Yes. But he’s done several damn good articles about these slayings.
NORA:
Why not the mainstream media?
WINTERS:
Because, frankly, you won’t be taken seriously. Now Rich Mathis? He just might print your story – and your drawing.
NORA:
I’m not looking for publicity.
WINTERS:
I know you aren’t. My hunch is you’re trying to do the same thing I am: help stop this bastard.
SOUND:
Café noise. Clinks of glassware, murmured conversation.
NORA:
Thanks for meeting me, Mr. Mathis.
MATHIS:
Make it Rich. If I can call you Nora.
NORA:
Please. You know, we have some mutual friends.
MATHIS:
I know – I buy books from your downstairs neighbor.
NORA:
You buy feminist books?
MATHIS:
There’s a couple lesbian mystery writers I follow. I like women.
NORA:
I like women, too...as friends.
Anyway, we have mutual acquaintances, and we’re both freelancers, so –
MATHIS:
So let’s call the ice broken, okay?
Detective Winters says you may have an interesting sidebar on the Ripper story.
NORA:
That’s right. But when you hear it, you may take me for a flake.
MATHIS:
Maybe. But you seem like a nice enough flake, and I’m blogging every day about the Ripper case, so...what do you have?
NARRATOR:
Nora knows she isn’t being taken her very seriously...but when she mentions the Ripper collecting the female victim’s panties, Rich Mathis perks up.
MATHIS:
Detective Winters mentioned that detail to me, off the record.
NORA:
I guess holding back key information is common, in cases like this.
MATHIS:
Yes it is...This watercolor of yours, of the killer you see?...I want to put this on the blog. And interview you.
NORA:
I’m afraid you haven’t heard it all, yet.
MATHIS:
No?
NORA:
No. It started at a senior prom – thirty years ago.
NARRATOR:
They work together, mostly at the Nora’s apartment, for three days.
Mathis decides to hold the story for the next print edition of the paper.
MATHIS:
Okay! It’s a done deal – just e-mailed the story in, with your drawing as an attachment.
NORA:
But not my name!
MATHIS:
Come on...let’s sit on the couch...
SOUND:
They sit.
MATHIS:
I told you. Promised. Your identity is a secret. But that watercolor will appear under a headline – Is This Man the Ripper?
NORA:
... What have we done?
MATHIS:
What do you mean?
NORA:
I have the sick feeling I’ve just made a colossal ass of myself.
MATHIS:
Yeah, but with my help.
NORA:
(kidding) So you’re exploiting me?
MATHIS:
Well...spending three days with you in close quarters...I’d be lying if I didn’t admit ’exploiting you’ hadn’t crossed my mind once or twice...
NORA:
(lightly) Why don’t you put one of those sex ads in the back of your paper? Who knows? Maybe I’ll respond...
MATHIS:
Maybe...maybe you will...
SOUND:
Squeaking couch, going on a bit; kissing; murmurs indicating petting; but then abruptly stops.
NORA:
No! I’m sorry...no...I can’t. Rich,
I’m sorry, but I told you, I told you...
RICH:
(slightly out of breath) I understand.
NORA:
It’s not like I’m frigid or anything.
I’m fine, up until...
RICH:
The moment of truth?
NORA:
Yes. Yes. Then I feel this icy chill...
RICH:
I understand. I really do.
NORA:
You do?
RICH:
Think about it. This...difficulty of yours.
NORA:
Hang-up you mean? I should never have told you! Almost thirty and still a...
RICH:
Virgin. Not a dirty word. Nora, this...hang-up may mean that you really were Heather in a former life. The life immediately previous to this one.
NORA:
Oh, Rich, you can’t be serious...
RICH:
Hey, I’m a journalist – that makes me a combo of cynicism and open-mindedness. I’m merely positing that the trauma of Heather’s death, at a moment of sexual discovery that turned into bloody horror, may be something you carried along into this life.
NORA:
Suppose...suppose there’s something to this. What the hell am I supposed to do about it?
RICH:
I’m going to give the reporter’s answer.
NORA:
Okay.
RICH:
Find Heather. See if she existed.
Maybe if you can to terms with who you were, you can come to terms with who you are.
SOUND:
After a few beats, a knock on a doorframe.
NORA:
Professor Wyman? Will?
WYMAN:
Nora! Come in, come in.
NORA:
I’m not interrupting? I hate bothering you at school.
WYMAN:
Just reading some very dull papers.
Sit. Sit.
SOUND:
Chair scrape.
NORA:
Professor, what would you say to putting me under again? This time we try for a place and a date for Heather’s prom.
WYMAN:
A fishing expedition.
NORA:
Call it that.
WYMAN:
Understand, it’s rather typical for regressed subjects to resist giving certain details, including last names.
Just as it’s very typical for a subject to immediately seize upon a traumatic incident in regression – like Heather’s violent death.
NORA:
But why have I carried this with me into this life? Particularly my connection with ’my’ murderer?
WYMAN:
Sometimes, when a life is cut short...according to one theory...we carry an agenda of sorts into our next one. A job left undone.
NORA:
You mean, we keep coming back till we get it right.
WYMAN:
Or wrong. Who’s to say someone evil, cut short in the midst of his or her evil pursuits, might not try to continue on in a future incarnation.
NORA:
Only this murderer is still on the same life – he’s older now. But he has the same blue and brown eyes, and the same, sick...hobby.
WYMAN:
Might I make a suggestion? Let’s listen to the recording of your regression again, perhaps several times. See what images come into your mind. See if you can latch onto something specific.
NORA:
All right. Do you have time to do that now?
WYMAN:
Of course. I am all in favor of your effort to substantiate this psychic link to the Ripper...Shall we begin?
NARRATOR:
They listen to the recording of the party game that had turned so sinister, and after the second time through...
NORA:
Professor, I got a strong image of the high school gym where that prom was held. It’s a real place.
WYMAN:
At your own high school? That would be a natural –
NORA:
No! Not my high school. I’m seeing a school gym in Geneva, Illinois – it’s a little town outside Chicago.
WYMAN:
Yes, I know where it is. Why would you recognize that particular location?
NORA:
Please don’t tell my hipster friends, but I was a cheerleader. We had basketball games at the Geneva High gym, several times.
WYMAN:
Still, your subconscious may just be filling in...or...
NORA:
Or Heather really did go to Geneva High...
MUSIC:
Sting.
SOUND:
Coffee shop noise.
MATHIS:
Okay, I ran with that one little detail – Geneva High School – and our assumption that some time in the early ’80s a murder may have taken place.
NORA:
And?
MATHIS:
That original suburban Ripper is getting a lot of play, today. Some say this is the same killer, after a thirty-year hiatus. Others think it’s a copycat.
NORA:
What does that have to do
