Ripping Time

She sighed and set out very slowly, moving in the general direction of Dorset Street once more. John Lachley glanced quickly along the street and saw no sign of anyone, so he stepped out of the doorway he'd been leaning against and crossed the street toward her. Since he didn't want to startle her into crying out and waking anyone, he began whistling very softly. She turned at the sound and sent a hopeful smile his way.

"Good morning," John said quietly.

"Good morning, sir."

"You seem to be in something of a bind, madam."

She glanced quizzically into his eyes.

"I couldn't help but overhear you, just now. You need money for your lodging house, then?"

She nodded slowly. "I do, indeed, sir. You realize, I wouldn't ask, if I weren't desperate, but... well, sir, I can be very agreeable to a gentleman in need of companionship."

John Lachley smiled, darting a quick glance at Maybrick's place of concealment.

"I'm certain you can, madam. But surely you have in your possession something of value which you might sell, instead of yourself?"

Her cheeks flushed, the right one bruised from the fist fight she'd been in with the other whore earlier in the week. "I've already sold everything of value I own," she said softly.

"Everything?" He stepped closer. Dropped his voice to a mere whisper. "Even the letters?"

A

"Never mind that, just tell me one thing. Will you sell them to me?"

Her mouth opened, closed again. From the distant tower of the Black Eagle Brewery, the clock struck five-thirty A.M. "I can't," she finally said. "I haven't got them any longer."

"Haven't got them?" he asked sharply. "Where are they?"

Misery pinched her face, turned her complexion sallow. "I've been ill, you see, with a cough. I needed money for medicine. So I sold them, but I could get them back or tell you who bought them, only... could you give me a few pence for a bed, if I do? I need to sleep, I'm so unwell."

"You could maybe get them for me?" he repeated. "Will you?"

"Yes," she answered at once. "Yes," she whispered, leaning against the brick wall in visible weariness, "I will."

He dropped his voice to a whisper and asked, "Who's got them?"

"I sold them to Elizabeth Stride and Catharine Eddowes..."

Footsteps behind him told Lachley they were not alone. He swore under his breath, careful not to turn his head, and listened with a trip-hammering pulse until whoever it was continued on their way, rather than interrupt what must look to any observer like a whore and her customer in serious negotiations. When the footsteps had died away again in the distance, Lachley took A

He dug into his pocket and pulled out two shining shillings, which he handed over.

She smiled tremulously. "Thank you, sir. I'll get the letters back with this, I promise you."

The passing of the money between them was the signal James Maybrick had been waiting for all through the long night. He appeared from the darkness and walked toward them as Lachley caressed A

"I'll have them," she said earnestly. "There's a nice, quiet yard at number twenty-nine," she added softly, nodding down the street toward a dilapidated tenement. "One of the girls I know oiled the hinges," she added with a wink, "so there's no chance of waking anybody. The second door, there, leads through the house to the yard."

"Lovely," Lachley smiled down at her. "Perfect. Shall we?"

Lachley eased open the door, aware that Maybrick trailed behind, silent as a shadow. Lachley escorted A

She had just enough time to gasp out one faint protest. "No..."

Then his hands were around her throat and she fell against the fence with a thud, all sound cut off as he crushed her trachea. Her terrified struggles spiraled through his entire being, a giddy elixir, more potent than raw, sweating sex. When it was over, the shock of disappointment was so keen he almost protested the end of the pleasure. Morgan had lasted much longer, struggled much harder, giving him hours of intense pleasure. But they couldn't afford the risk out here in the open, where all of London might hear at any moment. So Lachley drew several deep, rasping breaths to calm himself, then lowered her lifeless corpse to the filthy ground beside the fence. He stepped back, giving her to the impatient Maybrick, who gripped his knife in eager anticipation. The sound of that knife ripping her open was the sweetest sound John Lachley had heard all day.

He bent low and breathed into Maybrick's ear, "Return to Lower Tibor when you've finished. Use the sewers, as I showed you. I'll be waiting in the secret room."

Then he slipped from the yard, leaving the maniacal Maybrick to vent his rage on the lifeless corpse of A

His beautiful Greek prisoner had known, somehow; had seen clairvoyantly into his future and known he would not succeed tonight. Curse it! He would have to question Ianira more closely about what she had seen in that vision of hers. Clearly, he could do nothing further today. It would be getting light soon and Maybrick had to return to Liverpool today, to meet social and family obligations.

Lachley was tempted to find these women himself, to end their miserable lives with his own hands, without waiting for Maybrick's return. But that was far too risky. Maybrick must be involved; that was critical to his plans. He must have a scapegoat on which to pin blame for these murders. All of them, including the next two. He narrowed his eyes. Elizabeth Stride and Catharine Eddowes... He'd never heard of either woman, but he was willing to bet they were common prostitutes, same as the recently departed Polly Nichols and the even more recently departed A

It was even possible that someone would co