Murder at the Loch by Eric Brown

Author:Eric Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780727885937
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2016-01-15T05:00:00+00:00

THIRTEEN

‘Of course,’ Professor Hardwick said as they descended to the cellar, ‘ninety-nine per cent of all reported sightings of ghosts and allied phenomena turn out, upon rigorous examination, to be instances of either erroneous perception or hoaxes. I find it amazing, in my many years of psychical investigation, that the human mind can persuade itself that it has seen something which, in fact, is not there – and also that there are so many people out there willing to perpetrate tricks in order to deceive the general public, which is why I take my research deadly seriously and admit only the most rigorous of my findings to the review of my peers.’

‘And the opinion of your peers?’ Langham asked, strolling along the dank corridor with the professor and Ryland. He wondered how many of these august personages there might be in the presumably limited field of psychical research.

The professor beamed. ‘I am pleased to say that in five years of study I have presented eight cases which eminent minds in psychical research find beyond their ability to explain.’

They passed from the armoury – a dingy chamber arrayed with metal pegs hammered into the walls on which, in days of yore, weapons such as muskets and blunderbusses were hung – into a long, arch-ceilinged room which the professor announced was the cellar.

‘It was probably used for the storage of perishable foodstuffs,’ he explained. ‘The flight of stairs, over there, leads to the kitchen.’

Langham hugged himself and wished he’d thought to wear his overcoat. It was freezing in this unheated, subterranean chamber, though the professor, garbed only in a threadbare cardigan and baggy corduroy trousers, seemed oblivious of the cold. The only illumination was provided by a naked bulb suspended from the ceiling on a brown flex.

Professor Hardwick moved to a bulky camera on a wooden tripod and fiddled with a black box affixed to its side. ‘I’ll switch it off for the moment. I’ve designed this apparatus myself,’ he went on. ‘It’s motion sensitive – that is, the slightest movement down here will set the camera turning and so, hopefully, capture whatever phenomenon occasioned the activation.’

‘And has it filmed anything so far?’ Ryland asked.

‘Only a rat,’ the professor admitted, crestfallen.

Langham hid his smile and indicated the camera. ‘And this is the only one in the castle?’

‘One of two,’ Hardwick said. ‘The other is in the south wing.’

‘And this cellar is where the serving girl was strangled?’ Ryland asked.

Professor Hardwick crossed the chamber, pointed to the flagstone and said, ‘Upon this very spot, as good authority has it. The story goes that the laird had a soldier in his employ follow the girl down here late at night and strangle the poor creature. He dumped the body in the loch but, just days later, her shade entered this very room through the door to the loch just over there …’ he pointed, and Langham and Ryland stared at the door like tourists being favoured with a glimpse of a holy shrine, ‘… climbed the stairs to the laird’s bedchamber and there accused him.

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