And in her eyes she sees -
In her eyes -
Her own death -
Her own death with these tools -
With these tools -
These two hammers -
This screwdriver -
This knife -
Her own death with these tools -
Her own death -
In her eyes -
In her eyes she sees -
The Yorkshire Ripper -
And she pukes -
Pukes down the side of herself -
Her left leg -
The table leg -
In a puddle on the floor, the yellow bile.
Up the stairs -
Beaming coppers at every turn -
At every turn to shake your hand -
To shake your hand, to pat your back and crack another can -
Shaking hands, patting backs, cracking cans -
Cans, backs, and hands until -
Until we’re all back in the upstairs office:
Ronald Angus, George Oldman, Maurice Jobson, Peter Noble, Dick Alderman, Jim Prentice, Alec McDonald, John Murphy, Mike Ellis and me -
No Bob Craven -
And the twenty faces I don’t know -
The twenty faces I don’t want to know -
Plus Sergeant John Chain -
Holding court -
The King is dead, long live the King:
The King of all Detectives -
The King of all Detectives telling us how it was:
‘I mean, you see a car up the side of the Trades House and you know what they’re up to inside that.’
Me: ‘What time?’
‘Eleven,’ he shrugs. ‘No later. Anyway I send Skinny over with his torch and he’s like a ferret down a hole is that one, thinks he’s going to cop some quim and sure enough if it isn’t Sharon Yardley with some punter. So Skinny, he comes trotting back and we put the plates through…’
Thirty people nodding -
Not me, me asking him: ‘What were they? The plates?’
‘Can’t remember can I, but they weren’t right ones, tell you that. So we get the word from Hammerton that whatever they were, these plates they should’ve been sitting on a bloody Skoda not a big brown fucking Rover 3500 and Skinny’s seen plates are only taped on anyway. So we go back over to them and take keys off him and have a look at his disk and he tells us his real name is Peter Williams from Bradford and he says he doesn’t want his missus to find out, does he. I tell him he’ll have to come down station because we reckon plates are nicked and he just nods and we ask them to get in our car and, right, this is when he dashes off behind water- tank and I’m like, hold your horses, where you off to? But he’s bursting for a pee, he says and he’s back in a couple of minutes. Did cross me mind he was going do a runner, but he comes back and we go down Hammerton Road and all way down he’s quiet, not a word.’
Thirty people, all nodding along -
Not me, me: ‘What about his car? Did you have a look inside?’
‘Yeah, yeah – messy, it was. Tools, rope, bits and pieces, you know – windscreen wipers, a Speedo, carpet, wood.’
‘Go on, John,’ says someone. ‘What happened then?’
‘Well then we interview them and we let her go but he tells us he’d taken plates off a car in a scrap yard in some place called Cooper’s Bridge near Mirfield. So we’re right, where the fuck is Cooper’s Bridge? And we call Leeds and Wakey and then find out it’s Dewsbury, so we call here and by now it’s like gone 5 in morning and they tell us they’ll send some lads down when Early Boys get on and so we call his missus in Bradford and tell her that her husband’s been nicked for dodgy plates.’
Me: ‘What she say?’
‘I don’t know,’ he shrugs again. ‘Not much, I heard. Anyway, that was me. I knocked off and it wasn’t until yesterday night when I come back on for another bloody graveyard and gaffer tells us that they’re still holding punter from Sunday night and Ripper Squad are giving him once over. So that gets me old brain ticking and that’s when I go off back up to Trades House…’
Thirty people, nodding, in awe -
The King of the Detectives.
Not me, me: ‘You call here first?’
‘No.’
‘You tell anyone what you were up to?’
‘No,’ he says, shaking his head. ‘I didn’t really think there’d be anything there, did I. But I just wanted to make double sure.’
‘Go on, John. Go on.’
‘So I get up there and I remember him saying he needed a slash like, going behind tank. So that’s where I go and fuck me if there isn’t a hammer and a bloody knife on ground by back wall.’
Me: ‘You touch them?’
Him: ‘No.’
‘What did you do?’
‘Ran straight back to car and called station and they’re straight on to here and Ripper Room and then word comes back to leave them,
Applause -
Thirty beaming coppers -
Shaking his hand all over again -
Shaking his hand, patting his back and cracking him cans -
Cans, backs, and hands until -
Until Noble says -
‘It’s time.’
Underground -
Back underground -
In the dark room with the one wall half glass -
Behind the glass, the two-way mirror -
Light from behind the glass -
The stage set -
Act III, the Final Act:
Four chairs and a table -
The players -
Noble and Alderman and Prentice -
