Cage could tell that Sigerson was bored when he began deducing intimate details of the saleslady’s sex life by examining the sleeve of her blouse. It probably hadn’t been too wise of him to ask Sigerson to come along on this trip, but he wanted the company and couldn’t bring himself to ask anyone else. Besides, who else in the pension would have been falling over themselves to go with Cage on a mission to find the perfect engagement ring?
“How about this one?” Sigerson asked. He held up a model hand that was wearing a gaudy, square-cut diamond ring that would make Phoe’s hand drag the ground under its weight.
Cage shook his head. “I don’t think so, Sigerson.”
As Sigerson turned to put the display down, the saleslady grabbed it and gave him a disapproving glare. “I don’t understand, St. John. What difference does it make?”
“The difference is,” Cage sighed, “it has to be perfect. Phoe is perfect and this ring has to be worthy of her.”
“I’ve never particularly understood why men feel the need to buy their intended an over-priced, gaudy piece of jewelry to declare their love. It’s ridiculous.”
“It isn’t ridiculous, Sigerson.” Cage peered over the case, squinting at the diamond rings lined up. “It’s…tradition.” Deep down, Cage sort of agreed with him. Phoe didn’t need a ring to know how he felt about her. Not to mention that all of these rings seemed identical. They’d been shopping for ages and he could no longer tell one from the next. “I’ve explained this so many times. Weren’t you listening?”
Sigerson crossed his arms over his chest, his nose turned up in a disdainful sneer. “My dear Mr. St. John, I haven’t been listening since we left. I only agreed to come on this trip because you promised to go with me to Scotland Yard to interrogate Wittrock again.”
“You know that Tuggingham isn’t going to let us in, like he didn’t let us in yesterday. Or the day before. Besides, weren’t you saying that they were going to release Wittrock today?”
“Of course. They have no reason to hold him any longer, but just because he didn’t kill the girl doesn’t mean that he didn’t see who did.”
Cage rolled his eyes and went back to the display case. This shopping excursion had been one dead end after another. None of these rings seemed right. A woman like Phoe deserved a ring that conveyed exactly how he felt about her. She’d certainly waited long enough for it. Not to mention that she’d been infinitely patient with him. Their relationship had survived many ups and downs and life-threatening situations, mostly because of Phoe’s steadfast determination to stick by him.
“I admire you, St. John,” Sigerson said, suddenly appearing over Cage’s shoulder, startling him.
“Oh?”
“I was never the marrying kind, myself.”
“You’re kidding,” Cage quipped, his tone dripping with sarcasm.
“If there’s anything I’ve learned over the course of my life, both my life on Earth and here in Absinthia, it’s that the so-called gentle sex are anything but.”
Cage laughed. “So, you’ve never been in love?”
“I probably wouldn’t know if I had, to be honest. Women are the one mystery that I’ve never been able to solve.”
“They are indeed that, my friend. But a mystery worthy of your investigation. It wasn’t so long ago that I felt exactly like you.” Cage thought back to his first meeting with Phoe. “I was broken, angry—I hated the world. I hated myself. My life was an absolute wreck. I had fallen into a downward spiral so deep that I knew I’d never climb out.
“But then, I met this incredibly kind, generous woman. At first, I found her endearing because she needed me, and at that time, I hadn’t been needed in quite a while. But then I realized I needed her too. She pulled me out of that dark place. Phoe saved my life. And while getting married to her is the most frightening thing I’ve ever done—and believe me, I’ve done some scary shit—I’m going to do it because I can’t imagine my life without her.”
Sigerson stood there staring at Cage as if he had sprouted antlers. “I suppose you’re waiting for me to strike up the string quartet?”
“Ugh. You’re a foul git, you know that?”
Sigerson grinned and turned to the saleslady. “Miss, could you show Mr. St. John the one over there in the vintage case?”
The woman brought over a small, gilded jewelry case and set it on the counter in front of Cage. This was evidently where all the most expensive pieces were stored as there was an optical lock on the side. “I think this is the one Mr. Sigerson is talking about,” she said.
The ring she pulled from the case was spectacular. A round-cut garnet set into a gold filigree setting, surrounded by a halo of diamonds. It was a ring that would perfectly complement Phoe. “This piece is a genuine antique from nineteenth-century Earth. A few of the diamonds were replaced when we acquired it, but other than that, it’s a perfect example of Victoriana.”
This was the one. He’d been all over the colony looking for a ring whose beauty might come close to Phoe’s own. How peculiar that Sigerson had been able to spot it almost as soon as they walked in.
“It’s perfect,” Cage stated, looking at Sigerson. “How did you know?”
“Given what I know of you and of the future Mrs. St. John, it wasn’t difficult,” Sigerson said with a smug grin.
Cage nodded to the saleswoman. “I’ll take it.”
“Very good, sir,” the woman replied, placing the ring into a velvet box and handing over an eSlate for Cage to scan his hand to pay.
“Thank God,” Sigerson groaned. “Now maybe we can get on with more important things.”
Cage dropped the box into his coat pocket and tipped his hat to the saleslady as Sigerson pulled him from the jewelry store. He supposed he shouldn’t be too annoyed. The old boy had come through for him. Cage had been looking for a ring worthy of Phoe for days with little success. Now that he’d finally bought the ring he was both elated and terrified. Once you spent the money, you had to at least ask if she’d marry you. That being said, it felt good to finally make the decision to take the leap.
“So, this is what we know,” Sigerson started. “One. All of the victims have some kind of biomechanical enhancement. Two. The killer is probably not a tourist given the spread between the murders. Three. He has medical knowledge and biomechanical knowledge. Four. His movements are random, but deliberately so.”
“Five. We, like the police, have nothing,” Cage quipped. “Our big point of interest is that all of the victims have mech. Who cares? Everyone in this colony probably has mech.”
“You’re right,” Sigerson replied with a miserable sigh. “We’re missing something.”
“The question is why. Why is the killer targeting these people? If we can figure that out, then we can find him.”
“Quite right,” Sigerson agreed.
Cage stopped, trying to hail a hansom with a sharp whistle. Several passed by but no takers. The streets around the shopping district were unusually busy for this time of day. He supposed it had something to do with tonight’s Governor’s Ball. Every couple of weeks, the Governor of the colony gave a grand masquerade ball for the tourists at the opulent Victoria Grand Hotel in the center of the colony. Cage and Phoe, along with the other guests at the Alice & Ludwig, had planned to attend as sort of a last hurrah of their Victorian holiday. Phoe and Eleanor had been shopping all week for the perfect gowns and jeweled masks. Phoe assured him that she had found the one, but he wasn’t allowed to see it until the night of the ball, citing that it was more fun that way. Cage had decided that tonight would be the perfect night to propose.
“Are you even listening to me?” Sigerson queried.
“Of course I was,” Cage lied. “You were droning on about Wittrock seeing…” His voice trailed off as he heard a high-pitched squeal over the din of the crowded streets.
“I said nothing—”
“Shush,” Cage hissed. The noise sounded again. A police whistle. Somewhere up ahead of them. “You heard that too, right?” he asked Sigerson.
Without answering, Sigerson took off through the crowd with Cage close on his heels. The throngs of people in the street seemed to thicken as they tried to get through. Cage tipped his hat over and over, trying to apologize to the people as Sigerson barreled through, mowing them down two at a time.
“Hurry, St. John,” Sigerson called. Cage prided himself on being faster and more agile than most, but the hybrid was almost his equal.
When they made it to the end of the street, the crowd broke where the police were pushing them back. Sigerson tried to burst through, but two of the Bobbies held him. “Stay back, sir.”
This time the victim hadn’t been slaughtered in an alley, hidden from view. This one was lying in front of the fountain at Trafalgar Square. From the looks of it, her body had been broken, lying half in the water and half out of it. There were police everywhere, desperately trying to create a barrier between the onlookers and this new corpse.
“A motorcarriage just threw her out.”
“Do you think it could be the Ripper?”
“I didn’t see any plates, did you?”
“You must let us in there,” Sigerson was saying to the young policeman that held him. “We’re with the police.”
“We know who you are, Mr. Sigerson,” the cop was saying. “Detective Inspector Tuggingham told us that you were not allowed anywhere near one of our crime scenes.”
“Tuggingham’s an idiot. He’s been bungling this investigation from the beginning.”
“Sir, you need to back off or I’m going to have to arrest you.”
Cage looked past where Sigerson was struggling with the cop to the body. The coroner’s wagon had arrived, and someone was covering her with a sheet. He couldn’t see much, but Cage noticed that the lady’s voluminous skirt had been hiked over her knees, revealing a bright red petticoat underneath.
Cage shoved past Sigerson, pulling a wallet from his lapel.
“Sir, I’m afraid I can’t accept…”
But Cage wasn’t going to offer cash. He flipped over his badge emblazoned with the Interplanetary Union shield. “Out of my way, kid.”
Sigerson looked up at Cage with an awe-stricken smile. Cage gave a short nod, indicating that Sigerson should follow and that he wasn’t going to wait.
“That was amazing,” Sigerson gushed as he stumbled behind Cage. “I think you rather scared the boy.”
Cage didn’t answer. He wasn’t paying any attention. He recognized that petticoat. “Oh no,” he said as they reached the body. Something about his expression must have told the group of Bobbies milling around that they should leave him alone. He knelt down and pulled back the sheet that they had so unceremoniously draped over the body. “God, no. No, no, no.” He turned away, hiding his eyes. “Jesus.”
Eleanor Pankenthorpe lay on the ground at his feet. No one had even bothered to pull her head out from under the stream of water that sprayed over her face. She had not been torn open as the others had, but her eyes had been removed. Her mouth gaped open, as if she’d been screaming. As Cage gently lifted her body over the lip of the fountain, he could see that her throat had been cut nearly to the bone. He cradled her head against his chest.
“The professor’s wife, isn’t it?” Sigerson asked.
Cage nodded.
“Why her?” Sigerson said, steepling his fingertips under his chin and starting to pace. “She wasn’t an unfortunate. She didn’t wander the streets alone.”
Sigerson continued to ask questions and make deductions, but Cage wasn’t listening. His voice was another drone in the background noise. Right now, Cage didn’t care about any of the whys and wherefores. Whether Eleanor was another Ripper victim or had succumbed to a runaway carriage didn’t make any difference whatsoever. All that mattered was that this woman had been a friend to Phoe. To both of them, in fact. Eleanor had been nothing but warm and gracious since the day they met her. The thought that her life had been cut short so heinously, and that her death was going to devastate Phoe, filled him with a boiling rage that was dangerous in its ferocity.
“St. John, look at this.”
“Shut up,” Cage growled, whipping around. “Just stop talking, would you? All of your precious clues and deductions…”
“But I think I found something.”
“No,” Cage said, laying Eleanor’s body down and getting to his feet. “I don’t want to hear any more.” He started toward Sigerson, and evidently looked ready for a fight because the hybrid backed up, nearly falling into the fountain. “This woman was an innocent. Don’t you understand? I told her she had nothing to worry about. I told her that everything would be okay, and instead of going out there and luring this bastard into the streets and taking him down, I’ve been wasting all my time with you.”
“You need to calm down,” Sigerson advised. He put his hands up as if to touch Cage’s shoulders.
“Don’t fucking touch me,” Cage growled.
“How in the hell did the two of you get in here?” Cage turned to see Tuggingham approaching, waving his fists angrily. His chest was puffed out like a bullfrog, and his face like a beet. “You have no business being here.” Tuggingham waved a couple of policemen over. “Arrest these men,” he barked.
An officer came toward them with a set of cuffs. Cage put up his hand in warning. “Mate, if you touch me you’ll regret it.”
The younger cop that Cage had spoken to before stepped forward. “Sir, he said he was with the IU.”
“I am with the IU,” Cage snarled. “And in about three seconds I’m going to have this entire place crawling with agents that are going to throw you right off this case.”
“You think I don’t know about you, St. John?” Tuggingham said. “I know how you got thrown out of the IU. I had a long conversation with Derek Machine about you.”
“It doesn’t surprise me that you’re licking Machine’s balls,” Cage bit out. “Like a good little lapdog.”
Tuggingham went for Cage, but his officers were quick, holding him back. “You’re a fucking freak of nature, St. John.”
“I don’t give a fuck what you think about me, Tuggingham, but this woman is dead because of your ineptitude.”
Tuggingham jerked away from the younger officer. He pushed his finger in Cage’s chest. “Don’t you tell me how to do my fucking job, freak.”
Cage could feel the rage under his skin. It crawled and flickered like a blue-hot flame in a way he hadn’t felt since before meeting Phoe. He grabbed Tuggingham’s wrist and twisted it around until he heard a pop, then punched him hard in the face. The cops behind sprung to action, starting toward Cage as Tuggingham stumbled backward, holding his nose.
The corners of Cage’s mouth burned as the fangs broke through thin skin. Every cell was tense, waiting for the shift to take hold. In another second, he would change and tear this entire squad of cops completely apart in front of all these bystanders. He had a feeling that even Maurice couldn’t get him out of that.
“Come on, mate,” Sigerson urged, bravely stepping between him and the officers. “This asshole isn’t worth it. We need to get back to the pension.” He turned back to the cops and motioned for them to stay back. “You don’t want your girl to find out about this before we get there. Right?”
Cage took a few deep breaths. He focused on Phoe’s face and Sigerson’s words. He was right. That ring in his pocket wouldn’t be of any use if he were rotting in a prison colony. Finally, he nodded and backed off, feeling the monster within retreating once more.
“You’ll regret this, St. John,” Tuggingham shouted at his back. “I’ll have you on Kobi Six.”
“Too late, asshole,” Cage growled, allowing Sigerson to lead him away.