Cambridge, Anglia. Spring.
[Note: Mortimer Homme is Michael's new PC.]
Leaving Sister Sunshine on the central green of Trinity college, trying to commune with the Old One Annapurna, the others - Penrington, Ramsey, Costorari - went off to dinner. Mortimer Homme lurked against a nearby tree, unwilling to leave his possibly mystic link to life represented by the druidess and her Old One. Ben Steele figured it would just attract attention for a mechanical man to go to a pub, so he decided to hang around with Sunshine and Homme, keeping an eye out for trouble.
Sister Sunshine had never before been able to directly contact the Old One via the equine avatar; she was not at all confident she could do so now, but the group felt the need to know more about Homme's soul transference and the reasons therefore. The druidess commenced talking, telling the horse the Party's concerns.
"Are you lost, miss?"
The druidess looked up to see a gentleman about her own age in the gown of a scholar, watching her with concern. He advised her to take her pony to a stable and, eventually, told her that he was trying to deliver a message to Miss Costorari. Neither she nor Mr. Homme could convince the messenger that it was safe to leave the note with them, albeit he did tell them that the note would be left with the gatekeeper.
At the hotel pub, McGregor was clearly happy to see the young gypsy. "Have you eaten? They have a great pie here."
Voronika: "How did you know I was here?"
McGregor: "I'd heard Forester had enrolled. When I spoke to the gatekeeper and learned Forester was out, he described his friends."
Voronika: "What did he say about Forester's friends?"
McGregor: "He described - you."
Voronika proceeded to tell the Scotsman about the Party's meeting with Mortimer Homme, concluding, "If the poor boy goes to the authorities, they will stop the investigation of his murder - and it was a murder."
McGregor mused thoughtfully: "Unfortunately, Professor Challenger is down in London; he went straight on to the government offices. We could go there and catch up with him. He might be interested in this."
Voronika: "We don't know what did it."
McGregor, solicitously: "Well, you shouldn't be out after dark alone. I will escort you back."
Voronika: "It's possible there's some connection between this and the Mummy Murders in London."
McGregor, slightly scornful: "They don't really think a mummy did it!?"
Voronika told her admirer about her ancient aunt's prediction of "death stalks the streets."
McGregor: "What are they after? Any idea?"
Voronika: "The newspapers portrayed it as working from an Egyptian curse."
McGregor, worriedly: "Will they be after you next?"
Voronika: "It might be possible - though I had no direct connection. But having this happen here is no coincidence."
McGregor: "There is certainly something going on here."
Voronika: "We had thought it was the reporter but he has been in custody for a couple days."
McGregor: "He must know more." The Scotsman provided himself with a heavy walking stick for the trip back to the Party's hotel.
Sunshine with Lungta and Forester entered the morgue; the other two waited outside. As the druidess stepped through the door, the morgue attendant - surrounded by dark-coated official-looking men - shouted, "Her! She's the one that did it!"
The others deferred to a tall, pale, flaxen-haired man introduced as Inspector Gregson of Scotland Yard. He said, "Now how did you, a druidic sister, get mixed up in this student prank involving my nephew's supposed body?"
Firmly denying the notion of a prank, Sunshine rose and opened the door and invited Mortimer Homme in. The morgue attendant fainted again.
Gregson spoke low to his nephew: "If this is a prank, tell me now."
Homme: "I assure you, sir, this is not amusing." Suddenly he felt a tingle at the back of his neck as though someone was watching him. He shrugged uncomfortably. "Have my parents been informed."
Gregson: "I told your parents that I would see into the matter. I came here and found that your body had been stolen."
Sister Sunshine and Mr. Homme described, again, the crime scene and the state of the body therein. The druidess was very sure that Mr. Homme had been dead before he was eviscerated. When she referred to the internal organs that the police had collected, Gregson admitted that - having decided the "murder" was a prank - the police had concluded that that "evidence" was cow or pig offal and had disposed of it. More acerbic than usual, the druidess commented, "Then someone should pay more attention in anatomy class."
The Inspector decided to take the present witnesses into protective custody at the home of the local police chief. At Homme's call, Penrington presented himself and was also included in the group. In the new location, questioning continued. Gregson noted Penrington's African accent; Homme displayed further knowledge of the Party, telling his uncle that the hunter had been one of the discoverers of Timbuktu.
Gregson then brought attention to the puncture marks on Homme's neck and revealed that one other case had similar marks: the murder of Akram Fahmi. Sister Sunshine recognized that name as the supposed Persian passenger in 2nd class on the ill-starred airship commanded by Captain Ramsey. The Inspector said that Fahmi had been found the previous night seemingly drained of all blood.
When the apparently mistaken conclusion by the Party of Times Reporter Phillip Travis as the mummy murderer came up, Gregson assured them that the wrappings in the reporter's pocket matched those around the neck of strangulation victim James Windibank of the ill-fated Turnbull expedition. Sister Sunshine brought out the strip that had been about Mr. Homme's neck. Gregson examined it and commented, "The linen in this case is very yellowed. It is very different from that found on Windibank." He placed the new evidence in a sample bag. Sunshine was very impressed with the inspector's skills in observation.
Penrington: "Then all these deaths were not one person's doing."
Gregson: "Quite."
Penrington: "May we send word to our lodgings so that our other friends won't worry about us tonight?"
Gregson, with apparent consternation at the notion of there being more people involved: "Friends!?"
As the newcomers were being introduced to Gregson, he acknowledged some of them in various ways. When Ramsey's name was given, Gregson said, "The Egyptian artifact smuggler" or something close to that. Forester, responding before the inspector had finished what he was saying, said "yes", at which Sister Sunshine who had heard Gregson's full statement objected, "No!" There ensued a brief bit of confusion in which it came out that Forester thought he'd heard Gregson say "Egyptian archaeologist." Gregson commented, "It was a rumour."
Inspector Gregson took Forester and Homme back to their former dorm room to examine the evidence there. The copious bloodstains had already dried to a powder, an unusual circumstance for such a relatively short time. In addition to the other things the Party had pointed out (particularly foot and paw prints, now unreadable), the Inspector noted that a roofing tile had been dislodged on the roof outside the room's window. (This was not where Penrington had clambered around the roof the previous day, but, rather, a lower level.)
Forester diffidently mentioned and nervously disclaimed the theory of a shape-shifting murderer. Homme mentioned that the Andrew Weatherby murder was a locked-room mystery.
Gregson: "The ship is not my jurisdiction, so I don't have to figure it out." [And, had he heard this exchange, Penrington would have, no doubt, given silent thanks that the sharp-eyed inspector's jurisdiction presumably also excludes Africa.]
Both Forester and Homme were allowed to take away personal items of immediate use: clothing and toiletries.
Gregson examined the portmanteau that had been ripped open with a length-wise incision and, also, the personal items that had been dumped. "There's no blood on top any of this."
Forester: "That's odd given how much blood seemed to have been sprayed around."
Gregson lifted the bag; the bedspread was stuck to the bottom of the bag. Therefore, an observer might realize, it must have been placed on the bed after the murder.
Homme whispered to his uncle: "If there was a rumour that Ramsey was a smuggler, that might provoke an interest in his bags."
Gregson whispered back: "There are artifacts missing."
The three investigators retired to the classroom where the other Party members had been left. Gregson placed the ripped bag on the podium. He asked Mr. Ramsey to identify his property, watching the younger man's hands with great attention.
Ramsey checked. All the linings were slit, all the book bindings were open. "Damn! Again!" the Egyptologist exclaimed as he realized that his cigarette case was missing. He looked up, "Many things have been destroyed, much as one might do in searching for secret hiding places - of which I know none. And my cig case is gone." He described the silver-chased case.
Someone asked, "Was there anything else made of silver in your bag?"
Ramsey: "No."
Again the notion of a shape-shifting murderer was brought up, this time by Homme. Sister Sunshine avowed that she was not a druidic shape-shifter but that what she knew of the skill said that if the animal shape had, say, muddy feet, the druid shape would be clothed and shod and the shoes would not be dirty. [It is possible that the feet within the shoes would be; Sheryl did not ask the GM. Bad Sheryl.]
It was noted that the Party had heard a wolf the previous night. Wolves were most uncommon even in the countryside outside Cambridge, much less the city.
The topic of Akram Fahmi was again brought up. The Inspector knew that he'd, at all times aboard the airship, carried a case 10x4x2 inches in dimension. [Too small for the Golden Bird, too long for the Scarab.]
Homme: "How did the murderer find the bag?"
Gregson, with irony: "His keen, almost wolf-like, sense of smell?"
Steele: "We know Ramsey used a unique blend of tobacco."
Homme: "Could blood hounds be set to search for the wolf?"
Gregson, sourly: "The locals have made a sweep. It would do no good." The implication being that the local police had messed up the evidence, if any, past reconstruction.
The Inspector told his nephew, "The doctor in Cambridge wrote out the death certificate. Legally you are dead. It may take time to sort out the tangle."
Homme: "In some ways, I am dead. We have no idea how long I will continue this way. It is probably best if we wait and see what the experts can determine. I would rather not cause my parents the pain of my dropping dead a second time soon."
Gregson nodded: "I will not tell them yet."
At Scotland Yard, Mr. Homme endured the examinations with fortitude.
Druid 1: "You seem to be dead but moving."
Druid 2: "Your spirit is still animating your body."
Druid 1: "Very strange."
The former law student recognized that he was being trailed by plains-clothes constables after he left Scotland Yard. Having gotten no reassurance from the consulting druids, he continued to worry that he might finish "dropping dead" without warning.
At the boarding house, Mr. Homme commented that the tingly feeling he'd been occasionally getting at the back of his neck never happened the entire time he was at Scotland Yard. Suspecting that magic might be involved, Sister Sunshine cast her Detect Magic spell the next time Homme mentioned the feeling. She discovered that, indeed, he was affected by an Observation spell. Probably cast using the mummy wrapping that had been at the back of his neck. The point from which the spell was directed seemed to be to the ESE.
Steele and Sunshine learned that Windibank had been setting up a display of Turnbull Expedition artifacts for the Museum when he was murdered. His body had been found in the sarcophagus that was to be part of the display. The two adventurers wondered what had become of the mummy that had been in the sarcophagus. Their search took them to the 3rd basement of the Museum, to a dry room stacked, floor to ceiling, with mummies. Each mummy was tagged. However, #462 was next to #464; #463 was the one that should be in the Turnbull display upstairs. The Turnbull mummy, #463, was, in fact, missing!
When this information was related to the group, Ramsey commented that the Egyptian word for beetle, kehpera, also meant "to exist". It was a symbol of regeneration and rebirth.
Homme: "There's a rumour that Mr. Ramsey is a smuggler."
Voronika: "Perhaps that rumour was referring to his uncle?"
Ramsey, testily: "That's my family you're talking about."
Voronika, to Homme: "His uncle captains an airship and sometimes makes sensitive deliveries of archaeological artifacts to the Museum." She turned to Ramsey and added soothingly, "It's possible that those deliveries were misinterpreted."
| · | Anthony Uruburu, the Eastern European servant for the Expedition, |
| · | Mr. & Mrs. Fenwick, 'returning bureaucrats', |
| · | Abdul al Sauid - |
That night, the group accompanied the gypsy through the rising fog to her errand. As they approached London Bridge, they heard the howl of a wolf off to the NW, inside the city.
Voronika found the Bridge crowded and, as so often was the case, she could not tell the living from the dead. One old biddy insisted that the gypsy had "to help me with the fish before the crabs get the fish." The old woman would not answer Voronika's question and would not disappear. Another gentleman walked past hailing a taxi - and strode right through Mr. Steele. She found herself considering just how many people had committed suicide off London Bridge and, as spirits enticed her, how nasty suicide ghosts really were. McGregor reached out to hold her as she leaned over the edge of the bridge. "Are you sure you're all right, lass?" he asked worriedly.
Voronika, shuddered: "It's horrible - but necessary."
Homme: "We should take her out of here. She doesn't look well."
Steele, meanwhile, surveyed the vicinity with his mechanical vision, spotting a couple of cut-throats waiting in an alley. He placed himself between the Party and the alley and the unsavoury types faded away.
Voronika: "I keep telling them I'd like to know their names. We only know the purser's name and I don't know what he looked like."
Penrington: "Is it possible he didn't die here?"
Sunshine: "The papers said that he tied a weight around his waist and jumped into the water and drowned. That is really all we know."
Steele: "It is possible that he was dead before the weight was tied to him. He may not have been a suicide."
Voronika: "I need to leave and get a drink. I won't come back. Ghosts often want vengeance on their murderer. Suicides killed themselves. They want company!" She shuddered again as McGregor hovered protectively.
While the others took spiritual comfort in a pub's spirits, Sister Sunshine constructed an outline of the murders and mayhem for Mr. Forester.
| Victim | motive | method | place | oddities | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Turnbull | expedition | strangled | Egyptian tomb | mummy bandage (type?) |
| 2. | Weatherby | expedition | strangled | locked rm, airship | mummy bandage (type?) |
| 3. | Purser | found #2 | drowned | London Bridge? | ? |
| 4. | Windibank | expedition | strangled | Museum | mummy bandage (Travis) |
| 5. | 1st Officer | invest. #2 | hanged | ? | ? |
| 6. | Ramsey | capt. #2-7 | rm ransacked | home | no |
| 7. | Fahmi | passenger | blood loss | ? | neck punctures |
| 8. | Homme | Ramsey's bag | eviscerated | dorm room | bandage (old) & punctures |
Next run: The Illuminatus
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