Mr Scarletti's Ghost (42 page)

Two men in grey suits appeared on either side of the discomfited spirit healer, and took him firmly by the arms.

‘You may or may not know this,' said Mina, to Mr Bradley, ‘but you are under arrest.'

Mr Bradley, all defiance vanished like the ghost he had pretended to be, was taken away, to the loud hisses and imprecations of his former acolytes, and with missiles of compressed paper bouncing off his head.

The Gaskins stared after him in grotesque dismay, exchanged horrified glances, and then, very quickly and quietly, left the hall.

There was a sudden movement near Mina. Miss Eustace had decided to give up the pretence that she was asleep and use the distraction caused by her husband's arrest to make her escape. She was free of her bonds in an instant, and that feat alone brought a gasp from the audience as they realised how adept she was at such tricks. Only Mina's slight form lay between her and a free route to the door, and she tried to push the trifling obstacle aside, but Mina dropped the newspaper and seized Miss Eustace by both wrists. For a moment or two they struggled, as the medium tried to break free and amazement spread over Miss Eustace's face as she found herself being immobilised by a tiny, seemingly frail woman who was very much stronger than she looked. Mina knew she could only hold on for a short while before her wrenched shoulder and lesser weight allowed her quarry to prevail, but help was at hand.

‘I'll take her, thank you,' said Mrs Bettinson, striding up to grab Miss Eustace from behind, pinning her arms to her sides. ‘Now then, Miss Cheat, Miss Hoodwink, let's see if you can melt yourself out of this!'

As Miss Eustace was hauled firmly away to join her husband at the police station, Richard came to stand by Mina. ‘What a wonder you are!' he said. ‘And the best of it, no one will be asking for their money back!'

M
r Phipps later advised Mina that he had turned over all his documents to the police, who now had ample material with which to mount a search of Miss Eustace's apartments. The very next day the couple attracted a different audience from the one they had recently entertained, when they appeared before the Brighton magistrates. The case was adjourned for the accumulation of new evidence, but it was thought to be certain that they would in due course be committed to take their trial at the next assizes. The couple had asked for bail, but Mr Phipps had argued strongly against this and won.

Mr and Mrs Clee also appeared before the Brighton magistrates, where they were bound over to keep the peace, ordered to pay costs and released. During the entire proceedings they neither looked at nor spoke to one another. On leaving the court they went their separate ways, but Mr Clee was immediately rearrested and charged with conspiring with the Bradleys to commit fraud. The new Mrs Clee announced her intention of applying for a legal separation from her spouse, something he did not seem averse to, although he was less delighted by her demand for a regular allowance.

Professor Gaskin and his wife were briefly taken into police custody, and for a time they were strongly suspected of having abetted Miss Eustace in her deceit, but it was eventually accepted that they had been little more than unwitting dupes. They regained their freedom, though not their reputations, and agreed with a singular determination to give evidence for the prosecution.

Over the course of the next week, and at the resumed hearing, new facts were made public.

Mr Clee, it was discovered, was Miss Eustace's brother, and an accomplished stage magician, card sharp and occasional spirit medium. He had been attending Brill's Baths and learning all he could about the citizens of Brighton, while Mr Bradley had been doing much the same at Dr Hamid's.

When Dr Hamid's friend Dr Chenai was questioned he admitted that while relaxing after an Indian steam bath he had spoken to Mr Bradley and made some incautious comments that had formed the basis of Miss Eustace's supposed communications from Eliza. While Eliza had never told him of the exact position of the pain in her back, he had learned all he needed to know from his examination. There were a dozen other examples of gossip being passed on in this way, all of which had later been recorded in Miss Eustace's extensive notebooks. There were also articles taken from the newspapers about important Brighton figures: their families, illnesses, accidents, deaths and legacies; even information that had been copied from tombstones.

The committal hearing ended as Mr Phipps had anticipated. While awaiting the trial of Mr and Mrs Bradley, the Gaskins, who were not seen in public after the arrest of their protégée, gave up their apartments in Brighton and returned to London, where Mrs Gaskin founded a girls' school and Professor Gaskin devoted himself to studying the chemistry of radiant matter.

As the summer blossomed and the sun broiled the town and its people to a turn, fashions moved on, and the spirit mediums and mystic healers departed. Even Madame Proserpina no longer told fortunes for sixpence on the West Pier, and it was a curious coincidence that she had vanished on the very same day that Miss Eustace had been taken into custody.

Mina was hopeful that there would be no more work for her to do, but Dr Hamid was not so sure. ‘Those who want to believe will never be shaken,' he said. ‘It enhances their idea of themselves, and in some individuals it will be central to it. Their belief is everything to them; it can become them. If they abandon it then they will be nothing. Even those who have seen the truth about Miss Eustace and her associates may yet believe that another medium will be the true article, forget how they have been made fools of, and take up the next arrival with just as much enthusiasm.'

‘Well, we know all their tricks now, and if they try us again we will be ready for them,' said Mina, confidently.

Dr Hamid looked apprehensive, but whether this was at the prospect of the mediums returning to Brighton or Mina commandeering his assistance to deal with them, he didn't say.

There was a new arrival in town, which brought pleasure and meaning to Louisa Scarletti's life. Enid descended upon her mother with the twins and a nursemaid, saying that she planned to stay for several months. She had received a letter from Mr Inskip saying that the property negotiations in distant Roumania were taking longer than he had anticipated and he might well be absent for another six months; indeed, if the snow on the mountain passes next December was as deep as it had been last winter, he might not be able to come home until the spring. Enid, enduring her husband's absence with a fortitude that approached joy, embraced the pleasures of Brighton like a starving person faced with a laden table, while encouraging her mother in a new pastime that she took to with alacrity – spoiling her grandchildren.

There was more good news for the Scarletti family when Mina's brother Edward arrived, bringing with him the delightful Miss Hooper who had at long last consented to become his bride.

Richard was no longer in the theatrical business. It was not so much that mediums were out of fashion, for what Miss Foxton had to offer the eager eye would never be out of fashion, but he had not, as he had hoped, found it to be profitable. Such money as had come in from sales of tickets for private shows or remuneration from the New Oxford Theatre of Varieties had somehow found its way into Mrs Conroy's emporium where it had been transformed as if by a conjuring trick into Paris gowns, and lace gloves fit for a queen.

It was with some hesitation that Richard had suggested to Nellie that the business should be given up, and to his surprise she readily agreed, and they parted as friends. Soon afterwards, there was an elegant society wedding, when Nellie Gilden, in her real name of Hetty Gold, became Mrs John Jordan. The event was only marred by one unhappy incident, when the bride, admiring her new husband's favourite timepiece, accidentally dropped it on the ground and stepped on it.

Only one thing still puzzled Mina: her mother's continued insistence that at a private séance conducted by Miss Eustace, she had seen and conversed with her dear deceased Henry, and even clasped him in her arms. No man, she declared, could ever personate him, and she derided the very idea that she could have been mistaken. Mina, recalling that the claim had first been made in front of Mrs Bettinson and Miss Whinstone, could not help but wonder if the entire story had been made up to impress her mother's friends and even make them a little jealous.

‘Mother,' said Mina, one day in frustration, as they were alone apart from a beribboned baby bouncing on the proud grandmother's knee, its twin having been removed by the nursemaid for feeding, ‘I must know the truth of this. When you were at the private séance hosted by Miss Eustace, did you truly see Father, as solid and real a figure as you see me now? Or was it just a story to tease and amuse? No one would think the worse of you if it was the latter. Come now, surely you can tell me, and I promise not to breathe a word of what you say.'

Louisa waved a teething ring in front of the baby's chubby fingers. ‘Oh Mina, how can you ask such a thing?' she said. ‘Would I tell a lie?'

‘Of course you would not,' said Mina.

‘Well then, that is settled.' She gave a wistful smile. ‘Dear Henry, I think of him every day, I miss him every moment. No woman could have had a better husband. Yes, Mina, I saw your father as clear as can be. I saw him as I see him always, as I see him even now: in my mind's eye.'

End

LINDA STRATMANN
is a former chemist's dispenser and civil servant who now writes full-time. She lives in
Walthamstow, London.

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Cover images:

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Bottom image: Medium Eusapia Palladino, 1890. ©GettyImages

First published in 2015

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