Of Night and Dark Obscurity

The Asian man nodded in complete compliance but it proved disastrous. The Asians inside the den spoke very poor English or they were excellent actors. They didn’t give the detectives anything to work with and Val was extremely frustrated.

When they returned to the police station, it was late and Felix sat in the chair opposite from Val while he thought out loud.

“So Odean is helping Irene with her woman problems. Irene in the meantime is seeing Lyle Bowler and sitting for his sketching. Meanwhile there is another man that no one seems to know anything about whom Irene was seeing as well and might have been pregnant by this ghost.”

Felix nodded. “That about sums it up.”

“Odean is killed.” Val mused. “Why?”

“The mysterious man found out he was talking to us and killed him.”

“But Odean didn’t know anything.”

“He knew Irene was pregnant. He told her to talk to the man.”

“But the child could have been Bowler’s child. Even Odean might have been doing more than massaging her.“ Val said than shook his head. “No. Odean was charismatic but not a killer. I’m sure of it.”

“So, who killed him?”

“We need to find Lyle Bowler. He’s the key. He knows some of the missing pieces. He might even know who the mysterious man is.”

“It’s possible.”

“Let’s work on Bowler tomorrow. Simon Eastoft can help with the physical description and we can do a sketch of him and have some of the bobbies distribute them,” Val nodded.

???

The appointed place was different. It was a dark pub near the docks. The salty sea air was thick and Mr. Sage and Mr. Cedar were the first to arrive.

“What happened?” Mr. Cedar asked.

“With what?” Mr. Sage returned.

“Don’t play games with me. You killed Mr. Cypress. Why? He didn’t know anything. He hadn’t even been initiated into the circle.” Mr. Cedar complained.

“He was piecing things together and he was talking to that damn detective,” Mr. Sage complained.

“Calm down,” Mr. Basil said entering the room. “No harm no foul. That doctor wasn’t pristine. He had issues. It doesn’t concern us.”

Mr. Willow entered the room and nodded to the other gentleman. “Mr. Cypress is no concern to us. He can’t be traced back here and his death can be blamed on a number of things. Maybe he drowned after having too many a pint.”

“Too many a pint? What shit is that?” Mr. Cedar said. “The last he was seen was in our company at the opium den. They questioned the Chinaman!”

“No one will tell him anything,” Mr. Sage said smugly. “Isn’t that why we pay that Chinaman so well? To keep our secrets?”

Mr. Willow nodded in agreement. “We go on as before. Mr. Cypress was weak. We saw that early on. He needed to be disposed of. We’ll say no more about it.”

???

Val had a description of Lyle Bowler from his employer Simon Eastoft and he was able to have a basic sketch drawn up of him. With pressure from the Superintendent, he was able to speak to several detectives and constables to have them help circulate the picture. Val knew the detectives each had their own cases and he hesitated to add to their burden.

But the constables circulated the picture and they spoke to their network of informants and citizens who might know something. The average “bobby” patrolled the streets and made acquaintances with the people they were supposed to protect.

Val hoped that through their network of people someone might know something and put them on the right track to help them find Lyle Bowler.

In the meantime, he decided to do some more digging to try and see who exactly owned the building where the opium den was based. It could be that it was leased without the owner’s knowledge, or it could be that the owner knew exactly what was happening.

He recalled the estate agent who was working with Caroline Derry and he thought he would ask his help. He set out to pay a visit to the estate agent while Felix talked to the bobbies to see if they had luck with distributing the sketch of Lyle Bowler.