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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sheelba of the Eye" data-source="post: 9754748" data-attributes="member: 7046890">With a wry grin Percy realised that he was running his thumb along the rim of the pipe in his jacket pocket. He pictured Dorothy's look of exasperation that always accompanied her catching him with his hands in his pockets: "Percival! So uncouth, I really don't know where you pick up these habits. You didn't do that at school!""Come on, Percy, focus." Percy had volunteered to investigate Randolph and was hovering by the nearest stairs to the basement area which contained the human-remains incinerator. His job didn't take him this way. He shook himself and started down. No one ever reported liking the basement in the hospital and Percy could see why. Only a few of the gas lamps lining the walls were working. Or at least, only a few were lit. The walls their brackets were attached to looked damp. While it took time to register on the nose, a faint smell of damp permeated the air, making Percy feel in need of a bath. Otherwise, the corridor was the same as the ones above, the same height, width and the same tiled floor. The oversized metal door which led to the incinerator approached. Percy didn't pause. He pushed open the heavy door and peered inside. An orange glow provided scant illumination. With a final glance up and down the corridor he started down the steps. The room was virtually bare apart from the furnace, a small set of lockers, a metal gurney and what appeared to be the opening of a chute. Approaching the gurney first, Percy found its metal upper surface immaculate. A shelf near the base of the gurney had a messy bundle of canvas rags, canvas rags which looked very similar to the one Mr. Corbitt had been carrying. Nothing appeared unusual about the furnace itself and the metal door set in the was was indeed concealing a chute which, Percy accurately speculated, was one of the way which items could be deposited in the room for incineration. Finally he checked the lockers. They were locked and Percy could see no means of opening them which wouldn’t involve breaking their locks in an obvious manner. Pausing long enough to pick up one of the smaller canvas rags he took the stairs two at a time and turned towards his own office when he reached to the top. He only realised that he had been holding his breathe when he entered the corridor.Meanwhile, Yasmine and Michel paid Registry House a visit. Usually closed to the public on a Saturday Yasmine didn’t take long in talking the archivist into letting her have a look at some records. Official documents showed that Mr. Corbitt owned Corbitt Importers of London, which operates from an address in Limehouse. The company had been set up by his father in the 1800’s and  had traded ever since.Sunday arrived and towards evening Mr. Corbitt knocked on the Miller residence and dropped off the keys. “Just check in the green house and water the house plants. Watch out for the thing in the attic,” he added with a wink, “there’s always something unpleasant in the attic when a neighbour asks a pretty young lady to check on their house, isn’t there?” Other than giving Dorothy the dates he would be away - Monday to Thursday - he didn’t have much else to add.</blockquote>

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