn eggs into chickens in a fraction of the time, maybe?"
"Oh, my dear Quick, I had no idea you possessed an imagination quite like that!"
"Is that really any more outlandish than half of your adventures? You know better than most how strange things are out there! And with all this talk of strange lights in the sky, and freak happenings recently? You tell me it's impossible."
"I'm sorry, Quick. I mean it. But your evidence is circumstantial at best."
"You said it yourself though. Hettie had several unusual medical conditions, included the poorly reset arm. So too did Mary. They had the same mole in the same place! The same missing teeth."
"Still, I'd be far more inclined to believe this is the work of some sick individual, contriving to mask his corpses as other people, most likely by post mortem surgery. Far more plausible than a 'Time Ray'. If Hettie was a rapidly aged Mary, how do you explain her surviving family away? "
"I sorry I mentioned it Professor. I must have gotten a little carried away, trying to try this to one of your special cases."
"Nevermind, Quick. Happens to the best of us, it's easy to obsess on the occult in these matters. I think I'd best get on with my scheduled autopsies, if we're done here?"

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