Read Online My Clockwork Muse by D.R. Erickson - Free Book Online Page A

words. From that moment forward, as far as Gessler was
concerned, the murderer who killed in the fashion of Poe's stories
could be none other than Poe himself!
    Smiling at me and pretending to admire my
stories, when all the while...
    By God, it was no simple muddle now! Now, it
was my life at stake and no squeamish misgivings or cowardice could
keep me from the scene of the crime.
    I waited until my breathing resumed its
normal pace and then made my way along the corridor to the basement
door. The brass knob that had filled me with such terror was there
as before, reflecting the dim light of the single guttering lamp
that illuminated the hallway. The shadow of my hand darkened the
brass. The knob was cold in my palm. I turned it and opened the
door.
    The stairs descended into utter blackness. I
found a lantern on a ledge just inside the door and finding there
also a match, I lit it and started down the stairs.
     
    ~ * * * ~
     
    I was determined not to miss a single shred
of evidence, however minute. I started by inspecting the walls on
my way down and even the steps themselves as I trod upon them.
Naturally, I found nothing, but I could see where a fine film of
dust had once coated the stairs as well as the floor below. "Footprints, you idiot Gessler!" I muttered under my breath.
Hundreds of feet had long since obliterated any traces of the
murderer's shoes. This did nothing to discourage me, however. On
the contrary, I felt certain that the same carelessness that had
destroyed evidence would have unwittingly preserved some for me as
well.
    The main chamber of the basement, a bustle of
activity just the day before, now bore the abandoned,
spirit-haunted air of an ancient ruin. The battered aperture in the
brick wall was only slightly larger than I had last seen it,
extending to about three feet above the floor and of sufficient
diameter through which to comfortably manhandle a corpse. As I
thrust my lantern forward, the jagged edge made by the broken
bricks cast a shadow within the cavity that looked like the gaping
mouth of a sharp-toothed beast. I was loath to reach my hand
inside, assuring myself that even Gessler would have thoroughly
examined the space within. I did not come here to repeat Gessler's
investigation, but only to conclude it.
    Thus, I did not concern myself with the
obvious. No, it was the obscure reaches of the crime scene that
interested me.
    I turned my lantern away from the hole and
was disappointed to find little of interest apart from a worktable
set against one of the walls. I walked over to it and found an
assortment of carpenter tools laying among untidy stacks of
dried-up lumber. I put my lantern down on the table and, expecting
little, examined the implements in more detail. It was plain by the
dust that covered them that they had not been used in some time, a
fact that disclosed to me as well that Gessler's men had not
handled them, either. This made the table a trove of potential
evidence and I immediately began to scrutinize the objects with
increased interest.
    My vigilance was rewarded almost at once, for
among the planes and the bit-less drills and the saws I chanced
upon a trowel. An odd tool, I thought, to find on the worktable of
a carpenter. Without touching it for fear of spoiling any evidence
thereupon, I bent low over the object and inspected it closely. I
quickly found that not only was it free of the dust that covered
the other tools, meaning that it had been recently handled, but
that it bore on its blade fresh-looking smears of brick mortar!
    Gessler, the fool, had missed it! The very
implement used to commit the murder, found not ten feet from the
body itself! I wondered what else he had managed to overlook. I set
about making a thorough search of the table, fearing only that it
might take more than Dupin to counteract Gessler's vast
incompetence, which ran much deeper than even I had suspected.
    I didn't have far to look. Stashed behind a
jumble of desiccated two-by-fours, I