The Cyanide Ghost (Mina Scarletti Mystery Book 6)

by Linda Stratmann

  ‘I am very flattered,’ said Mina. ‘I have never thought of myself as particularly notable.’

  They shook hands. ‘Please, come through to my office,’ said Mr Mayall. It took all Mina’s willpower not to glance at the desk clerk as she made her way.

  Mr Mayall’s office was comfortably but not ostentatiously appointed. The chair Mina was offered had a seat and back of soft leather for which she was grateful, and there was even a little cushion which enabled her to adjust her posture. Behind the desk were deep shelves with bound copies of photographic publications both English and American, going back many years.

  Here, Mr Mayall was less concerned with photographs of royalty than of his own immediate family. A silver mounted portrait on his desk was draped in black crape.

  ‘May I offer my condolences for your sad loss,’ said Mina. ‘I never had the pleasure of meeting your son as my brother did, but I know that he was a man of many talents.’

  Mr Mayall acknowledged the politeness with dip of his chin. ‘Thank you for your kind words.’ He drew a deep breath. ‘But tell me why you have come to see me. I am very curious, especially in view of what I know of you.’

  ‘My younger brother Richard recently obtained a position as a clerk with a Mr Beckler, who opened a photographer’s business in Ship Street earlier this year.’

  ‘Ah yes, I know of him, but we have never met.’

  ‘When my older brother Edward was betrothed to Miss Hooper, he therefore arranged to have some photographs taken at Mr Beckler’s studio. The result, on one of them, was — unexpected. I do not feel I can entirely accept any explanation Mr Beckler might offer, which would suggest the operation of psychic forces as yet unproven. I seek an answer in science.’

  From his expression, she had clearly captured Mr Mayall’s interest. ‘May I see?’

  Mina took the album from her bag and opened it to display the picture in which her father appeared. Mr Mayall did not seem shocked, only surprised. He took a magnifier from his desk, a much larger and she guessed more powerful one than the instrument she owned, and made a close study of the image. ‘Where was this taken?’ he asked.

  ‘At Mr Beckler’s studio in Ship Street.’

  ‘I assume he employed only sunlight. The light has been very good of late.’

  ‘Yes. He has some reflectors in the studio. Are there other forms of light he might have used? I know about the magnesium ribbon. He didn’t use any of that.’

  ‘Yes, the ribbon is not suitable for portraits. It gives a brief but very intense light, but unfortunately this is followed by clouds of ash. Candles and gaslight are insufficient. Sunlight is undoubtedly superior, but of course it is not reliable. I have been looking at electrical arc lamps as a possibility. I assume Mr Beckler did not use them?’

  ‘No, only sunlight.’

  ‘And who are the persons in this picture?’

  Mina leaned forward, pointing to the individuals. ‘Apart from myself, there is my mother and my two brothers. The figure standing beside me is that of my father, Henry Scarletti. He passed away three years ago. None of us saw him or anyone else present in that location when the picture was being taken. I wanted to know if you have seen anything like this before, and if so, can you explain it?’

  Mayall nodded thoughtfully. ‘There was another picture Mr Beckler took recently which he claimed to be the portrait of a ghost. It was said to be that of a lady’s mother. It was displayed in his window and when I learned of it, I went to see it out of curiosity. It was not at all distinct. Sometimes what the eye sees builds a picture in the mind, making a rough and undefined shape into something that looks familiar. I would not myself have accepted that image as a portrait of a ghost, but of course the lady customer had very strong opinions on the matter. A result such as that can be produced by simple carelessness in preparing the glass plate. If an old plate is used, one which has been employed for an earlier photograph, and the image has been fixed by chemical means, it must be very thoroughly cleaned before it can be used again. If it is not properly cleaned, then part of the former image will remain on the glass, and it will appear on the new picture, giving the impression of a ghost-like figure.’

  ‘I see,’ said Mina. She recalled that when Richard went to work for Mr Beckler, he had complained very vociferously of being asked to clean old glass plates, a task he had felt did not properly employ his talents. ‘But this portrait of my father is very clear indeed. It is he, without a doubt.’

  ‘Extremely clear. In my opinion, this could not have not been produced by poor cleaning of the plate.’

  ‘Have you ever taken a picture of this nature?’

  ‘No, never.’ Mayall smiled and paused a little before he went on. ‘The plain fact is, Miss Scarletti, that I believe myself to be motivated to understand our world by the means of science, and my specialities are optics and chemistry. I have never seen a ghost and cannot therefore offer any opinion as to whether they exist or are objects of the imagination. But there is much we need to learn about light and chemicals and how one acts upon the other. If there are such things as disembodied spirits, I would not rule out the idea that there is something on the coating of Mr Beckler’s plates which is sensitive to the material of which spirits are composed. What it might be I could not say. If he has discovered something of importance then one day, he may tell the world, but as a man of business I suspect that that will be some time in the future, and if he is a sensible young gentleman, will involve the taking out of a patent.’

  ‘Do you know of anyone else who has taken pictures of ghosts?’

  ‘There is a London man who has attracted some attention very recently, a Mr Hudson, but I have grave doubts about his methods. The best known in that field is an American photographer, Mr William Mumler, who caused a great deal of excitement a few years ago and made a substantial business of it.’

  ‘Did he ever reveal his secrets?’

  ‘He did not. But the result was he was arrested for swindling and put on trial. Experts studied his photographs and most of them assumed that he had resorted to trickery. But while they suspected fraud, they were quite unable to prove it and he was therefore acquitted.’

  ‘When did this occur?’

  ‘I can show you.’ Mr Mayall rose from his desk and examined his bookshelves. Selecting a volume, he leafed through the pages. ‘1869,’ he said at last. ‘It was widely reported in America and discussed at great length in the photographic journals which published some of his photographs. I am not sure it was in the general newspapers in this country. Here, you may take a look.’ He carried the volume to the desk and placed it open in front of Mina.

  Mina examined a picture printed in the magazine. It was not made on photographic paper but reproduced by means of the engraver’s art to create a good facsimile. It showed the transparent figure of a woman whose image appeared to be blending with the more solid seated subject, a gentleman, almost if the lady was embracing him. Mina was struck immediately by the impression that it bore more resemblance in quality to the image supposed to be that of Miss Hartop’s mother than the picture of her father. ‘It is not as refined as the one Mr Beckler produced. The features of the woman are not distinct, and there is no detail on the clothing. I think even if one knew who it was supposed to be, one might be hard put to identify it.’

  ‘That is so. Although there was one he took of Mrs Lincoln with the late President hovering behind her. He at least was unmistakable.’

  ‘I wonder if Mr Beckler knows about this and was trying the emulate Mr Mumler?’

  Mr Mayall smiled. ‘I don’t think anyone would be advised to do that.’

  ‘But you say he was acquitted.’

  ‘He was, but the trial was a disaster for his business, which went into a decline. He produced no more spirit pictures. If Mr Beckler had attempted to sell pictures like those of Mr Mumler, then experts in photography would be drawing a comparison, and he would be in some difficulty, as the London man is already.’

>   Mina thought about this. ‘But if Mr Mumler was genuine, and could not be proven a fraud, why did he stop? If the spirit photographs were genuine, something that simply appeared without his causing them, how was he even able to stop? Was there some chemical he had given up using?’

  ‘Perhaps he felt that even if genuine, if he were to continue, he would be in constant danger of a more careful examination of his process and new accusations.’

  ‘To my way of thinking,’ said Mina, ‘he was an outright fraud who had turned to honesty rather than find himself in court again. The cessation of the spirit pictures is the strongest possible indication that he was a fraud. If the ghosts were real and had appeared by some means Mr Mumler did not initiate, and possibly did not even understand, then surely the suspicion that attached to him would not have prevented them from appearing again. The spirits would have been eager to appear in order to prove him genuine. If they stopped appearing then he must have created the pictures in some way, a way that was no mystery to him, and after the trial, he stopped doing whatever it was he did to avoid further prosecution.’ Mina studied the Mumler pictures again. ‘Did other photographers offer suggestions as to how the pictures were created?’

  ‘Oh indeed, a number of men came forward and there were several theories about how it might have been done. Of course, it is easy enough to theorise in retrospect, but there is nothing to prove how Mumler actually did it. The practitioners of photography, while they might not have been able to explain the mystery, did not believe in ghosts. Even Mr P T Barnum, the showman, asked for copies of the pictures only to display them in his museum of humbugs.’

  ‘What explanations did the photographers offer?’

  ‘One man suggested that Mumler had an accomplice hidden in the room, dressed all in white, who came out, posed for the picture and then hid again.’

  ‘I can think of a dozen reasons why that is not feasible. But there is nowhere in Mr Beckler’s studio where a person might hide. I know because I looked. And even if there was, the figure would appear solid.’

  ‘I agree. As I mentioned before, a glass plate not properly cleaned will produce the effect of a ghost. This may well be something Mr Mumler discovered through his own carelessness and used to his advantage.’

  ‘He would have to match the old image with the new subject, though, surely?’

  ‘That would help if he was able, but the ghost image is usually not very clear in any case. This plays very well into the hands of frauds, since their victims are eager to interpret any image as that of a departed loved one. Another trick would be to have a pre-prepared translucent image of a ghostly figure and insert it into the camera behind the lens. The light would pass through and imprint the ghost on the glass plate. Most subjects having their picture taken would not be familiar with the photographic process and would therefore not be aware that any trickery had taken place.

  ‘Another way would be to re-expose the glass plate to a second image while the coating is still sensitive. He would have to work quickly, of course. There were some suggestions that an image might be introduced while the plate is in its silver nitrate bath; that is the chemical that provides the light-sensitive coating. I think many of these might be possible, but all would result in quite blurry images. That might have been good enough for Mr Mumler and his clients, but what you have shown me is far more advanced than anything Mr Mumler did.’

  Mr Mayall thought again and picking up his magnifying glass made another examination of the betrothal picture.

  ‘Something of this nature is more in the style of a caricature. It is a kind of novelty in which two pictures are combined to produce a new impossible one.’ Mr Mayall went to his shelves again and brought out an album of caricatures, one of them being that of the figure of a man with a very large head. This resembled the way that satirical pen and ink artists liked to represent well-known personalities, but it was in the form of a photograph. ‘To achieve this, one has to start with two photographs of the same man: one close portrait of the head and one of the whole body. The head of the first is cut out and pasted to the other. Any joins are concealed with ink. The new image can then be photographed. One can even create a picture of a man’s body with the head of an animal, such as a rabbit.’

  ‘Why would anyone want such a thing?’

  ‘A question I often ask myself.’

  Mina studied the caricature picture. ‘It is very strange, but no part of it is translucent, as in my picture.’

  ‘That is so. The quality of the image of your father does point to something unusual.’

  ‘Supposing,’ said Mina, ‘I were to come to you and ask you to create a picture like this one? How would you go about it?’

  Mr Mayall considered it. ‘Well, first I would need to have the original photograph of your father. If I had the actual glass plate negative I could reuse it, cleaning away all the surrounding details very carefully. Alternatively, if I had the original print of the picture, I would take a photograph of that picture, clean away any surroundings and then use the exposed glass to take the picture of your group. How effective that would be I am not sure, but as you see from the caricatures, a little touching up with ink is always possible. If I were using the wet plate method it would all have to be done within minutes, but there is a new coating recently developed which enables plates to be prepared well in advance. I don’t know if Mr Beckler uses them.’

  Mina thought about that and recalled what had been said during her tour of the studio. ‘Yes, he does, for when he travels outside.’

  ‘Precisely,’ said Mayall, nodding. ‘Then that is how I might consider producing a convincing ghost picture. Of course, my theories are in no way proof that that is what Mr Beckler actually did.’

  ‘You are not a spiritualist?’

  ‘I am not. If I had ever been tempted to turn to spiritualism, I would have done so by now. My dear first wife passed away two years ago, and now I have another terrible loss to endure. Many people are understandably driven to spiritualism in such circumstances, but I believe I must remain content to live out my life with only the memory of my loved ones to console me, to be reunited with them in heaven where they surely are.’

  A gentleman arrived with whom Mr Mayall had an appointment, and Mina thanked him for his advice and returned home. She had learned one very important thing: if Mr Beckler had committed a fraud, the quality of the images of both her father and Mr Aloysius Phipps required him to have a picture of the deceased person, or at the very least a fixed negative on glass which he could copy.

  Richard, she recalled, had complained at great length about Mr Beckler asking him to catalogue the old photographs he had acquired from the estate of Mr H G Simpson when purchasing the business. Such a collection could well be the source of suitable portraits. Young Mr Phipps, however, had assured her that his grandfather did not like or trust photography and had never had his picture taken. Her own father, she felt sure, had not had his portrait taken after their move to Brighton. It would be useful, however, to discover if any of the other people on Mr Beckler’s list had been customers of Mr Simpson.

  Once home, Mina set about examining the family photograph album to see if there was a match between any earlier portrait of her father and the one in the betrothal photograph, a hearty-looking figure, bearded and standing.

  ‘What are you doing, Mina?’ her mother demanded.

  ‘I was thinking that since Mr Beckler’s shop has some attractive photograph frames, there might be some pictures of Father we could have framed,’ said Mina.

  For once, Louisa Scarletti had no objections; in fact, she became very engaged with the idea and on her own initiative set about finding every family picture in the house. There were few enough: a very stiffly posed tintype of Louisa and Henry on the occasion of their engagement, wedding portraits, and a family group of Edward, Mina, Richard, Enid and their younger sister Marianne as a baby, her tiny nose peeping out from a nest of frills. Mina allowed her mother to sigh and exc
laim, and there were tears shed.

  ‘Are these the only pictures we have of Father?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes, dear. I wish there had been more.’

  ‘And you are sure that he didn’t have any pictures taken in Brighton? He was never photographed by Mr Simpson?’

  ‘No, he — he knew he did not look at all well, and — perhaps if he had lived to see Enid married, he might have consented, but — no.’

  Mina studied all the pictures of her father very closely. In the tintype and wedding portraits he was beardless with a moustache and side whiskers. In the family group he was seated, holding a very small Mina on his lap. There was no resemblance between any of them and the image of her father on the betrothal picture.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  The next day Mina received two more letters. One, addressed in an elegant script and with the postmark of Hurstpierpoint in Sussex could only have come from Mr Honeyacre of Hollow House. Anxious for news of the expectant Mrs Honeyacre, Mina opened this one first.

  Hollow House

  Ditchling Hollow

  Sussex

  Dear Miss Scarletti,

  I do hope this finds you well. I am happy to say that my dear Kitty is blooming most beautifully, although of course it is a situation in which ladies must always be careful. I expect you know that Mrs Jordan’s maid Zillah is with us. She is such a sensible girl, and she, Kitty and Miss Pet are well able to amuse each other. Since you last visited us Mr and Mrs Malling have worked almost without ceasing on the repairs and redecorations of the house and improvements to the estate. I anticipate a time when it will be possible to entertain large parties of visitors, and Hollow House will be the talk of the county for all the reasons I had hoped for when I purchased it. The gardens are already a delight to the eye and the kitchen garden has been quite restored and shows the promise of abundance. I do hope that we will be able to receive a visit from you as soon as circumstances permit.

  I received an unexpected letter last week, and wished to consult you about it, as I was unsure of how to respond. Mr Beckler the photographer, whom I am sure you recall all too well, has written to me saying that he had been taking pictures of some of the tombs in the Extra Mural Cemetery in Brighton, and in his photograph of my dear late wife, Eleanor, had achieved an unusual result which he thought might interest me. I have to say I was not impressed by this young gentleman, still less so now, as I cannot imagine why he sought to take such a picture without at the very least seeking my opinion on the matter. In view of these circumstances, and also the dreadful disturbance caused by his patron Mr Hope at my house last January, I am disinclined to do any business with him. Do you have any observations to offer?