Legacy of the Ripper (21 page)

"Perhaps you'd like to explain, Alice," said Holland. "It's your theory after all."

Alice leaned forward and gestured towards the maps that Wright had seen as he approached the desk. She'd obviously been busy, or at least she'd had her secretary hard at work in preparing the papers that lay before the three of them. Carl Wright caught a hint of expensive perfume as he moved closer to Nickels in order to get a better view of the desk top.

"As you can see," she began, "there are actually two maps here. The first one is a map of Brighton as it is today, with the murder sites of both Laura Kane and Marla Hayes marked clearly by the red crosses I've placed there. The second map is of Whitechapel as it was in 1888, with all the sites of the Ripper's verified killings and some of the possibles later attributed to him also marked. The definites are marked with black crosses, the others in green. I've had the Whitechapel map transposed onto this transparency so that we can overlay it and still view the Brighton map underneath. Now, watch what happens when I place the Whitechapel map on top of the Brighton one."

Very methodically, she placed the transparency on top of the Brighton map and began to line them up slowly and accurately until she was satisfied with the positioning of the two documents. As the labyrinth of Victorian streets began to superimpose themselves on those of contemporary Brighton, Wright and Holland at last began to see the reasoning behind the woman's theory. The red cross that marked the site where Laura Kane's body had been discovered on the Regent Estate was covered exactly by the black cross that marked the site where Martha Tabram's body had been found in the George Yard Buildings. Perhaps even more telling was the realisation that the cross that showed the location of Marla Hayes's body was equally obliterated by the black cross depicting the location on Bucks Row, where Mary Ann Nicholls had been found back in 1888.

"Bloody hell!" said Wright.

"Exactly," Holland added.

"You see," said Alice Nickels. "He's not only re-creating the murders, but he's also committing them, or at least leaving the bodies, in places that match the locations of the discoveries of the bodies of the original Ripper's victims. You'll see that the cross that marks the location of Annie Chapman's body, found on 8th September in Hanbury Street lies directly over a place here called Hastings Close, and that gentlemen is where I firmly believe your killer will strike, or at least deposit the body of his next victim, tomorrow night."

"It's so bloody simple, it's actually brilliant, Alice," Holland exclaimed excitedly. "Why the hell didn't we think of it?"

"My fault, sir," said Wright dejectedly. "I'm supposed to be the one with the inside track on the Ripper crimes, and I should have thought of it."

"No, sergeant. I won't have you taking responsibility for missing something that I would never have thought of. Let's face it, you were the one who latched on to the Jack the Ripper connection in the first place. If you hadn't been so fast in doing that, I might still be totally in the dark about our oddball killer and his motives."

"He's right, Carl," said Alice Nickels, reinforcing the inspector's view.

"I only thought of it when I decided to try and think outside the box a little. It was plain to me that you were dealing with a copycat of some description and I wondered just how far he'd gone to create a total re-enactment of the original crimes. It was only then that I got a hold of a map of Brighton and checked my idea, and I was fortunate to see that my theory did in fact bear close scrutiny. Now, we also know that poor Annie Chapman was found just prior to six in the morning, having been supposedly witnessed talking to a man at around five-thirty outside a house in Hanbury Street. If your killer sticks to the original Ripper's timetable and the witness sighting from 1888 was correct then you can assume that, if he's a stickler for detail your next victim will meet her end at some time between five-thirty and six a.m. in the morning."

"Which means we've got a little more time than I thought," said Holland. "When everyone was talking about tomorrow night I assumed we were talking about the early part of the night, perhaps up to midnight. It might not be much, but at least this gives us a few more hours to put our plan into place, to try to catch this bastard before he finds that next victim."

"I think Alice's theory has saved us a lot of needless time wasting and manpower sir," Wright added. "This way, we can concentrate our forces in the area surrounding Hastings close, and if our man shows his face, then&wham! We've got him."

"Oh, please, Carl, don't hold me to all of this. It is just a theory after all. I could be entirely wrong. I wouldn't want to be the one responsible for pulling officers away from potential murder sites if you and the inspector here have made arrangements already."

Seeing the worried look on Alice Nickels's face, Mike Holland moved swiftly

"No, it's okay Alice, really. We don't have enough manpower as it is to cover the whole of the town, or even the whole red-light district. This way, thanks to you we have a fighting chance to nab the killer and we can utilise our forces to the best advantage, from our point of view. We had to decide on a centre of operations, a focus for our efforts and I have an idea your theory is absolutely correct. We will indeed be concentrating our effort on Hastings Close and the streets immediately surrounding it. With luck and little bit of patience tomorrow night, we might just have our man in custody by daylight."

"There's something else, sir," Wright interjected, a worried look on his face.

"Go on, Carl," said Holland.

"Well, if we've been clever enough, with Alice's help, to work out where and when the killer is likely to strike again then isn't it safe to assume that he just might know that we've worked out his agenda for the killings? He might assume we're on his track by now and decide to choose a totally different location, even if it conflicts with the original topography of the Ripper crimes."

"You're right, of course," Holland agreed, "but we also have to assume that, like so many murderers before him, our killer is arrogant enough to believe he can't be caught. From what I've learned about the Ripper case, mostly from the two of you I might add, Jack the Ripper also killed with seeming impunity, barely yards from the windows of homes where people were living at the time and yet no-one saw or heard anything, and he was never seen leaving the scene of his crimes even in the case of Liz Stride where, it appears, he must have been almost on the spot when the man who discovered the body came along into the yard where she lay, still warm and bleeding. No, if I'm correct and I pray to God that I am, this bastard feels almost invincible, holds the police in very low esteem and he thinks that he can literally get away with murder. He's going to do it, of that I'm sure, and somehow we have to be there, waiting in the wings in the hope we can stop him before he carries out his next fiendish re-creation."

The two policemen stopped abruptly as Alice Nickels rose from her seat.

"Well, I think you gentlemen have everything in hand," she spoke softly. "I suppose I ought to leave you to plan your course of action."

"Wait, Alice, please," said Holland. "I'd be really grateful if you could manage to stay here in town at least until tomorrow night is over."

"Really?" she replied, smiling at the inspector in a knowing fashion.

"Yes, of course. Who's to say that your help and input in other aspects of the case might not prove invaluable to us over the next twenty four hours or so? Don't you agree, sergeant?"

"What? Oh, yes, of course, sir. We'd appreciate your help, Alice, we really would."

Obviously pleased to be asked, and perhaps as though she'd expected the request from Holland, Alice Nickels took her mobile phone from her handbag, and speed-dialled her office. As she waited for an answer to her call, she turned again to Holland.

"It won't take me a minute to confirm my stay here. My desk is relatively clear and my secretary will be capable of handling any inquiries for the next day or so. I can get a room at the Atlantic down the road. It's a rather nice hotel and I've stayed there a couple of times in the past when I've been down here on business, or for conferences and so on."

Realising that he'd probably been brilliantly 'played' into accepting the presence and the unofficial assistance of the smart, elegant woman who stood at centre stage in his office, Holland could do no more than smile back at her, look at his sergeant who was grinning at him in the style of a proverbial Cheshire cat and exclaim,

"Right, well, that's that then, eh? Settled!"

A Plan

Holland, Wright and Alice Nickels enjoyed a working lunch of sandwiches and coffee, which Wright procured from the local delicatessen, a few yards down the road from the station. Holland felt more optimistic than he had for days, a feeling that communicated itself to his sergeant. The inspector had sent for a detailed plan of the area of town where Hastings Close was situated and the three of them now closely studied the area where they believed the next intended killing would take place.

"It's a fairly new development, less than ten years old," said Wright. "The homes are all three or four bedroomed detached houses with, for the most part, open plan gardens to the front. There certainly isn't a lot of cover for our murderer anywhere along the length of the street. That's going to make his job harder."

"Ours, too," said Holland. "There won't be too many places for us to secrete our men without them being highly visible to all and sundry."

"What about the back gardens?" asked Alice Nickels.

"Yes, they all have gardens to the rear," Wright replied. "But again, looking at the plans, they're all either walled or fenced in. The walls and fences all appear to be about five feet high, obviously for privacy and security so moving from one to the other wouldn't be an easy task, especially if he has an unwilling young woman in tow."

"Or a body," Holland added, chillingly.

"But, couldn't you hide your men in the rear gardens? Surely if you explained the situation to the householders, they'd be only too willing to cooperate?"

"Alice," Holland sighed. "If we go along and tell the locals what's likely to happen in their street, there'd be a leak the size of the River Thames before you could say Jack the Ripper. News would get out in no time at all and our man would probably go underground or most certainly at the very least, commit the murder elsewhere."

"Even though his plan calls for him to do it in Hastings Close? I thought you said that he'd go ahead no matter what because of his contempt for the police and his belief that he can't be caught?"

"Yes, that's what I said and I still believe it to be true. However, he isn't stupid, as evidenced by the lack of clues and forensic trace at the scenes of his other killings. He won't deliberately put himself in danger of being caught if the word on the street tells him that half the local police force will be lying in wait for him to put in an appearance."

"Then, isn't it safe to assume that he already has a contingency plan in place, just in case his chosen site is unavailable for some reason?"

"Yes, Alice, he probably does, but where that is and what would entice him to use it is anyone's guess. We certainly don't want him to switch his efforts to his secondary site because, let's be honest, we don't have a bloody clue where that might be. We're going along with your theory of Hastings Close because it makes sense, but we still might be way off the mark if we're really unlucky."

All three of them fell silent as the logistical problem of the next day's operation laid heavily on their minds. For want of something to distract the conversation from its current state of lethargy Wright pulled out the two-page document he'd obtained from Mary Kelleher.

"Listen, sir, Mary in Vice provided us with this list of known users of the local prostitute population. Why don't I go through it after lunch and maybe see if any of the names on here correlate to any known sexual offenders in the area? Maybe our man's name is already here in our hands and we just don't know it yet."

"Good idea, Carl, but the more I think about it and based on what Alice here ahs told us, I don't think we're dealing with a local man here at all. Let's check the list, but I think it will serve only to eliminate rather than incriminate any of the names on it."

"You don't? But I thought that with all the local knowledge he seems to have displayed&"

"No. Sorry to interrupt you, but listen. He may appear to have local knowledge, but that doesn't make him a local by default. Anyone could have got hold of maps of the town as we have and then done a bit of homework. It wouldn't have taken him long to do just what Alice has done and mark out his killing grounds based on overlaying one map over the other. Then, all he had to do was scout the area before carrying out each of his murders and make sure he had ways in and out with no chance of being detected. This bastard could have come from anywhere. A couple of weeks to get to know the town and that's all he needed."

"So, my visit to Vice was a waste of time?"

"Maybe, maybe not. It's just that Alice's arrival has given us a new perspective on the case and I'm inclined to believe we're dealing with a very clever sod who's had this planned for a long time. I doubt he'd be some seedy little turd who frequents the local red light district as a customer of the girls. No, this man is a man with a mission and it's our bloody mission to stop him before he kills again. Now, where were we with that plan of Hastings Close?"

A detailed examination of the development confirmed what Holland had already surmised. Concealment was virtually impossible anywhere along the open-plan close. He dammed the use of such wide open spaces by modern planners. It might look good and help to sell houses but it sure as hell was about to make his task so much harder. The only way in and out of Hastings close was from Dorset Street, the main thoroughfare off which the cul-de-sac branched. Alice couldn't help but point out the macabre significance of the fact that Dorset Street had been one of the most crime ridden and run-down streets in the Spitalfields area of Whitechapel during the time of Jack the Ripper. In fact, the body of Mary Kelly, last known victim of the Ripper had been found in her appallingly minute lodgings in Millers Court, just off Dorset Streetfollowing her most gruesome murder on 9th November 1888. Carl Wright speculated that perhaps there was some significance in this fact. Maybe, he suggested, the killer had planned the whole series of crimes so that he could commit his next murder in such close vicinity to a road bearing a name that matched one of those linked to the original Whitechapel murders. Both Holland and Alice Nickels agreed that such a possibility couldn't be easily dismissed. Like Millers Court, Hastings Close was situated just off Dorset Street, too much of a coincidence to be ignored. There was no other way to exit the Close, with houses lined along its entire length and breadth, spaciously perhaps but with no other way in or out. If the killer was going to strike in Hastings Close it appeared that he only had only one way open to him. He had to arrive via Dorset Street and he had to leave the same way. Surely, the police could seal off the area and find a means of surveillance that would succeed in preventing him carrying out his next crime.