The Mind's Eye.P3

Beginning of 'The Mind's Eye': https://wjr5oakley.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-minds-eyep1.html

Essie Vance [Whitney], Peter Graves [Jordan], Phillip Vance [Aaron]

Recap: They visited Michael Farr’s apartment and read his bloodied, crazed notes. And looked thru his telescope, not knowing exactly what to look for. They stopped at the Police Station but only heard retell of the same report the apartment manager, Dominica Cilauro, told. But Peter did find another police blotter entry about his stoolie, Frankie. They visited him and heard a fairy tale about jellyfish and tentacles. They visited Michael in the Arkham Asylum only to hear more blathering about “Stars… living… coming… not so far is it Mr. Farr.” And finished with a meeting where they were introduced to the SEU: Society for the Exploration of the Unexplained.

5pm Monday, April 24th: As the SEU members began to file out, the trio huddled regarding their current dilemma about Michael Farr, “I think we’ve hit a brick wall. Maybe some of these folks might be able to help.” They pulled aside Professor Avebury and summarized their discoveries. Avebury pondered, “Walnut Street. I seem to remember something about that name. Seems someone in our Engineering/Science Department has a project associated with them. I don’t see any of the Science members still around. Perhaps you should talk with Professor Krister (head of the Engineering Dept) who should be able to help.”

Science Hall Debate: They walked across campus, past the central Memorial Bell Tower (11) to the Science Hall (6). The interior directory listed Krister’s office on the 3^rd floor. Closed. Essie chimed in, “It is close to dinner time. Maybe he is in the cafeteria which was listed on the 2^nd floor.” And that’s where they found 2 older men with chalk in hand, in a heated debate at a blackboard, arguing over a formula. A 3^rd younger man stood to the side, taking notes. Essie approached the graduate assistant and whispered, “Is one of those men perhaps Professor Krister?” Chris Langford adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses as he paused in his notetaking, “Krister is the bald one with the gray goatee. He and Dr. Eckermann are trying to devise a new invention. An image projector. [TV].” Chris stopped mid-sentence, “Oh dear, I’ve said too much. You might be one of those spies from competing universities.”

Essie tuned her attention to the debate and added nonchalantly, “I’m nowhere near your level of expertise but I think Professor Krister has a point.” Bartholomew paused at the chalkboard to look up, “I don’t remember you in any of my classes. Brown-nosing will not get you a passing grade, missy.” Peter intentionally grabbed a metal chair and pulled it screeching noisily across the floor to plant it near the board. Like fingernails on a blackboard sound. THAT got everyone’s attention! “We just need a minute of your time regarding your project on Walnut Street.” That riled Professor Krister even more, “Walnut? My God, what has Duncan done now with that crazed project of his? Chris, handle this distraction.” And without further concern, the elder men re-started their debate.

Interrupted once more by Peter dragging the chair toward another table where he motioned Chris to join them. [Intimidate] Peter plopped his badge and gun on the table, "Fill us in Chris. Who is this Duncan and what is his involvement with lights on Walnut street? There is mass hysteria and hallucinations in the area. One man has already gone mad and scratched his eyes out.”

Chris nervously conceded, “I’m Professor Duncan’s grad-assistant. Well, I was till Professor K sent Duncan on a sabbatical. I think it just the stress of developing something so grand and pushing it through completion with installation ordered by the mayor himself. Professor K and the entire staff were baffled at Duncan’s radical design. If Krister had his way, and Duncan not tenured, he would have released/fired the man last year. But then Professor Graham Duncan suddenly began work on his new lights 12 months ago. Out of the blue. No notes I’d ever seen. No theories or debates with other scientists in the office. But these last weeks, Duncan became more agitated, nightmares, and making wild accusations of Dr. Eckermann trying to steal his project. Almost getting physical. That’s when Krister ordered his ‘vacation’ to cool off. Duncan stormed out and ordered me to help remove all his equipment from his basement workshop in the annex next door. Last I saw of him, 4 days ago, was he driving off in that truck.”

They encouraged Chris to take them to Duncan’s office. File cabinets emptied; the desk cleared. Nothing except for one newspaper clipping still in the picture frame on the wall. Special session of the city council where Mayor Peabody approved the new lights, beginning with installation on Walnut Street in the French Hills district. Chris led them to the adjacent Tyne Annex, “His workshop is in the basement. But like, I said, he had me help remove everything just days ago. Said he wasn’t going to let Eckermann steal his idea.” Sure enough, cleared out.

6:30pm, Duncan’s House: Before letting Chris off the hook, they weaseled Duncan’s address out of the frightened student. 125 Hill Street was on a row of old 2-story Victorian houses just south of campus. Phillip tried the front door but found it locked. In fact, secured with expensive foreign locks, “The man obviously paranoid.” No car or truck in the driveway. Essie was about to break a windowpane when Phillip warned, “Icks-nay or the breaks-ay. Neighbor.” Essie rapped on the door, “Mr. Duncan, might I interest you in an extended warranty on your new washer?” The neighbor explained, “I’m afraid you’ve missed him. He left early this morning in that truck. He must have traded his car in for it.” Essie bothered the woman, “Do you have a pen and paper that I might leave him a note?”

With the neighbor out of the way, the men broke in the back door. When Essie returned to stick her note on the door, Peter lightly tapped the door window from the inside to let her know. Essie made a grand display of walking away to then move the car around the block before returning down the back alley to enter the house.

With flashlights in hand, they first sought out the basement. Hundreds of shards of broken glass lie strewn amid overturned stools and benches. A baseball bat laid against a wall. Peter picked up the bat and noticed glass shards imbedding in it, “The man obviously went mad and destroyed evidence.” As they moved around, they stirred up a small dust cloud of off-white powder. Essie took time to examine the powder, “Feels mildly abrasive to the touch. It seems to be coated on the inside of the glass shards.” Phillip excused himself back upstairs before returning with a few envelopes, “His unclaimed mail. You can put samples in here.”

7:30pm: They roamed the rest of the house and found his study on the 2^nd floor. Bookcases reaching to the ceiling covered three of the walls. A window occupied the 4^th wall with an open roll-top desk beside it. A rolling stepladder gave access to the bookcases. Essie climbed and began looking for books that had been disturbed: maybe not pushed flush with the others or with less collected dust. Peter checked the desktop where he found: an ornate electrical lamp, recent photograph of Professor Duncan, and a stack of open books. “These are all philosophical treatises on perception: Descartes, Boyle, Locke and Voltaire. Duncan underlined specific passages regarding the nature of man’s perceptual faculties, and their interaction with reality. 

Here’s a picture of the human brain and a region that looks damn near the likes of the Egyptian god Rah as we found in the tomb beneath the Ziggurat. He’s highlighted the ‘Pineal Gland’.”

Maybe it was Phillip trying to break open the desk drawers. Maybe he bumped the ladder. Essie lost her balance and fell off the ladder while holding a book spine that caught her attention. She and the book crashed to the floor. Peter rushed to her aid, but she brushed him away as the book caught her eye, “Hidden cavity! His notebook inside.” 

She began flipping thru it. “He titled it ‘Research into a Perceptual Power Beyond the Five Known Senses.’ Pages torn out of the middle. Begins 12 months ago when a dark-skinned foreigner showed him how to make the lights using a powder to coat the filament. Excitement he was able to repeat the process and present HIS findings to the school and city engineers. The general gist of his thesis is that somehow he has become possessed of a new ‘higher sight’. Claims he can see a view of an alien world superimposed over his normal vision whenever a strong light source is present. Claims to see ‘Jellyfish and shadowy creatures which malignantly hover at the edge of my higher vision.’ But then his later entries dwell on his paranoia Eckermann out to steal his invention.”

And that’s when Phillip remembered the book he found in the desk drawer. A swollen bible. Curiosity got him to pull it out. Not water damage swollen; something glued between the last pages. He tore it open and found the missing pages of Duncan’s journal. “It’s a map to the cave he mentions.”

8:30pm, Plans: “It’s those damn lights causing all the problems. Let’s go bust them out!” Phillip suggested loosening the lamps’ baseplate so they could be toppled. Essie suggested just ramming them with the car. Peter’s plan was simple, “I’ll climb atop the car with the bat to then bash them as you drive past each one. But I think we should wait till midnight when the coast is clear. Only have to worry about workers returning home.” They spent the next few hours at a diner satisfying their growling stomachs. Phillip called home to explain to Marina the delay.

Midnight: They stopped on East College Street for Peter to climb on the car-top. Essie reached out the rear window to steady his perch as Phillip slowly turned onto Walnut. Where they spotted the milk truck parked mid-block. “Damn it. I forgot about Frankie delivering.” And that’s when they heard the horrific screaming. Peter jumped off the roof and ran toward the sound. Phillip parked and grabbed the sawed-off shotgun from under the seat. Essie got her rifle from the trunk.

[Sanity check] Peter was the first on scene at the alley, shuddering at the sight of Frankie engulfed in tentacles. He pulled his revolver and shot: he hit a tentacle but the grey void at the back of the alley also flared, momentarily revealing a HUGE mass (as large as if not larger than a truck). [another Sanity check] He instinctively backed up as another tentacle appeared and lashed out at him. Just out of reach. Phillip arrived to also witness the tentacles. He closed within 10 yards to blast with the shotgun. And again, the incorporeal creature flared into vision… its tentacle knocked Phillip off his feet and slammed him against the alley wall. Essie stood at the mouth of the alley and decided against using her riffle as the men in the way. She opted for her more accurate bow/arrow. And scored a hit. [Sanity check] which earned her momentary vision as the creature flared.

And that’s when Frankie was completely engulfed in the void. Out of sight but they could still hear his screams. Till silence. And then the slow reveal of Frankie slumped in the alley dead. The tentacles gone. The creature gone? [Sanity check] They all gagged at the sight of Frankie lacerated with multiple cuts. But worse: his head cleaved open; his brain exposed. As if surgical removal of an inner part of his brain. “His pineal gland was stolen!”

Distant police sirens approaching and the calls from local residents (“What’s going on? Who’s screaming and shooting?!”) refocused the trio, “We need to get out of here!” But they were cornered. No back alley exit; it was a dead-end. Peter calmly appeared on Walnut Street, “We were coming back to the apartments when we heard a man scream. He’s in the alley. I think it was a mob hit.” Essie appeared with a scarf over her head as she walked stiff legged (the rifle down her pant leg), “Horrible. Just horrible. The poor man.” She awkwardly climbed into their car when the police arrived. One officer leaned into the car window, “Sorry mam, I’ll need to question you. Don’t go anywhere.”

As Peter distracted the cops, flashing his PI badge, Phillip exited the alley and climbed into the car and drove away. One officer exclaimed, “Damn it! I told that woman to stick around.” Peter tried to defuse the situation, “I know her officer. She’s distraught at witnessing such a gruesome scene. I’ll bring her to the station for questioning.” Peter went on to explain his theory, “I’ve been tailing Frankie for weeks now. Bootlegger. His hooch is stashed behind the milk bottles in his truck. I can show you. Anyway, I think it was a rival gang trying to horn in on the local mafia’s turf.”

Phillip parked the car west on East College Street and walked back to observe. The greenish tint of the Walnut lights cast an eerie glow about his silhouette. But that is also how he saw another man standing in the foggy shadows. Just for a moment before the man slipped away. As for Peter, he kept his revolver in his armpit holster. No need to let the police find one bullet fired. At least no casing ejected into the alley.

7am Tuesday: Competing newspapers had their own theories of Frankie’s murder. One likened it to Londons’ famed Dr. Jekyll murder spree. Even mentioned sighting of a man roaming the area. Residents claimed he a psychiatrist just like Dr. Jekyll. Peter scoffed, “I think the reporter is putting words in the residents’ mouths. Unless the man personally told someone, how would they know he a doctor?” Essie was intrigued by the other article, “Probably more truth here, calling the residents ‘Guinea pigs’ under the new lights that were never tested before production. Peter, I think you had the right idea to bust those lights. We should go back and finish the task.” Peter corrected, “But first, you have a date with the police station. I told them I would bring you in for questioning. I told them it was a mob hit.”

NEXT SESSION: https://wjr5oakley.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-minds-eyep4.html