The Mad Doctor of London
A Great Mouse Detective Pastiche
By E. Grimes
© 2001 by Ethel M. Grimes. No part of this manuscript may be used in any manner without author's permission.
In Part I: Dr. Heinrich Von Seyss, a demented physician and head of an insane asylum, has fled his native Vienna to escape the Kaiser’s order for his arrest--the reason: Von Seyss was using some of his patients and various strangers for his criminal medical experiments.
The night of his departure, he discovers that his mistress Anna Heinstoffer is pregnant; in the resulting argument, the doctor hurls her down a flight of stairs and leaves her for dead.
Now, having safely reached London, Dr. Von Seyss plans once again to carry on his monstrous "trade"---this time seeking his victims in London’s East End. But there was once a kinder side to the doctor...
Part II : The Beginning of a Nightmare
Although two months would pass before Dr. Von Seyss’ "work" (as he called it) would begin again, what followed afterwards would be remembered as a reign of silent terror in the streets of Victorian London...and one of the most startling cases in the career of Basil of Baker Street.
Von Seyss, for all his eagerness to resume his experiments, was being extraordinarily patient. He had to be; the consequences of his last night in Vienna had taught him to be more careful---but to be no kinder.
Yet the doctor missed his beloved Austria, and longed for the things he had been forced to leave behind, wondering if they were out of his life forever. He ached to hear the strains of Mozart at the Vienna Opera House, to stroll along the shores of the Danube...to enjoy a crisp Strudel and dark, strong coffee with whipped cream, or a stein of Pilsner beer at a local tavern.
For there was indeed a gentlemanly, cultured side to Von Seyss---which made the darker aspect of his soul all the more insidious, the more frightening.
And yet, Dr. Heinrich Von Seyss had not always been the monster he had now become...
Born in Salzburg in 1863, Von Seyss’ early childhood had, in fact, been quite happy. His parents, Albert and Hilda Von Seyss, showed the young Heinrich much love and gentleness, taking him to church every Sunday and bringing him up with all the morals and manners necessary for a young mouse. Had his life continued on that path, Von Seyss might surely have become one who would have healed his fellow mice, rather than harmed them.
But Fate, which sometimes can be horridly cruel, would turn Von Seyss’ life into a completely different direction.
When Heinrich was only 12, his father was run over and killed by a coach---a shock from which the younger Von Seyss never recovered. But being the only child, and thus the only son, he was thereafter "the man of the house". Still, he took his responsibility well and with pride, caring for his mother as best he could.
Eventually, Hilda Von Seyss left Salzburg with her son and moved to Vienna, where she became a schoolteacher. The two lived quite contentedly together for two years, a peace that was disrupted when Hilda met Professor Adolf Reichmann. After a short courtship, the widow Von Seyss married Reichmann, certain that her son would fare better with another man in the house.
She could not have been more mistaken. Heinrich hated his stepfather, whom he felt had usurped both his late father and the love of his mother---not to mention the brief authority the boy had known.
The hatred was all the more justified by Reichmann’s brutal character and overly strict sense of discipline, which contrasted so sharply with Hilda’s meek gentleness. To make matters worse, Reichmann taught at the very school Heinrich attended, making for painful and humiliating experiences that, in later years, would further twist Von Seyss’ mind.
Being the professor’s stepson, Heinrich was expected to be better in every way than the other boys in his class. He was also given harsher punishments, at times even singled out for them---all of which did nothing to strengthen the bond between Heinrich and his stepfather, who seemed as deeply resentful of the young Von Seyss as the boy was of him.
It would come to an ugly head one day in mathematics class, when Prof. Reichmann caught Heinrich talking to one of his schoolmates during an algebra lesson.
"Herr Reichmann," the professor ordered angrily, "come up here at once!"
Von Seyss, who had never accepted his new surname, glared venomously at his stepfather and didn’t move.
"Are you deaf, boy?" exclaimed Reichmann. He rushed over to Heinrich’s desk and, grabbing the young fellow roughly by one ear, dragged him over to the blackboard. Enraged at this brutal treatment, Heinrich blushed, but stood staring at the floor, ignoring his classmates’ giggles.
"Since you like to talk so much, young man, maybe you’d like to tell us all the answer!" Reichmann sneered, pointing to an equation he had just drawn.
Of course, Heinrich could have told the answer at one glance. That was another thing his stepfather had disliked about him, the fact that the young Von Seyss was highly intelligent for a lad of 14. But Heinrich, angry and embarrassed, stood glaring at the professor with daggers in his eyes, stubbornly refusing to answer. At that, Reichmann’s temper exploded.
"Dummkopf! D’you hear me? Answer that, I say!" he screeched, as he shoved Heinrich’s face into the blackboard, while the other boys gasped in fright. But even then, Von Seyss said nothing, only coughing at the smell of chalk dust.
Reichmann had a long, thick oaken cane which he brought to school every morning, keeping it in a corner in plain sight of his students. He also had a bizarre custom, whenever he punished one of the boys, to make the offender bring him the cane himself---then to hold out his hand for as many healthy whacks as Reichmann felt like giving him.
Humiliated at his stepson’s defiance before his very class, the professor was scarlet with rage.
"Heinrich," he ordered, "bring me my cane!"
Von Seyss shuddered inwardly, but still stood his ground.
"No," he said between clenched teeth, "I won’t!"
So Reichmann turned to the boy Heinrich had been talking to. "Herr Dortmann, fetch my cane and bring it up here this instant!!"
Young Dortmann didn’t dare defy the professor’s order, and quickly retrieved the cane, trembling as he handed it to Reichmann, and glancing in sheepish apology at Von Seyss before he sat down.
"Now," declared Reichmann, "I’ll teach you to show me more respect, boy. Hold out your hand!"
Heinrich didn’t move.
Reichmann grabbed the boy’s right arm and held it out firmly, and Heinrich stood wincing and sucking in his breath as the professor soundly thrashed him, while the other youths gaped in terror. But even in his pain, the young Von Seyss stood proud and defiant, although he had to fight the tears in his eyes.
"Now return to your desk, Herr Reichmann!" ordered his stepfather, too outraged by Von Seyss’ defiant silence to feel triumphant at the moment. He scowled furiously as Heinrich, rubbing his now aching hand, slunk quietly back to his desk, where he sat sullenly with his eyes on the floor during the rest of the session---except to cast baleful glances at Reichmann whenever the professor’s back was turned.
When class was dismissed, Heinrich left as quickly as he could, but not before his stepfather announced: "I’ll deal with you when you get home, young man!"
So it should have been no surprise, when Prof. Reichmann came home, that he found a worried wife and no stepson.
"Where’s Heinrich?" Reichmann demanded.
"I don’t know," Hilda said, with an anxious glance at her husband. "He didn’t come home from school. Perhaps he’s off with some of his friends...I’ll keep his supper warm."
"Never you mind, wife," snapped the professor. "He’ll get no supper tonight. He’s being punished, and now he’s run away. Things will be that much worse for him when he gets home!"
"Why must you be so hard on him, Adolf?" blurted Hilda. "He’s only a boy. What do you want from him?"
"Respect, woman! That’s what I want!" Reichmann thundered, slamming his fist on the table. "The boy has no respect for me at all. He shamed me right in front of my students. I’m a highly regarded member of the faculty, and a pillar of this community. I won’t have that insolent young puppy making me a laughingstock!"
"Heinrich misses his father, Adolf," pleaded Hilda. "He can’t accept the fact that there’s another man in the house!"
Reichmann shook his head in disgust as he sliced into a bit of sausage. "Well, he’ll just have to. I’m the master of this house, after all. I’m the one who’s put the roof over his head and the clothes on his back...and I mean to make a man out of him!"
Hilda, sighing unhappily, sat picking at her meal---heartsick that she had brought misery into her son’s life without meaning to.
But it was destined that the hatred between Heinrich and Reichmann would explode into events that would forever change the lives of the boy and his mother. And that explosion came when Heinrich, tired and hungry, crept back into his house sometime past midnight. However, he had no intention of staying; he planned to get some food and some of his possessions, then depart from the house for good---although he hated to leave his mother, who was yet a source of comfort in his life.
But just as he was about to leave again, his heart leapt in his throat when he found his stepfather waiting for him in the sitting room. Reichmann had not slept, but had lain waiting to catch the boy unawares.
"And just where do you think you’re going, young fellow?" Reichmann demanded. "I told you I’d deal with you when you came home. And now you’re trying to sneak out and get away from your punishment! I’ll teach you something about respect, boy..."
Something began to boil up inside Heinrich, as he stood staring into the eyes of his stepfather---whose anger, it seemed, had almost become madness.
"You’ve punished me quite enough," he warned, "and you’re not going to do it again, old man!"
"How dare you talk that way to me?" Reichmann blustered. "Your own father!"
He suddenly drew back as if he’d been struck---for Heinrich had spat in his eye.
"You’re not my father!" screeched Heinrich. "You’ll never be my father. You wouldn’t have been fit to wipe his boots!"
At that, Reichmann slapped Heinrich’s face, nearly knocking him down. Heinrich staggered away from him, trying to reach the front door; but his stepfather, who had lost all control by now, began cuffing him mercilessly.
"Bad boy!"
snarled Reichmann, his eyes blazing. "Bad
boy! You’re nothing but a rotten, worthless young
hoodlum, Sie fürchterlicher Balg!"
Heinrich fell back onto a sofa, but as he saw Reichmann picking up his cane, he realised with terror that his stepfather hadn’t finished with him yet.
"And now," Reichmann declared, breathing hard, "I’m going to give you the thrashing you’ve long deserved!"
Heinrich jumped up and began to run, but Reichmann grabbed his arm and began beating his back and shoulders with the cane, as the young mouse choked back anguished cries.
"Adolf!!" screamed Hilda, as she threw herself between the two of them. "For the love of God, stop it---you’ll kill him!"
Not knowing where else to go at that moment, Heinrich staggered up the staircase. Reichmann shoved Hilda aside and ran after him, with Hilda following, crying and trying to hold him back. When Heinrich reached the balcony and looked back, he saw his mother being cruelly slapped down by the maddened professor.
At that moment, something snapped inside of Von Seyss’ soul. In a frenzy of rage, he forgot both his pain and fear at the moment, and rushed at Reichmann, wrenching the cane from his grasp with a strength he’d never before possessed. He then began thrashing his stepfather viciously, shrieking and cursing at him, until Reichmann fell to the floor, cowering in pain and terror. Only Hilda’s voice, screaming at Heinrich to stop, made the boy do so.
His eyes glowing with fury, Heinrich, still brandishing the cane, stood glaring down at his former tormentor.
"You’ll never beat me again," he declared. "D’you hear me, old man? You’ll never beat anyone again!!"
He slammed the cane across the balcony railing, shattering it in half. Hilda, sobbing, began to lead Von Seyss downstairs; but Reichmann, not about to let the matter go, lunged at Heinrich, who fell against the railing and banged his head quite hard.
Afterwards, he only remembered tumbling down the stairs with the professor, before he lost consciousness.
He awoke to find himself at the bottom of the staircase, and seeing the neighbours gathered around him and his mother. She was holding him in her arms, crying and kissing his bleeding head, and he noticed that Reichmann wasn’t standing anywhere. Gazing around him in a daze, he caught sight of his stepfather lying dead at the foot of the stairs, with two constables staring down at the body.
Suddenly, an odd sound burst forth from Von Seyss’ throat...a sound that he would make many times thereafter: a sort of half-giggling, half-sobbing, that went on and on with Heinrich unable to stop it, until he laid his face against his mother’s bosom and fainted...
"Oh, Heinrich..." sobbed Hilda, as she rocked him gently. "Oh, my boy...my boy..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Miraculously, the young Von Seyss survived, and after a fortnight was able to return home. By then, his stepfather, dead and buried, was no longer a threat, and so Heinrich lived in peace with his mother. Hilda sold the house and moved elsewhere in the city with her son, hoping to shake off the memory of that last terrible night with Professor Reichmann. Having inherited a good deal of money from her late husband’s estate, she and Heinrich were able to live comfortably, and the boy continued his studies in another and better school. He planned to become a doctor, although botany and herbology were among his favourite hobbies.
But while he went on with life as normally as possible, something had changed. It would develop that both his head injury and his stepfather’s cruelty had left their mark on Heinrich’s psyche...but not until he reached maturity would their terrible effects reveal themselves.
In the meantime, there was yet a benevolent side to the young Von Seyss. It was only, his mother and others noticed, that he would react so strangely to certain things...
There was that odd, hysterical giggle, for instance, which he would let out at the most inappropriate moments. At the sight of blood, or anything else that was startling, Heinrich would laugh in that fashion. He even did so when he was in pain. Also, he had frequent headaches, and an explosive temper, which often led into fights at school.
But, even though Von Seyss’ behaviour would change completely in later years, his mother would never know the darker side of his character. Even in his tortured mind, he sensed that his mother was the only positive force in his life, and the love and respect he had for her would not change.
Ironically, it would be just such devotion to Hilda Von Seyss that would lead into her son’s life of crime...
End Part II
Part III: Beginning of a Nightmare (Continued)
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