Chapter 7: Owen’s Research

[evil_scientist]

Isadora Carmichael

Isadora tries her hands at medical aid, but she is too upset, unable to concentrate.

First Aid 30%
[dice]0[/dice]

She feels VERY uncomfortable here in the basement. She keeps close to the others.

"I wish we could burn it all... But they, the police, they would use that against us. I... I haven't told anyone about this before... but..." she whispers to Alice, "I got into trouble with the police before. Me and my friend, Norman Owens (he was with us at the Tunnel), we were investigating a haunted house, an awful place... We burned it to the ground. He had to flee the country. The police tried to pin it on me, but they didn't have any proof. But what I've learnt, is that they never believe it's for the better to put these abomiations to flame."

[Mr. Handy]

"You're right, we have to leave everything intact," says Alice, "but look at it this way. Now we have a friend with the police, one who knows the truth because he's seen it for himself."

[HoneyDog]

After about 30 minutes Harden returns, and presently more police and an ambulance arrive. Their shock and disbelief at the amount of blood and gore is evident, but they set to work tending the companion’s wounds and collecting evidence.

The investigators are taken to the police station in Arkham and questioned for several hours, but are not suspected as complicit in Owen’s crimes. In fact, thanks to Harden’s testimony, they are held in high regard by the authorities for their role in stopping Owen. Eventually, exhausted, they are able to rest.

Over the next few days and weeks, more meetings occur with Arkham’s police, medical authorities, and senior faculty of the University. It is agreed that the real events will be kept hidden, their implications being judged too awful to reveal. An official statement is released ruling Frank Charlton’s death as a suicide, and Claude Owen is reported as having left the University. His body, and the other remains found in the cellar are cremated. The bodies which Owen had used for his vile experiments are never identified; they are believed to be transients and therefore unlikely to be missed. The companions are asked to keep the details of these horrific events confidential.

Owen’s notes are discovered in his makeshift laboratory. They detail the steps he took in his reanimation experiments. In order to prevent them falling into the wrong hands, they are given to Dr. Henry Armitage, and confined to the restricted collection of the Miskatonic University Library.

Thus, the mystery behind the fate of Frank Charlton is solved, and a dangerous lunatic has been stopped. Despite the nightmares which will undoubtedly follow, the companions have their sanity and health, with their reputations enhanced.

Henry is offered the freedom of the University Library (apart from the Restricted Collection). Alice is offered the opportunity to take up post-graduate studies if she wishes, while Harrison is given a semester’s worth of free tuition, for which he is grateful. Isadora renews and continues her acquaintance with Margaret Hannigan, which becomes a friendship based on shared artistic interests.

The friendless, unpopular Claude Owen is barely missed. In time, he will be forgotten by everyone. We can only hope that the formula for reanimating dead tissue, the cause of so much suffering, will be forgotten with him.

End