The Hand That Wounds part 2

Extracts from the Personal Diary of Dr Elisa Jamieson MD

Wednesday May 2^nd

Unbeknownst to me while I am dealing with the autopsy on Giles Hebden, Adam Walters decides that he is suffering for what can only be described as a lack of faith in his own abilities. Feeling that he can no longer use his abilities to help our investigations he makes it clear to the others that he is to head off to see someone in the Lancaster area who should be able to assist his rehabilitation. The others only inform me of this when we meet up after my shopping trip obviously he did not feel it was important to inform me of his plans.

There were of course several other more pressing issues at the breakfast table however, as we note that a worrying article has appeared on the front page of the Cumberland and Westmoreland Herald and someone appears to have taken a photograph of the hunting horror and posted it up on their website. It is quite essential that we remove this before it causes a major incident so we phone MI13 and are informed that the image will be purged within twenty-four hours. I also note that there appears to have been more injuries in the accident than I first thought and some appear to have been quiet serious I don’t know how I could have missed them as I thought I had checked all the cars in both directions. Obviously this concerns me more than I realise. Unfortunately the collision does mean that we need to be careful in what we do as the press move in hoping for some sort of scoop. Fortunately we are able to keep a lid on most things.

When St John asks me for the mask I just hand it too him without initially asking what it is he wants it for. However, when he reveals that it is so that he can attempt to contact Jeremy Springfield I suddenly remember that Adam made some comment at the morgue that he was unable to connect with Jeremy Springfield’s spirit and that in his opinion it was no longer attached to the body. I impart this information to St John before I set out to autopsy Giles Hebden.

As I understand it from what I am told later, St John was able to contact Jeremy Springfield’s spirit at the Henge. However, I feel that there is more to it than that. St John reveals to us that, contrary to what we told earlier, it appears that Isabel Carleton was the initial perpetrator at the Henge site and that it was she who had given Jeremy the paper. However, he further stated that he only had three questions with Jeremy and had seemingly wasted two of them on trivia and was thus unable to ascertain if it was Isabel or a third party that had initially removed the page from the book. (Judging from what I personally know about both the mask and St John I feel this is becoming more worrying all the time and feel St John’s actions may require further investigation.)

St John now wishes me to get him into the morgue so he can once again question Giles Hebden using the mask, for he feels that Giles was concealing something from us during the earlier interview and he feels that since Giles is now dead he would no longer retain a reason for continuing to conceal what could be vital evidence in our investigation. I am able to achieve the access he requires very easily. St John then dons the mask while I stand a few feet away and note that first he appears to be unable to see anything and I clearly hear him call out to Giles. Obviously the spirit still fails to make an appearance but St John later claims to see something unusual to whit a shining cord that appears to be attached to the body of Giles Hebden. (I think I read somewhere that when you travel in the spirit world you have a shining cord that moors you to your physical form but as far as I was aware this connect was usually severed were the body to expire.) Oddly though, St John claims that he is unable to see where the cord goes as it appears to move off at right angles to East, West or any other what I would describe as natural direction.

DC Douglas, in the meantime, at the behest of St John, has been processing police logs looking for the crank calls made last night with any reference to flying mythical creatures in hope of finding where the Hunting Horror was actually summoned. In all there appears to be eight calls which meet the parameters and a clear path appears to reveal the source of the hunting horror as the Morgan Curwen School.

When DC Douglas excused himself so as to deal with his daughter he asked us to wait before taking the next step. We did ask before he left if he could put a man on the MacDougall house as she was likely to be next target but obviously this was not done. I suggested that maybe we should take the girls to the police station but nothing was done.

At this stage our strongest suspects appear to be Isabel and her father, the deputy head, and we decide that we need to talk again to Mr Sinclair, the headmaster, to inform him of our suspicions and to try and confirm our belief by discounting Jack Carleton’s alibi from the previous evening. Mr Carleton had informed us that he could not possibly have committed the crime in question, as he was involved in a meeting with the PTA. I thought at the time that this was slightly suspicious as most PTA’s usually meet up around seven o’clock and not half past nine. However we were to discover upon questioning Mr Sinclair that this indeed was the fact yet we were at this time not fully aware of the activities involved in the PTA which were, I would hope, completely against type.

I noted that during questioning Mr Sinclair did appear to get very upset that we were convinced that Jack Carleton and Isabel were involved in the incidents of the last few days. St John continued to press and we were then asked to leave. DC Douglas met us outside and said he had left his daughter with a friend and would assist us with our investigations. I noted that DC Douglas was in uniform at this stage. We certainly required evidence before we could again bring this up to Mr Sinclair again. We needed something concrete before he would believe us.

It appears that it was at this stage that DC Douglas had realised that as of yet we had not expressed our condolences to the Lazonby’s for the death of their son. It was decided that DC Douglas and I were to deal with this being the conservative members of the team, while St John, Belinda and Barbara would go and stake out the school. However, when we arrived we found the Lazonby residence to be in darkness and upon inquiries with the neighbours were to find that the Lazonby’s had gone to London to stay with family.

We then decided to check in with the others at the school. On the way we received a transmission that there was a number of complaints about three odd figures lingering near the school. This, as it turned out, was St John, Belinda and Barbara, who I feel may require instruction in subtle observation techniques. We actually find them loitering outside the school gates like a group of aging teenagers and then decide then it would be for the best if we went away and came back later when most people were asleep so we got off to get something to eat, returning to the school at eleven pm.

I suggest that maybe DC Douglas no longer requires his uniform but he states that he will retain it in case of any further issues with the locals, yet he does don his dark overcoat.

When we arrive back at the school, however, he feels that maybe we would be helped if St John had his dowsing rods (unusually he didn’t have them with him though he carries them everywhere he goes). Anyway, as DC Douglas was still the only one of us with any mode of transport it was he and St John who set off to get the rods. I did not notice, however, that Barbara had disappeared somewhere during the discussion. She was to phone us a few moments before St John and DC Douglas left to inform us that she was in the school grounds!

As we keep watch outside I suddenly spot a faint light, which I am later to identify as Barbara’s phone (why she didn’t take a torch is beyond me) scanning around to the left of the building. Suddenly the light goes out and I temporarily lose track of Barbara’s location.

Then Belinda states that she can see her running and, more worryingly, she appears to be being pursued by a number of other figures. Belinda suggests that we should move to assist yet I am not convinced as we would only be a mere speed bump to anything with any semblance of combat ability. I decide a more cautious approach would be better. Fortunately, Belinda observed where Barbara went when she initially disappeared. Using the torch from my bag we head in that direction and find Barbara as she clambers through the fence. I note that she appears very muddy as if she has been rolling in the dirt.

Barbara reports that she ran when she saw four large figures moving up on her. In her panicked state her description of the figures is vague at best. (Maybe the description would have been better had she chosen to accompany us to the Dreamlands?) All she was able to say was that they appeared to be about four feet wide with teeth and eyes. She also reported the figures talked in a guttural language yet it appeared that they were not looking for her and that she was not important.

As she finishes her report my phone goes off and I note that it is DC Douglas who reports that he has just observed four Moonbeasts and he wishes to know our location. Unfortunately I am vague in my instructions as to our position but he is able to find us all the same. My instant suspicion is that the Moonbeasts are heading to finish off Friday as the time is rapidly approaching midnight, the time of the previous two deaths. I attempt to insist that we go to the MacDougall’s place with all haste but instead DC Douglas heads off to another address where he picks up a four-year old girl, who we find to be his daughter, before he finally gives in to my wishes and takes us over to the MacDougall’s. His intention at this stage is to drop me off and then see his daughter home. Yet as we approach he is contacted regarding an incident reported at the MacDougall’s.

As we approach the house there is no clue as to the horror that awaits us. DC Douglas draws up outside and gets out, advising the rest of us to stay in the car. I disregard this and get out of the car to observe that the front door of the MacDougall’s house is ajar and surprisingly there appears to be a cricket bat on the step. More worrying, however, is the figure of an adult male on his hands and knees on the front lawn. The man appears to me to be regurgitating his stomach contents into the rhododendrons.

As DC Douglas approaches the house, I deal with the man, helping him to his feet and identifying where he came from. His wife is observing the action from her doorstep in her dressing gown. As I settle him with his wife, I hear a strangled gurgle from the direction of the MacDougall’s and I notice DC Douglas moving somewhat slowly towards his car. He appears to be completely out of it and I feel that somehow I need to know what has happened.

I realise going in that it is going to be a horror show or it would not have effected DC Douglas, yet I knew that it would take something horrendous to stop me as we are taught in medical school that if we let the blood and gore effect us we will very quickly be unable to function.

Well they don’t call me the Ice-Queen for nothing but even I could feel my stomach rebelling as I enter the house. Of course the smell is what I notice first. It is clearly a smell I recognise, a mixture of bodily secretions: the almost iron smell of blood combined with faecal matter. The smell is coming from the living room and as I enter I feel the bile rise in my throat but I am able by force of will to continue.

The living room is a charnel house as there is blood decorating every surface. I quickly assess the situation, not holding out much hope for any survivors here. Mr MacDougall is the first I see, laying on his back in front of the fireplace, his chest torn asunder, clearly deceased.

Next I note Mrs MacDougall sprawled across the couch. I check her out to find that but for a flap of skin she has been decapitated and is clearly deceased.

Friday, I note, appears to have been thrown into one of the armchairs at the far side of the room and that she is split open from clavicle to pubis; even from across the room it is clear her heart and eyeballs are absent.

Finally my eyes are drawn to notice Friday’s eleven-year-old sister, Katriona, crumpled in the corner, her throat slit like her mother’s yet not as severely. I feel initially that there could be hope to rescue someone. Maybe if I had access to a medical team I could have been able to save the child but by myself I just did not have enough hands to do it all. I noted that while the parents were fully clothed both the girls where dressed in nightclothes.

Suddenly I hear Belinda calling out to me from the door to the lounge. Something about Alex, not quite sure why though, but obviously she had been calling out a few times, being so focused on Katriona I likely did not hear her. As I turn to get up, I notice Belinda enter cross the room, carefully stepping over the body of Mr MacDougall and lifting some kind of clay box off the fireplace. I note that she appeared pale yet not in as bad a way as DC Douglas. (DAMN HIM we may have been able to prevent this mess if he had followed my suggestion.) Anyway there was little I could do here and DC Douglas was still a patient.

I stripped off my surgical gloves as I left the house and placed them in the pocket on my bag, leaving the bag in front of the door. I then went to deal with DC Douglas, noting he had not moved since I last saw him. He was pale, sweaty and had a ridiculously high pulse rate. With effort, I got him sat down on the wall and removed his radio from his grasp. He seemed to be convinced that he had to do something but I got him to focus on me while I calmed him down. I was still calming him down when his colleagues arrived. They recognised him and attempted to ascertain what had occurred but he was still unresponsive yet I was able to inform them that there were four victims inside and that they would be advised not to go in there.

When the ambulance arrived, I suggested that DC Douglas should be taken in to the hospital to be fully checked out, I also attempted to convince the neighbour to go but he was unwilling to comply and his wife did not seem to be convinced. This said, I ensured that I make them sign the waiver so as to cover from any later litigation. St John, Barbara and Belinda would then take DC Douglas’s car and daughter home for him.

I chose to remain on site so as not to scare the child with the blood covering me. Plus it gave me opportunity to liaise with the SOCO and Police response teams. I informed MI13 of what had happened including the Moonbeasts. SOCO and the Police appeared convinced that the perpetrators were a number of men with size eighteen feet yet they were at a loss to explain how there were no bloody footprints leaving the house other than mine and Belinda’s.

It was only later that I was to discover how this had occurred, when Belinda informed me that someone had left some sort of mystical recording device for us to find in the house. This appeared to show the entire grisly episode in detail. She also reported that Friday’s heart was clearly missing as she observed it being devoured by one of the Moonbeasts! I was to find that the box contained a thin scroll and a red crystal with images flickering under the surface. The thin scroll contained the message ‘For MI13, place the crystal to your forehead and petition Thoth’. The writing was to appear at first glance to be written in dark brown ink on parchment but it did not take a doctor to realise that it was written not only on human skin but also in blood. What is worrying here is that whoever left the box knows who we are. One thing, on examination Belinda is fairly sure that the box, which the crystal and note came in, is ancient Phoenician and is clearly the genuine article not a copy so is probably quiet valuable.

DC Douglas is quickly released by the hospital and returns home were he takes over looking after his child, releasing the rest of the team. We decide then that it is time to do something positive. We need to look in the school and find out what occurred. However we require a new liaison, at least for the rest of the night. DS Pringle agrees to fulfil this role.

So at approximately 3am we have to travel back to wake up Mr Sinclair to ensure that he can be there while we search. He initially seems very reluctant to allow us access yet the presence of DS Pringle changes his opinion. We are already aware that he has a set of keys as he previously informed us that it was he who locked up the school following the PTA meeting. Mr Sinclair informs us when we inquire that there are several other sets of keys to the school other than his own: Mr Jones the caretaker has a set as does Mr Carleton, plus seemingly at least three other members of staff also have keys.

Shortly afterwards we are on our way to search the school. We decide to wake up Mr Jones, the caretaker, before we begin our search. Starting outside we initially attempt to backtrack from were we first observed the Moonbeasts but that trail quickly dries up. However, it is almost guaranteed that the summoning took place near to where the Moonbeasts were first seen so that they could order the creatures to hunt down Friday and her family.

As we begin the search it does not take long before we notice a smell of incense in the area. The smell leads us to a door that supposedly leads down to the old boiler house under the school. This time there only appears to be one key, which Mr Jones is in possession of.

We are let in to the basement and notice that, for the most part, the basement looks to have remained undisturbed for many a year as everything is festooned with dust and cobwebs. Yet there appears to be single set of footprints in the dust. I place my pen alongside the footprint and take a photograph. We then choose to see where the footprints go to and we discover, in the rearmost corner of the basement, a package of unusual items wrapped in a black cloth. The items are a silver chalice, two black candles partially burnt down and finally two sacred knives, one of which has a white handle while the other is black.

When we emerge from the basement we show what we have found to Mr Sinclair who appears to be genuinely surprised. We make it clear here of course that due to the fact that the items have been used recently we feel the need to fingerprint the staff to assess who placed these items down there, as we will very likely be able to lift prints from either the chalice or from the knives. It is obvious at a glance that the items had been used recently. We hand the items off to DS Pringle and continue our search.

We next try out the school gym. Here we are to find another collection of items, namely some feathers, some markings made of chalk and a blood stain on the floor. We then confront the principal, who appears to be in shock.

After talking to Mr Sinclair we suddenly notice that Belinda is on her hands and knees in the gym and appears to be licking the congealed chicken blood off the floor; this is certainly not normal! We quickly get her to her feet; hopefully no one noticed. We then decide to retire for the evening I am beginning to think that the strain appears to be starting to tell on Belinda. Maybe we need to discuss this when we have a little more time.

It appears that Belinda has had some insight as to Moonbeasts, probably as a side effect to her increasing madness.

Moonbeasts: alien beasts not encountered on earth; they employ slave labour and appear to be able to expand and contract themselves at will; they appear to be servants of Nyarlathotep and their standard form appears to be a large bipedal toad-like creature.

It is after we have returned to the hotel and are safely in our rooms that the true horror hits me. I am still smeared with traces of the blood from the unfortunate MacDougalls. I look myself in the mirror and true horror hits me. Feeling dirty, I step into the shower fully clothed and undress under the running water. However, even despite the running water I am still able to feel the tears running down my face. Fortunately we do not have to be in attendance for the fingerprinting as once again I feel the need to sleep in late.

Thursday May 3^rd

DC Douglas is waiting for us when we emerge in the morning. We then inform him what we found the previous evening. He seems to be convinced that the items are a plant and that whomever it is that we reveal then they will prove to be a scapegoat for the true perpetrators. This could be true as I am quite sure that someone is aware of who we are. The box Belinda found at the MacDougall’s is clearly evidence of this. DC Douglas then takes St John to one side and appears to be discussing items occurring during our earlier encounters in the so-called Dreamlands.

After a few moments they return to the rest of us and DC Douglas informs us that he thinks he can save the souls of Giles Hebden and Friday MacDougall. (I could have stated that we could possibly have saved her life as well, if he had only listened to me, but I kept my own council).

It appears that Giles Hebden’s spirit is chained to a bronze pillar on the side of Mount Thorin where he is fed upon every night by Hunting Horrors, only to regenerate during the day. (Very reminiscent of the fate of Prometheus in the Greek legends.) While it appears that poor Friday (the only true innocent) is a prisoner of the Moonbeasts on the far side of the Moon. Yet he revealed that she would not be there for long before they trade her to the Black Galleys, whatever they are.

DC Douglas goes on to state that while normally he would expect us to not have a chance in her rescue he has been able to gain aid from Atal (who it seems is the High Priest of the goddess Bast in Ulthar) in the form of a spell. (If I remember my mythology correctly then I think Bast was the Egyptian cat god.)

As we leave, however, I receive a letter from the hotel receptionist with the results of the lab work on Jeremy Springfield, which only confirms my earlier findings: all the blood on the body belongs to Jeremy and, judging from the samples under his fingernails, it appears that he gouged his own eyes out peri-mortem. The blood tests show high levels of adrenalin but no illicit substances. There are also small traces of alcohol in his system, the equivalent of single small beer. While this evidence would need to be put with my report this does not effect my initial conclusions in any way.

We decide to report in to the school, to assess how the fingerprinting is going, when we receive a radio transmission informing us that Isabel Carleton has committed suicide! This appears to have occurred during a science lesson.

We make our way to the laboratories to find the teacher, Mrs Northlay, and the class out in the corridor. We are informed that the class were involved in the dissection of earthworms when Miss Carleton suddenly stopped, gouged her own eyes out, then proceeded to make an incision in her chest, pull aside her rib cage and remove her own heart.

It appears that her lab partner was a Miss Elaine Alexander, a pretty and slightly flighty blonde girl, who was flirting with the boys in the neighbouring group. It was one of the two boys she was talking to that attracted everyone’s attention to the incident. Mrs Northlay claimed she was assisting another group at the time and had felt no compunction to watch Isabel closely as she was seen as a good and conscientious student. It may be that Isabel intended this as it was noted that she was without her bra, a very unusual occurrence for a fifteen-year-old girl.

I would have thought this to have been impossible as not only would she be making the incision while blind but also the force involved would certainly require more strength than I would have thought a teenage girl could muster. There is, of course, the pain factor to be taken into consideration, as she would also be doing all this without any anaesthetics.

Whether I believed it was possible or not was a moot point as when we entered the laboratory the evidence that it was possible was displayed before our eyes. Isabel was laid flat on her back with her chest split open and her heart clutched in her left hand. In her right hand she still clutched the metal scalpel she had been using for the experiment.

While she had not cut through the bone she had seemingly cut the ribs away by cutting through the cartilage on the left side of the sternum. While this is considerably easier than cutting through bone, it is still not easy as it is the equivalent of cutting through toughened leather. Spreading the ribs is also not an easy task, usually, in operation, we require tools. One thing is for sure she would have inflicted considerable damage to her fingers which should be easy to see. I would need to examine her hands to confirm this and I requested a SOCO photographer to keep detailed photographs as I did so.

Belinda appeared to have a strange turn and was required to be dragged from the room by St John and DC Douglas as she was becoming obsessed with the blood. Describing it as lovely or delicious is not normal behaviour. I feel that she decidedly requires psychological help, as it appears the recent events have broken her mind.

Anyway the others all leave and I set to examining Isabel’s right hand. Surprisingly, it turns out to be very difficult to open her hand but after some effort I manage to get her fingers to open and note that the injuries are there on the base of the fingers. There are also small bone fragments embedded in the metal scalpel handle. (Odd that the fingers were so hard to open as rigor should not yet have set in for hours yet.) This confirmed the story that all the wounds were self inflicted. If I had not seen it with my own eyes I would not have believed it possible.

The team went off to question Mrs Northlay and they found during questioning that she was only a supply teacher covering for a Mrs Joy Samson. Mrs Northlay, we were led to believe, had been appointed by Jack Carleton and was an agency teacher, yet when they requested her personnel files they were not yet available. It appeared that Mrs Northlay had only recently moved to the Penrith area and had previously been based around Swansea. She appeared to be in shock and asked if she could be allowed to go home as she had not expected to see such atrocities in a quiet town like Penrith, feeling that if they needed any further information they could contact her. They agreed to let her go as she left her cell number.

A taxi was ordered and Mrs Northlay was assisted to the cab by Alec. However, as a Mrs Abernathy, who I was to understand was the head of year 10, was assisting Mrs Northlay off the sickbay bed, they observed that she appeared to be wearing a crucifix. This is not unusual as I wear one myself but hers was inverted!

I return just after Mrs Northlay has left. I find it very odd in this day and age that they have appointed someone without getting the paperwork first. Regarding this lax security I suggest that we put in a request for the police check on Mrs Northlay, just to be sure.

Unfortunately it appeared that we were unable to contact either Mr Carleton or Mr Sinclair as they were presently involved in a staff meeting with all the senior staff. We had access to the personnel files but nothing else.

As we were unable to contact the senior staff we decided instead to check out the reason behind why Mrs Northlay had been brought in. From what I had been told they were not expecting the incumbent teacher, Mrs Samson, to return. Checking with the school administrator, we are informed that Mrs Samson is presently in the Penrith and Eden Community Hospital and is suffering from necrotizing fasciitis.

Unfortunately, I am not too hot on this. I am aware, of course, that it is a flesh eating bacterium and that it is extremely deadly. Also, I am aware that as of yet medical science has not found a cure, the only treatment presently available being aggressive debriding. We do know that it is not an airborne bacterium and we should be safe from infection.

Maybe this is just bad luck on her part but, with all the strangeness of the last few days, to see such a rare disease turn up just rings alarm bells in my head. We are led to understand that while we would most likely be unable to contact Mrs Samson directly we should be able to contact her husband. St John and I are assigned this duty as it turns out the hospital is only about a quarter of a mile away, half way between the school and the Police Headquarters.

When we arrive at the hospital we are informed that Mrs Samson is presently housed in the ICU but has just a few moments ago again been taken in to theatre. We are able to contact her husband and I express my condolences as to his wife’s illness. From what we gather, Mrs Samson is presently having her face debrided, having already had the same treatment on her right breast and right arm in the last few days.

It appears to me that it is very unlikely Mrs Samson will survive and I feel for both her and her husband as, were she to survive, she would be required to do so without a face, which I don’t feel should be an option. (I know I’m a doctor and a Catholic but sometimes some people should be allowed to die with dignity.)

As far as we can tell it appears that she contracted the disease from a spider bite while she was working in the garden on Sunday. While there are recorded issues of insect bites causing this I have never heard of someone contracting it from a spider bite. For a start it is very unlikely that any native spider could pierce the skin, maybe a wolf spider but I would find that unlikely. This is getting more suspicious all the time.

Just then I note the surgeon coming towards us with a look I recognise. He asks to speak to Mr Samson and we take our leave. It is clear to me that Mrs Samson has lost her fight with the disease and I inform St John of this. He appears to feel this is advantageous for us as now he feels that we will be able to question her (what is wrong with these people!) and he requests that I add her to my list of autopsies. I am not sure what this would prove but I agree; contacting MI13, I arrange for Mrs Samson’s autopsy to be done by me.

St John then heads back to the school yet I tell him that I had better excuse myself from the interviews so that I get on with my backlog of autopsies. So I leave St John and head off to the Police Headquarters. Little was I to know how happy I was to be, to up to my armpits in autopsies.

From what I am able to gather from talking to the others later, it appears that the meeting ended at the school shortly after St John and I left to go to the hospital and most of the staff went home. The pupils, of course, had left ages ago.

Following this, DC Douglas had received a call from Jack Carleton saying that he wanted to get something off his chest. This appears to be that the PTA were all members of a black magic cult! Carleton further revealed to DC Douglas that his ancestors had come over from France in the 13^th century to escape persecution. He presently felt that one of the PTA was actually behind the present occurrences and that to his knowledge the cult had not partaken of ritual sacrifice for centuries. It appeared to him that the senior members of the cult who, as it turns out, were also the members of the senior staff, wished to use his daughter as a scapegoat.

He did not appear to be aware of how the items we found in the basement had got there as they had tended to keep their paraphernalia elsewhere. He also was seemingly at a loss as to how the bloodstain had shown up in the gym as they had usually met in the headmasters study. Worryingly, he also reported that he had not hired Mrs Northlay and was in the opinion that Mr Sinclair had hired her but when DC Douglas informed him that Mr Sinclair had not hired her, Mr Carleton then stated that the administrator must have brought her in; DC Douglas already knew this was not true. It seems she had appeared in place of Mrs Samson but no one appears to have appointed her. Mr Carleton reported that his wife had retired to bed with a sleeping pill.

Acting on this information, DC Douglas appears to claim that he returned to the school to confront Mr Sinclair who, it seemed, was also a member of the cult. It seems Mr Sinclair had received a call from Mr Jones to meet in the gym.

At this point, DC Douglas, St John, Barbara and Belinda heard screams and strange hissing and thudding noises coming from the gym. As they approached, there also seemed to be an appalling smell.

Holding his baton, DC Douglas then supposedly moved up to the gym door and pulled it open. According to St John and DC Douglas, the gym was yet another horror show as it appeared what they first thought was a dragon taking up most of the gym area. They were later to properly identify the creature as a Shantak.

Other than the creature, there were seemingly four people in the gym, who were later to be identified as Dorothy Dubois, George Delasalle, Joan Abernathy and Chris Sinclair. Mr Sinclair was at that moment the only one who had not been at least partially devoured.

Of the team, both St John and DC Douglas retained their wits while Barbara seemingly fainted dead away in the doorway. Belinda again seemed insistent upon descending into madness as she made an effort to rush in. It appears DC Douglas needed to disable her to stop her mad dash. St John in the meantime pulled Barbara to safety.

Before the door closed, however, they noted that Mr Jones, the caretaker, who had seemingly summoned Mr Sinclair, was not in the gym. Mr Sinclair himself was the last to perish; DC Douglas reports he saw him running towards the door that he was holding open but he was not too escape as the creature snagged him by his collar and dragged him back. DC Douglas shut the door and turned away before the screams.

All four of the victims were members of the black magic cult. One thing that I do note is that Barbara has now seemingly had her epiphany so will probably get drafted to the MI13 fold together with DC Douglas.

When they later checked out the school they were to find written upon one of the whiteboards in neat cursive script the following ‘for I am a vengeful god…and yes, it is too late’. Written on a blackboard upstairs in Mrs Northlay’s laboratory in identical lettering, was scrawled ‘for MI13…it has been nice working with you, au revoir’. They were also to find a copy of the Times crossword lying on Mrs Northlay’s desk with all but one across filled in. ‘Nyarlathotep’ fitted perfectly and in the working box someone had written Peta Northlay. As it turns out we had connected the name even without this unsubtle clue. (Oddly enough I think that this is merely unsightly gloating.)

Suddenly it connects that this damn woman has something to do with what has occurred. None of us had ever connected her name until right at the end. Her name was Peta Northlay, which is an anagram of Nyarlathotep. As to who summoned her, that is still a mystery as this all began with the infection of Mrs Samson hours before the death of Jeremy Springfield. When they check with the taxi firm they are to find that Mrs Northlay got out around the corner from the school and that the number she gave them was unreachable.

Later we get a report that Jack Carleton is also deceased and the initial diagnosis is that he appears to have died from anaphylactic shock caused by snakebite. It seems someone is cleaning house, as the only permanent members of Carleton’s black magic cult remaining are Charlie Osberry, Ed Monkton and Kate Von Zimmer and the parent members of the PTA.

As to the autopsies: they reveal that there is nothing that we do not know already. I take all the readings and there is nothing that stands out. All organs that remain are weighed and match up and all blood samples and tissue samples plus anything found under the nails are processed and sent for testing. Agreed we cannot put true modes of death on the autopsies but we do what we can.

To put this case to rest I am required to complete not only the autopsies on the six victims I already have but I am also required to complete autopsies on Sinclair, Carleton, Dubois, Delasalle and Abernathy. In all, the clean up takes slightly over twelve hours. Finally a D-notice is placed on the case. Hopefully this is end to the matter and I can return to my life in Reading. One final thing though, I must remember to see St John and get the mask back.