“Realistically, I don’t think we’re going to find any answers until he’s in custody,” Dillon said. “And while all this mumbo-jumbo is enlightening, none of it is going to help us catch him. For instance, knowing his crimes are sexually motivated, and that he only operates in Whitechapel, didn’t help us anticipate that he would kill two women in one night.”
“Come on then, Sigmund bloody Freud,” Tyler challenged, “tell us why do you think he did that?”
Dillon shrugged. “Personally, I don’t think he had a reason. I wouldn’t be surprised if he only set out to kill one, the prostitute, and something happened afterwards to make him kill again.”
“Like what?” Charlie White asked.
Dillon shrugged. “No idea. Perhaps it was road rage or something. Perhaps she looked like the woman who jilted him years ago for being all mouth and no trousers, à la Ted Bundy.”
DC Wendy Blake raised a hand. “I might have an idea about why he did that,” she said timidly. Wendy didn’t like being in the spotlight. She was quite content to work in the shadows and let others take centre stage.
Tyler smiled encouragingly. “We’re open to suggestions, Wendy. The floor is all yours.”
“Well,” she began nervously, “I started reading a book about Jack the Ripper when we took on this case,” she told the assembled detectives, “and a couple of the things that have come out during the meeting have struck a chord with me. The original Ripper had a double event too. I wonder if our man is just copying him. Also, the original Ripper left bodies in the back yard of a house in Hanbury Street and at Mitre Square. Again, maybe the new Ripper –”
“Please don’t call him that,” Holland said forcefully. “Perhaps he genuinely thinks he’s a reincarnation of that fiend, or his descendant, or maybe he just hallucinates that the Ripper’s ghost is telling him to kill in his name. Personally, I doubt all of that. Call me cynical, but I think he just wants the notoriety that comes with the Ripper tag. After all, it worked wonders for Peter Sutcliffe. The media are lapping it up. They use the Ripper moniker to sell newspapers, but a by-product of doing that is that they’re giving fame and notoriety to a deranged monster who will probably get a book deal out of it, and then make a mint selling the films rights after he’s banged up.” Holland was becoming more worked up as he went on. “I will not have my staff accord him that accolade. He is vermin. He is filth. He is just another unknown killer to us and I would be extremely grateful if everyone here refrains from calling him ‘The New Ripper’.” The room had gone completely silent, as tends to happen when a Detective Chief Superintendent loses his rag.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Wendy said, crestfallen.
“Not at all, my dear,” Holland said. Having vented his fury he was feeling a little mean for snapping at her like that. “Please carry on.”
Wendy fidgeted nervously in her chair. “I was just trying to make the point that the killer is duplicating some of the things the original Ripper did as some sort of tribute to him. That’s why he deposited two of his victims at locations the original Ripper used, and that’s why he had a double event of his own.”
“Where did the original Ripper leave the other bodies?” Dillon asked. “Do you know?”
“There were five canonical killings in 1888,” Wendy said. She held up an A3 sheet of paper. “I took the liberty of printing this street map off and cross-referencing it with the deposition sites for both the 1888 killings and the 1999 murders. The historical sites are all marked by red circles and the 1999 sites are marked with blue circles. There are red circles in Durward Street, which in 1888 was known as Bucks Row, Hanbury Street, Berner Street, Mitre Square and Whites Row, which is where Miller’s Court was. The blue circles are in Quaker Street, Mitre Square, and Hanbury Street.”
“So, our boy isn’t following the exact pattern of his hero?” Jack said. “He isn’t leaving every victim at locations his namesake used in 1888, only some of them.”
“Well,” Wendy said, “even if he’s clinically insane, and I’m not saying he is, it would be stupid to do that. After all, he’s got to realise that we will make the connection at some point. If he was mirroring the original Ripper that closely, all we’d have to do to catch him would be stake out the next deposition site.”
“That makes a lot of sense, Wendy,” Steve Bull said, admiringly.
“What about the dates of the murders?” Jack asked. “Do they match?” If they did, they might at least get an insight into the killer's intended timetable.
Wendy shook her head emphatically. “No, they don’t. The killings we’re investigating bear no resemblance to those of the 1888 killings.” She opened her day book and read from her notes. “Mary Ann Nichols was discovered on Friday 31st August; Annie Chapman was discovered in Hanbury Street on Saturday 8th September; Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddows were the Ripper’s double event, both were killed on 30th September – Eddows was dumped in Mitre Square; and finally, Mary Jane Kelly was found at her home address, thirteen Miller’s Court, off Dorset Street on 9th November.”
“Well done, Wendy,” Jack said. “What you’ve just said makes a lot of sense and actually makes things much clearer in my mind. If I had a gold star, I would give you one.”
“And a gold star,” Murray sniggered under his breath. Grier made a mental note not to sit anywhere near him again in future meetings.
“Right,” Tyler said, “I think everyone has had enough. Grab a coffee and then back in here in ten minutes for tasking.”
“I’m bloody gasping,” Dillon said. “And as it’s your turn to pay, I think I’ll have a Belgium Bun as well.”
As the detectives
