Poe’s Final Macabre Mystery Part XII 

Welcome back to Myths & Mischief! This is your Lovable Lord of Lore, today’s mischievous myth is the twelfth installment of the tale of the death of America’s master of the macabre, Edgar Allen Poe. 

This is the 12th part of a short story that gives a possible explanation of famous author Edgar Allen Poe’s demise.  

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Carl Wilson showed up at the office after taking the previous day off as he and Thompson had discussed. He was running late because he overslept. He had underestimated how much of a physical toll the investigation was taking on him. He was also surprised that Robert hadn’t made it in yet. Carl thought that maybe Robert had also overslept, but that wasn’t like the more experienced investigator. He waited around the office until Robert was over two hours late. He walked around the office with a pit in his stomach repeatedly asking coworkers “Any word from Thompson?” People were anxiously avoiding him until he decided to call on Robert at home.

When he got to Robert’s home, there was a note on the door for him, but it wasn’t from Robert. The note stated “If you know what is good for you, you will drop your investigation. No need for two dead policemen.” Alarmed, Carl used his shoulder to smash in the door and ran into the house. He checked the house from top to bottom. There was no sign of Robert. There was also no sign that he had ever made it home. Carl ran from the house to the train station where he had last seen Robert. There was no sign of him anywhere.

After retracing his steps several times, Carl Wilson went back to the office.

“Is there any word from Robert?!?”

A coworker acknowledged him, nodded, and handed him a note.

Carl read it.

“I wish to inform you that my current case has caused me to reconsider this line of work. I will be leaving Baltimore to explore new possibilities that are less emotionally draining. I wish all of you well, and you can refer to Carl Wilson on my ongoing investigations. Take care, Bob Thompson.”

Carl knew that the letter was a forgery. Besides the note for him on Robert’s door, he had spent enough time with Robert to know that he would never refer to himself as Bob. With that said, he was also aware of the dangers of blowing the whistle on Robert’s disappearance as well as continuing with the investigation. He decided not to share the note from Robert’s door and quietly proceed with the investigation in secret as he thought to himself: “Just when the pendulum had swung in our favor, it changed directions and cut deep.”

Unfortunately, Wilson was unable to find an explanation of how Poe got from the train to Ryan’s Tavern as well as where he came up with the clothes he was found in. He suspected that Poe was picked up at the train station by people cooping, then dumped in the street where he was found when it was determined that he was too recognizable to be used for multiple votes. He thought about visiting other voting places but he didn’t want to attract attention that would put himself in danger after what happened to Robert.

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That’s it for today’s installment, this is your Lord of the Lore signing off.   

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