Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell Page A

accomplices. We searched his room and discovered a locked container. When I broke it open, I found bullets, gunpowder, a sword, and a puzzling black cap with two red bows. I also found documents and a notebook.”
    As the snow increased beyond the window, Emily hugged herself. She turned toward a creaking sound in the hallway.
    “The documents referred to an organization called Young England,” De Quincey said.
    “That is correct,” Ryan acknowledged.
    “And those are the two words that you found in the note at the church,” De Quincey added.
    Ryan looked surprised. “You should be stupefied by all the laudanum you drink, and yet you’re almost able to read minds. Yes, the two words on the note at the church were ‘Young England.’”
      
    “I don’t understand,” Emily said. “Young England? It sounds innocuous: a group of young people in support of their nation. Or historians devoted to England in its youth—Magna Carta and so forth.”
    “The purpose of Young England was the overthrow of the government and the abolishment of the monarchy,” Ryan told her.
    She and Becker stared.
    “There were four hundred members,” Ryan continued. “Each was required to have a pistol, a musket, and a dagger. Each had a false name and a fictitious background. Working as carriage drivers, carpenters, and so forth, many were trusted by noble families. Some had even managed to pretend to be gentlemen and join fashionable clubs. The black cap—which every member was required to have—could be pulled down to conceal features when the time came for the revolt. The two red bows on the cap in Oxford’s locked container indicated that he had the rank of captain.
    “There were more alarming items,” Ryan added. “Letters referred to the group’s secret meetings in which they were prepared to fight to the death if the police stormed in. The letters also referred to Young England’s mysterious commander, who lived in the German state of Hanover.”
    “Hanover?” Emily asked. “But isn’t that where…?”
    “Indeed,” Ryan answered. “The queen’s oldest uncle had assumed the throne in that German state after Her Majesty became queen of England. Many believed that the uncle harbored fierce resentment that he hadn’t been made king and that he would do anything to take the queen’s place. He seemed to be the power behind Young England and its plot to overthrow the government and Her Majesty. Fears that England might become a German state appeared to be justified.”
    “Since the overthrow didn’t occur, the police must have arrested all the members of the conspiracy,” Becker said.
    “No.”
    “They escaped?”
    “They were all Edward Oxford’s delusions,” Ryan answered.
    “What?”
    “My superiors later informed me that all the documents were in Oxford’s handwriting and that Young England and the rest of it were his inventions,” Ryan said. “At his trial, the Attorney General himself acted as prosecutor, insisting that Oxford was insane. He pointed out that Oxford’s father had beaten his mother before she gave birth, thus damaging his brain. Phrenologists measured his skull and determined that its bulges and indentations argued for an unusually shaped brain and consequent insanity. This insanity could also have been inherited from his father, who had once ridden a horse inside a house and had twice tried to commit suicide with an excess of laudanum.”
    Ryan gave De Quincey a significant look as he mentioned death and laudanum.
    De Quincey shrugged. “It’s perhaps a pleasant way to join the majority.”
    “Father, I beg you not to think this way,” Emily said.
    “Do you realize how often you’ve drunk from that opium bottle since you entered this house?” Ryan asked.
    “I confess I failed to keep count.”
    “Six times.”
    “You see, Emily—only six. I’m improving. Please continue, Inspector. I believe that Oxford was known to break out in giddy laughter that frightened those