The Equivoque Principle Read Online Free PDF Page A

‘Her life glowed just as brightly, and she would light up any room. Twinkle was no child, as you wrongly said earlier, Constable Marsh. She was a dwarf…a priceless, irreplaceable part of my circus, and she was Prometheus’s lover. I know that he loved her with all his heart, and she him. So you see, it’s impossible for me to believe that he’d ever harm a single hair on her head.’
    ‘She was…a
dwarf?
I don’t know what to say, Mr Quaint, I didn’t know, I’m so sorry. There was…so much blood, you see. But, you must understand…your friend Prometheus was found with her body by his side. Her blood was all over him, and with no other witnesses…we
had
to bring him in.’ Marsh rubbed at his jaw in contemplation. ‘But, you’re right, we
do
need to get to the bottom of all this mess, and with your friend being a mute…maybe it
is
for the best if you see him…for a short while at least.’
    ‘Thank you, Constable,’ Quaint nodded. ‘I would like that very much.’
    ‘But you have to keep a lid on this. You’re a civilian and if the Commissioner finds out, I’ll be for it, whether you’re an old pal of his or not.’
    ‘Understood. Lead the way, Constable.’

    Constable Marsh led the way out of the mortuary, directing Quaint and Butter back upstairs, where they faced a massive iron door barring their way. ‘The Commissioner will hit the roof if he finds out about this,’ he whispered, turning a large metal key in the lock. He swung open the massive metal door, sending a resounding scream of metal against stone around the corridor.‘But as long as you aren’t planning on staying for longer than five minutes, I don’t see it’ll do any harm.’
    Leading from the narrow hall were four other dark-grey doors with tiny, metal grated slats three-quarters of the way up them, identical apart from painted letters daubed on them. Marsh paced down the long corridor, brushing his hand against the doors as he went. He tugged on his bottom lip, trying to remember in which cell Prometheus was being held, and then he stopped in his tracks outside one of the grey doors. A small blackboard was affixed to the wall outside, and the single word: ‘MILLER’ was written in chalk upon it. Marsh unlocked the cell door, and stepped to the side, allowing Quaint and Butter to enter the room.
    As he entered the stillness of the cell, and spied the voluminous shadow sitting hunched in the corner, Cornelius Quaint was suddenly reminded of the many tombs and pyramids that he had explored in Egypt in his youth. Prometheus was hunched in the corner, unmoving and silent.
    ‘Prometheus? It’s me,’ Quaint said softly, approaching the giant as if he were a sleeping baby. His intense eyes searched the Irishman’s shadowed face for a flicker of recognition, but there was not so much as a twitch of the man’s beard. ‘My friend? Can you hear me? Are you all right? It’s Cornelius.’
    At the mention of the name, the giant turned around slowly like a great prehistoric beast. His face was pale and withdrawn, his thick beard speckled with dust and grit, as well as the remains of his breakfast, and his eyes were red raw from incessant, merciless tears. In the space of only a few hours, Prometheus had seemed to age by ten years. He slowly lifted his arms and offered them towards Quaint, like a child to its parent. As if drawn by some powerful magnetic force, Quaint flung himself into the gaping abyss of his embrace. Prometheus sobbed heavily, and his body quaked as he let his pain flood out, as if his soul had been wipedclean by the sight of Quaint. The circus owner could almost feel the giant’s heart breaking inside his chest, and he chewed at the inside of his cheek anxiously, uncertain what to say. For what words of comfort could he give, when he himself was in just as dire need of them?
    ‘Prometheus…Aiden…I know about Twinkle. I’m so, so sorry. We all feel your loss, and share your pain,’ Quaint said, as delicately