The Figure in the Photograph by Kevin Sullivan

Author:Kevin Sullivan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Published: 2020-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

When I brought the plates to the mortuary, Billy Fraser’s assistant was cleaning the dissecting table nearest the door. Seamus Hanlon’s body had been placed in one of the steel boxes.

Robert, the assistant, looked as if he could have lifted the dissecting table and put it up against the wall if he’d wanted to. His features were flat, his skin pockmarked, his eyes pale and his fair hair sparse.

‘Billy’s away,’ he told me.

‘I have pictures to develop.’

He looked at me closely. ‘I know.’

I walked round him to the darkroom and began to work.

As each image revealed itself, I peered into it. Somewhere here was a demon that had claimed its latest victim.

But, of course, the process could not be so simple. The murderer would not stand out and identify himself even in my pristine pictures with their clear, close focus. When I placed the plates and images in the satchel and left the darkroom, though I had spent half an hour haphazardly searching the scenes in the photographs, I was no closer to understanding what had happened that afternoon than I had been when I stood with Macarthur and MacKay examining the horribly mutilated corpse.

I stepped out into the dissecting room and began to shiver. Mixed with the cold air was a scent of formaldehyde or something similarly acerbic. I put my hand up to my mouth. I looked around but could see little. The lamps had been extinguished and the only illumination was a weak light through the frosted glass of the door.

‘Damn!’ I whispered.

I stepped forward and then stopped. Obliged to rearrange the normal primacy of the senses, the mind acts quickly and, as it does this, it can become confused. I could see little and my sense of smell was assailed by the tart chemical odour of what I thought must be embalming fluid. In the seconds after I stepped out of the developing room, my ears took command and I thought I heard a scraping noise from one of the steel boxes.

This simply could not be.

I stopped and listened. I heard the scraping again.

‘Robert!’ I shouted into the darkness.

I shouted because I did not choose to cower in the dark. I shouted too because from time immemorial, human beings have banished demons with the power of declamation. I wanted to make my presence known in this place and challenge anyone or anything to show itself or flee.

There was another scraping. My head turned so quickly in the direction of the noise that my neck seemed to strain in its socket.

‘Who’s there?’ I demanded.

This was a foolish question. The room was empty. It was a large square room and though it was almost completely unlit, there was enough illumination for me to see that there was nothing in front of the coffins or under the tables or above the cabinets. Everything was in plain view.

Again, I heard a scraping.

I took a step forward and turned to face the steel boxes. My chest rose. I do not know if I assumed this pose out of anger or out of fear or out of a combination of both.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.