by Dani Hoots
Not wanting my men to endure the horror of seeing Jonathan examine the body of their comrade, I ordered them to wait out in the parlor room and keep warm near the fireplace, since the inn was a bit drafty. Sitting in the parlor, none of my men, though, appeared to pay the cold air any ounce of attention. Rather, their trembling bodies seemed more of a response to Ralph’s uncertain fate, and any contemplation as to the horrors visited upon him.
I watched as Jonathan inspected the body, crossing my arms and keeping silent. He checked for any noticeable wounds and tried to narrow down the cause of Ralph’s death. He didn’t seem to be going into too much detail during the procedure; a normal examiner would normally cut the body open but we needed to take him back to London before anyone did that. We wanted to return his body intact, since cutting it open could cause other unwanted issues during our return home. Jonathan checked inside Ralph’s mouth. Life as a surgeon had to be grotesque, I could barely imagine.
It was an hour before Jonathan came up with anything.
“Quite strange indeed,” he washed his hands off with some water.
“What is it?” I asked, glad that the body was now covered and I didn’t have to look at it any longer. I could have waited outside, but some yearning to know exactly what happened to Ralph kept me in this room with Jonathan...
Jonathan let out a sigh as we went into the hallway. He closed the door of the extra room behind him and glanced around to make sure there was no one nearby to overhear our delicate conversation. “The cause of death was a cut to his throat, as if by a knife, yet there was no blood near the wound, not to mention most of the blood in his body is gone. I have never seen anything quite like it.”
That would explain his appearance, but it still sounded preposterous. I had never heard of such a thing. “The blood is gone? What do you mean?”
Jonathan shrugged as he pulled out his pipe—a habit to help ease the grave tension of being in such close contact with so many dead bodies. He took in a few puffs. “I mean what I say. I could cut him open all the way and there would be nothing inside of him but flesh and bones.”
I rubbed my chin, trying to process this information. How could his blood be missing? How was that possible? Who could have done this, especially to someone as kind and young as Ralph?
Or what?
The woman I had seen yesterday, was she real? Did she do this? And if so, how could she have been out in that storm last night? None of us would ever have chosen freely to be out there, we rushed to this inn as fast as we could when out in that brutal weather. That could only mean one thing: was there some kind of witchcraft or sorcery involved with the circumstances surrounding Ralph’s strange death?
Either way, someone or something had to have killed him. It was my duty to him as a Captain to figure it out. His mother was at home, waiting for him. I had to solve this if not for her, but for Ralph himself. I straightened my coat and drew up my sleeves.
“I’m going to talk to the innkeepers and see if they know of anyone nearby who could have done this, or what type of creatures live in these parts?”
“You don’t think it could have been any of our men, do you?” Jonathan asked.
I glanced at him, worry in my eyes. It was a good question, but I knew my men. They were glad to be going home and, if there was any fights between them, they wouldn’t have waited until now to kill him, but done it out on the battlefield where no one would have noticed. It wasn’t likely any of them had done this. Though, Percy and Andrew weren’t the nicest to him, I don’t think they would ever stoop to something this low.
I shook my head. “I don’t think so, but I will still question them, just to make sure.”
I found Duncan and Fiona in the kitchen, helping the staff get ready for dinner. There was a lot of chaos going on as they prepared for the nine of us, causing me to rethink owning a pub with Alice. Was this what it was like? Chaotic and a mess? The chaos would be manageable, no doubt, as long as I had Alice help me with keeping things in our future pub under control. We would manage and we would be happy; we had to be or life wouldn’t be worth living.
Nodding to Duncan, I motioned that I wanted to talk to him. He finished up helping the cook move a large pot of water to the stove and hurried over to meet me.
“Captain Williams,” he said as he rolled down his sleeves and ran his fingers through his thinning brown hair. “Is there anything else you need? We are happy to help with anything. We are very sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you. It was indeed a strange, unforeseen circumstance. I am very grateful that you are doing whatever it takes to help us get over this sudden trauma.”
“Don’t worry about it, I was in the military when I was younger, I understand how sick you are of death, and to have something like this happen to you when you are so close to home is horrible,” Duncan explained. I watched as his eyes seemed to journey with his mind into his past. A lot of men went into the army, they saw it as their duty. I felt bad, though, when others had felt the same pain as I experienced for the past few months. It didn’t seem that it would ever end any time soon.
“I do, however, have some questions I want to ask you pertaining to his death,” I began. “They have to do with these Highlands. Do you have a moment?”
I noted as Duncan fiddled with the cuff of his jacket as I asked the question. That was a nervous tick of his, but he had no real motive for me to suspect him of doing anything out-of-the-ordinary. Maybe he just didn’t like being questioned, I knew of men who hated being asked anything, even what they wanted to eat. It was strange but not uncommon. But that didn’t beg the question that roamed in my mind; did he know more than he was letting on?
He nodded, stroking his mustache, and motioned down the hallway. “Yes, I believe I can slip away from the kitchen for a bit. Let us go into my office.”
I followed him into his office, not too far off from the kitchen. It was bare, with only two chairs and a table with stacks of paper atop it filling the room. The walls were the same as the rest of the inn, white and bare. Only one painting hung on the wall, depicting the inn itself. I definitely would had found it too dull to work there, though I wondered how much time he actually spent in this room. Based on all the dust covering the furniture, I took it to be not that often.
He nodded to the chair. “Please, take a seat.”
I did as requested, leaning back, the wooden chair squeaking as I did so. It seemed old and I hoped it wouldn’t break like some cheap furniture tends to do.
Duncan took a seat himself across from me and adjusted himself comfortably. “Now, what did you want to ask me?”
I started to lean back, but could hear the chair begin to speak again. Not wanting to break the chair, I straightened back up. “I was curious if there was anyone else in these parts or if it was only travelers staying here, or those working at your inn.”
He shook his head and smiled as if I had asked something humorous. “There isn’t anyone for miles. Not many want to come up here, except for some farmers and the occasional hunter. Why do you ask?”
That’s what I had thought, but I had to ask to make sure. I scratched the back of my head, frustrated as to everything that was happening over the last day, or so. It was almost more frustrating than the war itself, as everything began to pile on top of each other. “I’m just trying to figure out what happened. I wanted to eliminate any outsiders.”
Duncan raised an eyebrow. “Do you think your man was murdered? What makes you believe that?”
I shrugged. I didn’t know yet, for all I knew he could have killed himself, though there weren’t any weapons on him or near him. “It is hard to say yet, but his cause of death is strange. He was found without any blood and had a cut along his throat.”
He stared at me, his eyes widened for a moment. He swallowed and took a deep breath, then went back to his normal composure. “That is quite strange indeed.”
I knew he was letting me know everything that he knew, which wasn’t ve
ry much. But, I knew he had no reason to hurt Ralph in any heinous way. Imagining that it might have been him was my all imagination, once again. “Do you have any idea what could have done this? Are there any animals in the Highlands, capable of killing a full grown man?
He shook his head. “There are some badgers in these parts, but I’ve never heard of them attacking someone like that. I also don’t know how they would make a slit on someone’s throat.”
I debated asking him about the woman I had seen. By the sounds of it, there wasn’t anyone close to this place, and it definitely wasn’t any of the workers residing here either. None were as beautiful as the girl I had seen. I dismissed the thought of the girl as pure fantasy and decided to start questioning my men as to whether or not they had seen anyone or anything suspicious.
I stood up. “Thank you for your help, Mr. McGregory. I will let you know if I need anything else.”
He nodded and saw me out of his office. “Glad to have been of some help. I do hope you figure out what or who is behind all of this.”
“As do I,” I started for the common room where my men were waiting.
None of my men had seen or heard anything last night that might have sparked suspicion. All of them claimed to have been sound asleep the entire night. None of them had a plausible motivation either, which would have logically explained one of them being a likely suspect for murder. Ralph was a great guy and had gotten along with everyone. He had a family back in Sussex, to whom I would have to eventually deliver the news myself to. I didn’t look forward to telling his mother. It wouldn’t be the first time I had to do this, but hopefully it would be the last.
I had already lost ten men in my camp, now this was the eleventh. I would have to deliver the message to each of their families. It was the second hardest thing to do in my profession, the first being the witness of their death. I had seen each and every one of them die. I was sick of it and I couldn’t wait to be relieved of my duty as Captain. I wanted to move on with my life and start anew with my wife-to-be.
All I had to do was make it back home, all in one piece.
It seemed easy enough, but I knew that was never the case. With some strange thing out there now killing one of my own, I was sure it was only the beginning of worse things to come. Life as a captain of the English army could never be easy and I was deemed to suffer through all the nasty twists of fate that came as a part of this job. Only God knew how right I was at that moment that things were about to get even uglier...
I decided to take another look around the general area where we had found Ralph’s body. I brought George along, not wanting to go by myself in case I did run into the creature. I also trusted him the most, he was one of my first cadets that I had in the army. Going back out here was definitely not something I wanted to face by myself, either. And if the strange, ghostly woman appeared yet again, I would know whether or not it was just me that could see it or if others including George could as well. Hopefully, neither of us wouldn’t have to test this theory of mine in this way.
I didn’t want to think I was the only one who saw it, making me worry about my sanity. It had seemed so real at the moment of first seeing it with my own eyes, yet the nagging fear she wasn’t real ate away at my thoughts. It scared me, made me fear that I couldn’t control my own life, that this being could possess me to do anything, as it tried to get me to go outside the night before. Could she have gotten Ralph to go outside instead?
As we headed out into the Highlands, I grabbed my pistol, as did George. We didn’t know what would be out there waiting for us, even if the innkeeper had said there wasn’t anything out here. George also grabbed a scone, he said it was for in case we got lost and needed food. I noted that he had only grabbed one, but I wasn’t worried we would get lost. Rather, I was worried about encountering the very thing that started all of this mayhem.
We were able to back track to where we had found Ralph’s body. I had a keen sense of direction, luckily, and we were able to find the indentation in the ground where his body had lain.
“What are we looking for?” George asked as I knelt down and examined the ground. All I found was wet grass and mud, typical for all of Britain and Scotland.
“Look for anything out of place. A clue, of sorts,” I explained, touching the ground with my hand.
He nodded and knelt down beside me. “Right, sir. Hopefully won’t take too long, I smelt biscuits for today’s dinner.”
I gave him a look as we started searching the surrounding area. The rain had left the area finally, not even a drizzle, although the air still felt damp. There was nothing out there but us. I glanced back at the inn. I couldn’t even see any movement inside. They must have all been in the common room still, drinking. After this was over, I was going to open a bottle of scotch myself.
I went on with searching for any minor detail that could lead us to what had killed Ralph. As captain, I had to figure out this mystery before it was too late, and the killer got away before we had to return home. I owed it to him, for not keeping him safe while he was in my care. It was one thing to lose a man on the battlefield, it was another to lose him in such an awful way. Maybe I was wrong, maybe something didn’t kill him and it was just an accident, but his death was quite strange. Something had to have cut his throat and drained his blood, for some purpose. But what? And why?
A small indentation in the mud caught my eye. I squinted, trying to figure out what exactly it was.
“Are those goat tracks?” I pointed the strange indentations out to George.
He inspected the tracks as well, bringing his face closer to them than I. “Why, I think they are.”
I glanced around. There was no sign of any goat-like creatures around, who may have left these tracks “What was a goat doing way out here on a night like last night?”
He shrugged. “I’m not sure, Captain. Maybe it was one of McGregory’s goats that escaped their pen.”
I had asked Duncan earlier about animals, he didn’t mention anything about goats. Since goats weren’t notoriously violent creatures, he may have felt including them was silly, in addition to the fact I never overheard anyone talking of any escaped goats. “Seems very unlikely, a goat committing a murder. What, did it steal a knife from the kitchen and coax Ralph into the night?” I felt bad about the joke having to do with Ralph’s death, but thinking a goat had committed the murder was preposterous.
“Then what do you think it is?”
I traced my finger around the indentation, the short, stubby, identical lines. “I’m not sure.” It was also strange that they were next to where Ralph’s body was discovered earlier in the morning. It seemed like there were only a pair of them, not four. To be quite honest, I didn’t know what to make of it. “Let us follow them and see where they lead to.”
George nodded and we started following the hoof tracks. As I had thought, there only seemed to be two different hooves, not four like a goat would have. They led off in a good distance, not something a goat would have done in the storm last night. A goat would have found cover and probably would have ended up back at its pin in no time.
I tried to come up with a theory of what could have happened but I was still coming up blank. Something drew him out here in the middle of the night, that was for certain. As for what had killed him and why, I just couldn’t figure out. What could have made these hooves? It was evidence that something was out here, but I still wasn’t sure as to what exactly it was.
The tracks ended at the rocky hillside. We didn’t have equipment to climb up it, nor did we know exactly where the tracks led off to. Did the goat-like creature climb the rocky hillside?
“Well, we know it wasn’t human then, Captain. Whatever it was came out of those mountains. There’s no way a human could have made that trek.”
I stared up into the hill. George was right, it would have taken a skilled professional to hike that hill during that storm. No sane person would have been able to manage that kind of feat. Everything
that has happened was all quite puzzling. There was something strange going on, but I hadn’t the faintest idea as to what it was.
George and I returned to the inn and decided to tell the rest of men, who were gathering in the parlor, that we haven’t found anything that might help us discover Ralph’s murderer. I didn’t need to start another search—this time for a rogue goat. That type of search would lead even further away from any strong leads for this investigation. At this point, I could only see it ending horrible, especially when all the men were already drunk, the only thing they knew how to do in a time like this. They were stuck in this building, since I didn’t want anyone else wandering off, so they decided to drink.. I could smell the alcohol when I stepped into the inn. So for now, only George and I would indulge in this mystery, if it really had anything to do with the goat, which I was sure it didn’t.
Mr. and Mrs. McGregory had prepared dinner for us, some stew and potatoes. We ate in silence, as the sun went down and we were left in the darkness once again. Their food wasn’t the greatest, bland and sometimes just strange, especially haggis. Although, the scones were nice, which George ate as many as he could. When he was nervous, he consumed more than anyone believed possible for one man to consume at one time, which was scary compared to his normal eating habits since he had already been eating at least two men’s worth of meals.
As for my other men, most of them seemed not to be that hungry. We were all losing our appetite, thinking of the wretched event that occurred this morning. Percy ate fine, of course, he didn’t care about anyone but himself. I couldn’t wait until we reached London so I wouldn’t have to deal with his lack of empathy. Andrew didn’t seem to have an appetite either, but I wasn’t sure how to interrupt that. He never cared for Ralph, they always seemed to fight, though maybe he cared more for him than I thought. Maybe, he saw him as a brother.