Sound by Catherine Fearns

Author:Catherine Fearns [Fearns, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: darkstroke books
Published: 2019-10-02T16:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Two

Darren and Colette faced Dr Colvin across the covered body of Professor Neilson. Colvin looked excited; there was an element of glee leavening his usual severity. He had found something.

‘Well, Detectives, I’m very pleased with my decision to re-examine the Neilson body. It’s lucky this happened before the funeral, as I said before, so no need for an exhumation order.’

‘You found something?’

‘Yes. I did.’

‘So he didn’t die of a heart attack.’

‘Yes. He did.’

Darren tried not to show his impatience. Colvin loved to play this game.

‘He did indeed die of a heart attack, Detective. But it’s the reason for the heart attack that concerns us here. The reason is cavitation. Or to be more accurate, inertial cavitation.’

‘Cavitation? What’s that?’

‘Essentially it means the formation of cavities, usually in reference to a liquid. Cavitation can occur in various body parts and is generally a bad thing – it’s a sign of tissue death. Our Professor Neilson shows signs of having suffered a rapid onset of cavitation in the blood vessels.’

Darren and Colette looked on expectantly.

‘Bubbles forming in the blood,’ Colvin went on.

‘And that’s what killed him?’

‘I believe it’s the inertial cavitation that finished him off. Inertial cavitation is the process where a bubble in a liquid rapidly collapses, causing a shock wave, which would have resulted in a massive heart attack.’

‘What could have caused this?’

‘Only an enormous external pressure, like being deep underwater, or on a planet with a different gravitational force. Although it was the heart attack that killed him, it was in fact his kidneys and liver that went first. That’s what I didn’t notice first time around. They’re less easily compressible than the heart, you see, which is used to changing shape.’

‘So both Neilson and Springer both had some form of this… what did you call it? Vibro-acoustic syndrome,’ said Colette. ‘But what happened to Springer was so much more extreme. His head literally exploded.’

‘Their bodies were subjected to different pressures. Body parts resonate at different frequencies. I took the liberty of looking this up for you. As an example, the eyeball resonates at 19 Hz. The dry human skull at about 10 Hz. But to cause destructive damage to the head, you would need 240dB. There are certainly far easier ways to kill people.’

‘But more detectable ways,’ said Darren. ‘So there’s no evidence at all of Springer being shot in the head?’

‘There’s so little head matter left it’s impossible to say for certain what happened. But there’s certainly no trace of shrapnel. Far be it from me to do your jobs for you, Detectives. But it can’t be a coincidence that two acoustics experts die in… acoustic circumstances. Perhaps you should try and find out what on earth they were working on behind the scenes at that University.’

Darren and Colette looked at each other. ‘We need to get this back to McGregor.’

On Theomachy and The Certainty of Adramelech’s Reign on Earth

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