Chapter Three
A headless body is not a pretty sight.
The servant guided them to his deceased master's old chamber; he couldn't bear to look at the door. Valkyrie knew that he was still upset. He showed it to them impatiently and stalked off once again without saying a word.
Elsa Wild opened it.
Valkyrie didn't know what she was expecting, but she had forgotten that Jerome Riddle had been decapitated until she saw it. It was certainly not a sight for the faint hearted. Although the body was covered in a thin white sheet, she could clearly see the missing gap where the head ought of had been. By the lights, the sheet was nearly transparent and obvious to see what was underneath. Riddle's feet appeared out of the sheet and looked pale white with blue veins. Horribly the colour of the skin reminded her of the vampires and of the undead that stalk with them. It sent a shiver down her spine. However, the room was cold, Kenspeckle needed the body as cold as possible so it could be kept preserved to examine. She breathed out and saw mist going out of her mouth. She gripped herself at the shoulders.
Towards them, Kenspeckle was seen with his back towards them as he was beyond the table on the other side. He had not seemed to notice the arrival of the detectives and was engrossed with something on the lab desk instead.
Skulduggery said suddenly, "Good afternoon, Professor."
Kenspeckle Grouse jumped at the sudden voice and turned around. All the detectives cringed away with disgust as Kenspeckle held the head of Jerome Riddle in his gloved, right hand by the hair.
"Oh, no!" Valkyrie cried, turning away, holding her mouth to stop herself from gagging.
"Don't worry, don't worry!" Kenspeckle moaned, getting annoyed at their reaction as if he thought that a dead human head was no reason getting hysterical about.
Valkyrie turned back again, and saw that Kenspeckle had replaced the head into an icebox.
"Honestly, if you had knocked…"
"It's okay, Professor. We caught you off guard there."
Kenspeckle eyed Skulduggery Pleasant. Valkyrie wandered how he will act like with Skulduggery. Valkyrie liked Kenspeckle and he liked her, but there was no love lost between Skulduggery Pleasant and Professor Kenspeckle Grouse.
"Ah, I should of known it was you. No manners at all!" he pointed at Skulduggery accusingly.
"We're here to see the body." Wild said.
Kenspeckle saw Wild for the first time, "Ah, have I seen you before?" Kenspeckle squinted his eyes to Detective Elsa Wild.
"Perhaps." she replied. "I'm detective Elsa Wild, head of D.I.S.F." She held out her hand to Kenspeckle, but instead he looked at it apologetically and awkwardly as he showed his gloved hands.
"You don't want to know where these have been."
Then he stopped again, and made up his mind. "No, I have seen you somewhere else before, I'm sure."
Wild looked uncomfortably to everyone and shrugged. "I am sorry, professor, but I am afraid I, however, have not met you before until this moment."
"Oh," Kenspeckle said simply. "Perhaps it's my old age."
"You are not that old, professor." Wild told him kindly.
Kenspeckle was charmed by her, "Why, thank you Detective Wild. I'm going to like you." he glared at Skulduggery.
Skulduggery cut in impatiently.
"May we see the body, professor?"
The professor rolled his eyes, "Very well."
Skulduggery moved towards the table where the body was laid out upon and carefully lifted the sheet off the upper body and laid it just under the diaphragm.
Skulduggery went into his coat pocket and pulled out a pair of gloves, identical to Kenspeckle's to Valkyrie. "Put these on, we can't afford to lose any evidence."
She slipped them on and stood there like a lemon. What next?
Skulduggery was kneeling over the table, just inches away from the dead body's chest, Valkyrie shivered.
"How long have we got here?" Valkyrie asked.
"Only half an hour." Skulduggery replied tracing his fingers around Major Riddle's neck.
"Just that?" Valkyrie said.
Theodore took out a highly expensive, professorial photographer's camera and pointed at it to Wild. Valkyrie wandered why he never said anything.
Detective Wild smiled at him encouragingly, "Of course."
Theodore started snapping pictures of the severed head, which Kenspeckle exposed for the examination. Valkyrie tried to trace her eyes away, but it was hard to miss. She should have felt disgusted and bad, but it intrigued her and was interested in the forensic stuff she was learning today.
"Yes, so you better start taking pictures of your own." Skulduggery looked closely at the wound of the neck and stared through a magnifying glass. The sight made Valkyrie almost laugh until she realised there was a dead body at her side.
"We don't have a camera, do we?" Valkyrie realised.
Skulduggery jumped up and reached again into his inside jacket pocket. "Oh, yeah. Here it is."
Valkyrie almost out of respect burst into laughing at the sight of the disposable camera that usually was bought in a Pharmacy. She stared Skulduggery full in the face incredulously and raised her eyebrows. Skulduggery handed it to her.
"Back to work. Take pictures of the wound and anything that you think could be helpful in the investigation. Make sure you picture any marks, such as Birth marks and any tattoos."
She nodded and opened the package it was wrapped in. Skulduggery sure is a hoot, bringing in a camera and humiliating her with this cheap thing.
She ignored Theodore's smirk and wished that Skulduggery had a camera like Wild's.
Valkyrie got so used to the retched smell that swirled around the room that she stepped closer to the body. The wound was still gory and, to Valkyrie's opinion fake, as if he body was actually a model that was being used in the latest horror blockbuster in Hollywood. However, this was reality, and she had to do her job. Skulduggery stepped aside for her and strode over the Kenspeckle and Theodore with the head of Riddle.
Valkyrie decided that she would look later; right now, the body was bad enough for her. She looked at the body up and down and saw the pale white skin and again the veins. She held the camera up to her eye and took a picture of the flesh wound. It was still fresh but no blood was coming out of it. She saw the skin cut at the sides jaggedly and thought how much pain he would have felt, if he had felt it at all. The speed must've had been quick. Unconsciously, she placed her hand on to her own neck and grimaced. He was middle aged and had black, curly arm hairs. She saw his round belly underneath the thin sheet. His fingernails were blue. It was hard to tell what he looked like, because obviously he had no features. She turned up the other end of the sheet at the bottom end of the table to expose his legs. Like the top half, the skin was pale and the toe nails pale blue. More leg hairs and no apparent suspicious markings.
She placed back the sheet and sighed. The fact that she was looking at a dead body which was alive just hours before didn't sink in to her yet. She gulped down the lump in her throat and continued. She was about to give up and tell Skulduggery that nothing particular was there, until she upturned the body's right forearm and inside the forearm was a tattoo. Now this was strange, why would someone like this man have a tattoo? She looked at it closely. It was apparently a black thin circle with a crescent moon in the middle.
"Skul, I found something."
Skulduggery was alerted and stepped quickly to Valkyrie's side. She pointed at it, careful not to touch the ice-cold flesh and showed it to him.
"Ah," Skulduggery said after a few minutes.
Wild was quickly at their side too, frowning down at the discovery. Theodore just lingered behind her. Kenspeckle went to the other side a put his glasses on his nose and stared at it.
"Mm," Kenspeckle copied the tone of Skulduggery. They both looked at each other and said at the same time.
"Warlock's Trust Campaign." They chorused.
"Oh," Valkyrie muttered, a little disappointedly. Hoping it was something interesting and scandalous, but it wasn't.
"Yes, it is. " Wild agreed, "It's his mark for the Warlock's trust."
"How could Warlocks kill someone who wanted what was best for them? Campaigning his whole life for these people and they stabbed him in the back." Valkyrie wandered out load. Skulduggery nodded, agreeing.
"That's just what I was thinking, Valkyrie." he stood up from kneeling over the table. "Have you taken pictures of it?"
"Only one." She answered.
"Take quite a few, just in case. You never know if it could be some use to us."
Valkyrie nodded and continued to take pictures of the tattoo in different angles.
Skulduggery inspected the body himself whilst.
"Professor, who discovered the body?" Skulduggery asked Kenspeckle.
"His Manservant, sadly. Was very shocked."
Skulduggery looked sympathetic. "He deserves a good strong, hot cup of tea."
Valkyrie rolled her eyes. That was Skulduggery's answer to everything.
"Where was he found?" Skulduggery quizzed Kenspeckle once more.
"In his office, I think. It's been closed up for awhile. Special forensic have taken over the place. I expect you would be there in awhile, then?"
Skulduggery nodded, lifting up the whole sheet and peaking, until he saw something and quickly placed the sheet back down to cover the body's 'parts'.
He coughed uncomfortably and continued. "Yes," He turned to Kenspeckle. "You found anything in the post mortem?"
"Not a thing. I tried rainbow powder and all sorts. Seems he died from a sweep to the neck. Quite quick I say."
Skulduggery nodded.
Then he looked behind himself to find Valkyrie eyeing the icebox, hoping to take pictures of the head. Skulduggery looked back at Kenspeckle expectantly for him to show the head to her.
"Oh, I'll do it then." he snapped at Skulduggery.
Skulduggery watched the professor storm around the table and went to assist Valkyrie, helping her to photograph the damage.
The skeleton detective wasn't sure about the tattoo. He had heard about it before, and the symbol of the moon, clearly indicated the Warlocks, and the circle indicating the circle of life, time and continuity. He was just about to stare closer at it, when Elsa Wild tapped him on the shoulder.
"May I?"
"Of course, Madam." Skulduggery obligated. Wild smiled at him amused and charmed.
He stepped aside for her and glanced at his watch.