Chapter Three: The first victim
"It was so gruesomely done, Ichabod," I say to him. He is quickly gathering his things, his hat and his cane. "And a member of the parish too. Who would do such a thing?"
"A madman, Claire. I have studied murder cases before. Although, that was a little different," he drifts off, and I do not ask further.
By the time he returned to the Fellon the deed had been carried out. One member of the church parish had been murdered. It was, infact, one I had seen the day before, he had also refused a funeral service for my mother, as Father Samuell had. His body lay with the undertaker. Ichabod seemed rather interested in the details of the murder, as was I to a certain degree. We took to the street together, and walked with haste to the undertaker's.
"We believe he was knocked out first," says Mr. Fawcett, the undertaker. He shows Ichabod the body, but I cannot bear to look at it. I had seen the man only a day ago. "He was found, in a coffin, outside the church. Ever so odd an occurrence. What kind of killing do you think this is, Constable Crane?"
"Mr. Crane, Ichabod," replies Ichabod. "I do not know, I shall need to know more about the case, before I can distinguish any facts about the murderer."
"The murderer poisoned him, but he did not spill enough poison upon his lips to actually kill him. Then he nailed him inside a coffin, and put him outside the church. The coffin was discovered, when the villagers left church that afternoon. He was sly, the whole village was in that church, except you and Miss Archer here, who was at your house, and no one saw a soul about, we were all in prayer. Of course, I immediately checked here to see if it was one of my coffins, and I can say it was. There is one missing from the rear room of the building."
"You say the poison did not kill him? How do you know this?" Ichabod asks. Mr. Fawcett beckons Ichabod to the coffin. Carefully avoiding the body I also look towards the coffin.
"You see here, Mr. Crane?" asks Mr. Fawcett, pointing out to marks on the inside lid of the wooden coffin. "These are scratches, fingernail marks. Mr. Brinner was alive when the murderer put him in here. Obviously the first thing you would do if you woke up in a coffin is try and get out, and try he did. But he did not succeed. The murderer, knew he was alive. I think, that he knew he had not given Mr. Brinner enough poison to kill him, and put him in the coffin to prolong the death. He died from suffocation, not enough oxygen was he able to breathe. I do not think the murderer would have bothered with the coffin if he knew that Mr. Brinner was already dead. Unless it was some ritual killing, that the coffin meant something to the killer symbolically." Ichabod looks back to the body.
"Thank you, Mr. Fawcett. Will you be able to tell what it was that poisoned him?"
"Not necessarily, I will try for you Mr. Crane, but I cannot promise anything. I am not a doctor of medicine, although this poison was no medicine." Ichabod thanked the undertaker again and we left. I can tell he's thinking about this, thinking of every possibility.
"Ichabod?" I ask, daring to interrupt his thoughts, as we returned to the house.
"Claire, tomorrow I shall need to speak to everyone in the village. Someone must have seen something, someone must be the murderer, and in every murder case, the culprit slips. Somewhere, he will make a fatal error of judgement, and that is where we will catch him."
"We? Ichabod, I know you are accustomed to this somewhat, but I have never dealt with such things before."
"I apologize, I cannot expect you to accompany me. I will catch him," Ichabod says, as he steps into the house. "What did you see, today?"
"I've been cleaning nearly the whole day, I did sit down for a while to read, but I did not notice anything," I reply.
"Where did you sit?"
"Ichabod, I've been all over the house, none of the windows face the church, I didn't see anything. I sat in the library."
"Yes, I'm sorry. Well, I must rest, tomorrow will be an important day. Good night, Claire."
"Goodnight Ichabod."
The following day Ichabod is risen and out quickly, almost just after dawn. There is little I can do to help, so I busy myself in the house, I read, and prepare a supper, contemplated on Mr. Brinner's death, and then found solitude in the church to think. I had never been a particularly religious person, but after this the church seemed like a second home to me, I could sit, uninterrupted, and pray to God. Ichabod came into the church a little before dusk and began searching for clues, and talking to Father Samuell, I had done everything in my power to avoid him, after his refusal, although I know that I should not ignore God's servant, but I have never been particularly religious.
"Claire," Ichabod says, when he is done talking to the Father. I look up from my knelt position and lower my hands. "Are you ready to go home? It is not wise for you to walk unaccompanied in the growing dusk, especially at this present time." He offers me his arm, and I take it, rising, and we both walk towards the church door.
"What have you learnt today, Ichabod?" I ask him.
"Little," is his reply. "The most common path to take is to discover which people disliked the deceased, and therefore, who would have a motive."
"I must admit, Ichabod. I have never liked him," I say.
"You won't be, and aren't the only one," Ichabod replies.
"So, apart from me, who else would have had a motive?" I ask.
"There are a few people in the village, who Mr. Brinner's ancestors have had incident with. I shall be speaking to these people tomorrow. The easiest way to deduce a murderer, is to find a link between all subjects he has considered. Someone has killed a member of the church parish, for what reason we do not know. In my past experiences with this type of crime, the easier it is to find a murderer, when he has murdered more than one person."
"Do you think he will strike again?" I ask, concerned.
"Yes, I think he will."