The regular reader might be forgiven for supposing no further calamity could befall the beleaguered Darken’s Silhouette Parlour, Orange Grove, following the twin misfortunes of a client’s violent demise and the proprietor’s discovery of a murdered body less than a month afterwards. Fate, however, proves capricious, and it is this paper’s solemn duty to report the sad expiration of a female child upon the very premises.

It will be recalled that on the 23rd September this year Miss Darken, native to Bath, was the last known person to see the late Solomon Boyle, of Queen Square, alive. The unfortunate gentleman’s remains were found mutilated in the Gravel Walk not one week later.

A further mistreated corpse was discovered buried beneath snow in Royal Victoria Park on 18th October. The body was later identified as belonging to one Edward Lewis of Weston. At the time, Sergeant Redmayne of the Central Police Station, Market Place, advised this paper that a connection between Boyle’s and Lewis’s killings was probable, given the identical method of execution, which was uncovered despite concerted efforts on the part of the murderer to conceal it. Each gentleman suffered a single, horizontal laceration to the throat.

The latest instalment in this serial of tragedy took place on 3rd December, when police were summoned to Orange Grove and later dispatched from thence to Walcot Street, in order to investigate the sudden death of eleven-year-old Miss Meers.

Miss Meers, a child known to Miss Darken, was a professed ‘spirit medium’, living and trading on Walcot Street in the company of her elder half-sister, Miss West. The observant reader will recognise Miss West’s name in connection to yet another death: the drowning of Commander Hargreaves in mid-October. Miss West allegedly spotted the Commander’s body in the water whilst crossing Dredge’s Victoria Bridge and raised the alarm. She was present when the corpse was finally stopped and retrieved at Weston Lock.

However, the attractive appearance and outward virtue of Miss West proved to be a fallacy.

It transpired that on the afternoon of 3rd December, just hours before she was due to perform the mummery of another séance, Miss West assailed her invalid stepfather with a knife. The child Miss Meers, having witnessed this attack, fled from her family home to the misguided refuge of Darken’s Silhouette Parlour. Before the night closed, Miss Meers would prove to be Miss West’s second victim, falling prey not to the blade, but to the cowardly weapon of poison.

Miss Darken witnessed the collapse of her young guest around dusk and, unable to revive her, called upon the services of Dr Carfax of Alfred Street. As would be expected, the trained medical eye quickly spotted signs of foul play in the untimely death. A post-mortem examination revealed that the child had suffered from chronic phosphorus poisoning through the prolonged ingestion of match heads.

Prompted by motives of wickedness the reader will scarcely be able to credit, Miss West, herself a former match girl, had been crushing and concealing the toxic articles in her sister’s victuals over the course of nearly four months. The aim was to produce a phosphorescent glow – or ectoplasm, to the credulous – which could fool the most ardent of ghost-grabbers. The murderess’s success was equalled only by her rapacity. This paper can reveal that Miss West’s name appears on the register of more than one Burial Club in the local area. Had her plans to kill Mr Meers and his child gone undetected, she would have stood to gain the substantial amount of £30 following their deaths – a sum more than sufficient to cover a simple child’s funeral costed at approximately £2.

No further definite information has been obtained at the time of going to print, but this paper takes it upon itself to predict that the fair murderess will stand indicted for a number of additional charges. The deductive mind cannot help but remember that Mr Boyle and Mr Lewis received wounds consistent with a knife attack. Moreover, both gentlemen can be connected to Miss Darken – a lady whom, neighbours in Walcot Street report, Miss West nursed a peculiar antipathy towards and twice threw out of her premises.

Could it be that the bewitching but dangerous Miss West sought to cast suspicion on an enemy through her actions? This paper will offer no further speculation, but awaits with impatience the next official report from our city’s esteemed Police Force.