Silent Nights by Martin Edwards

Silent Nights by Martin Edwards

Author:Martin Edwards
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Published: 2015-07-21T04:00:00+00:00


Waxworks

Ethel Lina White

Ethel Lina White (1876–1944) grew up in Abergavenny. A few years after she was born, her father, a local master builder called William White, built an imposing family home, “Fairlea”, in a Mock Tudor style. He invented a product called “White’s Hygeia Rock”, which he used to soundproof and waterproof the house. White eventually left Wales, and worked for the Ministry of Pensions in London, but like her father, she possessed a creative streak.

She turned to crime fiction quite late in life, publishing her first mystery novel, Put out the Light, in 1931 — although by then, “Waxworks” had already appeared in print. Her most famous book, The Wheel Spins, became one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most popular movies, The Lady Vanishes, while Some Must Watch (set in a house inspired by “Fairlea”) was also filmed successfully, as The Spiral Staircase. Like the American Mary Roberts Rinehart before her, and many authors since, she wrote about women in jeopardy, but—as “Waxworks” shows—in a way that made the most of her ability to build relentless suspense.

***

Sonia made her first entry in her notebook:

Eleven o’clock. The lights are out. The porter has just locked the door. I can hear his footsteps echoing down the corridor. They grow fainter. Now there is silence. I am alone.

She stopped writing to glance at her company. Seen in the light from the street-lamp, which streamed in through the high window, the room seemed to be full of people. Their faces were those of men and women of character and intelligence. They stood in groups, as though in conversation, or sat apart, in solitary reverie.

But they neither moved nor spoke.

When Sonia had last seen them in the glare of the electric globes, they had been a collection of ordinary waxworks, some of which were the worse for wear. The black velvet which lined the walls of the Gallery was alike tawdry and filmed with dust.

The side opposite to the window was built into alcoves, which held highly moral tableaux, depicting contrasting scenes in the career of Vice and Virtue. Sonia had slipped into one of these recesses, just before closing-time, in order to hide for her vigil.

It had been a simple affair. The porter had merely rung his bell, and the few courting couples which represented the Public had taken his hint and hurried towards the exit.

No one was likely to risk being locked in, for the Waxwork Collection of Oldhampton, had lately acquired a sinister reputation. The foundation for this lay in the fate of a stranger to the town—a commercial traveller—who had cut his throat in the Hall of Horrors.

Since then, two persons had, separately, spent the night in the Gallery and, in the morning, each had been found dead.

In both cases the verdict had been “Natural death, due to heart failure”. The first victim—a local alderman—had been addicted to alcoholism, and was in very bad shape. The second—his great friend—was a delicate little man, a martyr to asthma, and slightly unhinged through unwise absorption in spiritualism.



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