# Professor Locke — Ashton-Kirk, Investigator character guide

> Professor Locke in Ashton-Kirk, Investigator by John T. McIntyre.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mr. Locke, the mute Locke

**First appearance:** 0005-iii-the-portraits-of-general-wayne

## Snapshot

A mute professor who scrawls his answers on the backs of blueprints, meeting Kirk's intrusion with a calm that is more unsettling than fear.

## Who they are

Locke works in silence, communicating through heavy characters written on discarded plans, and his composure when Kirk appears is a marked change from the trepidation he has shown before. He gestures Kirk to a chair half a room away, as if measuring the distance between them, and admits in writing that he expected a visitor and that what has occurred is most unfortunate. His mute testimony is a hinge of the case: Edyth's secret visit to him, and his refusal to be rattled, force Kirk to reason backward from behavior to motive.

## In the story

### [XI: Pendleton Is Vastly Enlightened](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashton_kirk_investigator_se/chapters/xi-pendleton-is-vastly-enlightened)

Revealed as the deaf-mute who wrote the tallow message and screamed upon seeing Hume's body.

### [Miss Vale Unexpectedly Appears](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashton_kirk_investigator_se/chapters/xiv-miss-vale-unexpectedly-appears)

The mute professor, seen working in his shop and later striding agitatedly in his house with Edyth Vale present.

### [Miss Vale Departs Suddenly](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashton_kirk_investigator_se/chapters/xv-miss-vale-departs-suddenly)

The mute professor who communicates via writing and sign language; he claims Miss Vale is his niece and that she was about to leave.

### [XIX: The Two Reports](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashton_kirk_investigator_se/chapters/xix-the-two-reports)

Mentioned as a deaf mute who was intimate with both Hume and Richard Morris; Ashton-Kirk has already located him.

### [XXII: Ashton-Kirk Is Annoyed](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashton_kirk_investigator_se/chapters/xxii-ashton-kirk-is-annoyed)

Mentioned as the deaf-mute whom Miss Vale visited at the Institute near Cordova.

### [XXV: Approaching the Finish](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashton_kirk_investigator_se/chapters/xxv-approaching-the-finish)

Reported by Burgess to have been lurking around Christie Place and entering the Marx house.

### [The Finish](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashton_kirk_investigator_se/chapters/xxvi-the-finish)

The mute inventor who prepares a bomb to kill himself rather than face capture, communicating through written notes before detonating the explosive.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashton_kirk_investigator_se/characters/locke
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashton_kirk_investigator_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashton_kirk_investigator_se/characters