Police officers attending lectures?
Whatever next?
How about a dead body covered in maggots and ravens?
Who?
Phil?
Phil Beskin, that's correct.
How do you know?
Well... Word spread after his wife notified the college.
We understand you had a difference of opinion with Mr.
Beskin after his talk last night.
No, not really.
It was a bit of heated debate, that's all.
I am not a great fan of amateurism.
To what extent?
I'm an academic, Inspector, not a murderer.
I would hope it took something more than intellectual discord to make me a suspect.
This was found beside his body too.
Can you think of any connection between alchemy and Charles Williams?
There isn't one.
It symbolizes Negredo-- "the blackening"-- associated with earth.
What about maggots?
Decomposition.
The body being broken down in readiness for spiritual regeneration, Negredo being the first stage of the Great Work-- the Magnum Opus.
So how many stages are there?
Oh, it varies, but conventionally, four.
So this could be just the beginning.
