by J. R. Ellis
‘I remember you saying that you sometimes had to remind yourself that what was happening in a horror film was only people acting. That confirmed what I was already beginning to think about the whole business in the escape room. Then when I played that trick on you at the museum and you said what if it had gone wrong, it stirred something in my mind. That evening it was Halloween and I heard “Trick or Treat” being called out by kids. I couldn’t stop thinking about that phrase and it kept me awake. But the next morning I was pretty sure I knew what had happened. I remembered that the two dead people were actors and Andy Carter had reported that Holgate enjoyed practical jokes. I realised that they were performing in a trick that went wrong, at least for them. They weren’t aware that there was a second, deadly trick being played out, and that this one was on them.’
‘Hmm. It was an ingenious but evil scheme, wasn’t it?’
‘Yes, worthy of a vampire, though there was nothing supernatural about it, just the dark side of human ingenuity.’
‘So, how’s Louise?’ asked Deborah.
‘She’s doing okay I think; still with her mother.’
‘Do you think she’ll come and stay with us for a bit? I’d love to see her.’
‘Maybe. I think she wants to get back to London as soon as she can and start up her life again.’
‘That’s understandable.’
‘Thanks for arranging for her to have those therapy sessions. She took a bit of persuading, but I think she’ll benefit from them.’
‘Good. It will be much better for her in the long run. She went through some very traumatic things and often people bury the pain caused by experiences like that. PTSD therapy can help a lot.’
‘I’m not sure the sense of betrayal she feels isn’t worse than the shock of being attacked.’
‘It probably is . . . and the two go together, don’t they? Someone she cared for tried to take her life after killing two of their mutual friends. She’s bereaved of those friends and, in another sense, of the man who tried to kill her. He was also her friend and maybe more. It’s much worse than being attacked by some random person in the street.’ She shook her head. ‘There’s a lot of difficult stuff to work through and I’m glad Denise is helping her. She’s a very experienced practitioner, but it will take time.’
Oldroyd took a sip of wine. ‘What do you make of Ben Morton and his motivation? Alice Granger told me he compared himself to Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment. He needed the money so that his genius could flourish. It’s an extraordinary justification for what he did. Unlike Raskolnikov, he doesn’t appear to have felt any guilt.’
Deborah rolled her eyes. ‘There’s a lot of stuff in there too. Clearly a terrible egomania where the needs of his unappreciated genius are paramount, self-delusion about his talent and a measure of psychopathy in the lack of empathy with others, even his own friends. I don’t envy my colleagues in forensic psychology trying to untangle that lot.’
‘No.’ Oldroyd took another sip of his wine. ‘You know, I often find myself comparing a dramatic case like this to a Shakespeare play. We were definitely near the world of Macbeth in this one: the great themes of loyalty and betrayal acted out in a dark, violent atmosphere of witches, vampires and general ghoulishness, even if the witches and so on were people dressed up and not real as in the play.’
‘But not everyone is evil in that play, are they? Isn’t there some light at the end?’
‘Yes, there is hope in the loyalty of Banquo and later on in the young Malcolm. He brings the possibility of renewal.’
‘And that’s what will happen with Louise and the others who suffered. In time they will experience renewal too.’
‘I think you’re right,’ said Oldroyd, who suddenly felt optimistic about the future as he poured them both another glass of wine.
But on the instant, came the sweep and flash of Jonathan’s great knife. I shrieked as I saw it shear through the throat; whilst at the same time Mr Morris’s bowie knife plunged into the heart.
It was like a miracle; but before our very eyes, and almost in the drawing of a breath, the whole body crumbled into dust and passed from our sight.
From Mina Harker’s Journal in Dracula
This ae nighte, this ae nighte,
Every nighte and alle,
Fire, fleet and candle light,
And Christe receive thy saule.
From the Lyke Wake Dirge
Acknowledgments
I continue to find help, inspiration and encouragement from the Otley Writers’ Group and from my family and friends.
The twice-yearly Whitby Goth Weekend is a fascinating event. I would like to thank the organisers and all the people who put such effort and imagination into their amazing costumes!
Bram Stoker visited Whitby in the summer of 1890. He found the name Dracula in a book in the Whitby Subscription Library and decided to set a substantial part of the story in the town. His account of Dracula’s arrival in Whitby is based on a real event when a ship ran aground in the harbour and it was discovered that very few of the crew remained alive. Some rescue workers reported seeing a black dog jump off the ship and run up the 199 steps to the abbey.
Edvard Munch painted six versions of ‘Love and Pain’, sometimes called ‘Vampire’, between 1893 and 1895. One version is missing.
West Riding Police is a fictional force based on the old riding boundary. Harrogate was part of the old West Riding, although it is in today’s North Yorkshire.
About the Author
John R. Ellis has lived in Yorkshire for most of his life and has spent many years exploring Yorkshire’s diverse landscapes, history, language and communities. He recently retired after a career in teaching, mostly in further education in the Leeds area. In addition to the Yorkshire Murder Mystery series, he writes poetry, ghost stories and biography. He has completed a screenplay about the last years of the poet Edward Thomas and a work of faction about the extraordinary life of his Irish mother-in-law. He is currently working on his memoirs of growing up in a working-class area of Huddersfield in the 1950s and 1960s.
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