The Whitby Murders (A Yorkshire Murder Mystery) J. Ellis (distant reading TXT) 📖

There was no Elaine at the reception desk. They walked into the first room and looked around.

‘I must say, it’s all a bit tacky,’ remarked Oldroyd as he surveyed the cobwebs, the chandeliers and the coffin.

‘All part of the atmosphere, sir. The whole of the Goth festival is like that; it’s all deliberately over the top; that’s the point. And I suppose Whitby wants to make the most of its Dracula connection throughout the year.’

‘Yes. Well, let’s see where it all happened.’

They progressed into the second room to find another constable by the cordoned-off section of the floor where Andrea had died.

Oldroyd examined everything. ‘I presume, after the attack, the suspect went through that door?’

‘That’s right, sir,’ said the constable. ‘There’s another door into the street from there.’

Oldroyd and Steph wandered through. ‘Seen anything so far?’ he asked.

‘No, sir.’

‘Me neither.’

The clutter of the spare room was all there. ‘Granger said that the owner is going to convert this into another part of the game. It looks about as tatty as the rest of the place.’ Like Hampton and Granger before him, he opened the coffin and the wardrobe and inspected the interiors carefully.

Then his attention was caught by the sarcophagus. ‘I didn’t know there were mummies in the Dracula story. They’re getting their horror fiction mixed up.’ He opened it and then stood back and peered at it with his head on one side. ‘Why has it been built into the wall like that? It’s odd.’ Suddenly his face changed and took on an alert expression. ‘Hang on a minute, I know what’s going on here. Let’s see if I can find it.’ He felt around the edge, and there was a click. Oldroyd pushed at one side of the sarcophagus and it spun round to reveal another, identical to the first which came to rest in the same position.

‘Wow, sir, well done. What’s all that about?’

‘The owner, whoever he is, has acquired this from an illusionist. It’s a simple trick, a bit clunky. Someone from the audience checks there’s no escape from this casket; then the illusionist’s assistant gets in and the door is shut. They draw the curtain across and while it’s all covered up, they spin the whole thing round, the empty casket comes to the front and when they open it the person seems to have disappeared. Of course it’s easy to reverse the procedure and bring them back again. He must have created a stud wall here and incorporated this into it; there will be a cavity behind here. This will be the centrepiece of his new room.’

‘I imagine that someone will hide in there dressed as Dracula or something and scare the players or there may be a clue in the fact that there are actually two caskets,’ added Steph.

‘Yes. But it’s making me think; let’s have a look inside the one that was concealed.’ Oldroyd looked closely at the curved surface and then called Steph over.

‘I think that small stain there might be blood.’

Steph had a look at the red mark. ‘It’s not much, sir. What are you suggesting?’

‘I’m not sure, but it makes me uneasy. Let’s have a look at the outside door.’ The door was locked but the constable opened it. Oldroyd strolled into the alleyway as Maggie had done. So this was where Dominic Holgate had supposedly run out. Or had he been hiding in that sarcophagus? He went back inside. ‘Do you know what?’ he said to Steph. ‘I think I’m starting to agree with my daughter: there is something fishy about it all. I think we’re going to be here in Whitby for a while yet.’

Jack met the other three in a pub in the late afternoon after their interviews at the police station. The cramped old bar was on the west side of the town up a street that rose steeply from the harbour. It contained a fair number of people in goth costumes as momentum continued to build for the coming weekend. On a long window ledge was a line of bottles streaked with candle wax and festooned with white cobwebs.

‘How did it go?’ he asked as he brought back a round from the bar.

‘Fine,’ replied Maggie. ‘We all just told them what we’d seen, which was fairly straightforward. They talked to us separately; I don’t know if they were looking for differences in our stories as if they think we had something to do with it.’

‘They always do that.’

‘They asked us more about their relationship,’ continued Louise. ‘I suppose they’re looking for reasons why he would stab her.’

‘They did get a bit mental with each other,’ said Ben, drinking from his pint. ‘All I can think of is that he just lost it with her.’

‘How come he had a knife?’ asked Jack.

‘I don’t know. Maybe he often carried one around.’

‘What, like a boy scout or drug dealer in a tough area?’ Maggie sounded very doubtful.

‘Perhaps, or it could have been part of his costume.’

A sceptical silence greeted this suggestion.

‘Anyway,’ said Ben, speaking to Louise, ‘what’s your dad going to do while he’s here?’

Louise looked around the group a little nervously. She had foreseen that Oldroyd’s presence might be treated with a measure of surprise if not suspicion by the others. It was also time for her to declare her feeling that the case was more complicated than it appeared.

‘He’s going to help the police here. He’s very experienced. I asked him to come over because I think there’s more to what’s happened than we think. I don’t trust the local police to look into things deeply enough.’

‘How do you mean?’ asked Jack.

‘I don’t know. It’s frustrating; I can’t explain it, but don’t we all think that it doesn’t really add up? Would Dominic just stab Andrea and run off?’

Maggie sighed. ‘I’m sure he didn’t intend to kill her.’

‘They cared for each other; I know they did. Even if they argued a bit,’ insisted Louise. She took a drink from her glass