Victor Hart Volume #2

Victor Hart: Case #5 Chapter 1

“Do you want to take a look at this?” Dr Gull pointed with a scalpel.

“Not particularly,” Victor scrunched his nose as he peered closer to the body on the slab.

“The body was found in an abandoned property in Wealdham,” Caughlin told him, “pretty much in the condition you see it here,”

The body was that of a young man in his early thirties, his dark hair was slicked down with pommade and he was dressed in a dove grey Madrona waistcoat and gold-plated fob watch, a black double-breasted Prince Albert Frock coat and matching high-waisted twill trousers. On his finger was a tasteful wedding band, that when Victor removed showed no signs of constant wear on his finger.

Right now, the man's waistcoat, shirt and frock coat were opened and hung down the sides of the gurney like ragged angel wings, exposing the man's pale torso.

Dr Gull was indicating two strangely placed, symmetrical bruises on the man's chest, “these are the only marks on him. Which is odd because the cause of death was clearly suffocation, as the bloodshot eyes will attest; in these circumstances we would expect to see a distinct bruising around the mouth and nose, or clear strangulation marks, but as you can see, the throat, mouth and nose are bruise free.”

“So,” Victor asked, “if you had to hazard a guess, how would you say that the effect was achieved?”

“The pressure of two implements on the chest was even, and precise enough to prevent movement but did not crush the ribs at all. The cause of death was Compressive asphyxia. I would say it would be a machine, that was either purposely built for the victim, or could be perfectly calibrated,” Gull looked confused. “But I struggle to think of what sort of mind would want to devise such a machine; the death would have been extremely slow, suffering headaches, nausea, and even sporadic seizures. It's on a par with crucifixion in terms of sadism.”

“I can think of one mind who might devise such a machine,” Caughlin spoke darkly, “that's why I sent for you as soon as Gull contacted me.”

“And nobody has attempted to collect the body or identify it?” Victor asked.

“No,” Caughlin shook his head, “and nobody has even reported anyone missing who matches this description.”

“Hmm,” Victor paced the floor of the operating theatre. “We need to contact a law firm.”

“What makes you say that?” Caughlin was confused.

“The man is clearly wealthy, well dressed, neatly groomed,” Victor explained, “and yet despite wearing a wedding band nobody either noticed he was missing, or cared that he was. The wedding band has left no callouses on his ring finger which means either he's a newly wed – the fact that no one has reported him missing would suggest otherwise – or he's pretending to be married in order to seem stable to engender trust. Nobody tries to engender trust except the untrustworthy, so who matches all of those features? Is untrustworthy, and disliked yet wealthy and with a countenance that wants to attract trust?”

“A lawyer!” Caughlin smiled.

“Either that or an estate agent,” Victor shrugged, “but I'm willing to gamble on it being a lawyer.”

“Brilliant,” Caughlin said.

“Can you contact Burgrave and arrange a photographer to come here and take a picture of him? Just the face.”

“Of course,” Caughlin turned to Gull. “Do you have a telegraph I could use?”

Gull led them into his office where there was a telegraph machine which Caughlin used to arrange the photographer.