The Darker Arts

by Oscar de Muriel

  There was something else missing, and it took me a moment to realise it. Her protruding bosom, famous throughout Lothian and most of the time scantly covered, now could only be described as empty woollen stockings under the jail dress.

  ‘I know,’ she said, for I must have stared open-mouthed. ‘I don’t look as pretty as that night you came to my divination room with a bottle of wine.’

  McGray gasped. ‘He did what?’

  I rolled my eyes. ‘Could we please focus on the case? This is hardly the time to—’

  ‘Och, ye dog!’ he said, elbowing me at the ribs.

  Katerina was sitting down then, smirking. It was as if she had no energy left for one of her usual cackles.

  She squeezed McGray’s hand. ‘I’m so glad to see you, my boy. I’ve not laughed in days.’

  Judging from how hoarse her voice was, it appeared she had not spoken to anyone either.

  ‘How are they treating ye?’ McGray asked. His blue eyes were full of concern.

  Katerina clicked her tongue. ‘The food is rat’s shit. Looks like it too.’ She nodded in my direction. ‘Your English rose here would be dead by now.’

  ‘Don’t tell me they’ve beaten ye, or I’ll kick them in the arse so fuckin’ hard they’ll be able to taste my boots.’ He said it looking straight into the guard’s eyes. Malcolm gulped.

  Katerina managed a brief chuckle, and for a moment her green eyes glowed with their usual cunning. ‘Thanks, Adolphus. They were a little rough on me at first, but they haven’t dared hit me. They’re afraid I’ll cast a curse on their pricks or something.’

  Malcolm gulped again.

  ‘Ye can go, lad,’ Nine-Nails said, and the guard was only too happy to leave.

  At once I lounged back, letting out a tired sigh.

  ‘What a fine quandary you’ve got yourself into.’

  Katerina simply looked at Nine-Nails.

  ‘Why did you bring him? He’ll tell me I’m a mad hag.’

  ‘He’s not a complete waste o’ space,’ said McGray, kicking me under the table. ‘And contrary to his looks, he did pick up a thing or two about the law in his Cambridge college for petunia-sniffing dandies.’

  ‘Thank you,’ I said, looking directly at Katerina. ‘Now, I need to ask you this, madam. Did you do it?’

  ‘Did I …?’

  ‘Did you kill them?’

  I might as well have slapped her in the face. She looked up, astounded, and McGray slammed both hands on the table.

  ‘Of course she didnae!’ he yelped. ‘She—!’

  ‘Let the bloody woman speak!’ I shouted over him, with a roaring volume that surprised even me.

  As the silence lingered, Katerina bit her lips, lowering her head.

  ‘I didn’t harm anyone,’ she mumbled.

  I nodded. ‘Very well. In that case, we need you to tell us exactly what happened.’

  We were in for a riveting tale.

  3

  ‘This young woman, Leonora Willberg, sent me a letter a month ago. She and her aunt are good clients. Well … they were.’

  ‘Did they both die that night?’ I asked.

  ‘No, just Leonora. Her aunt passed on a few years ago, her father too ; but the girl kept looking for me. She was very interested in my arts.’

  ‘Was she?’

  ‘Yes, all her life. She told me her grandmother also had the eye.’

  I looked into my breast pocket and produced my little notebook, struggling to keep my face neutral. ‘Why did they ask you to perform the – session?’

  ‘Were they trying to contact anyone in particular?’ McGray added.

  ‘Yes. The grandmother, I just told you. They called her Grannie Alice.’

  ‘Ye ken what for? Was it just to talk to her? ’Cause they missed her?’

  I thought that would be the reason, as séances had become very popular in recent years. Even Queen Victoria was rumoured to hold them frequently, to chat with her beloved Albert (McGray and I knew for a fact that the rumours were true).

  Katerina’s answer, however, was rather unexpected.

  ‘That’s what Leonora told me, but she lied.’

  ‘She what?’ McGray said.

  Katerina lowered her voice. ‘They needed to ask her something. Something very specific.’

  I sighed as discreetly as possible. ‘Who told you so?’

  ‘Nobody. They didn’t have to. I felt it.’

  McGray jumped in exactly as I was about to blurt out my best sarcasm.

  ‘Tell us more.’

  Katerina shook her head. ‘Oh, it was all over the place, Adolphus. In Leonora’s note, in the valet they sent to fetch me, on the tablecloth, in the parlour walls … Oh, that house!’

  ‘Did ye visit before the séance?’

  ‘Yes, you know I always do when people ask me to work in their houses.’ She shook again, this time her entire body, as if suddenly hit by an icy draught. ‘There is something floating there, my boy ; it’s like a stench I could sense even before I walked in. There’s hatred … Guilt … A lie … Something hellish that stained that air years ago and hasn’t faded.’

  There was a long silence : Katerina apparently recovering from a strike of emotion, McGray meditating with an expression worthy of St John upon writing the Book of Revelation, while I gripped my pencil.

  ‘I had to ask Leonora to cleanse all the rooms with blessed candles,’ Katerina went on. ‘It barely did the job. And I had to take precautions I rarely do.’

  ‘Precautions?’ I asked.

  ‘Protect my soul ; my spirit. A séance is so … So …’

  She struggled to find the right word, so McGray stepped in.

  ‘Intimate. I ken. Crudely put, it’s almost like getting into bed with someone. If they have – let’s say, lice, yer goin’ to catch it.’

  I raised an eyebrow. ‘So … You protected yourself from catching spiritual syphilis?’

  ‘Dammit!’ she cried, standing up and banging both palms on the table. I was glad her fingernails were no more, or she would have ripped my eyes out. ‘Yes! You may laugh if you want, but that protection saved my life. My life and my soul! Those six other bastards are burning in hell now.’

  I raised a conciliatory hand. ‘Very well, let’s not linger on that right now. There are still many details we need to know.’

  McGray nodded at her. Katerina took a few infuriated breaths, but then sat down again.

  ‘You mentioned that this Leonora contacted you over a month ago, yet the séance took place last Friday?’

  ‘Yes. You have to wait for the stars to align. The best conjunction is different for every soul.’

  My scribbling stopped, I took in the words, and then resumed the writing. ‘Can you name the people who attended?’

  She looked sternly at me. ‘You mean the people who died?’

  That required no answer, so I said nothing, and Katerina began counting with her fingers.

  ‘There was Leonora … the uncle who moved into her house after her parents died …’

  ‘What was his name?’

  ‘Everyone called him either Willberg or Mr Willberg.’

  ‘Who else?’

  ‘I recognised the grandmother’s widower, a really frail old man … Mr Shaw. Hector Shaw.’

  I wrote it down. ‘Go on.’

  ‘There was also this bossy gent everyone kept calling Colonel …’

  ‘That would be Colonel Grenville,’ I said, recalling the newspaper. ‘Was he a relative?’

  ‘An in-law. His wife was present too ; another granddaughter of that Alice woman.’

  ‘That makes her Hector Shaw’s daughter?’

  ‘Yes, she called him Father. I think her name was Martha. Lovely jewellery she wore. And there was also a mousy, lanky man. Leonora’s uncle ordered him around all the time. His name was Bertrand.’

  I counted. ‘Very well, that accounts for all the bodies found. Did any of them look odd to you?’

  ‘I told you already
, they were all damned souls.’

  ‘Even the young Leonora, so interested in your arts?’

  ‘Oh, yes! She was always asking more than she ought to. On the night, she even brought a camera.’

  ‘There was a photographic camera?’ McGray cried. I too was surprised, and underlined that in my notebook.

  ‘Yes,’ Katerina replied. ‘Leonora said spirits sometimes show in the pictures.’

  She snorted at that.

  ‘Ye don’t think that’s possible?’ McGray asked.

  ‘I wouldn’t know. Only rich folk can afford those damn things.’

  ‘Yet you do not seem to like the idea of photographing the dead,’ I remarked.

  ‘Too right. It’s a violation! The souls of the recently deceased sometimes get trapped in glass and mirrors. If it’s true that spirits appear in photographs, perhaps it’s because the machines can catch them too.’

  I simply stared at her with my lips slightly parted. I could not believe that such rampant ignorance still existed in our times. Nevertheless, the presence of a camera offered tantalising opportunities.

  ‘Were any photographs taken on the night?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘How many?’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know exactly. I was focused on my job. Several, I think. Before and during the session.’

  I underlined that too, while McGray rubbed his hands in excitement.

  ‘We must look for that camera, Frey. It must still be at the—’ he had to bite his lip not to say crime scene. ‘At the parlour. They told me the house was locked. Everything there should still be untouched.’

  ‘I bloody hope so,’ I said, followed by a sigh as I turned to Katerina. ‘Now to the point, madam. Describe the séance itself.’

  Her expression darkened and she took short, sharp breaths, readying herself to tell us the tale. The one newspapers would have cheated and killed for. The one everyone in Edinburgh was so desperate to hear.

  4

  ‘I could tell we would be successful, even before I set foot into the house. The spirit was angry. Angry and keen to meet her relatives.

  ‘I checked the walls, the air. Everything seemed fit enough for the communion. Barely, as I told them, but the spirit would overcome any barriers.

  ‘That so-called colonel dispatched his servant and we were left alone. Leonora took a photograph of everyone before we gathered at the table. I could feel this angered the spirit – the girl’s frivolity ; her keenness ; her disrespect ; the fact that she only wanted those bloody photographs to show them off later … Spirits have to cross worlds to commune with us! That’s painful to them!

  ‘I said nothing, though I should have. We moved on. I told them to lock the doors and turn all the lights off, except for the candles.

  ‘I had asked them to prepare an offering too. You always need something to tempt the spirits. Sometimes it can be anything the poor souls liked in life – their favourite scent or drink or food. Sometimes they are so keen to see their loved ones their mere presence is enough …

  ‘Not this time. I knew the spirit would demand the most precious sacrifice. Grannie Alice wanted their blood. I had told them so.

  ‘Before I arrived, they had all cut themselves and poured a little of their blood into a decanter. We all held hands in a circle, and I began my work.

  ‘Either that colonel had not bled enough, or Alice wanted a greater sacrifice from him. I let them know. Leonora and the man’s wife gasped, and this other man – Leonora’s uncle – smirked, all smug. The colonel didn’t even protest. He went for the … He went for a knife, and bled himself again. Much more than needed and without as much as a flinch. He wanted to show off his strength.

  ‘And then we were ready. I could feel Grannie Alice was so keen, so keen. She was like this horrible oppression growing in my innards. Cold. Malicious.

  ‘I closed my eyes, called her name … told her we had all gathered there to meet her.

  ‘The room went cold right then. I had shut my eyes, but I could see the flicker of the candles. It was as if a draught was about to blow them off … Yet we could feel nothing ; nothing other than the deathly cold.

  ‘Then we waited. She was there, ready, but she didn’t speak to me immediately. I felt she was watching them.

  ‘She … I don’t know how to describe it … It felt as if she was – feeding on their fear. It was a revolting sensation, Adolphus. Like watching a wild dog devouring bloody entrails.

  ‘I tried to calm her down, but Alice was pure fire. The room got colder and colder, and then she spoke through me.

  ‘She said, “How dare you? How dare you summon me?”

  ‘I hardly recognised my own voice. I felt her anger as if it were mine, bursting out through my throat.

  ‘They had all jumped. Someone knocked the table and I think I heard some of the candles fall over. Then the old man asked if it was her. When she said yes, he choked. I thought he was about to faint.

  ‘He asked her if she was in peace, but she cackled … Well, I cackled for her.

  ‘She said, “I’m burning. Like you all will too.”

  ‘The old man babbled some words I didn’t understand, but Alice did. He was begging for her forgiveness.

  ‘She said, “You’re all wicked! Perverse! You’re all damned!”

  ‘Then Leonora broke the circle. I didn’t see her, but I felt it. I thought the connection would break and Alice would leave, but she didn’t. Her grip was so strong.

  ‘I heard the bursts of the powder flash. Leonora was using that damn camera, the foolish girl! Alice was furious. But not as furious as she got when the colonel opened his mouth.

  ‘He said, “Ask her where it is! Ask her what she did with it!”

  ‘I wish he hadn’t said so. She wanted me to spit out the most vulgar, horrible cursing, but I resisted.

  ‘I began shaking. I was holding the colonel’s hand and the hand of Leonora’s uncle. I could feel how hard I grasped them ; they were grunting in pain. Thank goodness I wasn’t holding the old man’s hand or I would’ve crushed his bones!

  ‘The colonel insisted, and so did the other man.

  ‘I felt Alice pushing me forwards. Some noise came out of my mouth, like – a growl. Something horrible. The colonel’s wife was weeping in horror.

  ‘Alice made me say, “I’ll never tell. Never! You’re all doomed. You’ll all die.”

  ‘Everyone gasped then. They couldn’t even scream.

  ‘I thought she was lying. She wouldn’t be the first spirit I caught telling a lie. When evil souls want to cause harm, the easiest way is just by telling lies. I think Alice read my thoughts, because she said it again, and this time I knew she meant it.

  ‘She made me roar, “You’ll all die tonight!”

  ‘I’ve never been possessed like that. She was about to harm us all, my body first of all.

  ‘I opened my eyes, which usually breaks the link, but she still wouldn’t leave! She clutched my heart and my guts in a grip of fire. I couldn’t even see properly ; everything was shrouded by my veil.

  ‘I wanted to scream and shout, but all I could do was blurt out her cursing.

  ‘And then I saw something right in front of me. It was like a shadow taking shape in-between the candles ; something solid sprouting from thin air. I could not believe it at first, but there it was …

  ‘The hand of Satan.

  ‘I … didn’t want it to be true, but the others saw it too. They were screaming and pointing at it.

  ‘There were his fingers, all twisted and charred. And his skin stank like sulphur … It was the devil coming from fire itself. The fire was bringing him to life.

  ‘I leaned forwards to blow out the candles, but the two men wouldn’t let go of me. They were petrified.

  ‘And then the hand leapt down, those horrible fingers clasped the tablecloth, and it crawled in my direction.

  ‘Alice’s voice was everywhere. Everyone was screaming. There was an explosion of lig
ht … and …

  ‘And then …

  ‘I saw no more.’

  5

  Katerina was exhausted, so we let her go then. As the guards took her, McGray once more threatened their manly parts if they mistreated her in any way. Right before she left, Katerina grasped McGray’s four-fingered hand, and looked at him with misty eyes.

  ‘Help me, my boy. I beg you. We go a long way back … You know me. You know I couldn’t—’

  She could not finish the sentence, and McGray also seemed too affected to speak. He simply patted her on the shoulder and let her go.

  Again we walked across the jail’s esplanade. This time, I looked more intently at the flagstones, and saw the clear marks left by the gallows poles. They clearly had been installed at the very same spot for the past seventy years, ever since the jail had been built.

  McGray spoke as soon as we were out of the officers’ hearing range.

  ‘What d’ye think happened?’

  ‘I have no idea. I can think of a dozen ways six people can be killed at once in a locked room, but the fact that only one lived to tell the tale … No wonder everyone in town is scratching their heads. No weapons, no injuries, and the only living witness is – her.’

  ‘Ye don’t believe her story, do ye?’

  ‘Do you even have to ask?’ I opened my notebook. ‘Allow me to summarise her statement. An evil spirit killed everyone but her. Her charms and rituals and talismans saved her … McGray, this sounds as ridiculous as that drunken farmer who swore he was possessed by the devil when his wife found him frolicking with the milkmaid.’

  McGray anxiously looked for a cigar in his pocket. ‘Percy, d’ye really think she killed six people?’

  I grunted. ‘Well, she may be a trickster, a fraud, a charlatan, a roguish lowlife, a—’

  ‘But?’

  ‘But no, I do not think her capable of murder. And she had no apparent motive to—’

  ‘See? What she says is true. I’ve studied those things. Everything she said about spirits’ behaviour is true. Everything.’

  ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, McGray!’ I snapped, startling the officers who were opening the gates for us. ‘It’s not me you have to convince! Let me remind you this is an indictable offence. Unless we find something blatantly obvious in that room or those bodies, Katerina will be tried at the High Court. How do you think the judge and the jury will react to her story?’