Part 3: In a Different Light (Disappearance…under the swift waters)
FROM THE BEGINNING: https://rigglew4.blogspot.com/2019/12/part-1-in-different-light-by-dean.html
Tuesday, 18 April; noon: Carol
does the driving as they head out to Boston University to interview professor
Graham Duncan who created the new lights. 1pm arrival on campus, parking in
front of the Engineering building to then consult the secretary. Awkward pause
as she gathers her words, “Professor Duncan? He’s not in right now. Sabbatical.
Actually, off campus. I’m not at liberty to say; perhaps you’ll want to talk
with his boss, professor Krister? His office is down the hall room 109 but he’s
probably at lunch right now in the lounge with the other engineering staff.”
[Spot Hidden] Arthur happens to read the staff directory noting Duncan’s office
listed as room 113.
They proceed down the empty hall pausing to knock then
check Krister’s door. No answer and locked. They continue down the hall. While
Arthur, Carol, and Herbert pause in front of room 113 to knock and jiggle the
handle, Jonah continues to the end of the hall, exiting to the outside. Where
he counts windows to position himself before what he assumes Krister’s office.
Hands framing his eyes to peer inside. Empty. Window locked. Turning around to
notice students stopped and staring. Jonah explains, “Have you seen the professor?
He’s supposed to review my thesis per our 1pm scheduled meeting. Probably at
lunch? Just like the old man to forget.”
Room 113: No answer and locked has the trio exiting the
building to peer inside room 113. Waiting till after the students who harassed
Jonah leave. Jonah and Arthur become lookouts while Herbert and Carol peer thru
the window. Empty. Window locked till Carol edges her knife blade under the
seal to move the latch. Carol offers her bent knee as a step as Herbert climbs
inside, “Meet you at the front door.” Awkward moment faking conversation as a
professor passes before unlocking his adjacent office room 115.
Duncan’s office bare. Bookshelves emptied, pictures and
degrees removed from the walls, desk cleared and emptied. Jonah taking interest
in a blackboard not completely wiped clean; an electrical diagram partially
visible. Then Jonah on hands and knees, “Maybe he has a floor safe.” Carol determined to find something in the
desk rattles open a drawer to actually find one of Duncan’s business cards
complete with his address. And that’s when they hear someone turning the door-handle
they failed to lock. Hebert rushes to the door to pull it open, recognizing the
professor who’d enter room 115, “Excuse me sir; we’re taking measurements for
the next occupant.”
Professor Bingham caught off-guard, “So it’s more than a
sabbatical; Krister fired the old coot. I couldn’t help but hear Duncan
ordering his grad-assistant Chris Langford around as they emptied this room
last week. Well, good riddance to the crazy bastard. Wait, measuring for a new
occupant?! But I wanted this room; bigger than my current office. Someone new?!
Damn it, with Duncan gone I would be next in line with higher tenure. The
replacement better be junior to me. If I didn’t have classes now, I’d storm
back into the lounge to confront Krister. And enlist Chris as MY assistant.”
They enter the lounge, “Is there a Chris Langford here?”
A student with his back to them, sitting with an older man, turns around, “I’m
Christopher. Yes, I’m professor Duncan’s grad-assistant. Was.” The older man
interrupts, “I’m professor Krister. What’s this about Duncan?” Jonah
interrupts, “Did you held Duncan build the lights? I didn’t think so; that’s
why we want to talk with Mr. Langford.” Krister becomes agitated, starting to
curse in German, when Herbert intervenes, “Please excuse my colleague but we’re
here from the Arkham newspaper wanting to give credit where credit is due. Too
many locals were mistaking Miskatonic as the source of the new Arkham lights;
we just want to set the record straight that it was Boston University who
created such futuristic lighting.”
While Krister’s feathers were smoothed, he was still
unwilling to divulge details, “Proprietary. I’d rather you not speak to professor
Duncan. He’s stressed out right now and I’m afraid he might reveal too much.
Nor can you speak to Mr. Langford. With the success in Arkham, you can imagine
other cities wanting new lighting too. Think of the royalties we’ll collect.
And the industrial spies trying to get a piece of the action.” While Krister
rambles on, Herbert notices Langford giving hand-signals to take it outside.
Herbert quickly drafts a note on his business card and slips it to the
grad-student.
It’s 2:30pm when they exit the building, “I told Chris to
meet us at the Paul Revere restaurant at 6pm. We’ve got few hours; wanta check
out Duncan’s house? Paranoid as he sounds, we’d best be ready to restrain him.
No Carol, no need to attack him.” Franklin Street proves to be a marginally
wealthy suburb of Victorian style 2-story houses complete with white-picket
fences. They park in front of Duncan’s
house. No car in the driveway but newspapers litter the yard. With Arthur
standing watch, the others enter the gate to then circle around to the back of
the house.
Ignoring the locked door, Jonah bundles his neck-wrap
around his elbow to break the glass. Carol reasons, “If confronted, we can
offer concern and thus doing a ‘Wellness’ check.” Like a shotgun house, a long
hallway to the front door where they signal to Arthur to enter. A thin layer of
dust covers the floors and furnishings. Carol and Jonah up the stairs while
Herbert goes down to the basement. Arthur checking the first floor finding a Study.
Jonah enters the master bedroom intent/fixated on finding
a safe. Looking behind every painting, nothing. Insistent, “It’s gotta be
here.” On his knees checking under rugs and now tearing carpet to check
underneath. Destroying the room. Carol making a cursory glance in the other
rooms before she turns for the stairs, pausing briefly to stare at the madman,
“You’re crazy.” Meanwhile, Herbert hears rats scurry when he turns on the
basement light. A faint green-tinted glow from the floor covered in broken glass,
smashed metal cylinders, and flakes of white powder. He soon finds a baseball
bat embedded with glass shards and dusted in powder; someone went on a rampage!
Soon Arthur calls out, “Come check out this study. Carol,
you might be interested in this Egyptian book I found.” 3 walls of the study
are floor-to-ceiling bookcases, filled, with a wheeled ladder (to reach the top
shelves) parked in the corner. A desk off center of the room: an ornate
electrical lamp, a framed picture, a stack of 3 books, and an Egyptian book
opened to a page depicting hieroglyphics with the symbol of ‘the Eye of Ra’
next to another image of the human brain. Lines linking the two images with
words explaining the similarity between ‘the Eye of Ra’ and the hypothalamus
region of the brain. Specifically, the pineal gland. Suggestions of a 6th
sense.
As Herbert exits the basement, he can’t help but hear the
commotion from upstairs. Where he finds Jonah in a frenzy, ripping at the
carpeting, “Come along, let’s join the others.” Where they find Carol prying at
the locked desk as Arthur summaries the other stacked books: philosophical
treatises on perception by Descartes, Boyle, Voltaire.
The lock sprung, Carol
rifles the drawers finding a slim diary, missing one page torn out. The log
begins almost a year ago explaining how Duncan encountered a dark-skinned
foreigner at an impromptu campus bazaar demonstrating curious desk lamps. The
discover soon leading to a joint venture where the man showed Duncan how to
craft the lights using a ‘secret’ powder. Even took him to the source of this
‘miracle’ ingredient. A cave in a hill not far from Arkham. The more recent
entries now ramblings of a madman.
When Herbert explains what he found in the basement, the
men head downstairs to collect samples while Carol stays in the Study. Arthur
manages to find a test tube that escaped destruction to collect samples of the
powder. Jonah picks up a shard of coated glass to examine the powder closer.
Spit to test its reaction to water; except his spit causes some particles to go
airborne which Jonah accidentally inhales! Hard snorting trying to clear his
nose. Jonah and Arthur starting to suffer headaches. Jonah panicking and ready
to leave, they all return upstairs to retrieve Carol. Whom they startle as she was
climbing the ladder searching the upper shelves. DEXsave to keep from falling;
her hands locked on the top shelf draws her eyes to a large volume cocked on
the shelf. Everything else orderly; this one on its side. She takes it down.
“We’ve been here too long and with all that noise Jonah
was making upstairs…” Jonah and Arthur already complaining of headaches. Carol
offering heroin drops from her first-aid kit that Jonah snatches away abruptly.
Carol pissed. Jonah relieved. Arthur being more polite asking. Too rushed by
the others to open the volume she found, she takes it along as they exit the
house.
As Herbert and Jonah climb into the backseat of the car, Jonah finds a
crumbled piece of paper on the street beside the car. At about the same time
Carol finds a letter laying on the drivers’ seat. An introductory letter signed
by ‘Lucifer’ whom they suspect is really Duncan. Seeking allies? Confession
he’s to blame for all the torment happening around Walnut Street. Wanting to
fix what he’s inflicted on those poor people. “I’ll contact you soon.” Jonah
revealing the map he found, “This probably fell out of his pocket as he was
putting the letter in the front seat. The torn page from the diary? The map to
the cave he mentions in the diary?”
“It’s only 3:45pm. Still a few hours before we’re to meet
with Langford. Let’s do some research in the Boston library.” Jonah searching
for articles about Indian lore in the region, while Arthur looks for Sudbury.
Herbert focused on Duncan’s letter and thus researching ‘a cult of one.’ Carol
finally opening the large volume she’s pulled from Duncan’s top shelf.
“Researches into a Perceptual Power Beyond the Five Known Senses.” Yet only the
first 3 pages contain any writings and these dated a month ago. Already
ramblings, the penmanship getting worse, no longer staying within lines. Duncan
amazed at his new sense he calls a “higher sight.” Claims a view of an alien
world superimposed over our normal vision, “Jellyfish and shadowy creatures
hover at the edge.” Nothing else except the last 2 pages glued
together to form a pocket. Now ripped open and empty.
Jonah finds an 1800s explorers’ encounters with an Indian
tribe near the town of Sudbury. Tribal lore about an unclean spirit
periodically awakening. And the start of tribal members missing. Taken as food
for some greater entity? The tribe saved only by means of a ritual chant passed
down thru the ages. A chant passed along to this explorer named Jamison.
Meanwhile, Arthur finds an article titled ‘Sudbury Disappearance.’ Spring of
1880 when the entire population of the farming village of Crawford Rise
disappeared.
Comparing notes, Jonah finds a recent article published years ago.
Jed Ashcroft’s story about what his brother Jeremiah witnessed. The night of the ‘Sudbury Disappearance’.
Weird greenish lights called ‘Devil Lanterns’. A huge bonfire that night, the
lanterns thrown into the bonfire all busted. Ole Jamison leading the townfolk
in chanting. Something scaring the bejesus out of Jeremiah. Claimed, “Twer the
mountain that ate ‘em.' Jeremiah not right after that; up and kilt hisself."
Meanwhile, Herbert is convinced there’s more writing in
Carol’s mysterious volume. So, he takes Arthur’s collected sample of the powder
and using his fingers, wipes it across the blank pages. “Maybe it’s
disappearing ink that reacts to the powder.” Nope. Still blank pages. But now
Herbert starting to suffer headaches. Arthur suspects the powder the source of
the headaches; so, he puts the test tube he carried into the car glovebox as
they depart the library for their appointment with the grad-student Langford.
[Who really doesn’t tell them anything they haven’t already learned on their
own.]
It’s 7:30pm when they finish dinner with Chris and return to Arkham. Stopping at the police station to retrieve their weapons
confiscated from Caruso’s investigation. Arthur’s prized ivory-handled knife
and Jonah’s cricket bat.
Wednesday, 19 April: Once
again the Arkham Advertiser gets the scoop as the morning paper
reads, “Gunfire disrupts Walnut Street in broad daylight. No witnesses.
Residents working at the docks. Police blocks away. Turns out 3 new street lights
shot out. Anonymous police officer confessed, ‘You don’t hear me complaining.
Damn lights too bright for night patrol. Giving me headaches.’”
Arthur admitting to the others, “Someone beat me to the
punch. I was about to shoot the damn things out myself. How about we head out to
this Crawford Rise and checkout the area.” Only 8 miles out of town but no road
to the abandoned Crawford Rise. Only to Sudbury. They stop short of the town,
“No need for witnesses. We can walk from here.” Carol leads the way with her
navigation skills. Blazing her own path, interrupted by the swollen ‘Pantry’ brook.
Winter snow melt. They search for an easy crossing.
Jonah crosses first with a rope in hand. Tricky footing
on the rocky river bed. Jonah ties off the rope as Arthur holds the other end
while sending Herbert next. DEXfail as he slips on the rocks but holds on. A
drenched pup. Carol next and she too falls but holds on. Arthur the last to
cross. The big-game hunter, the explorer, … yeah, he not only falls but
fumbles. Loses hold of the rope and goes under the waist-deep swift water.
Losing his pistol. Another fumble has him being swept along unable to gain
footing. So focused on saving his elephant gun he soon regrets he’s lost his
treasured ivory knife.
Finally crawling to shore, Arthur realizes his loses and
exclaims, “I’m not leaving till I find that knife. A gift from my dad for my
first elephant kill.” Two hours spent searching downstream along the banks.
Nothing. But at least they find a trail that crosses the river and leads off
toward Crawford as best Carol can tell. Per tracking, Arthur notices 2 sets of
footprints. Can’t tell how old. But 2 people went toward Crawford and later
returned. Jonah suggesting, “Let’s go explore the ghost town first. Maybe when we return, your
knife will have washed ashore.”
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