Written by David de Sola
DAY 3
"Truth fears no questions." -Anonymous
Gabriel went to the bathroom and washed his face. He then went downstairs to eat breakfast with Grace before she took off for class.
"So what's the plan, Gabriel?"
"Well, first, I'm going to check out these three names on the list, see if they know anything. Mosely should be arriving this afternoon to help me deal with the cops and try and get me some contacts. I should be back in the afternoon."
The two left their separate ways. Gabriel's first stop was the Sigma Pheta Pi sorority to check on Valerie Sayagh, the first and closest name on the list. He rang the doorbell of the house. A young girl in her early 20's answered, still sleepy, and leaning against the doorway for support. Her eyes were squinting tightly because the sudden burst of sunlight made her eyes feel as though she had front row seats at a nuclear test explosion. She was pretty good looking, considering she looked like she had spent the night in a washing machine. He allowed a single dirty thought to briefly flash through his perverse mind, then focused on what he came for. Answers.
"Hello?" she asked as she yawned.
"I'm sorry. My name is Gabriel Knight and I'm looking for Valerie Sayagh. Can I speak to her?"
"Valerie's not here now."
"Oh. Can I come back later."
"No, that's not what I meant. She took a leave of absence for the semester. She's undergoing drug and alcohol rehab back in Virginia. She'll be back in mid January."
"OK. Thank you very much. Goodbye." Gabriel said, as he scratched Valerie's name from the list. Gabriel proceeded to the Old Campus, where many of the freshmen dorms were. It was the oldest part of the Yale campus. He rang the buzzer for Edmond Finkelstein, the second name on his list.
"Yes?" the voice in the buzzer said.
"Hello. Is this Edmond Finkelstein?" Gabriel asked.
"Yes. Who is this?"
"Hello. My name is Gabriel Knight. I'd like to ask you a few questions."
"About what?"
"I'd like to address that to you in person if you don't mind."
"Hmmm....alright. Go up to the second floor. Fourth door on the right. That's my room. My room mate is out for class. He won't be back for another couple of hours. We should be undisturbed."
"Thank you." Gabriel said as he pushed the main door open.
Gabriel arrived at the designated door. He turned on his tape recorder and knocked on the door. A tall young man with long hair tied in a pony tail answered the door.
"Gabriel Knight?"
"That's correct. Nice to meet you Mr. Finkelstein."
"Nice to meet you too. Come in. What is it you want?"
Gabriel entered the room and sat down in a chair. He figured there was no other way to put it, so he just blurted it out.
"I'm investigating the Impalements. I did a little digging, and I found that you and two other students had a class with each of the victims. I want you to tell me about every one of them."
"Gosh..."Finkelstein said. "I liked all my professors. I didn't know the last one. The senior. But the professors were all great teachers. No doubt about it."
"Let's talk about the first victim. Professor Hessler. What classes did you have him for? What was he working on? Anything at all?"
"Well, I had him for my Origin of Western Languages class three times a week. We had just studied all the main branches of languages, Gothic, Romance, and so on. When I went to see him during office hours, he always had this huge stack of books on his desk and all these notes and stuff too. I think he was working on something, what it was I'm not exactly sure. Maybe you should talk to his secretary. Miss Wendy Roseworth? She might be able to help you more than I can."
"Great. What about Professor Bishop?"
"I had him for History of Eastern Europe. We covered everything from Poland to the Balkan region. We just finished studying Poland before the Thirty Years' War. He told me he was working on some book when I went to see him in his office. I don't know who was in charge of his appointments and stuff but I think you can ask at this office."
"And, the TA...Michael Gorinson?"
"Mike was the TA for my Chemistry class. We had just gone over Avogadro's Number and were going to study the carbon-14 dating process. You know, taking the half-life on an element and all that...He said that at the end of the unit, we would all be assigned into groups and would have to give the ages of a fossil and a document. Check with the graduate school if you want to know more about what he was up to."
"I know you told me this already, but is there anything at all you can tell me about Diana Bryant?"
"She was in my History of Eastern Europe class with Professor Bishop. Why she would take that class as an art history major, I don't know. You might want to talk to the art history department and ask them about it."
"OK. Thanks a lot, Mr. Finkelstein. Those were all my questions. If you remember anything else, call me at this number." Gabriel said as he handed over his business card. "The number is my cell phone, it's turned on 24 hours a day so you can reach me at anytime. Thank you again for your time. Goodbye." Gabriel said as he stepped out the door. When he stepped out of the building, he rewound the tape a little and played it again. The tape had recorded the entire conversation. Gabriel then went to check the last name on the list: Mallory Herzog. He walked over to Beinecke Plaza to her building.
Gabriel rang the intercom.
"Hello?"
"Hi. I'm looking for Mallory Herzog. Is she here?"
"No. She dropped out of school two weeks ago. Who is this?"
"Never mind..." Gabriel said as he walked away.
He wrote a note on the list to look up Herzog's home address from the University Student archive. He entered the Beinecke Rare Book Library to look around. The place was a little larger than St. George's but it had all the feel of a rare bookshop. He walked by the counter and saw that they had copies of his book The Voodoo Murders for sale. He quickly left the store before somebody recognized him. Gabriel headed to the Linguistics Department and asked for Wendy Roseworth, the late Professor Hessler's secretary. After following the appropriate directions, he found a middle-aged woman tearfully clearing out her desk.
"Excuse me, Miss Roseworth?" Gabriel asked as he turned on his recorder.
"Yes?" he asked, trying to hold back her tears.
"My name is Gabriel Knight. I'm investigating the deaths that have been going on around campus.."
"I already talked to the police.." she moaned.
"I'm not with the police. I'm investigating for...an outside party. I need to ask you some questions about Professor Hessler and his work. Are you up to it?"
"I guess so..."
"What was Professor Hessler like?"
"He was a very kind, very educated man. Always answered his students' questions. Always volunteered to help out at University functions. He was very respected by the faculty and the student body. Why anybody would kill him, I have no idea..." she answered, letting out a quiet sob.
"That's my job, Miss Roseworth, which is why I am here. What was Professor Hessler working on before he died?"
"I don't exactly know, but I believe he was translating something."
"What, a book, a document, what?"
"I don't know, but in recent weeks he had asked for dictionaries of all the known languages of the world and books on prehistoric cave paintings as well. They should all still be in his office."
"The police haven't searched his office?"
"Yes, but they didn't find anything. They stored all of his notes and deskwork in these boxes in the corner of his office. Everything else is where it should be.'
"Could I take a look inside?"
"Of course, Mr. Knight." she said as she got up and unlocked the door to the office. The office looked very similar to that of Professor Hartridge, the Tulane professor who helped him solve the Gedde veve' during the Voodoo Murders, the same professor Gabriel would find dead. Gabriel looked at the box first, since it was his recent work. He looked at some sheets of paper. They had these odd drawings on them, like something you would see in a kindergarten art class.
"Didn't the secretary say he had been looking at prehistoric cave art?" Gabriel thought to himself. He figured he could have to talk to an anthropology professor or somebody who might know more the contents of the box. Gabriel photocopied the sheets with the small xerox machine in the office. He found nothing else of interest, so he closed the box and the office after returning the notes and sheets. Gabriel thanked the secretary and walked to the history about this than he did. He took the sheets with the sketches and continued to sort through department. Gabriel asked for Professor Bishop's office. After much bickering, the receptionist finally agreed to open the office for Gabriel to inspect.
The office had been left intact since the day he died. All the books, all the notes, everything he was working on was exactly where he had left it. Gabriel looked at the notes first. He found notes on several medieval manuscripts, and notes on another manuscript whose name was not given. A series of odd symbols were on the page, but bore no resemblance to the ones Gabriel had taken from Professor Hessler's office. The books on the desk were even odder. One was on ancient monastic illuminated manuscripts. Another was on the historical development of art. Gabriel took the notes and left the office.
Gabriel kept walking to the Graduate School Admissions Office and asked to see the file on Michael Gorinson. The receptionist said that it was against school policy to see a student's confidential file. She did however give Gabriel the name of Gorinson's academic advisor, Dr. Anna Brevin, a Graduate professor with a Ph.D in biology. He headed to Dr. Brevin's office in the Graduate Biology school. He knocked on her door. An older woman opened the door.
"Yes?"
"Hello, Dr. Brevin. My name is Gabriel Knight. I'm investigating the deaths that have been happening on the campus recently. I want to ask you some questions on Michael Gorinson."
"All right...come in."
"Thank you Doctor." Gabriel said as he reached in his pocket and turned on his tape recorder. "I wanted to know what Michael was working on when he passed on and if he was working with anybody else."
"Well, Mr. Knight. Michael was a biochemistry major and he was very fascinated with dating historical and scientific artifacts. He had a Department authorization to use the carbon-14 dating machine over in the science building."
"Was he working with a manuscript with drawings or sketches similar to these?" Gabriel asked as he pulled out the notes he had gotten from Hessler and Bishop.
Dr. Brevin looked at the sheets. "I wouldn't know Mr. Knight. I was merely his academic advisor, not his work assistant. But like I said, one of the things he did for the University and for other historical institutions is that he dated artifacts using the carbon-14 process."
"I see...Thank you very much for your time, Dr. Brevin."
"You're welcome Mr. Knight. Goodbye." she said as she escorted Gabriel out of her office.
Gabriel decided he had done enough for the day and headed back to Grace's apartment. He knocked on the door, which to his surprise, was opened by his old friend Mosely.
"Mostly! How are you man?" he let his eyes subtly wander, and noticed that Mosely had gotten shorter on the hair and larger on the waistline. "Daaaaaamn, Mosely! You been eating too many beignets lately!"
"Ha ha, Knight. At least I’m not the skinny little twerp you always were, getting your ass handed to you on a regular basis for constantly bitching about your nightmares. Why I stuck up for you I’ll never know… Frankly, I should have pounded your ass into next year a long time ago…But what are friends for? I’m fine, Gabe. I just got here like half an hour ago. Grace is in the kitchen cooking dinner for us."
"Sweet." Gabriel said. "Do you know what's going on here?"
"Yeah. Grace showed me the papers. That is one sick puppy who's doing this."
"Tell me about it. Let's eat."
After dinner, Grace, Gabriel, and Mosely sat down at the table to discuss the day's plans.
"Alright Gabriel, what did you find out?"
"OK, first things first. The first name, Valerie Sayagh is on a semester leave of absence in some rehab clinic in Virginia. The second name, Edmond Finkelstein, I was able to talk to. He filled me in on everybody except Diana Bryant. The third name, Mallory Herzog, dropped out of school two weeks ago. "
"In other words, the exact same day the murders began?" Mosely asked.
"Precisely. Which does make her a possible suspect. Unlikely, but possible. Which is where you come in."
"How?"
"I need you to establish some contacts inside the police force. Do you anybody on any law enforcement agency in Connecticut?"
"Sure, I know this guy Jake Thornton. He used to be on NOPD. The guy was a conservative self-righteous arrogant prick. Insisted on dong everything by the book. Always saw things in black and white, never looked at the shades of gray in between. Graduated a year ahead of me at the academy. He transferred out to New York a few years ago. I heard he transferred again to some New England force, I'm not exactly sure which one. Why?
"Perfect. He's the chief investigator on the case for the Connecticut state police."
"I see...You want me to put in the good word for you?"
"I already met him. He thinks I'm a total asshole. I need you to get me information on the murders. Can't you invent some story that you're investigating the murders on behalf of your client in New Orleans, whose name you will not divulge. Did you bring a recording device?"
"Of course, Knight. I'm a PI now! But, yeah, I'll do it..."
"OK, have a seat, I’ll fill you two in on everything I’ve found out so far." Gabriel said, motioning to the couches in the living room. He told them everything he had found out from everybody he had interviewed. The whole explanation took just shy of forty-five minutes, because Grace insisted on taking meticulously detailed notes. It was times like this that Gabriel wanted to strangle her for her perfectionism. When he had finished, he asked "Now, do either of you have any theories about all these deaths?"
"What if....they were all working on some project TOGETHER? Or at least the same project, but individually?" Grace asked.
"Makes sense." Mosely responded. "The linguistics professor tries to decipher this project...The history professor tries to trace its origins, possibly a monastery, possibly from Eastern Europe...the TA tries to get an age on this project...but where does the last victim come in?"
"She was an art history major." Gabriel responds, after thoroughly checking his tapes. "She may have been studying the manuscript for some symbolism or reference or something to other cultures or artistic styles or something."
"OK, I can see how that would work, but why and how could someone or something kill all those people by impalement just for trying to decipher a stupid piece of paper?" Mosely asked.
"That is what we are here to find out, Mosely. But I do agree with you. The late Professor Bishop was a fairly large man, weighing over 300 pounds. Now...either you have a bunch of people working together, or we are dealing with one strong son-of-a-bitch psycho. " Gabriel answered. "The question now is where do we go from here?"
"Well, I think we need to find out what it was these people were working on. I can ask Professor Barclay tomorrow and show him these notes, see if he can identify the source. Mosely, you can go talk to that cop, see if he can give you any information. Gabriel, I need you to use your influence with that friend in a very high place to get information on Diana Bryant. You might want to go to the art history department to get some information on her. I think that's pretty much it. I'm going to get some shuteye...good night boys." Grace said.
"Good night." Gabriel and Mosely responded as she went to the bedroom.
The two men went to their designated spaces and slept. Gabriel began to dream.
The same dark figure appeared again. His gauntlet was again visible, but something more was revealed. An odd crown on his head was the most illuminated object in Gabriel's dream. The crown was laced with pearls all the way around, covered the head with a ort of velvet-like material, and in the centerpiece above the forehead, was a gold star, inside which was a square-shaped blood-red ruby. Again, the stranger picked Gabriel up, mumbled a strange word, Gabriel heard "Tzepezh" or something of the sort. A large stake erupted from the ground, and the stranger threw Gabriel on top of it. Gabriel stared at the stake protruding through his chest and screamed in shock. He woke up.
If you have any comments, you can email David de Sola at ddesola@emerald.tufts.edu.
In the meantime, return to the main Fan Fiction page...