Doctor Phillar and The Monster of Bela Doras... (Part One)

 

The old mill road would take them through several treacherous twist and turns, up into and through the woods for many miles before they would reach the township of Portshead on the other side of the Wintervale woodlands at the very edge of the sea. But on this cold, dark and rainy autumn afternoon fate would take a fateful turn. The long black coach slowly rolled to a stop on the muddy road, the coachman from beneath his covered perch and stepped out onto his floorboard to see a fallen tree in the middle of the road. He carefully got down from his seat and went to inspect it, but what he saw some thirty feet on the other side made his heart all but stop beating. The bridge that would take them safely across the Pines river had been completely washed away by the torrential rains. He returned to the coach, the six horse team were becoming impatient and began to fidget and snort, The coachman moved to the door and pulled himself up on the side step of the coach to see Doctor Gideon Phillar looking down at him.

“What is the problem, Maxwell?” He asked.

“There’s a fallen tree in the middle of the road Doctor Phillar sir, but beyond that the rain has washed Pine's river bridge completely away, we shall have to turn back to Northwich, we will not be arriving in Portshead in the evening as we had hoped sir!” He yelled.

“Very well then, get us back to Northwich as soon as possible.” He answered.

The coachman returned to the front of the four horse team and took the lead horse by the bridle and carefully guided them into a wide turn until the coach was facing in the opposite direction. He climbed back up into his seat as the rain continued to softly rap against the top of the coach, and then it was back to Northwich with them. Inside the coach Doctor Phillar and his young assistant each from their seat would stare out into the cold dark rainy afternoon, their business in Portshead would have to wait for another day, they would be returning home instead. Although the city of Northwich wasn’t a sprawling metropolis in any sense, it was home to over some twenty-two thousand citizens, and completely surrounded by the woodlands which covered most of the small valley beneath the Wintervale. As they arrived at the outskirts of Northwich nightfall was already long set in, and they could hear the sounds of a distant ringing bell, and as the long black coach once again slowly rolled to a stop, Maxwell the coachman, through the fog, could see a lantern approaching them. A tall, thin young man appeared in front of the team of horses, waving his lantern high into the air.

 “Who is in the carriage, sir?” He bellowed in a high-pitched voice.

Maxwell leaned forward in his seat.

“This is the coach of Doctor Gideon Phillar. What is your business here, young sir?” He shouted back.

“There was another body found tonight, a young woman, in the alley behind the Grimsby Tavern! Murder is in the air this night, sir! Murder most foul!” The young man cried.

Doctor Gideon Phillar climbed down from the coach, careful to step on the grass beside of the road rather than be sent sprawling into the mud. A younger man in his company followed suit, He was shorter than six foot, he too was thin, with long black wildly flowing locks, wearing a well tailored suit, rounded spectacles sat on the bridge of his nose. He, too, stepped down onto the wet grass.

“Murder you say young man?” Doctor Phillar asked him. 

“Yes Doctor Phillar. Behind the Grimsby tavern, another young woman with her very flesh torn open, as though she were ravaged by a wild beast, sir! Murder most foul, I say!” He yelled.

Sebastian Mills turned to face Doctor Phillar.

“Another young woman, Gideon. This would be the fourth in as many nights, it would appear as though there IS a murderer in our midst.” He said in a concerned tone.

“Do not say that too loud young Sebastian Inspector Pendergrass often consults with the Reverend Ellery Carroll on such matters, they will no doubt have the entire city in search of monsters and ghoulish abominations of every sort.” He turned to face Maxwell Jasons. “We must go to the Grimsby tavern quickly then, Maxwell, we must be allowed to survey the scene before the Reverend Carroll’s flock destroys valuable evidence.” He told the coachman.

They all returned to the coach, Doctor Phillar and Sebastian Mills both returned to the passenger compartment, while the young man with the lantern sat up front beside of Maxwell. He urged the horse team forward just as the rain began to slow, inside the coach, Doctor Gideon Phillar loaded tobacco into his pipe and lit it as he stared out into the falling night. By the small vibrations coming through the floor boards he could tell that they were now traveling the cobblestoned streets of Northwich, they stopped on Innsbrook avenue just east of Crullfeld street. As anticipated, the good Reverend Ellery Carroll was already addressing a quickly growing crowd. With torches held high, many were calling out for answers, answers that the Northwich police department had not yet discovered. Doctor Phillar stepped down from the coach followed by Sebastian Mills, Standing to the left of and behind the Reverend Carroll was a tall slenderly built, well-dressed man, he had brown hair that traveled to his collar and had dark green piercing eyes, that seemed to see everything around him all at once. As they drew closer, Doctor Phillar could see that it was Inspector Nathaniel Pendergrass. The two exchanged a casual greeting as the Inspector ushered them into the dark alley.

“I’ve been expecting you Gideon, The body has already been transported to the morgue, but I can show you where we found her, a dastardly deed to be certain, there are no footprints, the killer has left nothing behind to betray his identity, the villain once again has left no trace.” He said.

Behind them in the mouth of the alley, the Reverend Ellery Carroll’s voice was raised to a fevered pitch, calling for the head of the monster that had butchered the four women. The crowd was captivated by his tone and began to shout in agreement, Doctor Gideon Phillar however, was not convinced at all that this was the work of an inhuman monster- but that of a calculating, cold-blooded murderer. He and Sebastian Mills walked from the opposite end of the alley, Inspector Nathaniel Pendergrass then carrying a torch also followed along, Gideon motioned for him to bring the light closer and the Inspector handed him the torch, he knelt down at the edge of the street under the window awning of the building across from the now closed Grimsby tavern, slowly he lowered the torch closer to the cobblestone.

“There!” He pointed. “Human blood beneath this awning, not yet washed away by the rain, The murderer must have passed this way.” He raised his finger, pointing across the street. “He would not have passed by any of these buildings during business hours for fear of detection, my guess would be that he crossed over into that vacant lot over there and escaped undetected through those trees on the other side.” He said.

Together he and Sebastian Mills with Inspector Pendergrass in tow walked to the edge of the vacant lot. There was nothing there in the grass and weeds to speak of, but farther out in the lot where the ground became muddy he found what he was looking for. A series of large footprints moving away from the murder scene, very large footprints, fifteen or perhaps even sixteen inches in length. And very wide. He lowered the torch to the ground to afford himself a better look, his eyes rose to scan the darkened forest, it was almost as if he could feel the killer's eye studying their every move. He motioned for Sebastian to move closer and instructed him to make notations by torchlight as he relayed important information to him.

“These footprints are very large, much larger than those of a normal man, they are quite deep and there are severely rounded indentations on the heels and the sides of the foot, suggesting that whoever made these prints may suffer from a severe deformity on both feet.” He stood slowly. “If these were indeed made by our murderer, I can tell you two things positively, Inspector. Whoever committed these heinous acts is very, very large, and at the time that he made good his escape-he was barefoot. I would very much like to inspect that body now.” He told him.

They returned to the black coach where Maxwell was waiting for them, they all boarded after Inspector  Pendergrass had instructed Maxwell on where to take them. They travelled along the cobblestone street down Upchurch Avenue until they reached the six story red brick building at 1411 Pemberton Row that housed the police department. Maxwell stopped the coach and the three men got out and proceeded to the front entrance. The morgue was at the bottom of the side stairwell they entered the double wooden doors as Pendergrass led Phillar and Sebastian to the table where the body was being stored, Pendergrass nodded to the coroner and he pulled back the sheet covering the body. Almost immediately Phillar took notice of something, there were several stab wounds in the chest and lower abdomen, the cuts that were ripped open were actually the result of the murderer using a dull blade rather than a sharpened one, there were strangulation marks on her throat but her neck wasn’t broken, and then he would find the biggest clue of all, underneath her fingernails there were pieces of flesh. Doctor Gideon Phillar slowly looked up at Inspector Pendergrass and then at Sebastian Mills. He stood upright.

“The first women in each of their attacks suffered broken necks.” He returned the cover over the body. “She did not have a broken neck, but our murderer did attempt to strangle her. The flesh under her fingernails tells me that she tried to fight back, but it only served to anger him further and that is when he stabbed her multiple times. The dull blade ripped away her flesh every time he stabbed her, in a severe upward motion. which tells me that he was much taller than her,  well over six foot, maybe even closer to seven.. So Inspector- what we are left with is we have a very, large murdering fiend on our hands, he is a very very large man, with severe deformities on both feet, and perhaps on his body and head as well, and the most dangerous aspect of all involving our killer is he is filled with a terrible rage, and given the opportunity he will kill again, of that I am quite certain.”

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