Doctor Who_ Foreign Devils - Andrew Cartmel [36]
might be in terrible danger.'
'We might all be,' said the Doctor matter of factly. 'But in the mean
time look at this.' He nodded to Carnacki who showed her the white
rag. There was a tiny red smudge on it.
'What is it? Blood?'
Carnacki shook his head. 'As far as we can tell it's some kind of indelible ink.'
'Not entirely indelible, though.' Carnacki showed her the small bottle. 'White spirits. Methyl alcohol. We managed to remove some with this.'
'So now we know what is causing the tattoos. Someone is drawing them on with this ink.'
'No. That's the odd thing,' said the Doctor. He turned to look at Mrs Upcott, sitting in her cold bath. 'It's only this one that shows any evidence of being drawn on with ink. The others actually appear to be pigmentation in the skin cells. Tattooed or something very like it.' 'So why is this one different?' said Zoe.
'Come and look at this,' said Carnacki. Zoe swallowed and joined him by the bathtub. Carnacki took the woman's right arm and gently moved it so Zoe could see the skin, delicate and flawless and pale as ivory with the faintest hint of blue indicating where a vein had once flowed. By lowering her wrist, Carnacki exposed the flesh on the inside of the elbow. 'Do you see that?' He offered Zoe the magnifying glass and this time she took it. 'See what?'
'There. Look.' Zoe saw it. The glass revealed a tiny blush of purple bruising, so faint as to be almost undetectable, and just the suggestion of an indentation. Zoe lowered the magnifying glass. 'What is it?' 'The mark of a needle,' said the Doctor. 'A rather large hypodermic needle.' He looked at the dead woman. 'Which accounts for the lethal sleep of the unfortunate Mrs Upcott.'
'Are you familiar with morphine?' said Carnacki to Zoe. 'It is one of the alkaloids of opium, and it is enormously potent.'
'You mean Mrs Upcott was an addict and she overdosed?'
The Doctor shook his head. 'There's no evidence of any other needle marks. We think someone else deliberately injected her and killed her.' 'And we think we know who,' said Carnacki. 'Who?' said Zoe.
'None other than her husband the distinguished surgeon, Pemberton Upcott, using a syringe from his medical bag and morphine from his pharmacoepia.'
Zoe looked at the dead woman in the tub and felt an odd rush of relief. 'So there was nothing supernatural involved after all.' 'Nothing supernatural?' snorted Carnacki. He pointed out the window at the infinite glowing void that now began where the garden ended. 'Oh yes,' said Zoe. 'That.'
Chapter Nine
The wine cellar of Fair Destine was reached by passing through a heavy oak door in the rear of the pantry and descending a long stone staircase. 'I understand there is a series of cellars under the house,' said the Doctor. 'Yes sir,' said Elder-Main. 'Even got one full of nothing but fireworks, for the celebration of special occasions. But this one, where we keep the wine, is walled off from the others with no access except up the stairs and through that one door, which as you see is fixed with a very heavy lock operated by that key you saw.'
'To keep the help out of the wine,' added Thor Upcott drily.
There were no windows in the wine cellar, just some narrow slits for ventilation, set high in the walls close to the ceiling. The place was predictably cold and shockingly damp. 'Just as well you're wearing your long johns,' said Thor.
His brother frowned at him and said nothing. Zoe had no idea if Pemberton really was wearing long johns, but he had