The Madman's Room

‘That said, I shall, without further ado, get to the heart of the matter and attempt to explain each event in this imbroglio in chronological order. We shall start with the case of Harvey Thorne. A very strange individual, the details of whose life come to us via several successive testimonies, which doesn’t help us very much. As an aside, I must tell you that quite often an obscure case has, as its point of departure, another obscure case which was the result of an incredible sequence of coincidences. That’s the only explanation I can offer for finding a shred of logic in this extraordinary story of the premonitions of great-uncle Harvey. He announces to his family and his descendants that they will perish by fire and, as bad luck would have it, some of them do die in that manner. A coincidence — but it will be the only one — which will be turned into a curse and result in the sealing of the writer’s room. It’s possible to interpret the words of the dying man: “Will perish… sinned… will perish by fire… will perish by fire,” which probably changed through time, but I remain convinced that they were indeed a warning about death by fire. Which is what most people thought, and is quite understandable.’

Twist paused for a moment to re-light his pipe and continued:

‘Harvey Thorne was found dying on the door sill of his room, mad with rage and pain. The victim of a heart attack, according to the doctors. I draw your attention to the fact that the testimony about the wet carpet was not provided by the family, but by the domestic staff.’

Twist shot the inspector a mischievous glance.

‘And here I must confess, Hurst, that you were a great help.’ The inspector puffed out his chest, despite being perplexed. ‘Thanks to you throwing one of my envelopes onto the fire and then spilling tea on my tablecloth, I found the solution to that particular puzzle, which was staggeringly simple.

‘Let’s pose the problem another way: what could have affected the peaceful great-uncle Harvey in such a way that his heart gave out? His death threats are also very significant… Do you still not see? Come, come, my friends, there’s only one possibility: a member of his family, tired of his eccentricities, decides to destroy all his manuscripts by making a huge bonfire of them. Can you imagine the shock? The work of so many years, so many sleepless nights, his life’s work burning before his eyes! Try to put yourself in the place of that poor, unfortunate man coming back to his room to find his entire life’s work going up in flames!

‘We know from Brian that Harvey kept a supply of water in his room to help him replenish the large glass he used to concentrate his thoughts. Water, which he uses in vain to try and extinguish the roaring flames. Not a single trace of the manuscripts remains in the grate. The carpet, on the other hand, on which he’d splashed a lot of water in his attempts to fight the fire, is wet. Our man is heartbroken, literally by the mortal blow administered by one, if not all, of his relatives.

‘Mad with pain, impotent rage and vengeful fury, he rushes to the door, where he collapses in front of the others who arrive and see him there on the floor. He finds the strength to put a curse on them and threaten that they will perish in the same way they have sinned, that is to say, by fire. I don’t expect those responsible had wished for him to die, but that’s what had happened. An awkward situation. Very awkward.

‘They hastily remove all the ashes from the grate, which could betray what they’d done, but they can’t remove the wet patch on the carpet. That will be seen later by the maid, but the family won’t mention it, for obvious reasons. And that’s all there is to say about that event.

‘Now let’s move on to Brian’s predictions. There’s no doubt the man possesses some sort of gift, which I don’t wish to disparage. There are too many troubling testimonies. From my long experience, I believe that most clairvoyants are fine psychologists and remarkable observers who have found a way to exploit those qualities for money. Brian’s case is different. It’s more of an instinct, that’s to say his senses are very sharp, but he doesn’t do any analysis, simply storing away scores of little details about each person who consults him. Women, for example—.’

‘Here we go. Why not say we’re all idiots?’ protested Bessie.

Dr. Twist smiled and said gently:

‘I’d call that female intuition, dear Miss Bessie. But back to Brian. One thing that’s easy to notice, whether one’s clairvoyant or not, is budding love. The two principals are not even aware of it themselves, more often than not. But there’s a special atmosphere about them which any sensitive person can detect.

‘So that if someone announces that the two turtledoves are soon going to experience great love, that in itself creates the opportunity for them to confess their love because it’s written in the stars. What do you think, Miss Blount?’