the moment.” She waved the issue aside. “You were in the process of giving me some background material that relates to our investigation. Pray continue.”
Joshua looked briefly torn, as if he wanted to argue about his passions or lack thereof. Beatrice waited politely.
In the end he abandoned the topic.
“Emma shared Lancing’s fascination with chemistry and Egyptian antiquities,” he said.
“Go on,” Beatrice said quietly.
“In the course of an excavation in Egypt they discovered a tomb. Inside they found a most unusual sarcophagus. There was no mummy inside. They also discovered a statue of Anubis. The eyes of the figure—presumably two gemstones—were missing. There was a papyrus inside the sarcophagus. When Emma deciphered the hieroglyphs, she and Lancing realized that they had found an ancient formula designed to preserve human bodies. They both became obsessed with the possibility of re-creating it.”
“Why on earth would they want to create an embalming formula?” Beatrice asked.
“According to the papyrus, the chemicals had astonishing properties. In fact, the formula had the power to awaken the dead.”
“Magic.” Beatrice tut-tutted. “I cannot believe that two intelligent people of the modern age—people with an extensive understanding of science—could believe in such nonsense.”
“They were both skeptical at first,” Joshua said. “But their experiments on rats led them to believe that the Egyptian Water, as they called the formula, actually might work. They were convinced that the preservative fluid had paranormal properties.”
“Don’t try to tell me that they actually succeeded in bringing some dead rodents back to life,” Beatrice asked. “That’s absolute rubbish.”
“They never succeeded in reviving a dead creature but the Egyptian Water did have some astonishing properties. If you looked at a rat that had been preserved in the fluid you would swear that it was in a state of hibernation. It was—” Joshua hesitated, searching for the word. “It was uncanny.”
“But the rats that were preserved in that fashion stayed dead,” Beatrice insisted.
“Yes. Emma and Lancing, however, were convinced that they were only a step away from success. They believed that the secret lay in the paranormal properties of the eyes of the Anubis statue they had discovered.”
“The gemstones that you said were missing?”
“Right,” Joshua said. “They began an intensive search for the eyes.”
“I’m surprised they believe that there would be anything left to revive,” Beatrice said. “After all, the traditional Egyptian manner of preserving the dead involved removing most of the organs and the brain.”
“This was an entirely different process. According to the papyrus, time was of the essence. The newly deceased were to be immersed immediately in a chemical bath that supposedly plunged them into a state of suspended animation. They remained in the Egyptian Water until healed of whatever disease or injury had caused their death. Later they could be revived with the energy infused in the Anubis statue.”
Beatrice shook her head. “Madness.”
“Yes.” Joshua turned back to face her. “Their obsession with the Egyptian Water did become a form of madness, at least as far as Lancing was concerned. He began carrying out human experiments.”
Beatrice flinched in shock. “Dear heaven.”
“He selected his victims from among the poorest and most wretched of street people. When Emma discovered that he was murdering innocent people in his quest, she was horrified. She made the mistake of confronting him. He made her a prisoner in his mansion. Victor finally realized that his daughter was in grave danger. He sent me to rescue Emma. I arrived too late.”
“What happened?”
“Emma tried to escape on her own,” Joshua said. “Lancing caught her. In his madness he thought that she was running to me, that she loved me. He thought she had betrayed him. He strangled her. I found her body on the floor of the laboratory. Lancing appeared. He said Emma was dead because of me. He said he had been waiting for me, that we were all going to die together. He set off the explosion.”
“It was a trap,” Beatrice whispered. “But you survived.”
He looked at his cane. “To this day, I’m not sure how I made it into that stone hallway in time. The walls protected me to some extent from the full force of the explosion. But the blast was followed by a fire.”
“How did you escape?”
“My memories of what happened after the explosion are more in the nature of fever dreams. Lancing kept a lot of powerful chemicals in his laboratory, including that incense you encountered last night. The blast and the fire released fumes into the atmosphere. I used my shirt to cover my mouth and nose