‘It’s fucking brutal,’ the PC said, visibly shaking as the tears rolled down his cheeks. ‘I never seen a body before. Not like this.’
Wendy placed a reassuring hand on the young constable’s shoulder. He’d radioed in a few minutes earlier to report the body, which he’d found on his routine patrol that night.
‘I can’t understand it. I only walked past ten, fifteen minutes earlier and there was nothing. I didn’t see no people, no cars, nothing! I just don’t get it.’ The officer seemed almost inconsolable.
‘There’s no use beating yourself up about it,’ Wendy said. ‘This guy’s something else. He was probably watching you the whole time, waiting for the right moment.’
‘I should’ve seen him!’
‘No-one saw him. Do you have any idea how many officers are out on the streets tonight? We knew he was going to kill, we even knew when, but no-one managed to stop him. You can’t take it personally.’
‘I just can’t believe it. We always knew the fourth victim would be killed in some sort of square. Like the original. Why wasn’t there more officers in the squares?’
‘There was,’ Wendy replied. ‘Granted, we focussed on the main square by the clock tower, and the Courtyard, but we had no way of knowing what he thought constituted a square. There are ten roads alone in the town called “Square”. There wasn’t anything else we could’ve done. All the main shopping areas had extra officers. You were one of them.’
Wendy realised from the resultant look on the young officer’s face that that last comment hadn’t helped much.
‘She’s not been dead long. Certainly the same chap who did it, as if you didn’t already know,’ Dr Janet Grey said from her position kneeling over the body. ‘Similar MO. On her back, one of her legs bent up. Not to mention the throat being cut.’
‘I suppose you’ve also noticed that her fucking innards have been ripped out and thrown over her shoulder?’ Culverhouse interrupted.
‘I did notice that, yes. How very observant of you, Jack,’ Dr Grey retorted. ‘That’s not something we’ve seen before, but I can’t say it was unexpected. That’s what happened to Catherine Eddowes back in 1888, too.’
‘How the fuck did he do it, though? I mean, getting a woman here kicking and screaming in the middle of the biggest manhunt in the county’s history. How did he manage that?’
‘She might not have been kicking and screaming,’ the pathologist replied. ‘I won’t know until we’ve got the toxicology results back. If you ask me, the sensible option would’ve been to have drugged her unconscious and had her somewhere nearby, ready to finish the job.’
‘The sensible option would’ve been not to have bothered at all,’ Culverhouse replied.
‘Can’t argue with that. There is one saving grace, though, Jack,’ Dr Grey said, standing and removing her blue latex gloves.
‘If this is some sick pathology joke, you can fuck off,’ Culverhouse replied.
‘Not at all. I was just thinking, if I remember correctly, the fifth Ripper victim was killed on the ninth of November. That gives you, what, six weeks to stop him this time, if that helps.’
‘Oh yeah. That’s great,’ he said. ‘Just fucking great.’