Doctor Who_ Foreign Devils - Andrew Cartmel [25]
'And the door was locked and there was no reply,' said Carnacki.
'Yes, so I began to get worried about the old fellow. And finally I forced the door, or had it forced, and found him like this.' 'Exactly like this?' said Carnacki.
'The room has been restored to exactly the way we found it.' 'You didn't move the body?'
'Yes I did, of course I did. To make sure that he was . . . gone. But I restored it to its former position, as nearly as I could.'
Carnacki nodded, satisfied. 'What makes you think it wasn't natural causes?'
'This,' muttered Pemberton. He rolled the body over to reveal that the Colonel had acquired what looked like the tattoo of a miniature red dragon in the centre of his forehead.
'Hmm, yes, that does seem fairly unequivocal,' said the Doctor.
'So that's as much as I know,' said Pemberton. 'Now I am available if you should need anything, but otherwise I'll leave you to your investigation.' He turned and went out, closing the door behind him. Crouching by the body, Carnacki, rose to his feet again and began to pace the length of the carpet. The Doctor went and looked at the body again, then up at Zoe. 'Colonel Red in the Billiard Room,' he said quietly.
Carnacki stopped pacing and gave a sharp frown of puzzlement. 'I thought his name was Marlowe.'
The Doctor smiled. 'Forgive me. I was just thinking of something else.'
'I know what you mean though, Doctor.' said Zoe. 'It is like a classic murder mystery.'
'I don't see what's so classic about it,' said Carnacki. He bent over the body and took a leather case from the pocket of his tweed jacket. From this he drew a magnifying glass. 'It's brutal and sordid and terribly commonplace.' He held the magnifying glass over the tattoo of the red dragon. 'Except for this.' 'It's a clue,' said Zoe drily.
'I hate to sound so conventional,' said the Doctor, 'but maybe the best thing for us to do is simply to send for the police.'
Zoe shook her head. 'No chance, I'm afraid. The blizzard has cut us off. And the telephone is out of order, which is hardly surprising considering the lightning strike and the primitive state of the equipment in the first place.'
Carnacki smiled wanly. 'Primitive state?' He looked up at Zoe. 'The Post Office wouldn't like to hear that, Miss.' He turned away from the body with a sense of relief, as though he'd discharged an unpleasant duty. His smile brightened and Zoe realised that he was an attractive man. 'You ought to be asking awkward questions like that in Parliament. Are you a suffragette by any chance?'
'I'm well beyond being a suffragette,' said Zoe.
'By the way,' said the Doctor. 'How did you glean all this informa
tion? About the telephone and so on?'
'I heard the servants talking.'
Carnacki peered at her thoughtfully. 'You say that as if you're not a servant yourself.' Zoe felt her cheeks reddening. She felt she'd been caught out in her imposture.
The Doctor intervened. 'Zoe is my travelling companion. Circumstances have compelled her to pass incognito in this household.' Carnacki seemed to accept this. He took another leather case from another tweed pocket and unfolded it to reveal a yellow linen tape measure. 'I believe I shall take some measurements.' 'Excellent idea,' said the Doctor.
Carnacki kneeled on the floor while Zoe and the Doctor wandered to the opposite end of the room for a confidential conference. 'Doctor,' murmured Zoe, 'that dragon . . . '
'I know. It's strikingly similar to the one we saw tattooed on Roder
ick Upcott.'
'About a hundred years ago.'
'Exactly a hundred years ago.' He glanced back at the corpse. 'Except Roderick's dragon was green and this one is red.'
The Doctor frowned thoughtfully. 'Which is to say, its spectral opposite in terms of colour. I wonder if that's significant?'
Carnacki came and joined them, jotting measurements down in a