Read Online 04 - Carnival of Criminals by Evelyn James - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Evelyn James
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the local rare
bookseller’s shop provided her with a volume from 1878 on the processes used by
the ancient Egyptians. She read it while sipping tea and consuming cucumber
sandwiches in a nearby teashop. The author, a member of the landed gentry
turned Egyptian scholar, had spent many years exploring the old tombs of the
pharaohs. He had experimented to produce his own mummies and demonstrate how
the Egyptians had done it. All this work had then been combined into a rather
heavy-handed text that explained in 200 pages what exactly mummification was.
Filtering out the worst excesses of the author’s bad prose, Clara found herself
learning that the main components for mummification were heat and a lack of
moisture. Early Egyptian corpses had merely been buried in the dry sands of the
desert and this had effected the process, though not as well as the later
techniques devised by the embalmers. Even today animals and even people were
sometimes found mummified in the dry heat of Egypt.
Closer to home, though mummification was rarer in
temperate climates, it was not unheard of. The author cited the many finds of
mummified cats in wall cavities. These unfortunate creatures had perhaps
climbed into the space between two walls after a mouse and become trapped. The
insulating nature of the gap, perhaps combined by the warmth of a nearby
fireplace dried them out rapidly and caused the tiny bodies to be mummified.
This gave Clara her first idea of how Mervin Grimes had come to be so oddly
preserved. He clearly had not been in a desert, but perhaps his body had been
concealed in a wall, somewhere warm, and by chance he had become a mummy.
Clara dredged another cup of tea out of the teapot and
mused on her findings. What were the odds the killer had deliberately intended
Mervin’s corpse to become mummified? For that matter, where would he have
gotten the idea? Gangsters were not renowned for their intellectual prowess, so
would one of them have even thought about mummification as a means of disguising
a corpse? Equally, there was no obvious reason for how Mervin had ended up as a
fairground attraction, unless it really was a case of the murderer hiding the
corpse in plain sight. Clara’s mind went back to the break-in the other night.
Was that coincidence or something else?
Whatever it was, it really was time Clara paid a visit to
the police.
Clara strolled down the road to the police station,
carrying her new book under one arm. Life, she mused to herself, could be very
peculiar sometimes. She found her least favourite desk sergeant on duty and
gave him her brightest smile. Clara’s theory was that all miserable people had
a breaking point, if you just kept on being nice and jolly to them eventually
they would crack and smile back.
“Good afternoon, might I speak to Inspector Park-Coombs?”
The desk sergeant glowered at her.
“Miss Fitzgerald, isn’t it?”
“Quite right. Is the inspector in?”
The sergeant huffed.
“Is he expecting you?”
“I couldn’t say.” Clara answered vaguely, “He’s a
perceptive man after all, and it is entirely possible he witnessed me walking
here from a window.”
“What?” The desk sergeant stared at her with a hint of
annoyed bemusement.
“I said he might be expecting me, but the odds are he is
not.”
Her attempt at light-hearted banter earned nothing more
than a stern stare.
“If you haven’t got an appointment I can’t do anything.”
“Stop right there sergeant, now surely you have known me
long enough to realise I don’t wander into police stations on idle business. I
have a suspicious death to report and I think the inspector would like to hear
about it.”
“I have a form for that.” The desk sergeant said stiffly,
he reached under his desk and produced a thick folder. With irritating slowness
he thumbed through its contents, “Here it is, form 190. Suspicious death of
person or persons.”
“I would much prefer to speak to the inspector
bookseller’s shop provided her with a volume from 1878 on the processes used by
the ancient Egyptians. She read it while sipping tea and consuming cucumber
sandwiches in a nearby teashop. The author, a member of the landed gentry
turned Egyptian scholar, had spent many years exploring the old tombs of the
pharaohs. He had experimented to produce his own mummies and demonstrate how
the Egyptians had done it. All this work had then been combined into a rather
heavy-handed text that explained in 200 pages what exactly mummification was.
Filtering out the worst excesses of the author’s bad prose, Clara found herself
learning that the main components for mummification were heat and a lack of
moisture. Early Egyptian corpses had merely been buried in the dry sands of the
desert and this had effected the process, though not as well as the later
techniques devised by the embalmers. Even today animals and even people were
sometimes found mummified in the dry heat of Egypt.
Closer to home, though mummification was rarer in
temperate climates, it was not unheard of. The author cited the many finds of
mummified cats in wall cavities. These unfortunate creatures had perhaps
climbed into the space between two walls after a mouse and become trapped. The
insulating nature of the gap, perhaps combined by the warmth of a nearby
fireplace dried them out rapidly and caused the tiny bodies to be mummified.
This gave Clara her first idea of how Mervin Grimes had come to be so oddly
preserved. He clearly had not been in a desert, but perhaps his body had been
concealed in a wall, somewhere warm, and by chance he had become a mummy.
Clara dredged another cup of tea out of the teapot and
mused on her findings. What were the odds the killer had deliberately intended
Mervin’s corpse to become mummified? For that matter, where would he have
gotten the idea? Gangsters were not renowned for their intellectual prowess, so
would one of them have even thought about mummification as a means of disguising
a corpse? Equally, there was no obvious reason for how Mervin had ended up as a
fairground attraction, unless it really was a case of the murderer hiding the
corpse in plain sight. Clara’s mind went back to the break-in the other night.
Was that coincidence or something else?
Whatever it was, it really was time Clara paid a visit to
the police.
Clara strolled down the road to the police station,
carrying her new book under one arm. Life, she mused to herself, could be very
peculiar sometimes. She found her least favourite desk sergeant on duty and
gave him her brightest smile. Clara’s theory was that all miserable people had
a breaking point, if you just kept on being nice and jolly to them eventually
they would crack and smile back.
“Good afternoon, might I speak to Inspector Park-Coombs?”
The desk sergeant glowered at her.
“Miss Fitzgerald, isn’t it?”
“Quite right. Is the inspector in?”
The sergeant huffed.
“Is he expecting you?”
“I couldn’t say.” Clara answered vaguely, “He’s a
perceptive man after all, and it is entirely possible he witnessed me walking
here from a window.”
“What?” The desk sergeant stared at her with a hint of
annoyed bemusement.
“I said he might be expecting me, but the odds are he is
not.”
Her attempt at light-hearted banter earned nothing more
than a stern stare.
“If you haven’t got an appointment I can’t do anything.”
“Stop right there sergeant, now surely you have known me
long enough to realise I don’t wander into police stations on idle business. I
have a suspicious death to report and I think the inspector would like to hear
about it.”
“I have a form for that.” The desk sergeant said stiffly,
he reached under his desk and produced a thick folder. With irritating slowness
he thumbed through its contents, “Here it is, form 190. Suspicious death of
person or persons.”
“I would much prefer to speak to the inspector
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