BooksBarbecue
Back The Art of Dying Save as PDF
Chapters (90)
  1. PROLOGUE
  2. 1849
  3. ONE
  4. TWO
  5. EDINBURGH
  6. THREE
  7. FOUR
  8. FIVE
  9. SIX
  10. SEVEN
  11. EIGHT
  12. NINE
  13. TEN
  14. ELEVEN
  15. TWELVE
  16. THIRTEEN
  17. FOURTEEN
  18. FIFTEEN
  19. SIXTEEN
  20. SEVENTEEN
  21. EIGHTEEN
  22. NINETEEN
  23. TWENTY
  24. TWENTY-ONE
  25. TWENTY-TWO
  26. TWENTY-THREE
  27. TWENTY-FOUR
  28. TWENTY-FIVE
  29. TWENTY-SIX
  30. TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. TWENTY-NINE
  33. THIRTY
  34. THIRTY-ONE
  35. THIRTY-TWO
  36. THIRTY-THREE
  37. THIRTY-FOUR
  38. THIRTY-FIVE
  39. THIRTY-SIX
  40. THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. THIRTY-NINE
  43. FORTY
  44. FORTY-ONE
  45. FORTY-TWO
  46. FORTY-THREE
  47. FORTY-FOUR
  48. FORTY-FIVE
  49. FORTY-SIX
  50. FORTY-SEVEN
  51. FORTY-EIGHT
  52. FORTY-NINE
  53. FIFTY
  54. FIFTY-ONE
  55. FIFTY-TWO
  56. FIFTY-THREE
  57. FIFTY-FOUR
  58. FIFTY-FIVE
  59. FIFTY-SIX
  60. FIFTY-SEVEN
  61. FIFTY-EIGHT
  62. FIFTY-NINE
  63. SIXTY
  64. SIXTY-ONE
  65. SIXTY-TWO
  66. SIXTY-THREE
  67. SIXTY-FOUR
  68. SIXTY-FIVE
  69. SIXTY-SIX
  70. SIXTY-SEVEN
  71. SIXTY-EIGHT
  72. SIXTY-NINE
  73. SEVENTY
  74. SEVENTY-ONE
  75. SEVENTY-TWO
  76. SEVENTY-THREE
  77. SEVENTY-FOUR
  78. SEVENTY-FIVE
  79. SEVENTY-SIX
  80. SEVENTY-SEVEN
  81. SEVENTY-EIGHT
  82. SEVENTY-NINE
  83. EIGHTY
  84. EIGHTY-ONE
  85. EPILOGUE
  86. HISTORICAL NOTE
  87. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  88. Extract from A Corruption of Blood
  89. 1850
  90. ONE

‘Typically, Archie would drop some chloroform onto a handkerchief and inhale it to aid sleep. Contrary to the nonsense you might have read in the newspapers, it would not immediately overwhelm him. He would put the stopper back on the bottle and then wait for the fumes to take effect. Normally he would place it on his bedside table, but he was very weak, and on this occasion it appears he fell asleep before he could do so. When Mr Jarvis found him, the bottle appeared to have rolled from his hand, minus its stopper, hence the fatal spillage.’

‘Merely rolling on its side would not dislodge a glass stopper,’ McLevy protested. ‘I’ll show you,’ he added, moving towards Findlay, presumably intending to demonstrate the force necessary to dislodge it.

‘Wait,’ Simpson warned, stopping his hand before it could reach the bottle.

‘For what?’ McLevy asked.

Simpson merely held up a palm. The room fell silent, all eyes upon the vessel in Findlay’s hand. They waited, Raven barely daring to breathe, the prospect of his freedom bound up in whatever might happen next.

Then the stopper dislodged itself from the neck with a pop and tumbled to the floor, landing with a piercing ring. Findlay dropped the bottle in his fright, Jarvis demonstrating remarkable reflexes in grabbing it before it could spill or even smash.

‘The heat from Archie’s hand caused the chloroform to expand,’ said Simpson, ‘and the build-up of volatile fumes forced the stopper from the bottle. His death was nobody’s intention, but rather the result of an unfortunate accident.’

SEVENTY-FOUR

logo missinghe hour was late when I chose my moment. The longer I waited, the less likely it seemed that Dr Raven would return that night; but equally, I knew that if I waited too long, she might die before I could take my chance.

It was one of the reasons I insisted on being resident with my patients. Night was when I was left as their sole carer, with nobody else awake. Where possible, I always ensured it was in the hours of darkness that they died.

You might assume this was in order to conceal my part in their deaths, with relatives waking to find their loved one had died in the night while they slept. In truth, that was barely the half of it, a mere practical consideration. The real reason was that I might taste the greatest conceivable pleasure.

On occasion, I have killed out of necessity, sometimes out of misadventure or curiosity, and sometimes out of vengeance. But mostly I have killed so that I might experience the voluptuous delight of holding someone as they die.