Hunting Down the Darkness

by European P. Douglas

  “Who knows,” he said smiling, “Thank you for everything Ms Sommers.”

  Chapter 52

  Kate had been living at her old home, sharing her old bed with both Mary and Sarah for a few days when she suddenly remembered the money she’d hidden at the apartment. She knew that Edwards would not have gone back to secure the place- it mattered little to him, especially if he’d found out that Kate was no longer living there. She had not seen him for a few days now and this surprised her. She concluded that he must be away; otherwise he would have come to her in worry about the attack.

  Checking the time, she felt she could make it to the apartment and then back to Dog and Duck Yard before dark. It would be close but she would move as fast as she could and she felt she had to. If the money wasn’t already gone, taken by one of the nosy neighbours, it would not be wise to leave it there any longer.

  As she approached the river, she slowed to look around to see if anyone was lurking around the building but everything looked as it should. In her heart, she was most worried about Edwards being the one waiting for her. Now that she had slowed down, Kate felt how out of breath she was from her rush. Casting a look at the sky, she saw that dusk was fast approaching. She quickened her pace across the bridge and went in through the door to the house.

  Walking up the stairs Kate found that her breaths grew shallower still and fear gripped her like this was some strange cavern she’d never been before. She imagined the view of the place from the attacker’s point of view, seeing holes in the wall and damage to the steps of the stairs that she had never noticed while she lived here. Each step was in silence and it was as if her mind had convinced itself that any noise could be the last sound she’d ever make, that something terrible would come because of it.

  From the landing, she could see that the holes in the door had been covered over with newssheets. Kate wondered who would have done that; she couldn’t picture any of the neighbours doing it. She fumbled a moment for the key in her pocket before locating it. As she eased it into the lock, she saw how her hands shook and she smiled nervously trying to bring her fear under control. ‘You have nothing to be frightened of,’ she told herself. The key moved home and she turned the knob pushing against the door with her shoulder.

  Easing into the room, she closed the door gently behind her and then stood looking into the hallway of the apartment. From where she stood, she could see the window at the far end that looked out onto the river and the severed rat came to mind. How disgusting that had been, and looking back it had been a warning and no childish prank played on them.

  The silence now that she’d closed the door was alarming. She could feel something in the room that she’d never felt before, though she had been alone here many times in the past. No fire crackled and the room was perhaps colder than it should have been. Her hand still pressed to the inside knob of the door almost twisted to let her back out. But she couldn’t; she had to get that money. It wasn’t much but certainly not an amount someone in her position could ever think about throwing away.

  When the movement came in the bedroom, Kate was already in a rush through the door and she looked in frozen terror as the man rose up from behind the bed to face her. She couldn't stop as she’d moved in so fast and if he simply leaned over and put his hand out, he would be able to grab her right now!

  The man made no attempt to reach for her, but instead rushed around the bed and pushed past her. As he made his dash down the hall she suddenly realised who it was and she screamed,

  “Spencer!” she called out, “He’s here!” The door opened and he was gone, but shouts and cries began to go up from all over the house, just like the night of the attack here. Kate was too scared to move and she found her hand was clasped over her mouth as though to reprimand for shouting- something that could have resulted in her own death if the anger took hold of Spencer at that moment. Kate listened eagerly but it was soon clear that Spencer was away, people were still shouting all over but nobody was calling the one line she wanted to hear. No one had caught him.

  When the hullabaloo had calmed down, Kate found herself sitting on the steps of the building with a hot brandy in her hands, which had been supplied by the old woman who lived on the ground floor closest to the doorway. The soldier had asked Kate what she had seen and she told them Spencer had been in the apartment.

  “How do you know it was him?” the soldier asked.

  “I’ve seen him before, a friend of mine sat for one of his paintings before.”

  “What did he say to you?”

  “Nothing, he just ran when I found him there.” The soldier shrugged to his companion and shook his head,

  “From what you telling me about the place being empty for a time, my best guess is this was just some passing vagrant looking for a place to sleep. If it had been Spencer I think you might be dead right now, Miss.” The other soldier smiled at this.

  Kate stood up in indignation and looked the man square in the eye and said,

  “I know who I saw and what he is capable of.” The soldier did not reply and Kate handed the cup of brandy back to the old woman with a nod of thanks. She walked away angrily but knew she couldn't look back. The tears were already falling from her eyes and she wanted nothing more in the world at that moment than to be in the arms of Timothy Mullins.

  Chapter 53

  Mullins was on edge and though they didn’t say it, he could tell both Sarah and Mary were worried too. Darkness had fallen and there was no sign yet of Kate. This was not like her and it scared him. Mullins had seen too much happen in Dublin after dark to not worry.

  Mary had come in late a couple of evenings ago and the women had gone through her with questions and recriminations. Mullins hadn’t said anything at that time, but he thought whatever reason Mary had for being out after dark were not good enough, especially if she thought she was being targeted by the killer.

  The more he thought about it, the more he worried. He was too proud to tell the women how he felt and he supposed they were wary of asking him to go out and look for her. Musing on this for a moment, he made a decision,

  “I think I’ll pop over to the whiskey cabin for a while,” he said taking up his coat. Mary and Sarah looked at one another and then back to him but neither said anything, instead both simply nodded their heads in agreement. They wouldn’t know he was planning to go out and look for Kate but they may both suspect and hope that he was.

  Once out on the street, Mullins was fully alert. He knew it was a bad idea for him to be out at all- more than once being about at night had caused problems for him in the past. He just had to hope no murders were committed tonight; at least not before Kate was home safe. He moved out towards Cook Street with no plan in his head. He had no idea where Kate might be but finding her was all that mattered to him right now.

  Just as he was about to round the corner he heard something back down his own street and he paused to look. Someone was coming around the far corner at a run and in a moment, he knew it was her.

  “Kate!” he called out rushing towards her but suddenly conscious and trying to make it look like he was not running, now that he knew she was safe. She looked up at him and he saw the relief on her frightened and tear stained face,

  “Tim!” she came running even faster than before until they got to one another and she threw herself into his arms. Mullins was a little surprised by this but he felt his arms hug around her slender form and hold her into him despite the deep reservations in his heart,

  “What happened?” he asked her.

  “It was Spencer,” she answered between gulped breaths.

  “Kate!” the conjoined voices of Sarah and Mary rang out as they too surrounded her. Mullins stepped back and released his former wife and let the two women envelop her. He looked around and saw that some of the neighbours were peering through their windows or through partly opened doors.

  “Why don’t we all go inside out of the cold,” he suggested. The women nodded and went insi
de.

  Once there Mary and Sarah barraged her with questions, so many that they were talking over one another and Kate didn’t know what to say.

  “Take it easy, girls,” Mullins said, “Kate, sit by the fire and tell us what happened.” Kate smiled at him and sat down. The other two were silent and Mullins said, “What’s this about Spencer?”

  “He was there tonight, in the place we used to live,” Kate said.

  “What did you go back there for?” Sarah asked in disbelief, “Especially in the dark?”

  “I remembered I had money under the bed and I wanted to get to it before one of those neighbours came in for a nose and found it.”

  “What was Spencer doing there?” Mullins asked. At this Kate looked to Mary,

  “I don’t know, but he might have been looking for you, Mary.”

  “That can’t be,” Mary said, “He wouldn’t have known I ever lived there.”

  “Well, he was there and I don’t see any other reason he could have been,” Kate said sounding defensive.

  “Did he hurt you?” Mullins asked looking her over.

  “No, he just made a run for it when I came in. I shouted out but no one caught him.”

  “Did you speak to the army?” Mullins asked.

  “Yes, but they didn’t believe me; they said if it was Spencer I wouldn't be alive to tell about it.” Mullins wondered if they might have been right but then Kate looked very sure about what she was saying.

  There was no time to ask anything more however, as just then there a loud voice shouted,

  “You haven’t gotten away from me yet, Mary!” and four or five loud squelching thuds came against the front door. Mullins ran to it as the women screamed in fight, pulling it open and looking about for the shouter. No one moved on the streets and as he listened he didn’t hear the giveaway slap of feet on the cobblestones. There was no indication what direction the person might have been shouting from and all Mullins could do was take a cursory walk around outside for a minute to see if there was any sign of anyone hiding nearby.

  When he came back to the door, he saw that there were two bifurcated rats lying in bloody heaps on the ground. Red smeared the impact points of the door and a couple of trickles of blood ran down too. Mary was clearly the target of all of this and that would tie in with Spencer’s fascination with her. He knew where she had formerly lived and this proved now, that he knew where she was now. Mullins knew he was going to have to find somewhere safer for her to stay tomorrow, but he had no idea where that might be. Perhaps it would be best if she stuck by him until he could figure it out. She wouldn’t like it, but he didn’t plan to give her any say in the matter.

  Chapter 54

  Though someone had possibly tried to kill the Alderman and there was the bonus of Lisa here at Wild Boar Hall, Edwards had to admit it wasn’t as entertaining at the old house as he’d hoped when he first decided to come down. Deek’s arrival had seemed a boon at the time but now that Edwards had spent some time with the man, especially up at the old witch’s place, he felt unnerved. Despite how insane the beliefs Deek held seemed to Edwards outwardly, a part deep inside of him felt it was possible.

  Edwards rarely experienced a sleepless night but now as he tried to sleep he could only see images of the Devil come to mind, and not the caricatured image other people had of him, not even that of the painting Spencer had completed, but a man. A man of aristocratic birth, tall and strong and malevolent. A man not unlike Daniel Deek should he indeed turn out to have a darker heart than he showed them all so far.

  This was quite possible of course; after all how good could a man be if he spent his life in pursuit of the ultimate evil in the world. Something had to be amiss; it just had not shown itself as of yet. As he thought this he began to understand that it was possible Deek’s likeness to Edwards himself that most unnerved. That someone else could hide their true designs and intentions as well as he could was not something he’d come across too often in his life. What was Deek really up to? What was he after?

  Weighing it up in the eerie pre-dawn, Edwards decided that it was time to go back to Dublin. James could stay on here and play detective while drooling over Lisa if he liked, but Dublin was where the action was. There was even a killer on the loose who seemed to be playing a game with Olocher. No doubt this news would reach James once Edwards was gone and no longer interfering with the post, and he didn’t think it would be long before the Alderman was back in Dublin himself. He smiled at the idea of James finding out what had been going on and his panic to get home to scurry about trying to protect his ‘people’.

  Now the decision had been made, he began to feel better at once. As he walked down for breakfast, his mind wandered to the fortuneteller and the odd feeling he had around her, as if she could see into him, beyond what he himself knew. How had she been able to instil this feeling in him? The power of suggestion was not something that would normally have any sway over what Edwards felt on any topic, but if not that power then what did she use?

  “You look troubled,” the friendly but unwelcome voice of Daniel Deek interrupted his thoughts. Edwards looked up and saw the smiling man at the top steps coming down the stairs behind him. He wondered if Deek had been listening out for him to leave his room so he could follow him down.

  “Not at all,” Edwards replied smiling, “Just trying to do some calculations in my head.”

  “A business deal?” Deek asked,

  “Possibly,” Edwards lied, “If I can make it work.”

  “Business is not something I have taken much interest in,” Deek said joining Edwards on his step and then both proceeded down the stairs, “Perhaps I am lucky in my birth and never had to think about it.”

  “It is an acquired taste.” Deek nodded at this, “Anyway, I go back to Dublin today to look into it further,” Edwards added.

  “I wasn’t aware you were leaving today,” Deek said in mild surprise. Edwards did not know why this interested Deek but then a flash of worry came through as he wondered if the Prussian might decide to accompany him to the city.

  “Oh, I never stay in one place for too long,” he said with a smile meant to be charming but not feeling so.

  “Will Mr James be leaving as well?” Deek asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Edwards answered, “He has a murder to solve.”

  “You are not interested in solving this murder too?”

  “Solving murders is not my work, more of a hobby when there is nothing more pressing or interesting to take my attention.”

  “And this business in Dublin, this is more pressing than murder?” Deek asked with a wry smile and raised eyebrows. He’d stressed the word ‘business’ in his sentence and Edwards had to wonder if it were possible Deek knew what he was up to back in Dublin.

  “For now, it is,” he answered.

  “I will remain here until I feel the time has come to leave, but I shall be in Dublin next. Perhaps I can drop in on you while I’m there. You can show me what you know of the Devil in Dublin?”

  “Of course, I look forward to seeing you when you arrive,” Edwards said, thinking it would be going too far to offer the man a room in his house for the duration of his stay.

  “Thank you, I am looking forward to seeing the place. I hear you have an area called ‘Hell’ and a statue of the Devil at the entrance to it?” Deek laughed.

  “We do indeed, and there are many people who would tell you they have seen that statue move and leave the archway that houses it,” Edwards laughed too but as he did so he was thinking it was probably best if Deek were to be added to Steven Olocher’s list before the main action began. Edwards didn’t think he was going to be able to concentrate on the task ahead, nor be able to enjoy it fully while Deek was around making him feel uncomfortable.

  Nothing was going to come between Edwards and his plan; he would do his best to see to that. Perhaps Deek would finally get to meet the Devil he so loved after all.

  Chapter 55

  Stev
en Olocher left the house in the early afternoon to set off after Sheila Ryan. He spent an hour walking in the most circuitous route around the city, crossing the river to the south side down near the Custom House, until he came to near Sheila’s home. Checking the time, he supposed she would be coming home from the grocers now with the meagre haul that would feed her family for the day. After that she would wash for her evening work- which her parents thought was as a tavern girl- and then head out to streets afar where she was not known to make the money that helped them all. It was a miserable life, all in all, he supposed and he would be doing her a favour by ending her drudgery and taking her away from the dangerous and disgusting work she so hated.

  Ambling down Peter Street where her grocer was, Olocher thought about the brief walk she would have before he would kill her in the always quiet Goodman’s Close running alongside the railings to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. There was one spot in particular, at a sharp bend where he would be able to get her where no window or door looked directly out on. He would be quick and merciful with her and she would never know it was coming. He couldn’t have her screaming the place down in broad daylight; that would make it very difficult to get away unnoticed.

  Daylight was the key with this one though; he needed people to know that they were no longer safe just because the sun shone in the sky. The killer could get to you at any time night or day and in any place he wanted.

  Olocher’s thoughts were interrupted when he saw that he was farther down the street than he’d anticipated without seeing Sheila. His pace slowed with this realisation and he cursed himself for getting caught up in fantasy before the kill had even taken place. He stopped and looked in the window of a book shop- he didn’t like to do this as it was easy to draw attention to yourself if you stood still on a busy street. A moment later, he set off again, glancing into the grocer as he passed and seeing that she was not there.