The Dark Between Part 24

"It was fine."

Kate seemed altered, too. Her lip was swollen and her eyes as weary as Elsie's.

"Fine?" Kate's smile faltered. "Is that all you have to say?"

"No, I have plenty to say ... but not really about Trinity." He paused to take a breath. "It's Billy. I learned something, and I raced back here to tell you."

Kate stiffened at the mention of Billy, but she said nothing.

"Go on," urged Elsie.

Asher turned to Kate. "Do you remember when we saw his body, and he had the red marks on his chest?"

"And the bruise on his face," she said.

"Yes, but no fatal violence to his body, at least as far as the police could tell. Based on what I've learned, however, I think the marks on his chest were the evidence of fatal violence."

"How?"

He struggled for the right words. "Well, this is very theoretical, and I confess that my strongest evidence comes from Elsie's conversation with Billy during her spell at the Castle End cottage."

"So you believe her now?" Kate frowned.

"I want to. Certainly more than I did before," he said, glancing quickly at Elsie. "If we take her evidence as fact, we know a man stood over Billy's body while the boy's limbs jerked and flailed. I fear I've seen something frighteningly similar." He explained what he'd encountered at Addenbrooke's Hospital.

As Kate listened, her mouth fell open. "You think someone electrocuted Billy? But why?"

He pulled the notebook from his pocket and searched out the correct page. "I do think his killer electrocuted him, but I don't know whether it was part of that 'improving experiment' Billy mentioned, or if it was merely a way to ... silence him."

Kate narrowed her eyes. "You are quite enthusiastic all of a sudden. You hardly seemed to care about poor Billy before."

Asher closed the notebook. She was right-he'd clung to his doubt so stubbornly. They must have thought him quite beastly at times. But they couldn't understand without knowing about his father ... and Letty.

"It's true that I never knew Billy," he finally said. "And I've been skeptical about this business of talking to spirits. But in the past two days I've seen things that make all we've discussed more real, more urgent, than it was before. Something terrible has happened, and I ... I need to understand it if we can hope to stop it."

"I've learned something, too," said Kate softly. "Yesterday was quite the day for dark revelations."

Her voice was uncharacteristically somber-void of teasing or sarcasm. Even Elsie turned worried eyes to her. "What do you mean, Kate?"

"I paid a visit to my father's widow early yesterday evening. She was in Cambridge with her politician husband, and I thought to speak to her at the Prince Albert Hotel." She paused, frowning. "The woman took great pleasure in telling me how much of a disappointment my father was to her. In fact, she characterized him as a fool. But that hasn't anything to do with Billy." She bit her lip.

"Go on," Asher urged.

"She told me that my father and his friends in the Metaphysical Society went to dangerous lengths to-how did she put it-'lift the veil of the spirit world.' Their research involved the use of narcotics. I knew already that my father died from taking too much chloroform, and that it was ruled accidental because he'd been treating his neuralgia. He did have a medical degree, after all. But according to that wretched woman he married, he was using narcotics as part of his research, and in the end it killed him."

Elsie gasped. "Kate, why didn't you tell me any of this?"

"I was distracted," Kate said drily.

"This chloroform ... is it like Chlorodyne?"

"Actually, it's much less dangerous."

Asher noticed the flush that crept up Elsie's neck. "What exactly happened here?" he asked. "You both look haunted. Is there something you haven't told me?"

"I'm getting to the worst of it," Kate continued. "I was upset after seeing that woman, so when I returned to Summerfield I told Mr. Thompson I was ill and went to bed. But later, long after dark, I left the college again. This time I went to Castle End to find Tec."

"Hold on," said Asher. "You left the college in the middle of the night?"

"There's nothing to it." Kate glanced again at Elsie. "I'm quite used to getting about at night. But that's not important right now. Do you both remember the papers Billy talked about? The ones he found the night he was searching for information on my father?"

"The ones he took for his blackmail scheme," Elsie said.

"Yes. When I went to see Tec he wasn't there. But it occurred to me that the most likely place Billy would hide those papers would be somewhere in that house. Billy didn't have any other home, after all-no permanent place to go anytime he wanted. So I searched Tec's cottage."

Elsie's eyes widened. "Did you find them?"

Kate nodded.

"Did you bring them with you?" Asher asked.

Kate shook her head. "I started to read them, but Tec came back, and he ... he took them from me and threw them in the fire."

Elsie gasped. "I thought he was your friend, Kate. Yours and Billy's."

"He was different somehow. I can't explain it, but he was quite rough with me." Tears welled in Kate's eyes. "I can't show you what was written on those pages-I don't even know who wrote them because they were torn from a journal and weren't signed-but I remember the most important details. Whoever wrote the notes said that he and my father, and perhaps others, worked together to reach the 'dark s.p.a.ces of the mind.' They experimented on themselves with mesmerism and narcotics." She frowned. "We know how that ended with my father. But the point of the journal entry was that this person-the very person who must have killed Billy-argued that it was better to experiment on 'lesser' people. Those who are unwanted, who contribute little or nothing to society. I think he meant the poor and those who live outside of the law. The sorts that proper people never see and care nothing about. Who would miss them?"

As a heavy silence fell, Asher felt the last piece of the puzzle clicking into place. "Dark s.p.a.ces of the mind-are you certain that's what this person wrote?"

Kate nodded.

"Unlocking hidden abilities, accessing the subliminal self-that's Dr. Marshall's line of research. And he knew Frederic Stanton well. He told me he testified at his inquest."

Kate gasped. "I read that in my father's obituary. How could I have forgotten? Do you think he's behind all this?"

"I'm certain he's experimenting with electric shock." Asher turned to Elsie. "Didn't he say that the subjects he'd studied-those who had a special ability-only gained that ability after some traumatic event?"

"Yes, he did," said Elsie. "But Kate said he wasn't at the seance."

Kate narrowed her eyes. "Just because Billy met his killer after the seance doesn't mean the killer actually attended it.

"Still ..." Elsie frowned. "He seemed such a gentleman."

Asher nodded. "I found him quite congenial. Billy would have, too ... perhaps to the point of letting his guard down, or growing too bold."

"I suppose you're right," Elsie murmured.

"I don't understand how applying an electric shock would give someone a special ability," said Kate. "But might this explain Elsie's visions? She was struck by lightning."

"Dr. Marshall didn't provide much in the way of details," he said. "But if one did stop the heart, and then start it again with an electric shock-it's been done with animals, I'm told-perhaps it has some altering effect. Perhaps it truly does bring light to those darkened corners of the brain."

"Whatever Dr. Marshall is doing, it can't continue," Kate said fiercely.

"I agree," said Asher. "But we can't rush to the police with a theory like this-they'd laugh us out the door."

"You're right," Elsie murmured. "It would be about as convincing as me accusing my mother of murder because of what my dead grandmother said in a vision."

Asher frowned. "You're not still sore about that, are you? I'm doing my best to put my skepticism aside-you know that, don't you?"

"I know. I'm just agreeing with you, Asher. We need more."

He held her gaze for a moment before nodding. "We need tangible evidence. Billy must have somehow broken into Trinity and opened Marshall's research cabinet if he was able to find the notes you described, Kate." Asher paused, thinking. "Marshall told me he'll be at the Metaphysical Society meeting in London tomorrow night. I wonder if I could somehow persuade the porter that I'd left something in his rooms."

"Even if you were let into his rooms, you wouldn't know how to open a locked cabinet," said Kate.

Asher sighed. "I'll have to think of something else. In the meantime, though, we need to get into the old lab. If something happened to Billy there, I want to see if we can find anything. Perhaps Marshall stole the key from Mr. Thompson, and he uses that building because it is so remote."

"Or maybe my uncle gave him the key," Elsie said. "How could he not know what's going on right under his nose?"

Kate shook her head. "I can't see sweet old Mr. Thompson being involved. The building is some distance from the Gatehouse, and this time of year the trees provide cover. A colleague of Mr. Thompson's might notice this and take advantage of the setting."

"Perhaps getting into the old lab will clarify matters," Asher said. "The problem is getting in without causing damage or drawing attention."

"I can get us in easy." Kate raised her chin. "I took Tec's lock picks."

"And you know how to use them?"

"Of course I do. Billy taught me. I say we wait until after dark tonight and then meet on the landing by Elsie's room. We'll go down together and make our way to the old lab. I don't need light to pick the lock, but we should have a lamp or electric torch once we're inside. Can you figure that out, Elsie?"

Elsie nodded. "I'll bring my camera, too."

"Wait, now," Asher said. "Tomorrow night might be better-the Thompsons will be in London for the Metaphysical meeting. We'll be less likely to get caught."

"I want to save tomorrow night for breaking into Marshall's rooms at Trinity. If Billy could manage it, I can, too, but it'll take a little planning." Kate's eyes were bold. "Tonight is the old lab, and if that doesn't give us what we need, it's you, me, and Marshall's research cabinet tomorrow night."

Was Kate giving the orders now?

Well ... she did seem awfully good at it. Asher held her gaze, noting the defiant gleam in her eyes. The girl knew her own mind, much more than he did his own. Those brown eyes challenged him to contradict her-she knew him that well-but he had no challenge of his own to return.

"Fine," he said evenly. "In fact, it sounds like a good plan."

Chapter 31.

Elsie sat in the darkness, entirely awake. She checked her clock with the electric torch purloined from the hall closet.

Not much longer.

Once the evening's plan had been settled upon, she'd taken half a spoon of Chlorodyne and napped until supper. A headache was forming around her temples now that it was past eleven o'clock, but at least she was alert.

She wasn't afraid, not really. Certainly she'd done wilder things than break into the old lab. And yet this plan was more dangerous than their earlier forays into detecting. At least two people had died, and they knew who'd killed them-now it was a matter of gathering evidence. They had moved past proving Elsie's abilities. Now they were going to prove a murder.

A strange excitement quickened her pulse, but it was nothing like the giddy pleasure of antic.i.p.ation. Rather, it was a charge to her senses that came from doing something important, taking a risk to achieve a good thing, a right thing. She'd never felt this way before. For so long she'd allowed herself to slip into drowsy avoidance whenever conflict reared its head. The only effort she'd made was to attract a man. One who would solve her problems just by loving her. It seemed ridiculous now.

A soft knock came at the door-Kate and Asher were ready for her. She set the clock down and quietly rose from her chair. She could barely see their faces in the hall, but she sensed the tension in their bodies and knew they felt the same excitement. Her heart warmed to them.

No one spoke until they were within sight of the old lab.

"I just need one glimpse of the lock and then I should be able to work it," Kate said. "Elsie, can you shine the light when I tell you to? Asher can stand behind you and provide cover."

Elsie did as told, grateful for Asher's rea.s.suring presence. Kate studied the lock, then slipped a leather-wrapped bundle from her pocket and ran her fingers over each slender tool. "This one should do." She eased one pick into the lock and then inserted a second one over it. "You can shut off the light. I've got the feel of it now."

After a moment Elsie heard a faint click, and Kate grunted in satisfaction.

"Is that all it takes?" Asher whispered.

Kate opened the door. "Nothing to it."

Once the door was shut behind them, Kate and Asher checked that all the drapes were tightly closed. "You can switch the torch back on," Kate whispered.

Elsie pointed the light in the nearest corner. "Let's start here and work our way around."

They scanned shelves, cabinets, and small equipment, none of which looked particularly menacing to Elsie. It was a dusty, stale-smelling building, with a frightful number of cobwebs. Finally the beam of her torch alighted on something that made Asher gasp.

"That's it. I'd wager that box contains an induction coil." He opened the lid to reveal a substantial metal cylinder. "It's larger than Dr. Spring's." He lifted a paddle that attached to the cylinder with a wire. "If you apply this to the chest and flip the lever, you deliver a shock so powerful that it can stop the heart. But apparently if you shock the heart again, you restart the beating. Dr. Spring told me it had been done on a dog, but I think Marshall's been trying to figure out how to do it on a human."

"And killing old men and children in the process," said Elsie bitterly. "It took lightning to stop my heart. How can they harness that power in such a small apparatus?"

"Can you take a photograph of it?" Kate asked.

"Asher, you take the torch," Elsie said, handing it to him, "and shine it directly on the induction coil. I must hold the camera very steady, or else the photograph will be blurry." She lifted the camera strap over her head, but after a closer look at the coil she couldn't resist reaching toward the metal cylinder-it was simple, and yet so menacing.

The instant her hand touched the cool metal of the coil, the air began to shimmer and contort. A tremendous shudder coursed through her body and the camera fell to the floor.

"Elsie, are you all right?" asked Kate.

Elsie heard the words, but she couldn't answer. Already the pull of the dark between overwhelmed her. All she could do was grit her teeth and endure the fall.

When she felt steady enough to risk opening her eyes, she saw a young man. He stared down at the induction coil, his dark hair flopping into his eyes. His shirt sagged loosely over a thin frame. He lifted his chin and met her gaze. She saw now that he was near her age, and that his blue eyes, framed by dark brows, were handsome. They widened at the sight of her.

"Has he sent you to fetch me?" he asked eagerly.