Two headlines in the Saturday morning newspapers catch the attention of the investigators:
"Man dies three times in one night", and "Professor's home burns".
The first describes three linked murders of victims who share the same identity. Most interestingly, the investigators know Mehmet Makryat from Prof. Smith's lecture as the man who strongly argued with the professor on the dangers of dabbling in the occult.
The second story is even more worrying:
A message shortly arrives, sealed with Prof. Smith's ring, asking to meet the investigators in a shady address in Islington.
Detective White leaves for Scotland Yard to investigate the triple murders, while the Dr. Hart with Oscar and Mudiwa head to meet the professor.
Prof. Smith's story
The address in Islington corresponds to a run-down hotel, where Beddows is hiding a badly burnt professor Smith. In agony, the professor recounts last night's events.
His house was torched by four young Turkish men and was burnt to the ground. The professor considers that the would-be assassins were trying to stop his investigation into an ancient occult artifact, the Sedefcar Simulacrum. For the last many months, the Professor has been researching this artifact, a sculpture shattered in pieces that is rumoured to have immense powers, reaching from mind control to immortality. Prof. Smith had gathered enough information on the Simulacrum and was ready to begin a search around the continent for its pieces, and he now implores the investigators to pursue it in his place.
Beddows informs the investigators that the Professor had already booked passage with the Orient Express that they can use to follow the clues, hands them a suitcase of pounds and lets them know that he will keep the professor safe and telegraph them over the stops of the Orient Express.
The three murders
John White visits Scotland Yard, where he meets with Inspector Fleming, an old acquaintance of his. He fishes around for any information on the murders, and learns a great deal from the Inspector.
- Each of the three victims carried identical travel documentation
- Border stamps on their passports reveal a trail through all of Europe, that corresponds in part to the cities in Prof. Smith's notes.
- Each one was killed by a swift slash to the neck, severing the jugular artery.
- Each victim was partially skinned: one on the arms, the other on the legs and the third on the torso. The criminal seemed quite practiced.
- The facial characteristics of the victims are vaguely related.
- The Mehmet Makryat registered in the civil registry is an aging man of 60-odd years, while all three victims are in their twenties.
John White thanks the inspector and promises to get back to him with any new information
Research
Before departing London, the investigators scour for more clues regarding the Professor's research.
First stop is the Professor's office in London University. No occult research seems to have taken place there, but the investigators recover a list of borrowed books from the British Museum library and a concealed old journal of the professor.
They head to the library, getting some of the books on loan, and late at night they head to the professor's home, now burnt to timbers.
The books provide two important clues:
- a secondary mention about the Sedefcar Simulacrum appears in an illuminated 13th century manuscript called the Simulare Diaboli, held in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.
- a copy of the Sefefcar Scrolls was guarded in the restricted collection of the Topkapi Museum in Constantinople before the Great War.
A most surprising incident happens in the second night of their study in the British Museum library: a fellow reader slumbers to the ground, and the investigators are surprised to find him dead and skinned from top to bottom, with a message nailed to his chest:
The Skinless One
will not be denied
At this point, the investigators make very little of the message. By the time they are finished with the police interrogations, it is early Monday morning, barely a few hours before the Orient Express departs.