The Ancient Craft

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Detective Brooks interviewed, amongst others, the quaintly named Angelina Smythe-Baker, and given the surgeon’s reputation, it was no surprise that she declared her undying love for him, together with the news that they were shortly to announce their engagement. The fact that the doctor was living with his wife of twenty years seemed to have no bearing on her conscience.

Brooks would not have called the actress stupid – scatter-brained would be more apt. When he asked her about the doctor’s widow, she breezily replied that the affair was not a secret, and that Jessica Vandermeer had already agreed to a divorce. Angelina was, he admitted to himself, very attractive, and Brooks knew she would have a strong allure to a mid-forties male like Vandermeer. He had recognised her immediately as a star in one of the teenage dramas on television. She was in fact twenty-two, but her long blonde hair and child-like face made her believable as a fifteen-year-old. Brooks had a wife and two teenage daughters who often demanded the latest episode be viewed during the evening meal, and, whilst he would have preferred the national news, the three-to-one vote was overwhelming.

It was during the initial investigation at the crime scene (as Brooks now referred to it) that he had seized one piece of evidence that he initially felt was inconsequential, but which might become a crucial piece of evidence in the subsequent trial. Looking through the doctor’s briefcase, he had discovered an empty metal flask – empty apart from a residue of what appeared to be some type of foul-smelling liquid. His wife confirmed that each morning the deceased had concocted a health drink that he had proudly described to one and all as his ‘elixir of life’.

Not much of an elixir, Brooks had thought to himself as he nodded sympathetically to the widow after her husband’s body had been removed.

He had later spoken to the senior analyst at the government forensic laboratory, asking him to retain some of the residue in the container in the event that he was not able to come up with any positive result. After receiving negative results, Brooks had the exhibit taken to a highly specialised laboratory in one of the old sandstone universities with a specific request to search carefully for anything unusual.

It was ten days later that he received a phone call from the elderly professor that he had spoken to earlier. It was then that Brooks requested the senior analyst conduct further tests on the deceased’s organs, to confirm the presence of a specific substance in his system.

Ironic how the smallest piece of evidence can be the cornerstone of the whole case, he mused to himself.