Chapter Three
The loud bang from the flash of magnesium powder as the police photographer took pictures of the scene of the murder, using his large camera balanced atop a wooden tripod, jolted Tobias back to the present as the acidic smell from the fumes of the flash power drifted across the alley, briefly masking the scent of death.
“Horrendous, is it not?” Dr. Charles Morton said, his voice filled with a profound sadness as he stood up from where he’d been crouching beside the woman’s body examining it.
Slowly, Tobias nodded, walking over to the doctor. “I can’t say I’ve ever seen its like before.”
“Neither have I, my friend… Neither have I,” the doctor agreed. “And given the number of deaths we’ve seen between the two of us over the years, that’s saying something. This lady suffered a torment that no one should ever have to.”
Tobias took in a deep breath, letting his anger at such a senseless and brutal death condense into a burning knot of vengeance deep in his soul.
That there was such evil in the world often kept him up at night, with the only consolation being that he would find the evil and seek justice on behalf of those who couldn’t.
Glancing down at the woman’s body, Tobias silently swore that he would find this monster and ensure justice prevailed, and that the evil would be locked away from the world for good.
Hopefully then, this poor soul would find peace.
“I’m assuming she was alive when this happened, given the amount of blood on the cobblestones. ”
“A good observation, and yes, I believe she was.” Dr. Morton took in a deep breath. “There are also other indications that support that hypothesis.” He pointed to the lower half of the body. “Do you see the wound edges there? They display an extensive extravasation of blood into the soft tissue—”
“‘Extravasation’?”
“Leakage,” the doctor clarified before continuing. “And can you see how bright red the blood is in that soft tissue area of the wound site?”
“Yes.”
“Well, that brightness indicates that there was arterial involvement at the time the cut was made, which means—”
“Her heart was still pumping when she was sawn in half.” Tobias’s anger was only fueled further by the thought.
“Indeed,” the doctor confirmed. “Also, there is blood coagulation around the wound site, and blood only coagulates when the body is alive. So yes, at this stage, all evidence indicates she was alive at the time this was done to her, though I will be able to formally confirm that after I conduct her autopsy later.”
“What else have you gleaned from your examination so far?”
“She was a young woman in her mid- to late twenties, I’d say,” the doctor began. “Her nails and hands show no defensive wounds or scratches, so she either knew her attacker or else was taken unawares. Additionally, she’s very clean.”
“‘Clean’?”
“Yes. There’s no sign of dirt on her skin, her hands, or under her nails, or even on her clothing,” the doctor clarified.
“Which suggests that she certainly doesn’t work in any of these factories or warehouses nearby, and hence she also most likely lives in a much cleaner borough than any surrounding this area. ”
Tobias glanced around at the buildings around them.
Most were factories and warehouses, such as brick works, steel foundries, and textile mills, which all relied heavily on coal-powered machinery to run.
A messy process of burning coal, releasing large amounts of soot and smoke into the atmosphere.
One couldn’t help but spend any time in the area without getting dirt on one’s clothes and one’s self.
Even Tobias had soot on his hands, and the doctor, who’d only been here for the past twenty minutes, had some small smudges of black soot on his forehead.
“So, the killer has brought her here, and killed her in situ, then?”
“Yes, I believe so,” the doctor agreed. “She also hasn’t been dead long at all. In fact, I’d wager she was murdered only a very short time before her body was discovered.”
“How short a time?”
The doctor shrugged. “It’s not an exact science, but given her body is only just now showing some signs of rigor mortis, I would guess she was murdered about two hours ago.”
“She was found at four-thirty this morning and it’s now six-fifteen. So that’s just shy of two hours.”
“Exactly. So perhaps she was killed around four to four-fifteen this morning.”
“Only fifteen to thirty minutes before she was found?”
“If that,” the doctor confirmed. “Perhaps your poor witness who stumbled across her walked past her killer.”
“Hopefully he did, Doctor, and then we might have a description of a suspect.”
“There’s something else that might be of interest to you, Inspector,” the doctor added. “It seems as if the killer has left something with the woman.” He pointed down to the left portion of the box, which held the woman’s upper torso. “Take a look at her hands closely.”
Tobias glanced over at the woman, noting her hands had been positioned to look like she was praying, and she was holding a white rose. “The flower?”
“Look closer.”
Tobias stepped closer and crouched down to examine the woman’s hands. There seemed to be a bit of paper, or a card of some sort wedged between her palms. “What is it?”
“I’m not certain yet,” the doctor replied. “I was waiting for Phillip to finish taking photos before I disturbed anything.”
Tobias glanced over to the photographer, a young man who had been with them for a couple of years, working as their police photographer.
Phillip Wright was a gifted photographer who was extremely good at capturing all the angles of a scene in his photographs.
A skill which had come in handy for Tobias when trying to review the evidence, not to mention being of use to the prosecutors using the pictures to great advantage in court when trying to explain the details of the murder to a jury.
“How much longer do you need, Phillip?” Tobias hollered to the young man.
Phillip clicked his flash again and then glanced over to Tobias. “That should do it, sir. I came over with the sergeant as soon as we got word of the murder, so I’ve been here for nearly an hour, I think.”
“Good lad. You might as well pack up, then, and get back to the station.”
“Will do, sir,” Phillip replied with a nod before beginning to pack up the cumbersome camera atop the wooden tripod.
Tobias stood and turned back to Dr. Morton, gesturing to the body. “Go ahead, Doctor, remove whatever it is she’s holding.”
The doctor nodded, then bent down and began rummaging in his medical bag before pulling out a large pair of tweezers.
He walked over to the body and leaned over it, using the tweezers to grab hold of what looked to be some sort of card sandwiched between the woman’s palms. It took him a moment to yank the item free the woman’s rigid hands.
“That’s rather odd,” the doctor murmured before turning to Tobias, a card pinched between the tweezer blades. “It’s a playing card. A Jack of Hearts, to be exact.”
“Does that have any significance?” Tobias asked.
“Not that I know of,” the doctor replied. “Though the way the whole scene has been staged, and this card too, makes me suspect we might have a killer on our hands who fancies himself to be a magician.”
“A poor magician, at that, if he can’t do a trick without killing his assistant,” Tobias dryly commented.
“Perhaps he thinks of himself as the next Magnificent Maguire?” Phillip spoke up as he finished packing away his wooden tripod. “Especially using the man’s trick and his calling card.”
“The Magnificent who?” The doctor’s brow furrowed as both he and Tobias glanced over to Phillip.
“How can you not have heard of the Magnificent Maguire, Doc?” Phillip exclaimed.
“Why, he was one of the greatest magicians London’s ever seen.
The world, perhaps. I saw him performing at the Egyptian Hall when I was a young boy.
The most amazing tricks that boggled my mind then, and still do, really.
Anyhow, he died in a fire at some new theater he’d built over in Piccadilly, so I never got to see him again.
A shame, that, as he was a legend in the world of magic. ”
“The fire at the old Eddingham Street Theater?” Tobias replied, remembering the heat from the inferno as if it were still raging in front of him.
“That’s it!” Phillip enthused. “Did you see some of his magic shows there, then?”
Tobias shook his head. “No. I was one of the first officers on the scene of the fire there.” It was where he’d nearly lost his life in the very first week after joining the police.
But at least in being there, he’d saved the life of a girl who’d been trapped in a back room.
He’d gotten her out of the building before the walls had fallen in on them, though he hadn’t been as lucky going back in a second time, searching for her father, whom she’d said was still trapped in the building.
The smoke had been too thick, and Tobias hadn’t even seen the wooden beam from above falling onto his back, burning through his uniform to ravenously consume his flesh beneath.
If it hadn’t been for his partner, Iain, pulling him out of the building, Tobias would have died that day.
He shook away the memories and returned to the matter at hand. “Why do you say the killer might be trying to emulate this dead magician?”
Though he’d been one of the first on the scene at the fire, he’d not been involved in any aspect of the resulting investigation, having been in hospital for a month after recovering from the burn to his back.
A burn that had eventually healed, though it had left a permanent scar of mottled skin and muscle, that still pained him to this day.