De Kliek 1

This is the storyline we have been referring to as "The Cabal". After some discussion internally, though, we have come to the conclusion that the word has some unpleasant anti-semitic connotations and, although it is often used innocently, we have decided to detail the investigation using the name that the group in question itself uses: De Kliek.

This investigation took place after the events of The Haunter of the Dark and is partly contemporary with the story that we'll be telling in Season 5. But that story took a little while to get moving, and so we were able to follow up on the leads that lead to "De Kliek" as we were working on the story that was sparked by our meeting with Inspector Legrasse.

It should further be noted that, thanks to our newly-launched, and constantly evolving, research tool "The Attic", we will be providing salient links to Attic entries within the text. Good luck heading down that rabbit hole!

Introduction

We've been hinting at the contents of this investigation for a while now, and eagle-eyed subscribers will be anticipating the involvement of Victoria Ness, Parker and the reappearance of Karen Whybrew. Those are to come. But the actual beginnings of this story start earlier than that, and in a manner which in no way hinted that we were about to find ourselves embroiled in something that has not only fundamentally altered our understanding of everything we have looked into, from the disappearance of Charles Dexter Ward onwards, but has changed the tone and emphasis of our investigations from this point forward.

The story, or our involvement with it, starts in March 2023. This would have been some weeks after the events detailed in The Haunter of the Dark. Caroline Morse and Wilberforce Ashton-Heath had not been seen or heard from since we encountered them inside the strange church beneath Dunwich. Marcus Byron too, had been missing since that time.

Kennedy and I were busy editing and mixing our account of those events for the podcast and, as we tend to do, we were also conducting background research in an attempt to cover all our bases and ensure that we were not missing anything that might illuminate the story we were telling. It's also worth remembering that we had, at that point, lost most of our equipment and were licking our wounds after Caroline Morse's raid on our studio. It was a strange time.

With the help of Slide, Kennedy had been doing a deep-dive into Caroline Morse and Wilberforce Ashton-Heath, a search that was made much easier now that we had a better idea of who they were and who they worked with.

One name that came up repeatedly in connection with those two was a man named Anders Verhaeren. According to various newspaper reports, Verhaeren was some kind of cultural attaché working for the EU. He hailed from Belgium and was, by all accounts, rather well-respected. But the Dark Web had it's own story to tell about Monsieur Verhaeren, and it was altogether more shady; there were multiple references and allegations that Verhaeren used his diplomatic credentials (and immunity) to smuggle antiquities all over the world.

It wasn't exactly surprising that people like Caroline Morse and Ashton-Heath might associate with a man like this, so we were inclined to just make a note of the name and move on. But one connection did catch Kennedy's eye; Verhaeren ran a company in Belgium, presumably as a means to launder money from his black market sales. But one of the other directors of that company was listed as a Peter Cornelissen. Kennedy had heard that name from Tommy Beaufort (see Saltmarsh 8), so it made her sit up and take notice.

A little more digging on Verhaeren unearthed a more local story; something that happened in England in August, 2022 (while I was "away").

On the 3rd August, 2022, at the Jermyn Estate, on the edge of Ausewell Wood on Dartmoor, Sir Arthur Jermyn took his own life. A tragic enough circumstance on its own, but the manner of his death (he doused himself in petrol and set himself on fire) together with his being the last surviving member of an old Establishment family, guaranteed a run on the front pages and a good deal of tabloid speculation. There were salacious reports about mental health issues running in the family, and of some kind of genetic abnormality that rendered the Jermyns variously "odd looking" and "simian". We weren't interested in any of that stuff, but we did note that Arthur Jermyn and Wilberforce Ashton-Heath had been well-acquainted (although Kennedy pointed out that "your in-bred aristocracy all know each other", so perhaps that wasn't worth reading too much into).

More interesting still, though was that by all accounts (meaning the testimony of Jermyn's staff), Sir Arthur had not suffered from the mental health problems that had plagued his ancestors and, indeed, had been on fine form on the morning of his death. That apparently changed when he received a visitor in the early afternoon; one Anders Verhaeren.

According to Jermyn's housekeeper, Verhaeren had brought with him a large package that Arthur Jermyn had been excited to receive. Given what we know about Verhaeren, it would be reasonable to assume that said package was some kind of antiquity of dubious provenance. Slide looked into this and was able to confirm that Verhaeren had flown directly to London from Kinshasa, where he had been for several weeks, so this could well have been the mysterious object's point of origin. Verhaeren left the package with Jermyn and, according to the same housekeeper, immediately returned to London from where he intended to fly to Amsterdam. Jermyn holed himself up in his study with the package.

A few minutes later, staff reported hearing cries of horror from within the study, then Sir Arthur came running out and dashed through the house to the garage. Several members of staff followed him, but were instructed to stay clear. Sir Arthur left the garage, where he had presumably doused himself in petrol, and ran out into the grounds of the estate, whereupon he set himself on fire.

The emergency services were immediately called, but there was nothing that could be done for Sir Arthur. The package, which was presumed to have been the cause of his distress, was taken away by police, but then it is reported that it was destroyed without explanation (although there was some speculation that it might have contained some kind of biological agent which infected Jermyn, and the realisation of what had happened caused him to take his own life). The coroner listed the cause of death as suicide, but no mention was made in her report of the package, and Anders Verhaeren's presence was not requested at the inquest.

As a story, it relied more on speculation than on fact, but the involvement of Verhaeren, and his ties to Cornelissen, Ashton-Heath, and Caroline Morse peaked our interest. It felt like there was something here, as if we were seeing the edge of the picture, or a few small pieces of a much larger puzzle. We couldn't resist.

And so we decided to put the Haunter of the Dark on pause for a few days while I did some background research on the Jermyn family and on Verhaeren, and Kennedy got on a train to Dartmoor...