The Darker Arts

by Oscar de Muriel

  ‘Nine-Nails … are you, again, thinking what I think you—’

  ‘Aye. Why bother talking to the living when we’ve someone who can talk to the dead?’

  I breathed out. ‘And how is Katerina going to—?’

  ‘That Cobbold woman reminded me. We still have their possessions at the morgue. Katerina can read from those, especially if there’s at least some metal in the objects. We’ll do that tomorrow.’

  ‘McGray, we have no time for those idiotic games! We still have one more branch of the family to question.’ I looked at the small copy of the family tree I’d drawn in my notebook. ‘Bertrand Shaw’s mother and brother. They might—’

  ‘Make us waste even more time,’ he interrupted, gave a last puff of his cigar and then threw it to the waters. ‘It’s decided. We’ll see Katerina tomorrow.’

  And he rushed to the inn at once, escaping from my very reasonable objections.

  Due to previous traumas, I refused to share a room with Nine-Nails, and despite my now usual nightmares and struggles to sleep, I could almost have called that a pleasant night.

  The following morning, however, the weather changed for the worse, and the trip back was excruciating for McGray. He ended up regurgitating his dinner and breakfast over the gunwale whilst lashed by icy rain, which provided more amusement for me.

  We went to our respective homes to freshen – McGray certainly needed a change of clothes – and agreed to meet back at the City Chambers.

  I barely set foot in the office, for McGray was already there when I arrived, and still in a foul mood. He grunted as he tied up a leather pouch.

  ‘What took ye so bloody long? Ye were s’posed to change clothes, nae bathe in ass’s milk ’n’ honey.’

  He had a point. I was in no rush to witness another display of Katerina’s alleged ‘skills’, so I had taken my time. I still protested though.

  ‘What do you mean? I barely stopped to wash—’

  ‘Och, never mind. I don’t need to hear what ye do and don’t scrub. Let’s go. I’ve got everything here.’ He jerked the jingling pouch and we set off.

  As the cab took us to Calton Hill Jail, McGray listed the items.

  ‘A pair o’ spectacles from auld Mr Shaw, a pearl choker with a golden clasp from Martha Grenville, a signet ring from the colonel …’

  ‘The one he used to beat his wife with?’

  ‘Aye. Then the gold nugget from Miss Leonora, a very nasty and cheap pocket watch from Mr Willberg …’

  ‘And if you say so, it must be truly ghastly. And for young Bertrand?’

  ‘He didnae carry anything. Nae watch, rings ; nothing. Reed just found a few shillings in his pocket.’

  ‘Will that do?’

  ‘At least for a dram or two on the way back, worst case.’

  ‘I thought you got everything for free at the Ensign.’

  ‘Nah. I have to pay from time to time. Else Mary’ll start thinking I only romance her for the free drink.’

  ‘How coarse,’ I let out in a sigh.

  The rain had become thunderous by the time we made it to the jail. We had to trot across the esplanade and the guards even had to lend us some towels. We were wiping our faces at the questioning room when they let Katerina in.

  Only three days had passed since the hearing, but she looked a year older to me, somewhat thinner, and all the wrinkles on her face a little deeper. At least she seemed to be making an effort to keep her spirits up ; she was wearing her usual clumps of mascara and the bright purple eyeshadow she was so fond of. On top of the murky grey jail dress, she wore one of her shawls, blindingly orange and trimmed with cheap glass beads.

  ‘Ye look well, hen,’ McGray told her as soon as the guards left us.

  ‘I do what I can, my boy. I’d like to wear my pendants,’ and she patted the empty piercings on her earlobes, ‘but they must think I’ll stab the guards to death with those.’

  McGray winked at her. ‘Well, yer a fearsome lady.’

  Katerina attempted a smile, and then eyed the pouch on the table. ‘You brought me something to read?’

  ‘Aye. We thought ye might be able to tell us more about these folk. We believe they’re all hiding something.’ McGray began to display the articles on the table, but Katerina looked sombre. ‘What is it, hen?’

  She moved her fingers as though they were the legs of a spider – a gesture far less dramatic without her two-and-a-half-inch nails.

  ‘My … My eye might not help this time.’

  ‘What d’ye mean?’

  Katerina was now staring at her fingertips, as if looking at a dead pet. ‘The jail’s doing something to me, Adolphus. I can’t reach out like I used to.’

  Nine-Nails leaned closer to her. ‘The isolation? The strain? Is that it?’

  ‘Not only that …’ she said. ‘I see a shadow, Adolphus. It’s cast everywhere. It’s like a – shroud … like a hand clutching around me … smothering me little by little.’ She reached for her neck but could not bring herself to touch her own skin. ‘I can feel it grow stronger and darker. More and more every morning.’ She looked up, her pleading eyes fixed on McGray.

  ‘We’re doing everything we can,’ he assured her. ‘But we need ye to try and help us. Here, concentrate on these. Pretend it’s the good auld times ’n’ I brought ye something for a random case.’

  As he said that, he laid one of Bertrand’s shillings on the table. All six objects were now lined in a perfect row.

  Katerina bit her lip, took a few deep breaths and moved her fingers in an insect-like manner. Hesitantly, like a girl who is afraid of the dark, she closed her eyes, and very slowly brought her hands to the items. She did not touch them at first, her palms simply hovering a few inches above them. Her eyelids, shivering and not fully shut, showed us the veiny whites of her eyes.

  I always feel a little shiver when she does that, and usually remind myself she might simply be very good at her act. Right then, however, it was her own life that was at stake.

  Her fingers glided from side to side, gradually getting closer to the shiny objects. I pictured them as red-hot irons, and Katerina was preparing her hands for the blistering heat before daring to seize them.

  Her fingers accidentally rubbed the top of Mr Shaw’s old spectacles, and Katerina jumped in the chair, muttering.

  ‘It’s that shadow again,’ she grunted, clenching her fist as if she’d truly burned herself.

  She tried again, tapping the items with various degrees of confidence. The choker’s clasp seemed almost harmless, and so did the shilling. Mr Willberg’s nasty watch was far more unpleasant, just like the colonel’s signet ring. However, Leonora’s gold nugget and the spectacles were like blazing fire.

  ‘Take those away,’ Katerina mumbled.

  McGray did so, though barely taking his eyes from her.

  Katerina tried to touch the ring, even held it up for an instant, but then winced as though in terrible pain, and dropped it. The same happened with the watch.

  ‘Sorry, I can’t do those either.’

  I heard the desperation in her voice. Could it all be pretence? Could it just be that her trick no longer worked? That she could not send a discreet spy to watch over her ‘clients’ whilst in jail?

  McGray left out only the choker and the shilling.

  Katerina stretched her hands, cracking her knuckles and each joint in her fingers, and then went for the choker. She held it by the pearls, gently caressing the golden clasp, each time touching it for a little longer.

  ‘It’s her,’ she whispered.

  McGray was not blinking. ‘Who? Martha?’

  Katerina tilted her head, then shook it. ‘No … Alice.’

  We both gasped. I found that even I was on the edge of my seat.

  Katerina then picked up the shilling with the other hand, rubbing it between her index and thumb. She nodded.

  ‘Yes … Alice … left her mark everywhere. She’s like a stain. Pure hatred.’

  ‘Is sh
e the shadow ye’ve been feeling?’ McGray asked.

  Katerina opened her eyes suddenly and inhaled with a hiss. ‘Yes! She could well be.’

  ‘So …’ I said, ‘the dead spirit that killed those six people is also preventing you from seeing anything?’

  Against my best efforts, my tone oozed sarcasm, but those two nodded vehemently, thinking it made perfect sense.

  Katerina shut her eyes hard, now gripping the choker and coin. She tilted her head as if trying to make out the faintest of noises.

  ‘There is a … there is a sound … It’s like she’s whispering. Just one word, over and over … But I can’t …’ Her chest swelled in agitated breaths. ‘Meh— meh …’ And she opened her eyes. ‘Mary?’

  ‘Mary!’ McGray repeated, and Katerina again nodded.

  I passed the pages of my little notebook and looked at the family tree. ‘Nobody in the family has that name.’

  ‘Write it down anyway, Percy,’ said McGray.

  Katerina had gone perfectly still, looking sideways, again as if trying to hear more. Only after a very long time did she give up and returned the choker to the table. The shilling, however, she held high.

  ‘There is a stronger imprint from this. I don’t know why. It might be just that Alice’s shadow is not so strong here.’

  ‘That belonged to young Bertrand,’ McGray said.

  Katerina raised an eyebrow. ‘It makes sense. I only met him briefly, but this feels like him. Alice’s hatred still clouds it all, but at least I can look into it. He stands apart. You should talk to those who knew him best.’

  I could not repress a snort. ‘I did say we still had that branch of the family to question. And I did not need to rub trinkets to know that.’

  McGray was too deep in thought to mind my cynicism. He sat back, stroking his beard.

  ‘This hatred o’ hers … focused on her own folk …’ he groaned. ‘We should’ve asked Mrs Cobbold how Grannie Alice died.’

  ‘Should we?’ I jumped in. ‘Why? Do you think one of her relatives killed her and she came back for revenge?’

  Again, I’d said it with utmost derision, but Katerina and Nine-Nails could not have looked more serious.

  McGray picked up the shilling. ‘Her hatred is nae so strong here, in Bertrand’s stuff. He was also the only one who was nae intended to go to the séance.’ He tapped his lip with the coin. ‘We need to find out how she died. That may explain many things. There might’ve been a Mary involved.’

  ‘I am not sure which things you hope that will explain,’ I mumbled as I scribbled. ‘Or how that might help us get this woman out of jail.’

  ‘I wish I could see more,’ Katerina lamented. ‘These trinkets would usually help me … But this shadow—!’

  She put her elbows on the table and pulled at her hair, growling again, only this time from the depths of her throat. It was a horrible sound.

  McGray stood up, patted her shoulder and whispered something I did not catch. Katerina took deep breaths, and when she looked up again, I saw she’d barely managed to repress her tears.

  ‘There’s one last thing I want to ask ye,’ McGray said. ‘D’ye think Grannie Alice really had the eye?’

  ‘I couldn’t be sure, but it wouldn’t surprise me. She’s a very strong spirit ; leaves her mark everywhere. And Leonora had some talents too. Why?’

  ‘Nae long before she snuffed it, Alice told her great-grandson he had the eye too.’

  ‘The eldest boy?’ Katerina said.

  I was going to ask how she knew about him, but she’d surely tell me she ‘could feel it’.

  ‘Aye,’ McGray answered. ‘We think she also told him about – whatever it was the family was looking for.’

  Katerina’s full expression shifted, her eyes suddenly gleaming with a hint of hope.

  ‘If the boy has the eye,’ she said, ‘he might be able to help us.’

  ‘D’ye think he might see through the shadows? With his blood connection and all?’

  ‘Yes. It’s not certain, but at least possible.’ She shook her head. ‘Although I’d need to work directly with him. He will not be trained in this at all ; I would have to show him the path.’

  I laughed, closing and pocketing my notebook. ‘This is ridiculous! You cannot subject that poor boy to this.’

  ‘Why nae?’

  ‘First, the grandmother will never allow it. And second, it is stupid.’

  Katerina was far too tense to respond with wit.

  McGray simply sighed. ‘Percy, would ye prefer to wait outside? With a bleeding nose?’

  ‘I think the best we can do now is go and question those people, or do anything in the realms of reality that might help the case. The clock is ticking and we appear to be exactly where we started.’ McGray opened his mouth, but I raised my voice, ‘Even if you managed to traumatise that poor child, and he does commune with his dead great-grandmother, and she does admit she killed the six because they wronged her in life – how is that going to help you in court?’ And I stared directly at Katerina as I said the latter.

  A very uncomfortable silence followed, and Katerina’s little hint of hope soon vanished.

  McGray glared at me as if to say ‘well done’. He squeezed Katerina’s hand and gave her some reassurance.

  ‘Adolphus, could you please do me another favour?’ she said beseechingly just before we left.

  ‘Sure, hen.’

  She bit her lip. ‘Please, could you have a look at my business? The brewery. Fat Johnnie has come almost every day to show me the books, but he’s always been terrible at charging and collecting debts. I wouldn’t dare ask you, Adolphus, but I need to look after my finances … now that my boy might—’

  ‘Stop sayin’ that! We’ll get ye out o’ this. I swear.’

  He smiled at her, but Katerina barely managed to slightly twitch the corners of her mouth.

  I did not know what to tell her. Things did not look any more promising. In the end, I simply shrugged at her and left the room.

  ‘She can help everyone else but herself?’ I said as we walked to the exit.

  We stopped by the main entrance, for outside it was still raining with a vengeance.

  ‘Ye heard her,’ said McGray, relighting a half-smoked cigar. ‘Alice left her shadow on everything.’

  ‘That just seems too convenient.’

  ‘Convenient?’

  ‘How much did she charge you for her “consulting services”?’

  He winced. ‘What are ye suggesting?’

  ‘What if her “eye” is but a network of dubious contacts who find things out for her? People who follow all her gullible clients, including you. She’d be unable to communicate with her minions from prison, so she—’

  But McGray tossed the cigar stub and stormed away. I felt a pang of guilt as I saw his slouched shoulders being lashed by the rain. What horrible doubts must be assaulting him … For years Katerina had fed his outlandish beliefs, but also his last shreds of hope for his sister. Unmasking the gypsy as a fraud would also mean that a cure for Pansy had always been a false promise.

  I had never truly believed the girl could be brought back to sanity, less and less the more I learned about her condition, but I also knew that my former self would not have spoken quite so bluntly. My temper was getting the better of me, my patience thinner and thinner as the days passed.

  I massaged my brow, once more feeling that horrid wave of gloom that did not seem to let me go.

  Before I dove into the rain I looked back, and caught a glimpse of Katerina being escorted back to her cell. Our eyes met but an instant, before the guards shut the door.

  I thought I’d better talk to her again. Alone, for there were things she’d never confess in front of McGray.

  As I trotted across the esplanade, a dark thought began to creep into my mind, uncalled yet unstoppable.

  That she might well be guilty after all.

  20

  Not much could be achieved the next day, it b
eing Sunday, so I indulged in a lazy festival of cigars, brandy, overeating and reading cheap novels. Neither McGray nor the pressures of the case interrupted that bliss, yet I must admit that by the early evening I was already beginning to feel some boredom. On Monday, however, I would regret asking for excitement.

  The morning papers already announced, front page, the date for the trial : second of October, and reading the number made me feel prickles in my hands. We only had nine days left to prepare. Nine!

  Regretting my day of laziness I ran to the City Chambers, where I found McGray pacing like a lion.

  I attempted a ‘good morning’, but Nine-Nails brandished the official notice from the courts, already quite crumpled.

  ‘They’re fuckingly well connected, those bastards from The Scotsman. They must’ve been told even before our own notice was written.’

  ‘Proba—’

  ‘And ye have a few telegrams.’ He pointed at the envelopes strewn on my desk. All of them open.

  ‘Did you read—?’

  ‘Aye, I did.’

  ‘That is my correspondence!’

  ‘Och, nothing private, Percy. They’re from yer sissy law colleagues in Oxford.’

  ‘Cambridge.’

  ‘Aye. That’s what I said.’

  ‘No. You said Oxf—’

  ‘Och, what’s the sodding difference?’

  ‘Do not ever say that if you end up down there. They’d castrate you and exhibit one of your testicles in each university.’

  I picked up the messages and began reading, whilst McGray gave me a florid briefing.

  ‘They think I’m mad, they think Katerina’s mad and guilty, and they suggest we find her a damn good lawyer.’

  I sat down, overwhelmed, and scanned the final telegrams. ‘It is what I suspected. They say we should focus on getting her life imprisonment, rather than hang.’

  ‘Read on.’

  ‘Unless … we find enough evidence against Holt, the valet. If he is pronounced innocent, the best verdict we can hope for Katerina is Not Proven.’ I nodded. ‘Oh, that is right. I’d forgotten you can do that in Scottish law. But they admit it is very unlikely.’