Philip Kerr - Dark Matter

“No more things should be presumed to exist than are absolutely necessary,” I construed.

“Exactly so. It is the principle of William of Occam, our brilliant and rebellious countryman who wrote vigorously against the Pope, as well as much idle metaphysics. He was a great freethinker, Ellis, who helped to separate questions of reason from questions of faith, and thus laid the foundations for our modern scientific method. Upon his razorlike maxim we shall cut this case into exactly two halves. Fetch me some cider. My head has a sudden need for apples.”

I poured some cider for my master, which he drank as if he really did seek to stimulate his brain. Then, seating himself again, and taking up pen and paper, he wrote down what he called the bare bones of the case. After which he put more metaphorical ashes upon his head and declared himself properly penitent for his earlier lack of apprehension. And yet I thought that his avowed lack of earlier understanding could hardly compare with my own that still continued unabated; at least until he spoke again.

“This is the second time today I have found myself at fault,” he reported. “And I am right glad that only you are here to witness it, Ellis, and not that damned German or that awful dwarf, Hooke. They would be delighted to see me so easily tricked.”

“Tricked? How so?”

“Why, it’s just as you said yourself. I have been diverted, have I not? Cast your mind back a few months, Ellis. What case were we investigating when Mister Kennedy was killed?”

“Those golden guineas,” said I. “The ones that were done with the d’orure moulu process. A case that remains unsolved.”

“You see, you were quite right. I was diverted. As someone meant me to be diverted. Someone who knew me well, I think. For those hermetick clues were for my benefit. And I now believe that those other messages — the ones that were enciphered — were for someone else.”

“Then why did we first find the cipher when Mister Kennedy was murdered?” I asked. “Alongside other hermetic clues?”

“Because I believe that whoever killed Kennedy had no understanding of the code,” explained Newton. “For there is much that is contradictious between our first enciphered message and the second; and yet the underlying elements are the same.”

“Are you suggesting that Major Mornay’s murderer did not kill the other three?”

“Merely that he did not kill Kennedy and Mercer. For only those two murders have the peculiar alchemical flourishes that were designed to intrigue me. Whoever killed Major Mornay only wanted him dead and out of my sight.”

“But why?”

“We should need to solve the cipher to know that,” said Newton.

“So you believe that whoever killed Kennedy and Mercer merely wanted to lead you away from those golden guineas.”

“Kennedy was killed because he was set to watch Mercer. Mercer was killed because he was being watched. Because he might have given away the names of his fellow coiners.”

“This is most confusing,” said I.

“On the contrary,” said Newton. “My hypothesis agrees with the phenomena very well, and I confess I begin to see the light.” He nodded firmly. “Yes, I think it very probable because a great part of what we have seen easily flows from that which would otherwise seem inexplicable.”

“If you do not think that Major Mornay’s killer is responsible for the deaths of Kennedy and Mercer,” said I, “what do you think of him for George Macey’s murder?”

“I like him very well for it. But there is no evidence. Therefore I can frame no hypothesis. In truth I have much neglected what I do know about George Macey.”

Newton got up from his chair and walked over to the bookshelf where the Mint records were kept, as well as several numismatic histories, account books, law reports, Mister Violet’s Commons Report of 1651, and the small library that George Macey had owned, being a Latin primer, a book on mathematics, a book on the French language, and a book of shorthand.

“It is not possible to know much about him now,” said I.

“Except that his reading showed a commendable desire for self-improvement,” said Newton. “It is always best that a man educate himself. The superior education is the one wrought from private study. Even I taught myself mathematics. And yet I wonder that Mister Macey wished to learn French. My own French is less than perfect. For I like the French not at all.”

“Since we are still at war with them,” I said, “I cannot fault you for that, Doctor.”

Ignoring Melchior, who wrapped his tail around Newton’s hand like a whore’s shawl, Newton picked up Mister Macey’s French grammar, blew the dust off the cover — which was always considerable in the Mint office, from the constant vibration of the coining presses, not to mention the cannon — and turned the pages of the book. To my surprise, for I knew Newton had already examined the book once before, he found a paper that was pressed between the leaves.

“It’s a bookseller’s account,” said Newton. “Samuel Lowndes, by the Savoy.”

The Savoy was a great town house on the south side of the Strand, with grounds stretching down to the river. Most of it was given over to a hospital for sick and wounded seamen and soldiers, so that the whole area teemed with men recently returned from the war in Flanders — some of them terribly mutilated by grapeshot or bursting charge; and there were several poor wretches that I saw who were missing limbs or parts of their faces.

The remainder of the building was leased out to a French church, the King’s Printing Press, two gaols — both full — some private lodgings, and a number of shops that included Samuel Lowndes, the bookseller.

Mister Lowndes was a slight figure of a man, with an urchin’s face and a most obsequious manner so that the minute Newton and I came through his door, he pulled off his apron, put on his wig and coat, and, with wringing hands, waited upon the Doctor in a most servile, cringing way.

“I want a bookseller,” muttered Newton. “Not a Lord Chamberlain.”

“Doctor Newton,” exclaimed Mister Lowndes. “Why, sir, what a very great honour you do my shop by coming into it. Do you search for something in particular, sir?”

“I search for information about a customer you had last year, Mister Lowndes. A Mister George Macey, who worked for His Majesty’s Mint in the Tower. As I do myself.”

“Yes, I recall Mister Macey. Indeed, now I come to think more upon it, it’s almost a year since I have seen him. How is Mister Macey?”

“Deceased,” Newton replied bluntly.

“I am right sorry to hear it.”

“There were certain circumstances about Mister Macey’s death which show the grim character of homicide,” explained Newton. “And it touching upon the business of the Mint, we consider it a matter imperative to speak to all who can shed some light as to what his habits were. We have recently discovered that he was customer of yours, Mister Lowndes. Therefore I would be grateful if you could assist me by bending your recollection to other people you might have seen him with; some names he may have mentioned to you; or perhaps even the books he bought.”

Mister Lowndes looked most discomfited by the news of Macey’s murder; and yet he quickly did as Newton had asked and straightaway consulted a ledger book that contained a record of all his customer accounts.

“He was a pleasant man,” said Mister Lowndes, turning the ledger’s thick pages. “Not an educated one like yourself, Doctor. But a conscientious one; and governed by a Christian sense of duty.”

“Very commendable, I’m sure,” murmured Newton.

Mister Lowndes found the page he had been searching for. “Here we are, sir,” he said. “Yes, he purchased several books of a didactic nature, as you can see for yourself. And one that surprised me very much, being so unlike the others. Also, it was expensive. Very expensive for a man of his means.”