Chapter Four
The Record Cavern
Actually it was sorting through records at the General Register Office. All birth and death certificates are a matter of public record. But just because they were public didn't mean they were easy to find. The actual room containing the records was twice as big as a football stadium. Dust hung everywhere, muffling our footsteps.
"Records are alphabetical by birth date." The wizened little man told us. He strongly reminded me of the man guarding the bridge in 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail.' "Good luck." He chuckled sinisterly.
"We're gonna need it." I whispered under my breath. Holmes only raised an amused eyebrow.
"To work." He said, slinging his overcoat over a chair and striding off into the forest of shelves. I sighed, then sneezed.
I didn't follow though. Instead I grabbed the first file within reach and rifled through its contents. If we were going to look through Mrs. Grant's file for oddities, I had to know what was normal.
After I made a mental checklist of the items in Mr. Robert Hackett's file (birth certificate, marriage certificate to an Alice Parson, death certificate, a document from the coroner's jury's declaring his death from heart disease and a will), I followed Holmes into the shelves.
I found him standing on a chair to reach the top shelves. We knew Mrs. Anne Grant's birth date from the file in the real estate office, but there was no way of identifying the files without looking inside them.
"Mr. Anthony Goat." Holmes said as I approached. "The last file in the row is Brian Graves." He sighed and shoved Mr. Goat's file back into it's' place.
"The oh-so-fun process of elimination." I commented as I pulled files, moving backwards towards Anne Grant as Holmes came from the other direction.
The monotony of pulling out a file glancing at the name and shoving it back in quickly became mind numbing. G, Brendon. G, Brendan. G, Bradley. G, Betty. G, Barbara. G, Anthony. G, Antony. G, Athena. G, Arthur. G, Arnold. G, Anne. G, Amy. Wait, go back one.
"Holmes, I found it." He stepped off the chair and sat next to me and we spread out Grant, Anne's file on the floor. I picked up the certificate that announced the marriage of Zachary Grant to Anne Jarvis. Next was the certificate announcing her death a year later.
"I hereby bequeath my entire estate to my children, to be divided equally between them. If I should die with no surviving children, then my entire estate shall revert to London Children's Charity." Holmes read aloud from her will. "There's no mention of her husband anywhere in the document. And it's dated three months after her marriage."
"Sounds like a happy relationship to me." I added, wondering why they married in the first place. "So why does the hubby still have the house? It should have gone with to charity like the rest of the estate."
"Assuming the estate was given away at all." Holmes replied. "There is no autopsy report. No matter what the circumstances are, when a twenty-five year old woman dies there should be an inquest. The death certificate says simple 'natural causes.'"
I thought about this for a moment. "So he kills his wife, then covers it up so he can keep all her money. So why kidnap the other two girls?" I mused. If it was murder-for-profit, then my serial killer theory was disproved. But an assassin wouldn't continue to murder after the target was dead. Would he?
"Perhaps murdering his wife had more of an effect on him than he thought it would. The act unhinged him, and now he goes around killing women who look like her in an attempt to do the task correctly." Holmes pondered, staring off into the distance. For someone who couldn't possibly have read Freud's theories, it was a very good analysis of a serial killer's motives.
"Probably, but that won't hold up in any court in the world." I reminded him.
His eyes lost their distant look and Holmes returned to the present. "True. So our on recourse is extra-legal action."
"Let's round up a posse."
"Aurora, you read too many Western romances."
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Questions, comments, critisicms, complaints? Review!
.·´¨`·»¦«·Kerowyn·»¦«·´¨`·.
The Record Cavern
Actually it was sorting through records at the General Register Office. All birth and death certificates are a matter of public record. But just because they were public didn't mean they were easy to find. The actual room containing the records was twice as big as a football stadium. Dust hung everywhere, muffling our footsteps.
"Records are alphabetical by birth date." The wizened little man told us. He strongly reminded me of the man guarding the bridge in 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail.' "Good luck." He chuckled sinisterly.
"We're gonna need it." I whispered under my breath. Holmes only raised an amused eyebrow.
"To work." He said, slinging his overcoat over a chair and striding off into the forest of shelves. I sighed, then sneezed.
I didn't follow though. Instead I grabbed the first file within reach and rifled through its contents. If we were going to look through Mrs. Grant's file for oddities, I had to know what was normal.
After I made a mental checklist of the items in Mr. Robert Hackett's file (birth certificate, marriage certificate to an Alice Parson, death certificate, a document from the coroner's jury's declaring his death from heart disease and a will), I followed Holmes into the shelves.
I found him standing on a chair to reach the top shelves. We knew Mrs. Anne Grant's birth date from the file in the real estate office, but there was no way of identifying the files without looking inside them.
"Mr. Anthony Goat." Holmes said as I approached. "The last file in the row is Brian Graves." He sighed and shoved Mr. Goat's file back into it's' place.
"The oh-so-fun process of elimination." I commented as I pulled files, moving backwards towards Anne Grant as Holmes came from the other direction.
The monotony of pulling out a file glancing at the name and shoving it back in quickly became mind numbing. G, Brendon. G, Brendan. G, Bradley. G, Betty. G, Barbara. G, Anthony. G, Antony. G, Athena. G, Arthur. G, Arnold. G, Anne. G, Amy. Wait, go back one.
"Holmes, I found it." He stepped off the chair and sat next to me and we spread out Grant, Anne's file on the floor. I picked up the certificate that announced the marriage of Zachary Grant to Anne Jarvis. Next was the certificate announcing her death a year later.
"I hereby bequeath my entire estate to my children, to be divided equally between them. If I should die with no surviving children, then my entire estate shall revert to London Children's Charity." Holmes read aloud from her will. "There's no mention of her husband anywhere in the document. And it's dated three months after her marriage."
"Sounds like a happy relationship to me." I added, wondering why they married in the first place. "So why does the hubby still have the house? It should have gone with to charity like the rest of the estate."
"Assuming the estate was given away at all." Holmes replied. "There is no autopsy report. No matter what the circumstances are, when a twenty-five year old woman dies there should be an inquest. The death certificate says simple 'natural causes.'"
I thought about this for a moment. "So he kills his wife, then covers it up so he can keep all her money. So why kidnap the other two girls?" I mused. If it was murder-for-profit, then my serial killer theory was disproved. But an assassin wouldn't continue to murder after the target was dead. Would he?
"Perhaps murdering his wife had more of an effect on him than he thought it would. The act unhinged him, and now he goes around killing women who look like her in an attempt to do the task correctly." Holmes pondered, staring off into the distance. For someone who couldn't possibly have read Freud's theories, it was a very good analysis of a serial killer's motives.
"Probably, but that won't hold up in any court in the world." I reminded him.
His eyes lost their distant look and Holmes returned to the present. "True. So our on recourse is extra-legal action."
"Let's round up a posse."
"Aurora, you read too many Western romances."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Questions, comments, critisicms, complaints? Review!
.·´¨`·»¦«·Kerowyn·»¦«·´¨`·.
