Of Night and Dark Obscurity

by Nicola Italia

  “Did you? He’s very good at his job. He’s agreed to put in some funds for the housing project as well.”

  “It seems you always get what you want.” He took the match out of its box and struck it. It didn’t flame.

  “Well even you agreed it’s a good project. It’s not some milliner shop. I’m trying to do something good here.”

  Val turned to her then. “How can I help you Miss Derry? You sought me out at this late hour away from the station.”

  She smiled. “I did, didn’t I? I can’t seem to make it to see you in normal hours, can I?”

  “Makes you wonder,” he said quietly. “Doesn’t it?”

  “Makes you wonder, what?” She asked.

  “Why you seek me out? Why it’s always at night and why it’s when we are alone.” He took a step towards her.

  “Is this where you ask me to kiss you again?” She said boldly.

  “Do you want me to ask you to kiss me again?” He responded back.

  Caroline could feel her heart beat inside her chest. “Your question was entirely inappropriate then and now. You know that. I know that,” she told him.

  “Yet you did it. Hmmm.”

  Caroline remained silent.

  “Why did you do it? You could have refused me.”

  “I wanted to compare you.” She said trying to goad him.

  “Oh,” Val said smiling in the dark. “Compare me. Compare to what? All your other lovers?”

  Caroline nodded.

  “That’s very funny. Because I would wager a bet that you have never been with a man and that I was perhaps your first serious kiss.”

  “How dare you—“ Caroline said flushed.

  “I’m sure you’ve had a nervous peck and maybe someone dared to hold your hand in a buggy somewhere but that’s about it.”

  “You’re such a grand detective,” Caroline said her eyes flashing.

  “But if you want to compare me, by all means. I don’t want to deprive you.”

  He pulled her into his arms even as she placed her hands on his forearms trying to pull away from him.

  “Release me, Inspector. These childish games are quite off putting.”

  “Come Caroline. Don’t deny me my fun. I have an even better suggestion. I’ll release you right away if you do something for me.”

  Caroline looked at his eyes in the dark. “What do you want me to do?”

  “Call me Val. Just once. But when you say it make sure it’s soft and sweet to my ears.”

  “Ridiculous.” She huffed.

  “Caroline. What a sweet name,” he told her as he pulled her closer and his mouth touched her neck. “Say it.”

  “No.” She refused.

  “I like many things about you. I like your intelligence and your beauty but don’t be stubborn to be stubborn. Say it.”

  “Release me, Val.” She said the name quickly and he pulled back.

  “Say it again.”

  She remained mute.

  He peered down at her and deliberately pulled out one of her combs so her hair spilled down her back. “Say it.”

  “Stop taking out my combs,” she said. “You’ll muss my hair.”

  “You need to be a tad mussed. Say it,” he told her.

  “Val.” She said his name quickly.

  He pulled out another comb letting it fall onto the floor.

  “Don’t,” she said.

  When his hands pulled through her hair she sighed. “I had something to tell you. It’s why I came here.”

  “Tell me,” he said against her temple.

  “Please Val,” she said letting it slip out.

  “Say my name again,” he told her.

  “Val,” she said just as his mouth took hers briefly and he pressed against her, just as she pulled away.

  “Why did you come here?” He asked her quietly.

  Caroline swallowed and then moved from him. They were still together in the dark. “I think I know who my sister was seeing. The one she was so secretive about.”

  “Who?” He asked trying to compose himself.

  “Charles Lyttleton.”

  “Lyttleton? How did they meet?”

  “I don’t know. But when I last saw Charles, when he asked me to marry him, he said something about my sister being flighty but that I was what was needed in a wife.”

  “He was just talking. You said yourself he wasn’t serious about the marriage. The entire conversation was prattle.”

  “Perhaps but he has a reputation with women,” she began and then saw Val’s dark face. “So, I’ve heard,” she added.

  “There are a lot of men in London with a reputation,” he surmised.

  “Do you? Have one?” She asked him.

  In the dark he smiled but then grew serious. “Yes. The wrong kind.”

  “What is the wrong kind?” She wondered.

  “Let’s see. I’m the second son of an earl who works for a living. I’m the one that the women gossip behind their fans at parties but would never do anything with because I’m not really a gentleman.”

  “Not really a gentleman?” She echoed him.

  “I work you see. I sully my hands and actually do something that the government pays me for. Imagine that.” He said.

  “Admirable.” She told him.

  “Is it?”

  “Of course. What should you do? Sit at home reading The Times all day long?”

  “Perhaps.” He said. “Many men in my class don’t work. They consider it beneath them.”

  “Well it’s not. And they’re just lucky. A stroke of luck and by birth they can live a life of ease. But you can’t and my father doesn’t. So, where’s the shame?” She wondered.

  “Very true. And your Mr. Davies must work as well.”

  Caroline flushed. “He’s not mine. He’s an investor is all.”

  “If he asked you to walk out with him at Regents Park, would you?” He asked suddenly.

  “He wouldn’t,” Caroline shook her head.

  “If you gave him any sort of encouragement, he would,” he told her.

  “This is an absurd conversation.” She shook her head. “And I don’t walk out with gentleman. It’s not proper.”

  “You’ve walked out with me.”

  “I didn’t!”

  “Well not intentionally. But at the park in the dinosaur court and dinner. And I seem to recall you came to my lodging.”

  “That was different! I was distraught. I needed to talk to you, to speak to you—“

  “Yes. I remember.” He added, “And then there’s the concert.”

  Caroline tried not to remember the concert and the kiss. He had pushed her up against the wall…

  “What are you thinking of?” He asked suddenly.

  “Nothing. Why?” She said feeling guilty.

  “You looked guilty just then. You looked flushed.” He noted.

  “I am flushed. You keep saying things and doing things that are not acceptable. And you’re wrong about Mr. Davies. He’s a man of integrity and he wishes to invest. That is all that is between us.”

  Val smiled when he came towards her. “You are innocent in the ways of such things. Men are very simple creatures, Caroline. They need to eat and sleep. But the one thing that they always want is women.”

  “You shouldn’t say such things.”

  “You don’t like the truth?”

  “Mr. Davies has never looked at me twice.”

  “I’m right about this.” He insisted.

  “How?” She persisted. “How do you know what a stranger thinks? How?”

  He paused. “Because I’ve seen him look at you the way I feel about you.”

  Caroline licked her lips and tugged at her gloves. “You shouldn’t speak to me like this. My sister’s death put me in your life and you in mine but you shouldn’t take advantage.”

  “How am I taking advantage?” He frowned.

  “When you look at me as you do. When you touch me, when you kiss me. You sh
ouldn’t do those things. You know you shouldn’t. Yet you do. You persist.”

  “How can I not? Caroline you are lovely and so strong, intelligent. I’ve never met a woman like you. So full of life and you have things you want to accomplish.”

  “It doesn’t give you the right. And you use my inexperience against me.”

  “How do I do that?”

  “I don’t know how to play these games. These word games that men and women play. I don’t know how to do it. And when you say things to me, I don’t know how to respond.” She looked down at her hands. “You do make me feel things. But what of it? Can’t another woman make you feel such things and another man with me.”

  Val felt intense anger at her words. “I had someone in my life. I thought I loved her. We were to marry. But as much as I cared for her, I feel much more for you.”

  “I must go. It’s getting late. My grandmother will worry.” She turned away from him.

  “I’ll see you home.” He said collecting the files he had taken the time to review.

  “Do you promise to behave?” She said in complete earnest.

  Val almost groaned. What good did it get him? He wanted nothing more than to bury his nose in her hair and smell the scent of her. He wanted to kiss her again and again and hold her tightly against him. Instead he nodded.

  “Yes.”

  Caroline nodded. “Then I accept.”

  On the carriage ride home, she sat across from him admiring him. He was a handsome man with a bearing about him. She supposed that came from his breeding and education but he also carried a strength of character that she liked.

  “You’re a handsome man. Has anyone told you that? I’m sure they must have,” she said suddenly.

  Val looked across from her shaking his head. “No. No one has ever told me that. I was told that I was as ugly as a troll and twice as stupid.”

  Caroline smiled lightly at his remark. “Were you a handsome child?”

  “I’ve seen a daguerreotype of myself. I suppose one might say I was good looking. And you?”

  “And me?”

  “Were you a beautiful child?’

  “I’m sure I was thought to be pretty.” She wondered. “My mother was very pretty. There’s a painting of her in the townhouse. I always thought she looked sad but she’s also lovely and fragile.”

  “Where did you inherit your strength? Your father?”

  “My grandmother. My father said I’m much like her.”

  “Your grandmother’s strength and your mother’s beauty. And your father’s intelligence?”

  She smiled. “Perhaps.”

  “The London Theater is playing the Fate of Frankenstein next Friday. It’s supposed to be a peculiar romantic melo-dramatic pantomimic spectacle in two acts.”

  Caroline smiled then grew serious. “That sounds like quite a show.”

  “It should be entertaining. Shall I purchase three tickets?”

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  “How can you say no to this handsome face?” He teased her.

  “Because your handsome face is just a mask. You’re actually a devil underneath.”

  “A devil?” He looked wounded at her words.

  “Yes. You hide behind that handsome face only to get what you want.”

  “What is it that you think I want?”

  “I couldn’t say. I don’t know.” She evaded him.

  He moved to sit beside her.

  “You promised.” She reminded him.

  “I know.” He said even as she looked away from his probing eyes. “Shall I tell you what I want?” He asked her.

  “No.”

  “Well what I want is simple. I want to be successful in my profession. I want to be respected. And I want you in my arms every night until the day I die.”

  Caroline caught her breath and met his eyes in the dark cab.

  “What?” He asked innocently. “What did I say?”

  The cab was slowing down and she breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn’t realized she had been quite so loud until she looked at him and saw him grinning.

  “You’re free, Caroline.”

  She looked across at him and then nodded. “Handsome—maybe. But a devil none the less.” She said before departing from the cab.

  ✽✽✽

  Val smiled as he knocked on the roof and the cab headed toward his club. He could accept that he was a devil as Caroline suggested. But it was so hard to be around her, to catch the scent of jasmine when she neared him, and not be dragged into a sort of dance with his desire.

  He had kept his distance in the beginning. He had tried not to let his feelings overcome his better judgement. He knew as an Inspector it crossed the boundaries and he had never done that before. But Caroline Derry was intoxicating.

  When she was near him, he wanted nothing more than to pull her in his arms and feel her against him. He realized it was strange and unknown to her and maybe a bit frightening. He needed to rein himself in before he completely alienated her.

  He had a simple meal at his club, read the newspaper and headed to his lodgings. When he returned to his room, he was reminded once more that the small room no longer suited him as it once had. He wanted something that befitted his lifestyle as an Inspector. Perhaps when he visited Peter Davies in the morning for the owner of the building, he would discuss it.

  ✽✽✽

  The next morning, Val took the files he had procured from the doctor’s office and gave them to Felix. His instructions were to check the dates and times of the doctor visits with the families of the women. He wanted to see if he could gauge for certain that the patients were the victims. If he could distinguish that, then perhaps Odean Barton was the key to the murders.

  As he was coming downstairs, he heard two constables arguing. It appeared to be over a minor criminal the policemen had brought in.

  “He looks nothing like him,” the one man said.

  “I tell you he’s a dead ringer. A dead ringer!”

  “What’s this about?” Val asked as he rounded the corner and came upon the two men.

  “That man, in the sketch. The one you asked us to circulate.” The one constable asked.

  “Yes?” Val asked.

  “I think he’s in a cell for a pick pocketing charge but Jones here says he looks nothing like him.”

  Val sighed. “The likelihood that the man we have been looking for this whole time has actually been here in the station is ridiculous.”

  Jones nodded furiously and even showed a smirk.

  “Nevertheless, bring him to me,” Val concluded. “Just to be on the safe side.”

  The two constables went away throwing each other fierce looks as Val returned to his office. It was impossible that it should be as the one constable thought, but he cleared off his desk pulling out one piece of paper and placing it in a folder.

  The constables brought the man into Val’s office and he was seated before him.

  “You can wait outside,” he told the one constable while releasing the other back to his duties.

  Val turned his attentions to the man before him. “What’s your name?”

  “Robert Sawyer,” the man said turning his sullen gaze to Val’s.

  Val studied the man before him. He was young. He could easily have paid a call to Simon Eastoft or have him come to the station to identify the man before him. He probably would anyway but he would play along with this game that the man seemed to want to play.

  “Mr. Sawyer. I’m Inspector Pierce. Do you know why I wished to speak with you?”

  “A pick pocketing charge. It’s a lie. I did no such thing.” He crossed his arms about his chest.

  “Where were you previously employed?”

  “Here and there. I’ve sold newspapers and the such.”

  “Do you have family?”

  “A sister. Her husband doesn’t like me though so we don’t see each other often.”

  “Are you married?”

  “No.”r />
  “A sweetheart?”

  “No.”

  “And you say this pick pocketing charge is false?” Val asked.

  “It is indeed. I was falsely accused.”

  “I see.” Val nodded and leaned back in his chair. “Mr. Sawyer where do you live when you aren’t inside the Metropolitan Police Station?”

  Mr. Sawyer gave an address and Val frowned. “Where would that be?”

  He stumbled over the answer and Val felt the first sense that he was absolutely right and his gut instincts had not failed him.

  “Do you have any hobbies Mr. Sawyer?” He asked randomly.

  “What do you mean hobbies?”

  “Well. Some gentlemen like to look at the stars, other gentlemen like to gamble. I wonder if you might have any such idle fancies.”

  Mr. Sawyer looked at Val oddly. “Why would you care about my hobbies? That’s a strange question if I do say so for a policeman to ask.”

  “It is, isn’t it.”

  “It is.”

  “So, do you?”

  “Do I what?”

  “Have any hobbies?”

  Mr. Sawyer looked about the room. “I suppose I like to take long walks. Clears the mind.”

  “I could see it would. Where do you go when you walk, to the park?”

  Mr. Sawyer shrugged. “I don’t know. I just walk.”

  Val nodded. “I see.”

  An awkward silence stretched between the two men. Val looked intently at Mr. Sawyer who tried just as intently to avoid his gaze.

  “I have one or two hobbies myself but they aren’t much to talk about,” Val said absently. “You see I sketch.”

  Mr. Sawyer looked blankly at Val and Val smiled. “I have no formal training. I just do it for myself. Would you like to see my sketches?”

  Mr. Sawyer shrugged but he seemed to want to do anything but see the inspector’s sketching.

  Val smiled and opened up the folder he had before him. Carefully he placed the sheet of paper in front of Mr. Sawyer and pointed at it.

  “What do you think? Do you like it?”

  Mr. Sawyer looked down at the piece of paper and his face fell. He looked up at Val and then back down at the sketch of Irene Derry that had been found at Lyle Bowler’s flat.

  They stared at each other for several seconds and then Val took a deep breath and then sighed.

  “So, Mr. Bowler. Let’s start from the beginning. Shall we?”