The Dulwich Horror & Others

by David Hambling

  As for me: kill me or marry me. Perhaps we can run away together and dance the tango and be lovers at last. Or else we can die together and snuff out all our dangerous secrets forever. Either way we can finally escape those shadows which have blighted our lives and write ourselves into a different story.

  Editor’s Note

  Sophie Hetherington disappeared from Canterbury House mental institution in Norwood on 1 April 1938. Some clothes and a suicide note were found by South Norwood Lake, and it was believed she had drowned herself.

  A day later, William Blake’s lodgings were destroyed in a fire. A single body was found in his burned-out room.

  The accepted explanation of these events developed cracks some days later when dredging of the lake failed to produce a body. It was discovered that the suicide note appeared to have been plagiarised from My Little Deaths, a collection of blank verse by Claudia Witherspoon.

  A forensic investigation revealed that the burned body was a larger and heavier-set individual than Blake, with two bullet wounds in the back. Dental records did not produce a match, and the body was never officially identified.

  One other questionable piece of evidence remains, the record of a wedding on a Cunard liner from Southampton bound for Buenos Aires a week later. This was not discovered for some months and was assumed to be a prank, as there were no passengers of the name Blake or Hetherington listed in the passenger manifest.

  THE DULWICH HORROR & OTHERS

  Copyright © 2015 by David Hambling

  The right of David Hambling to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Originally published in printed book form by PS Publishing Ltd in 2015. This electronic version published in September 2015 by PS by arrangement with the author. All rights reserved by the author.

  FIRST EBOOK EDITION

  ISBN 978-1-84863-343-8

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  PS Publishing Ltd

  Grosvenor House

  1 New Road

  Hornsea / HU18 1PG

  East Yorkshire / England

  www.pspublishing.co.uk

  editor@pspublishing.co.uk

  Contents

  THE DULWICH HORROR & OTHERS

  Foreword

  INTRODUCTION: WELCOME TO SOUTH LONDON, MR. LOVECRAFT

  THE DULWICH HORROR OF 1927

  I

  TWO FINGERS

  I

  THE THING IN THE VAULT

  I

  THE MONSTERS IN THE PARK

  I

  THE DEVILS IN THE DEEP BLUE SEA

  I

  THE NORWOOD BUILDER

  I

  SHADOWS OF THE WITCH HOUSE

  I

  THE DULWICH HORROR & OTHERS