Now Playing: The Darkness
New to these parts? To start the story from the beginning click
Episode Eleven
concluded with:
“Go
away!” Monahan fired another shot, this one at an empty doorway. “Go away!”
“Surrender, Mr. Monahan,” Bertram Lowrie shouted. “Your situation is quite
hopeless.”
A frantic cry which sounded like that of a hungry infant came from the barn,
followed by a shot. Both detectives held their breaths for a few moments.
Dehner broke the silence, “Oh no.”
Lowrie picked up the lantern. “This could be a trick, but I don’t think so.
Nevertheless, be prepared to use your weapon.”
Both men entered the barn, guns ready. They advanced until they were under the
hay loft and standing over the body of Adrian Monahan.
“Oh…good…Lord,” Dehner spoke those words reverently. “He shot himself in the
head.”
“Yes, with a Colt .44.”
Episode Twelve
“Why?”
“Adrian
Monahan was insane,” Lowrie’s voice was little more than a whisper. “Neither
Monahan had the stomach to kill that poor drifter, but Jesse hired Wyatt
Cummings for the job. Cummings did the foul deed but there was enough of the
victim’s head left for a proper identification. Mr. Adrian Monahan took an axe
and decapitated the corpse. That was the beginning of his descent into madness.
Jesse Monahan was a victim of that madness.”
“I don’t
follow you.”
“Adrian
moved to San Diego and assumed the name of Phineas Monahan, a brother who, in
all likelihood, never existed. He lived off money he embezzled from the
stagecoach line in its final years. But he was still dependent on his nephew.”
Dehner
thought about that for a moment. “Jesse was paying off Wyatt Cummings to keep
quiet.”
Lowrie
nodded his head. “As his demented state grew worse, Adrian became certain Jesse
would ‘betray’ him, to use a word
Adrian apparently employed with great frequency.”
Dehner
thought about what they had overheard Cummings say. “Jesse and Adrian arranged
a charade in the old house to exploit the superstitious nature of Bart McRae.
But Adrian planned a double cross. He murdered Jesse.”
“Yes, but
it didn’t go quite as planned. You saw that desk in the study, what was
missing?”
Dehner
closed his eyes, embarrassed by his own oversight. “A letter opener!”
“After
Jesse was stabbed, he attempted revenge. He grabbed the letter opener and used
it as a weapon against his uncle, but he died before he could complete the
task. A wounded Adrian pocketed the opener and staggered out of the house
before Bart made it downstairs.”
“He forgot
about the safe where Jesse kept his winnings. No doubt, he planned to kill
Wyatt Cummings and then leave this area for good.”
Both men
went silent, contemplating the grotesque events which had almost led to the
hanging of an innocent man. Bertram Lowrie looked down at the corpse of Adrian
Monahan. “There is a darkness in the human soul which is far more terrifying
than any ancient superstition.”
Monday: Episode
Thirteen, the conclusion of The Darkness
