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

as she paused on the bridge and caught sight of a vessel coming into the harbour. The thought gave her a little shudder. When the natural elements showed their power like this, they were awesome and rather frightening. You didn’t quite know what to expect next.

‘It’s atmospheric, isn’t it?’ said Maggie, coming to stand next to her. ‘Jack’s missing all this. He’d have loved it.’

Jack was driving up from London and wasn’t arriving in Whitby until the following day.

‘He should have got himself organised and got here on time,’ said Louise. ‘You know what he’s like. This has been arranged for so long and he still gets the dates confused and has to stay in London for a meeting.’

‘I know,’ laughed Maggie. ‘He’s good company when he’s here, though. Come on; it’s nearly two.’

Louise and her group had completed several escape rooms, usually solving the puzzles and achieving their escape before the time was up, though often with extra clues from the hidden controller. In the narrow streets of the east side of town, the venue took some locating. The entrance, when they found it, was, like many other escape rooms, through a poky little door down to a back yard and up three narrow stone steps. It seemed that finding the place itself was always part of the challenge.

Louise pressed the bell and a buzz indicated that the door had been opened. They pushed through to find a gloomy entrance lobby lit by candles. Everywhere was festooned with cobwebs; strange creaking and faint wailing noises formed a spooky soundtrack in the background.

‘Hi,’ said a young woman from behind a black desk. She was tall, powerfully built and dressed like the party of visitors in a gothic outfit with black lipstick and purple eyeshadow. Even outside the context of the game she would have cut a terrifying figure.

‘Morton. Party of five,’ said Ben.

‘Okay. We’re just re-setting everything after previous group. My name is Elaine.’ She had an Eastern European accent. Was that part of the act? Dracula famously came from Transylvania in Romania. ‘While you’re waiting, how about photograph? If someone lends me their camera phone I’ll take picture of you all framed by this.’ She indicated a wall covered in lurid gothic artwork and the words ‘No Escape!’ in dripping blood red.

‘Use mine,’ said Louise. The group formed itself into a tableau of contorted positions and threatening expressions, refraining from laughter for just long enough for Elaine to take the photo.

‘Jack’s going to be devastated that he’s not in the photo,’ said Maggie.

‘That’s his fault; he should have been here, the idiot,’ replied Ben, and he smiled at Louise, who laughed.

‘Okay. I think everything will be ready now,’ said Elaine as she handed the phone back to Louise. ‘So, I just explain a few things. Have you all done escape room before?’ They all had. ‘Okay, so you know idea. You’ll be locked in and you have to follow clues to work out how to access a key which opens the door at the end. I say “at the end” because this escape experience is a bit different. It has more than one room and you have to find the keys to get from one to the other. You have to move from one to the other in a certain time because . . .’ She paused dramatically. ‘. . . Dracula is following you.’

There was a chorus of ‘Oooo!’ and laughter.

‘Yes, for twenty minutes in the first room, you are safe. Dracula cannot enter until that time has gone, though you may hear him outside. Also, while you are in second room, he cannot open the door to reach you until another twenty minutes have gone by. If he catches you, sorry, but game is over, but you can discover things in each room that can delay him. You win if you can find key for the third room and get out before Dracula enters. There are emergency exits in rooms two and three if anything goes wrong and you need to get out quick. If anything happens in the first room just knock on this entrance door, which you can see is just by my desk. I am watching how you’re doing on the monitor; each room has CCTV camera. If you need help I put some extra clues on the screen in each room. Are we all okay?’

They were, and excitement mounted as Elaine opened the door to the first room.

‘As soon as I shut the door the timer starts. You have one hour to escape. Good luck!’ She smiled and then left the room, closing and locking the door behind her.

The room was furnished like a study in a Victorian house. There were church-like windows with pointed arches, a fireplace with a heavy mantelpiece, a large, ornate writing desk and other items of heavy furniture. Gloomy portraits were hung on the dark walls and there was a decayed ‘Miss Havisham’ feel about the room. Thick cobwebs hung from the chandelier and around the paintings. The room was illuminated by medieval-style wall sconces, which held faux candles bearing electric lights. At one side of the room was an old chest and on the other a dusty bookshelf. The chest was locked with a combination padlock.

‘Four numbers, Dracula’s birth,’ mused Louise as she read from a piece of paper lying on the chest.

‘Wasn’t he supposed to have been born hundreds of years ago and been undead for centuries?’ asked Andrea.

Louise was looking around the room. Then she pulled a volume from the bookshelf. ‘Yes, but it could be the date that Dracula was written. That’s when he was created by Bram Stoker.’ She looked for the publication date. ‘1897. Try that number on the combination lock on the chest.’

Ben quickly twisted the dials and the lock opened. ‘Yes! Brilliant!’ He flung the lid open and then jerked back. Inside was a wax model of a female corpse dressed in black lace. It was clearly meant to be a sleeping vampire with the long