Patrick Sharp looked as pumped as Wendy had imagined he might. As the force’s psychological profiler, he couldn’t have hoped for a juicier case to work on. The original Jack the Ripper case had eluded detectives — both professional and armchair — and psychological profilers for almost a hundred and thirty years. Copycat killers were always a particularly unique breed of serial killer, and the fact that someone in Mildenheath seemed to be replicating the Jack the Ripper killings with almost uncanny similarity was something that Patrick Sharp found both worrying and extremely exciting.
‘The killer is keeping remarkably close to the original killings,’ he said to a packed incident room. ‘It might not seem it in many ways, but we have to remember that the original murders were almost a hundred and thirty years ago, so much of it can’t be replicated these days. Even in Whitechapel itself, it’d be impossible as most of the streets and buildings don’t exist any more. The question, then, has to be why Mildenheath? My own presumption would be that the killer has a close connection with the local area and its people, and probably lives in the town himself. He seems to know the area very well and managed to elude the police twice on the night of the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth of September.’
The assembled officers exchanged a few looks, as if they didn’t need reminding.
Patrick Sharp continued in his faded but still noticeable Irish brogue. ‘The most worrying thing, but also the most promising in terms of narrowing the search, is how methodical and specific he is. The murders always occur on the same date as the original Ripper killings, in a place which somehow resembles the original and the victim always resembles the original, too. Not always in an obvious way, but there are always strong links. This means he must have been planning this for quite some time. I’d say probably years, with this being the first year that he’d managed to complete his canon and plan where, how and when he’d do it. He must’ve known the women would all be in a certain place on those dates. That’s what baffles me. The alternative is that he had more than one person in mind to play the part of each victim. I find that more likely, personally.’
‘What should we be looking for?’ Culverhouse asked, somewhat annoyed at having things he already knew or had worked out for himself being reiterated.
‘Someone with community connections. Someone who’s calm and methodical. A careful planner who’s happy to wait quite some time — years — to get all his pieces lined up before he even considers making his first move. That means he’s probably planned absolutely everything, including the police’s reactions and movements. His call from the phone box was quite likely part of that, especially considering the fact that he didn’t call in any of his other murders. As much as I hate to say it, I think he successfully managed to con you with sleight of hand, there.’
Culverhouse shot him a look which said that he didn’t particularly want reminding of that.
‘It’s the choice of location which particularly interests me. He always finds a place which somehow resembles the original location where the bodies were found. Mary or Polly Nichols was found in a gateway-cum-alleyway, as was Keira Quinn. Annie Chapman was found in the back garden of 29 Hanbury Street, Whitechapel; Lindsay Stott was found in the back garden of 29 Meadow Hill Lane, Mildenheath. Elizabeth Stride was found in a yard by a working men’s club; Emma Roche was found in the car park behind a working men’s club. Catherine Eddowes was found in Mitre Square; Marla Collingwood was found in Alexandra Square. Mary Kelly, on the other hand — the fifth victim — was found in her bedroom in Miller’s Court in Whitechapel. You might want to look into roads or areas called Court, here, to see if there’s something which might match up but it’s worth opening the net on this one. It may be that the location of killing her in her bedroom is enough for him. I wouldn’t discount the possibility that he’s going to bring things right up close to home for himself with the last victim. With victim number four we focused on the two main squares and roads called Square in Mildenheath and neglected the tiny Alexandra Square shopping precinct. We don’t want to make that mistake again.’
‘Do you think perhaps you could stop going on about that?’ Culverhouse barked. ‘We fucked up. We know that. Perhaps if you’d actually given us something useful a bit earlier, we’d—’
‘I think what Detective Chief Inspector Culverhouse is trying to say,’ Wendy interjected, ‘is that most of us on the team are still quite raw about what happened the other night. We don’t want to make that mistake again, so we’re grateful for any help you can give us.’
‘Right,’ Patrick Sharp said, shuffling his feet and swallowing hard. ‘Well we need to look at why he’s doing this. If he’s of the serial killer mindset, why has he taken so much time to plan these particular murders based around the original Ripper killings? To me, it seems that he has some sort of affinity with the original case. It’s possible that he feels he has a connection with one of the original suspects, or perhaps is even a descendant of one of them.’
Culverhouse’s ears pricked up. ‘Frank, note that down. I want you to run through the list of the original Ripper suspects and trace their family trees. See if they’ve got any living descendants in this area.’
Frank Vine nodded and jotted a note down on his pad. It’d be a big task, but Frank would be far happier doing this than being on the door-to-door team or marching around the town trying to ‘raise awareness’.
‘I think it likely that he perhaps considers one of the original suspects to have been wrongly accused,’ the profiler continued. ‘It’s likely that our man has some sort of personality disorder. This, combined with the realisation of some — perhaps tenuous — link between him and one of the suspects could flick a switch. Importantly, he seems to be treating it all as some sort of game. A very carefully planned game. We’re looking for someone with the real mind of a serial killer, not just someone who’s mentally unstable and wants to kill. Another avenue worth looking at is the possibility that it’s someone who thinks he’s worked out who committed the original Ripper killings and is so convinced of it that he’s recreating them in the hope of “proving” someone’s guilt in the original killings.’
‘Guv, there are hundreds of websites online about the Ripper killings,’ Debbie Weston said. ‘All sorts of web forums and Facebook groups where people put forward their own theories and try to “prove” that certain people could or could not have done it. It might be worth looking there for starters, but it’d be impossible to narrow it down any further. The whole subject of Ripperology is massive online.’
‘Ripperology?’ Culverhouse asked. ‘Christ. When I was a lad, scientists used to study cancer and environmental change.’
‘It’s a big subject,’ Debbie replied. ‘People dedicate their lives to trying to prove things one way or the other when it comes to the Ripper. It’s a huge money business if you can make a breakthrough. There are so many books and websites on it, it’s incredible. Every time someone writes a book claiming to have proved something one way or the other, they make a mint.’
‘Looks like I’m in the wrong job,’ Culverhouse said. ‘All I get’s a pat on the back and a chocolate biscuit from the Chief Constable.’
The assembled officers allowed themselves a small laugh, which helped to break the tension.
‘That’s a fair bit for us to be going on,’ Culverhouse said. ‘Thanks, Patrick.’
‘No problem. I know you’re not going to like me saying this, Jack,’ Patrick Sharp summarised, ‘but I think you’re going to have quite a job on your hands.’