Where is the body?

Throughout the literature of the ‘Whodunnit?’, the parallel conundrum ‘Whereisit?’ can be equally or more important. In some cases, such as Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, Caroline Graham’s Midsomer Murders TV series, and Angela Lansbury’s somewhat more lowbrow Murder She Wrote, the dead bodies seem to materialise from all directions, as if the Grim Reaper were in overdrive on Nile steamers, or hyperactive in the green and pleasant land of the English rural counties. In others, the whereabouts of the deceased, or vanished, is the main focus of interest. For the Inspector Montalbano novels of Sicilian author Andrea Camilleri, missing bodies turn up in many odd places, such as subterranean temples guarded by mythical hounds, or preserved in aspic in the bedrooms of vast, labyrinthine mansions.

Then there is the question of whether the invisible victim is in fact dead or simply missing? In the novel Der Verdacht (“Suspicion”) by Swiss crime writer and satirist Friedrich Dürrenmatt, the vanished hero, Inspector Barlach, finds himself forcibly detained in a clinic, run by a cabal of clandestine Nazi conspirators. His will to resist is sustained by a giant replica of Albrecht Dürer’s engraving Ritter, Tod und Teufel (Knight, Death and Devil) which he requested to decorate his hospital room, rather than the more compliant Rembrandt painting Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Nicolaes Tulp. As an act of defiance, Barlach demands that the Rembrandt be removed, since it is a picture in which the victim is actually dead and in the act of being dissected.

Perhaps the most celebrated instance of missing, presumed dead, was that of Sherlock Holmes, after his epic struggle with Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls, also in Switzerland. To all appearances, Holmes perished in the thunderous waters of the dreadful Reichenbach abyss, whereas in truth, and unbeknown to the ever faithful Watson, he was in Tibet, disguised as the Norwegian explorer Sigerson. In that persona, he was doubtless contemplating such mysteries as: the remarkable worm (said to be unknown to science); the giant rat of Sumatra; and the singular case of the politician, the lighthouse and the trained cormorant, “stories for which the world is not yet prepared“, as Holmes himself said, not to mention developing his thoughts on the polyphonic motets of Lassus.

My narrative of the Great Chess Murder Mystery two weeks ago on Saturday, 27 February has stirred up an immense reaction, in particular from the ingenious Bruce Monson of Colorado Springs, USA, who, while generally endorsing my findings, has embellished my conclusions with a number of interesting new points. There is consensus that Therese Clare Terry, the alleged victim, must be dead, not simply missing or in hiding. In fact The England & Wales National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995, indicates that she was declared deceased in 1995 (at least legally), with her actual death date given as January 16, 1990.

Mr Monson’s fresh insights throw considerable new light on precise locations identified in my exegesis, and his claims to have found something important seem to me to be entirely justifiable.

First of all let us examine the portion of the map entitled: Area For Game.
Mr Monson began by printing out a copy of the crude map, which the suspect had drawn while in prison, and proceeded to cut it out with scissors. He then pulled up Google Maps and moved the cut-out map around England and Ireland looking for similarities. And to his surprise he found a close match!

Image 1 by Bruce Monson

As you will see, Northern Ireland matches perfectly, but only when you include the County Donegal region to the northwest, where you find that distinctive triangle section! After this discovery Mr Monson photoshopped some additional overlays. This subsequently suggested the idea that the long line which the suspect had drawn across his map is actually Glenshane Road (also known as the A6 Road) that runs from Londonderry to Belfast. Manipulating the scale, he was also able to make most of the markers align with towns or landmarks. But most breath-taking was where this layout positioned the crossed-circle!

Crossed-Circle

Mr Monson’s conclusion is that the crossed-circle was not a mistake by the author. In fact, it is a critical clue that serves two functions:

1. A compass rose depicting N.S.E.W. (similar to how the infamous Zodiac serial killer used a compass rose in San Francisco).

2. It could also, literally, depict “X” marks the spot! Showing it in plain sight, while using the chess game as a red herring.

The region where the crossed-circle rests is a vast national park (could NPS represent National Park Service or something like it?). It’s remote, sparsely populated, with forests, lakes and a proliferation of boggy territory. If the murder took place in Ireland, as I originally proposed, then what better place would there be to dispose of the body than a remote bog? And in the 1990s it must have been even more isolated than it is now.

Lady-in-Waiting

The “Black Queen” and the “Lady-in-Waiting” are two distinctly different persons. I was correct that there has never been a “lady-in-waiting” chess piece. But is not every pawn, though apparently and traditionally male warriors, potentially a “lady-in-waiting”, lusting to expand in the hope of one-day becoming a queen? Sure, a few lust to be a rook, bishop or knight, since such less elevated metamorphoses are well within the rules of chess, but 99 per cent of the time they do indeed become queens.

Furthermore, “lady-in-waiting” was the title given to women in medieval Europe who were servants or personal assistants to the Queen. So a pawn, in our case, could very well be a lady-in-waiting on the killer’s chessboard. From this speculation, Mr Monson derives the following plausible scenario:

Of course, our suspect did not specifically call her a pawn, but suppose this lady-in-waiting is the real girlfriend (the other woman), and also his accomplice. Suppose they needed money and saw their golden meal ticket in Therese Terry. The suspect pretends to be Therese’s “boyfriend” (his Queen) while his real girlfriend plays along (Lying in Wait) until they can get to her money. But something goes wrong. Therese catches them and threatens to go to the police — so they kill her. Therese is lured to Ireland, using some ruse, while his accomplice “lies in wait” to facilitate the planned murder and subsequent body disposal.

If I were an investigator I would be looking into any other female companions which our suspect had at the time, or soon after his release from custody.

Further to this, Mr Monson writes that he noticed something that may be of interest on re-reading the paragraph in my original article, which began: “Armed with this information I now tried to decipher the game. The game proper starts after Wednesday 17 January when a black line is drawn across the page. The arrow pointing upwards above that indicates a preparatory phase for the game, when the suspect may even have travelled to Limerick, or arranged for someone to do so on his behalf, indicating premeditation of the dark events which were to follow.”

Mr Monson now asks: could this someone be the “lady-in-waiting”? Also, could the circled “H” on Monday 22 be code for “Hole”, as in digging a hole?

Mr Monson adds one extra image, which he created, showing what he thinks the general orientation of the chessboard could be, when overlaid on Northern Ireland. Note that this is just a sample and does not represent any sort of analysis trying to figure out the exact positioning. His idea was to manipulate the scale so that each identified location has its own square, while also attempting to get the ‘I’, ‘IV’s, ‘V’s and ‘VI’ in their correct rank.

Note also that the large triangle section attaches to the line the suspect drew across the map. This actually creates one giant arrow pointing NW when you orient the map to Northern Ireland. Given that he drew no less than eight (8) arrows on his map, it’s not a stretch of the imagination to see this triangle section as an arrow as well. Then from within that arrowhead you have the numerals I, II and III which follow an arc pattern that continues into the crossed-circle with its numbers IV and V.

“In any case, I was looking at the area around the crossed-circle and noticed Glenveagh National Park.  It’s probably a stretch–and Ray Keene’s Grievous Harm is probably correct–but what about GlenveagH as a possibility for GH?”

And as a Parthian shot, Mr Monson adds “also of interest is the LouGH Barra Bog.”

Much food for thought here. In particular, I hope, in a continuing reader challenge, to hear from any members of TheArticle community from the relevant region of Ireland, recalling anything related or suspicious, even if dredged up from the memory banks of three decades ago.

And now this week’s game between Raymond Keene and Werner Reichenbach (1975). This is a win of mine from the German International Championship of 1975, which might be subtitled Reichenbach Falls. 

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