Manton Rempville – 4

Knowles and Barnes drove back to Scoresby station and immediately headed to the forensics laboratory, hoping that Dr Crabtree would have some news for them.

         “Well, Colin, I don’t have that much to tell you, really. You know some of it already. Stabbed in the back with some force by someone slightly taller than the 5ft 7 inch victim – the blade has followed a slightly downward trajectory – victim died instantly and fell in a heap on the ground causing the blade to buckle and bend slightly, so that the murderer was unable to remove the sword cleanly although they had a good go, causing the exit wound to be very messy indeed. There are no fingerprints on the sword whatsoever.”

         “Really? So the murderer was wearing gloves,” said Knowles, “go on Dr Crabtree.”

         “We found a red thread on the hilt of the sword, which looks as though it has come from a sheet or towel used to hide the sword from view.”

         “No great surprise there,” said Barnes, “few people could carry a sword without alerting suspicion of some kind.”

         “Whereas carrying a large red towel is perfectly normal and wouldn’t be in any way uncommon,” replied Knowles, “although it was probably carried in a bag for the most effective disguise. What material is the thread?”

         “I think it’s cotton, Colin, we can have it analysed for you.”

         “Yes, please Doctor, I like to be thorough when analysing evidence.”

         “Of course, Colin, that won’t be a problem.”

         “And now the all important question – what was the time of death approximately?”

         “Well, I am almost certain the time was 11:06pm.”

         “Give or take an hour or so?” said Barnes.

         “Give or take 30 seconds,” said Knowles. “The doctor is indicating that the victim must have smashed his watch when he fell dead to the ground – are there any fingerprints on the watch?”

         “We’ll have to check, Colin, and let you know when it’s been dusted.”

         “Thank you – I wonder whether he would have smashed his watch though, if he fell on to the grass.”

         “The watch face was broken by something” said Dr Crabtree showing Knowles the watch enclosed in a plastic evidence bag.

         “Indeed it was, but there’s no indication it hit the grass, no soil, no colouring of green. Were there any stones lying around where he landed?”

         “Let’s look at the photos, shall we?”

         The men walked over to the doctor’s table and examined the photos that showed the ground around Pritchard’s left hand.

         “There are no stones around where his left hand and wrist would have landed, so what could he have hit the watch on?” pondered Barnes stroking his short beard.

         “There’s nothing obvious is there, so either the killer did it to fool us or it was broken before he was killed,” replied Knowles. “Doctor, what do the other signs tell us about his time of death?”

         “They more or less fit with the watch. I would have put the time at between 10:30 and 11:30 p.m. last night. Perhaps 11:45 p.m. at the outside.”

         “Interesting, so I wonder why half-an-hour could make so much difference, if the murderer knew the body wouldn’t be found until the morning?”

         “It has to be to establish an alibi, sir – I can prove I was with Person X at 11:06 p.m. and they will verify that, whereas half-an-hour earlier or later and that alibi would not hold.”

         “Indeed, Sergeant, we shall have to ask our questions very carefully when we meet our suspects.”

         “You have some suspects already, Colin? That was quick work.” Dr Crabtree readjusted his glasses with some surprise.

         “Well, I suppose I shouldn’t call them suspects yet, as I haven’t even met them, but I was referring to the people who live at the Hall near Manton Rempville. Adelaide Hills saw some people behaving suspiciously when she discovered the body and they must have all come from the Hall.”

         “Try not to bring class politics into the conversation, Colin, especially when there’s a case to be solved.”

         “Right, wait until afterwards, you mean?”

         “Something like that, yes, and don’t forget that Sir Michael Johnson, who owns Manton Rempville Hall, is a personal friend of the Chief Constable, and any complaints will go straight to that level.”

         “Thank you for the warning, Dr Crabtree, I will bear what you say in mind, but I do have to find a murderer after all and that’s the main aim of my investigation. Now, do you have a nice picture of the sword that I can show to the people at the hall, preferably one that doesn’t show it sticking into Mr Edward Pritchard? That would be quite tasteless, wouldn’t it Sergeant?”

         “It would indeed, sir, because we do need those people to be able to easily identify the sword and not have their recall impaired by seeing a dead body.”

         “We have a nice picture here, Colin, which people will enjoy looking at.”

         “Thanks, Doctor Crabtree, my compliments to the photographer.”

         With that, Knowles and Barnes left the lab and headed over to Manton Rempville Hall in Barnes’ sleek white sports car, which Knowles thought would impress the upper-class individuals they were about to meet.

Manton Rempville – 3

Barnes and Knowles drove their vehicles back to Goat Parva and parked outside The Cottage, the imaginatively named residence of Adelaide Hills and her retriever, Bingo.

         “Well, here we go again, sir,” said Barnes as he knocked on the door and heard the mad barking of Bingo inside.

         “Bingo is in fine voice today, oh how I have missed those desperate notes of happiness from our favourite retriever,” replied Knowles, “give me a cat any second of the day.”

         “And how is your kitty, Gemma?”

         “I’ve bought her a male friend from the animal shelter in Madeley. His name is Freddie and he knows who’s boss in our house. He tried to pick a fight with Gemma on his second day in residence and he won’t be doing that again. She has a mean straight right and she scratched his nose quite badly. He was so upset; he hides behind me whenever he can…oh here is Mrs Hills.”

         Adelaide Hills opened the door and flashed a relieved smile as she recognised the two officers. She looked slightly greyer than the officers remembered her from earlier in the year. Her husband had died a few years previously in a camel dismounting accident and she now lived alone, apart from Bingo. She was always wary about opening her door to anyone.

         “Sergeant Barnes and Inspector Knowles, what a surprise, I rather thought we’d never meet like this again, but how wrong I was.”

         “Well, we thought the same thing, but Bingo seems to have a nose for dead bodies,” grinned Barnes.

         “You won’t be having me followed on my morning walks will you, Inspector Knowles?”

         “Not yet, Adelaide, not yet. Could we come in? It’s a bit cold out here.”

         “Of course, where are my manners – Bingo stop there and allow these two gentlemen to pass by.”

         Bingo withdrew slightly, but eyed the shoes of the two policemen with great suspicion. As usual, the 6 foot 3 inch Barnes had to duck his head to get through the low doorway, but Knowles was a good six inches shorter and didn’t have the same problem.

         Knowles and Barnes sat on Adelaide Hills’s settee in her living room and declined her offer of a cup of tea. Barnes straightened his trousers and rubbed a speck of dirt from his left shoe. Knowles just looked crumpled.

         Barnes began: “Adelaide, you and Bingo were walking this morning near Manton Rempville when something quite familiar happened.”

         “Yes, Sergeant, Bingo started barking when we were walking through the monastery grounds and straining at his leash; I followed him into the refectory where we saw that man who had been stabbed with the sword.”

         “Did Bingo take anything?”

         “No, he was on a tight leash, and I have learned my lesson. I phoned you from the scene of the crime and waited until your local constable arrived from Norton-juxta-Wychwood and then went home. Bingo didn’t pick up anything from the scene and didn’t take any clothing.” Adelaide Hills smiled as she knew the officers couldn’t rebuke her this time.

         “Things are improving – now did you see anyone in the area of the monastery, Adelaide?”

         “I did Sergeant. There were three young men horsing around as they walked through the trees away from me towards Manton Rempville Hall and also a youngish couple sitting on a fence by the monastery car park having an animated discussion. There were no vehicles in the car park, so I presume they’d walked there too. I also heard an older couple arguing about some money related subject such as wills when I was walking back here after the constable had arrived.”

         “And how old were the young men and the youngish couple would you say?”

         “The young men were around 20 and the youngish couple were slightly older, say around 25, but no older than that.”

         “When you say the young men were horsing around – what were they doing?”

         “They were fooling around, pretending they had swords and fighting each other.” Adelaide Hills waved her arm in front of her, parodying a fencer.

         “That’s a very strange coincidence, isn’t it?” interjected Knowles, leaning forwards.

         “I suppose so, Inspector, but could their horse-play and the murderer’s modus operandi be connected, do you think?”

         “We’ll be heading to the big Hall later on today, so we’ll find out who you saw and why they were acting in that manner.”

         “Well I hope I have been of help, Inspector, and do call again if you need to ask any more questions.”

         “We will certainly do that, Adelaide, thank you.” Barnes and Knowles stood up and Knowles tried to pull the dog hairs from his trousers without much success. He glared at Bingo.

         As the two policemen left, Bingo looked rather sad. Neither of the two men had patted him on the head as they passed.

Manton Rempville – 2

The two men started to walk over to the eastern wall of the monastery’s refectory where the body had been found an hour earlier by Bingo the retriever, out on a long walk with his owner Adelaide Hills from Goat Parva. Both dog and owner were well known to the police from a few months before when Bingo had made a habit of finding bodies in the early morning.

         “According to his credit cards, his name is Edward Pritchard; we are just running some computer checks to find out where he lives. It’s how he’s been killed that you will find interesting, sir.”

         With his hands in his trench coat pockets, Knowles stood on the wall and looked down at the body lying on what would have been the refectory floor. Edward Pritchard had been run through with a sword and the handle was sticking out of his back on the left-hand side. Knowles smiled at Dr Crabtree, the forensic doctor, who was examining the body.

         “Dr Crabtree, we have a real sword being used as a murder weapon?” Knowles would have rubbed his hands with glee if they hadn’t been warming up in his pockets.

         “We do indeed, Colin, a very real sword. This is a heavy cavalry sword with a straight blade with one cutting edge whereas the other side has been thickened for greater strength. The blade is around three feet in length. It directly penetrated his heart and he would have died instantly.”

         “Any prints on the handle?” Knowles looked hopeful when he said this.

         “We’ll check back at the lab Colin, can we move him now?”

         “Yes, that will be all I think. We’ll be back at the station in an hour or so; could you have something by then in terms of fingerprints, time of death, and any ideas on a profile of who could have done it?”

         “We’ll try Colin – no promises, but we’ll try.”

         “I presume the person who murdered Edward wasn’t aware of the type of sword they were using, “ said Barnes, “because that’s a sword for slashing people with, not for running them through.”

         “So, you would have expected a murderer who knew what he was using to have hit Edward here in the neck with the sharp side,” replied Knowles.

         “Yes, sir, that’s correct.”

         “So we’re looking for an ignorant murderer then? We show the suspects the sword and ask them how they would kill someone using the sword and those who opt for the neck slash are innocent?”

         “They might be bluffing sir, so we shouldn’t just use that as a method of elimination from our enquiries,” said Barnes, playing along with Knowles’ quite acerbic sense of humour.

         “OK, we’ll just confine ourselves to telling the murderer, when we catch him, that he/she murdered Edward here in the wrong way. So where could the sword have come from? It’s not the sort of weapon you can easily conceal.”

         “The nearest house is Manton Rempville Hall – you can see it just poking through the trees over there. That might be the best place to start.”

         “Agreed – they probably maintain an assortment of weapons to keep the staff subdued and repel invasions by the local peasants in times of crisis. We should go there after visiting our oldest friend in Goat Parva, Mrs Adelaide Hills, and her bundle of fun, Bingo.”

         “It’s just like old times, sir.”

         “Indeed it is, Barnesy. I just hope that this is the only body Bingo finds in this murder investigation.”

Manton Rempville – 1

Detective Sergeant Rod Barnes surveyed the remains of Manton Rempville monastery with incredulity. He’d heard that 100,000 pounds had been spent on preserving the ruins and he couldn’t understand why anyone would do such a thing. Ruins were ruins for a reason. The natural order of things, in Barnes’s mind at least, was gradual decay – preservation only delayed the inevitable, like applying skin cream to wrinkles or a new coat of paint to a rusting car. Besides, the ruins were open to anyone and there was no entry charge, so they were never going to get their money back.

Barnes stiffened slightly as he saw Detective Inspector Colin Knowles’s Land Rover chug into the car park and lurch to a halt too close to Barnes’s Morgan sports car for his comfort. He glanced down at the body and thought that Knowles, his boss, would find this crime scene interesting indeed. Barnes had heard that Knowles was on a new diet and that his latest culinary delight was vegetable kebabs cooked on his nearly new barbecue even in the depths of autumn.

Taking care not to get his highly polished shoes muddy, Barnes walked across the uneven grass as a low, cold wind whipped across the historical site slightly disturbing his short, brown hair. He hadn’t seen much of Knowles in the past month as they’d both been away on holiday at separate times since the murders in Goat Parva. As he came towards him, Barnes noticed that even though the Inspector had lost weight, he still wasn’t able to tuck his Marks and Spencer shirt into his trousers.

“Good morning, sir, how are you today?”

“Fair to middling, Barnesy old son, the diet’s working well, nearly 15 pounds lost.” Knowles gripped his much reduced stomach with some pride.

“How’s the gym going?”

“Gradually doing more on the treadmill, lifting a few weights, and getting some stretching done on those large blue balls they have. That’s not easy – those balls are bouncy as hell – I almost fell off the first few times I tried to lie on the thing. Anyway, not only can I see my toes now, but I can almost touch them too.”

“That’s good to hear, sir. The trick to keeping the weight off is by committing to a lifestyle change rather than thinking you’re on a diet.”         “Good point, Sergeant, lifestyle sounds very magazine like though, very posh Sunday newspaper, but I know what you mean. Anyway, who do we have over there?” Knowles pointed in the direction of the photographer and Forensics team, who were investigating the crime scene.

The 6 Books of Knowles

There are six Inspector Knowles books set in and around Goat Parva, Manton Rempville, Willougby Waterless, and Melton Lazars. Where are these places you might ask? Well, they’re in my imagination.

The first book is The Goat Parva Murders – Just a typical Tuesday night in the English country hamlet of Goat Parva. The stalkers in the rhododendrons are busy watching the exhibitionists in the windows. Nothing unusual. Until that is when Bingo the retriever returns with a pair of shoes that were last seen adorning the feet of well known voyeur Clem Shapiro.

Steadily the secret lives, peccadilloes and illicit affairs of the inhabitants of this one time idyll of English Country Life all begin to unravel under the dogged investigations of Detective Inspector Colin Knowles. What seemed like a fairly simple case is rapidly deteriorating under a growing mountain of suspects, witnesses and bodies. Scratch the surface of this sleepy hamlet and it seems everybody has a motive to want somebody else dead. And D.I Knowles has only just begun to scratch. The Goat Parva Murders introduces the reader to a cast of eccentric characters that could have escaped right off the pages of a Tom Sharpe novel in search of mayhem, mischief and murder.

The second book is the Manton Rempville Murders – Bingo the retriever has been finding bodies again. This time, someone has left a sword in the back of Edward Pritchard in the grounds of a 700-year old monastery. Bingo found the body on his morning walk with his owner Adelaide Hills.

Pritchard used to work at the nearby stately home, Manton Rempville Hall, as a gardener, although all he seemed to cultivate was reasons for people not to like him. Inspector Colin Knowles and Sergeant Rod Barnes have to investigate which person hated him the most.

However, there’s a house party at the hall so there are plenty of suspects though people are unwilling to give up their secrets easily and Knowles and Barnes have to dig to find answers. They inspect the libraries, the studies, and the not-so-secret passage of the old hall in an attempt to find out who murdered Pritchard. The police are in a race against fate, because they suspect the killer will strike again.

Bells, owls, and ironic topiary all play a part in the investigation as Knowles and Barnes slowly weed out the suspects. But will they be in time to prevent further deaths and will Bingo play a role?

The third book is The Frisby Waterless Murders – Knowles and Sergeant Barnes investigate why the wrong person died on a murder/mystery excursion on a steam train. It seems more than one person wanted the victim dead and the question is: who murdered Major Harkness in full view of 24 people without any of them noticing?

The fourth book is The Black Hill Hotel Mystery – Someone is leaving tracks in the snow around The Black Hill Hotel and no one can work out why. Inspector Colin Knowles is called in when one of the guests has their wallet stolen in the middle of night. Knowles is attacked and left for dead in a snowy field, but is rescued by his favourite dog, Bingo the retriever, and his owner Adelaide Hills. Then a body is found in a snowdrift and Knowles realises that at least one person in the hotel has a lot to hide.

The Black Hill Hotel advertises itself as a place to get away from it all in the Winter. The hotel is fully booked, though not all the guests arrive when they are supposed to. The snow piles up and the hotel becomes more and more inaccessible to vehicles. Some guests are content to watch it fall, but others try to use the winter conditions to get away with murder and other crimes. An escaped prisoner, kidnapped children, impersonation, and old-fashioned revenge are all on the menu at the hotel.

Can Knowles, assisted by Sergeant Rod Barnes and Constable Linda Smythe, determine which guests have committed which crime before the snow melts? Will the murderer get away with the perfect crime? Will Knowles’s attacker be found? Could they be the same person?

The fifth book is The Melton Lazars Mystery – Murder amongst the books in Scoresby.  Inspector Knowles has to work out why a bookseller was murdered. His investigation is complicated because he had feelings for the murdered lady. Along with Detective Sergeant Rod Barnes he has to turn the page and cover all eventualities.

The killer is one step ahead and next tries to kill a florist. Knowles and Barnes root through the witness statements, leaf through the evidence, and assimilate the findings that stem from the investigation. When events shift to the nearby village of Melton Lazars, Knowles and Barnes know it’s only a matter of time until the killer is caught, though it’s almost certainly not the time on the grandmother clock in the florists!

With inaccurate clocks, a sensitive bank manager, cocky DIY professionals, a Guy Fawkes mask, and an exotic call centre worker all thrown together, this book zips along at a fast pace until the revelatory final chapter.

The sixth book is The Woods of St Francis Mystery

There’s a new retriever in Goat Parva called Banjo and he’s providing good competition for Bingo, the favourite of Mrs Adelaide Hills. Banjo finds a body in nearby Manton Rempville. The initials of the victim are AB.

Soon a victim with the initials CD is found in the Assisi Lake in the Woods of St Francis and the following day a victim with the initials EF is found axed to death near the same lake.

Moving from pubs to social services to an artist’s cooperative, this murder mystery speeds through the villages around the Woods of St Francis. Is the local football club involved? Is someone at the newspaper covering up a story?

Or is an environmentalist choosing people who’ve committed crimes against nature and dispatching them?

Inspector Knowles, Sergeant Barnes, and the newly promoted DC Smythe are in a race against time to find the killer before another person meets their end.

Can Banjo and Bingo find where a tree has been chopped down to provide a vital clue in the investigation?

The 6 Books of Knowles

There are six Inspector Knowles books set in and around Goat Parva, Manton Rempville, Willougby Waterless, and Melton Lazars. Where are these places you might ask? Well, they’re in my imagination.

The first book is The Goat Parva Murders – Just a typical Tuesday night in the English country hamlet of Goat Parva. The stalkers in the rhododendrons are busy watching the exhibitionists in the windows. Nothing unusual. Until that is when Bingo the retriever returns with a pair of shoes that were last seen adorning the feet of well known voyeur Clem Shapiro.

Steadily the secret lives, peccadilloes and illicit affairs of the inhabitants of this one time idyll of English Country Life all begin to unravel under the dogged investigations of Detective Inspector Colin Knowles. What seemed like a fairly simple case is rapidly deteriorating under a growing mountain of suspects, witnesses and bodies. Scratch the surface of this sleepy hamlet and it seems everybody has a motive to want somebody else dead. And D.I Knowles has only just begun to scratch. The Goat Parva Murders introduces the reader to a cast of eccentric characters that could have escaped right off the pages of a Tom Sharpe novel in search of mayhem, mischief and murder.

The second book is the Manton Rempville Murders – Bingo the retriever has been finding bodies again. This time, someone has left a sword in the back of Edward Pritchard in the grounds of a 700-year old monastery. Bingo found the body on his morning walk with his owner Adelaide Hills.

Pritchard used to work at the nearby stately home, Manton Rempville Hall, as a gardener, although all he seemed to cultivate was reasons for people not to like him. Inspector Colin Knowles and Sergeant Rod Barnes have to investigate which person hated him the most.

However, there’s a house party at the hall so there are plenty of suspects though people are unwilling to give up their secrets easily and Knowles and Barnes have to dig to find answers. They inspect the libraries, the studies, and the not-so-secret passage of the old hall in an attempt to find out who murdered Pritchard. The police are in a race against fate, because they suspect the killer will strike again.

Bells, owls, and ironic topiary all play a part in the investigation as Knowles and Barnes slowly weed out the suspects. But will they be in time to prevent further deaths and will Bingo play a role?

The third book is The Frisby Waterless Murders – Knowles and Sergeant Barnes investigate why the wrong person died on a murder/mystery excursion on a steam train. It seems more than one person wanted the victim dead and the question is: who murdered Major Harkness in full view of 24 people without any of them noticing?

The fourth book is The Black Hill Hotel Mystery – Someone is leaving tracks in the snow around The Black Hill Hotel and no one can work out why. Inspector Colin Knowles is called in when one of the guests has their wallet stolen in the middle of night. Knowles is attacked and left for dead in a snowy field, but is rescued by his favourite dog, Bingo the retriever, and his owner Adelaide Hills. Then a body is found in a snowdrift and Knowles realises that at least one person in the hotel has a lot to hide.

The Black Hill Hotel advertises itself as a place to get away from it all in the Winter. The hotel is fully booked, though not all the guests arrive when they are supposed to. The snow piles up and the hotel becomes more and more inaccessible to vehicles. Some guests are content to watch it fall, but others try to use the winter conditions to get away with murder and other crimes. An escaped prisoner, kidnapped children, impersonation, and old-fashioned revenge are all on the menu at the hotel.

Can Knowles, assisted by Sergeant Rod Barnes and Constable Linda Smythe, determine which guests have committed which crime before the snow melts? Will the murderer get away with the perfect crime? Will Knowles’s attacker be found? Could they be the same person?

The fifth book is The Melton Lazars Mystery – Murder amongst the books in Scoresby.  Inspector Knowles has to work out why a bookseller was murdered. His investigation is complicated because he had feelings for the murdered lady. Along with Detective Sergeant Rod Barnes he has to turn the page and cover all eventualities.

The killer is one step ahead and next tries to kill a florist. Knowles and Barnes root through the witness statements, leaf through the evidence, and assimilate the findings that stem from the investigation. When events shift to the nearby village of Melton Lazars, Knowles and Barnes know it’s only a matter of time until the killer is caught, though it’s almost certainly not the time on the grandmother clock in the florists!

With inaccurate clocks, a sensitive bank manager, cocky DIY professionals, a Guy Fawkes mask, and an exotic call centre worker all thrown together, this book zips along at a fast pace until the revelatory final chapter.

The sixth book is The Woods of St Francis Mystery

There’s a new retriever in Goat Parva called Banjo and he’s providing good competition for Bingo, the favourite of Mrs Adelaide Hills. Banjo finds a body in nearby Manton Rempville. The initials of the victim are AB.

Soon a victim with the initials CD is found in the Assisi Lake in the Woods of St Francis and the following day a victim with the initials EF is found axed to death near the same lake.

Moving from pubs to social services to an artist’s cooperative, this murder mystery speeds through the villages around the Woods of St Francis. Is the local football club involved? Is someone at the newspaper covering up a story?

Or is an environmentalist choosing people who’ve committed crimes against nature and dispatching them?

Inspector Knowles, Sergeant Barnes, and the newly promoted DC Smythe are in a race against time to find the killer before another person meets their end.

Can Banjo and Bingo find where a tree has been chopped down to provide a vital clue in the investigation?

The Goat Parva Murders – 1

This excerpt is from the book entitled The Goat Parva Murders an English Murder Mystery book set in the countryside and stars two policemen who have been working together for a few years and get along really well.

There’s lots of dialogue and banter with some humour thrown in amongst the murders and suspects..

The stalker trained his binoculars on the ground floor lounge window where Danica Baker-Clements could be seen in her underwear watching TV. Danica’s blonde hair tumbled over artificially brown shoulders and the rhododendron branches twitched as the binoculars moved slowly over her complete loveliness. An owl screeched in the trees behind the stalker – the bird was catching mice in Doggett’s Field near the Baker-Clements’ house and had been disturbed. The warm night air was filled with the scent of honeysuckle.

The stalker was anticipating Mrs Baker-Clements removing her clothes during the evening as was the custom on Tuesdays and so intent was he on sharing every moment with her that he failed to hear the slight footfalls behind him. Danica Baker-Clements began to unhook her bra and the stalker’s breathing increased in intensity.

As the bra fell aside the stone hit the stalker’s skull rendering him unconscious instantly. He fell forward into the bush and then slumped to the ground, his glassy eyes surveying the lounge window but this time without binoculars. The assailant picked a bloom, placed it in the stalker’s mouth, and clamped the mouth shut.

For Rosemary, thought the assailant, the fight back begins.

Two minutes later Tim Armstrong cycled down the Baker-Clements’ drive and parked his bike out of sight behind the greenhouse. He was on time. He kept to the shadows created by the strong moonlight and soon knocked on the dining room window. Mrs Baker-Clements smiled, removed her last item of clothing, and headed to the window. They were seen only by a pair of lifeless eyes.