Loved by Mr. Night

Chapter 12

“We are going to the kid’s mother’s house and make sure that everything is being told the way that it should be,” said Adriel and Aria nodded. Even though it was against the usual norms of the detective work but she would never give up on the chance to get the information first hand. And it was not only information that she presented to the people, it was the way she presented the emotional exuberance in her articles along with the succinct and proper facts which had made her so successful in what she did.

“Do you think that it will be alright for me to come along with you?” asked Aria. But both of them knew that it was just a simple courtesy on her part and nothing more. Even if Adriel did not take her then she would visit each and every family of the victim looking for clues and story.

“You know, it isn’t Aria. Now let me take a call and you can research more on this bastard,” said Adriel as Aria nodded. She started ruffling through the book as Adriel received Mishra’s call.

“You need to pull out the kid’s photograph from the database and then circulate it in the hotel and the vicinity and try to find at least someone who might have seen her with the man. I am going to see if I can get anything better from the family. Someone, somewhere must have seen her with the killer. We need to find that someone. We need a witness,” said Adriel as he hung up and then started driving.

The traffic was unusually light and they cruised on the east side of the Third Ring Road past row after row of multistoried apartment blocks and shopping malls and official buildings clad in glass. The sun had set a few hours ago and the city was agog with the lights. Aria still had her head buried in the book.

“It is amazing, you know, Adriel,” said Aria as she did not look up at him.

“What is?”

“It is like he is almost making carbon copies of his murders. The Ripper killed only on the weekends, and the murders were all within the same square mile of the Whitechapel district. All the victims were hookers. They were all strangled and then their throats were slashed and then they were mutilated. There is something strange though….”

Adriel glanced towards her,” What is?”

“Catharine Eddowes was not the fourth murder victim of the Ripper. You know, like our latest Chinese girl. He killed someone else earlier that night. Someone they called Long Liz. Elizabeth Stride. He strangled her and cut her throat, but that was it. Seems that they figured he was interrupted before he could hack her up. So he went off in search of someone else and found Eddowes.”

She looked at Adriel.

“You don’t think that there was another murder and it was not reported yet? Or you guys have missed it?”

Adriel’s heart sank like a stone. It was not really something that he wanted to think about.

“If there is another victim then he is bound to turn up sooner or later,” he said.” With a bit of luck might be, maybe our man did not think it necessary that it was required to copy an interrupted job. After all it was something half-finished. Let’s hope so.”

A thought suddenly occurred to him.

“How long has that been on the shelves?” asked Adriel and Aria turned the page over and said,” It has been reprinted since quite a few months. I mean, this was published a lot of years ago. It has been republished recently.”

“Except Mishra said that he read a book review recently that means that it cannot be out for months. You don’t review a book when it had been out there for months. Can you find out when it was released?” asked Adriel and Aria looked at him in confusion.

“Why do you think it matters?” she asked.

“It matters because I want to check that if this person is doing this just because he found this book and he found a guide or he has researched it on his own and has made it is agenda to be a copycat killer,” said Adriel and Aria made a note of it on her phone.

“How many women did Ripper kill in the end?” he asked.

Aria shook her head and said,” They have said here that they don’t seem to know for sure. At least five. Maybe as many as eight.”

“So if our man sticks to the script, we could be looking at another four murders,” said Adriel with a grim face.

“You cannot say that, Adriel. It is a lot worse than that,” said Aria and when he looked at her she said,” The Ripper was never caught.”

The victim, the Chinese girl had lived with her mother and her grandfather in a tiny two-roomed house occupying one side of a courtyard close to a temple in the Silk Streets. A broken down gate led down room a dilapidated alleyway into a narrow, covered passage which was dark and cluttered with broken furniture , two old armchairs, a smashed up television set, the rusting caracass of a long dead bicycle and at the far end, a neatly stacked row of coal briquettes. The grey tile roofs of the four ancient Chinese dwellings in the area were clattered in the courtyard.

Moss and weeds grew in the cracks in the courtyard and the courtyard itself was nearly filled by a large scholar tree which had shed most of its leaves.  Birds hung from cages in branches, squaking and screaming at Adriel and Aria as they ducked in out of the passageway and crunched dry leaves underfoot. The whole area was due for demolition in the next six months.

The street light slanted obliquely in the courtyard to shine through the smuggled filthy windows of the girl’s house. Adriel knocked several times and got no response. He ducked down and peered inside but there appeared to be no one.

“What do you want?”

Aria and Adriel turned at the sound of a woman’s harsh voice, her tongue rolling around itself around a very distinctive way that happened to Chinese people. She wore a dark woolen hat and an old blue Mao jacket over a long pinafore, woolen leggings under her thin cotton trousers, and stood in the doorway of the tiny apartment on the opposite side of the courtyard.

“Scotland Yard,” Adriel said,” We are looking for Mrs. Hans.”

“Do you people never talk to one another?” she asked her voice heavy with contempt.” There was one of your people here looking for her an hour ago.” She looked at the both of them up and down.” And he had an uniform.”

“Do you know where she is?” asked Adriel.

“She is not here,” she replied. The look on her face was one of contempt and dislike.

“Yes, we can see that,” said Aria in a loud voice as she forced the woman to look at her and then said,” Perhaps you would like to enlighten me about where we can find her?”

“Silk Street Panijuang. She and that girl of hers sells antiques down there.” She snorted.” Antiques! Huh! More like junk. What do you want her for?” asked the woman.

“None of your business,” said Aria in a loud voice which was more than enough to squash any curiosity that she might have harboured.

As they made out their way out of the area, they heard her shouting,” And stick that Scotland Yard bullshit up your arse.”

Adriel and Aria glanced at each other and it turned into involuntary smiles,” What ever on earth happened to the respect for police?”

The Panijuan market did its business behind the low grey walls in the Silk Street, just the west end of East third ring road. A vast covered area of stalls played host to the Sunday fleamarket, but lay empty during the week. A fruit and vegetable market did brisk business in an open cobbled area at the west end of the compound. Stalls selling traditional paintings and antiques were sandwiched between the two, washed by dull sunlight filtered through a plastic roof.

At the far end of the aisles a group of tourists had gathered round a table watching an artist at work, carefully crafting a pen and ink scene in ancient China. Next to him a group of men and women wrapped up warm against the cold, was playing Great Wall on a rusted metal table. Adriel interrupted them flipping open his ID.” I am looking for a Mrs. Hans. She sells antiques.”

One of them nodded towards the far aisle but none of them spoke.

“Real chatty types,” muttered Aria as they passed a big bellied shiny Buddha on the plinth. Two teenage girls sat beside a table of polished gramophone horns.” Lookee there…” one of them said, not yet saavy enough to recognise police out of uniform.

There were three people squeezed around a wooden table in a tiny cluttered shop unit. A tiny woman with long dark hair in her mid forties, a very old man in a wide brimmed hat drowned by a heavy coat sizes which was two sizes big for him and a young community police officer. The shelves were lined with blue china vases and from the ceiling hung dozens of bells on chains. The young policeman some how looked up with relief when Adriel and Aria arrived.

The old man stared at some unseen place with glazed eyes. And a large clear drip of mucus hung from the end of his nose. The woman’s eyes were red, her cheeks blotched and tear stained. Adriel saw something like hope in their eyes when she looked up at them as if she thought that he would say that there had been a terrible mistake and that her daughter was really alive and well. The false hopes that she was conjuring out of the depths of her despair was something that he could not bear to watch.

“Hello Mrs. Hans. I am Detective Adriel Pascal and I am investigating the death of your daughter.”

And whatever hope she might have fostered was just taken away. He saw her face go bleak,” The police man says that she was murdered.”

“I am afraid so.’

“Found her up in the Silk Market Street,” the young police said,” Isn’t that right?” He looked at Adriel for confirmation, not remotely awed by the presence of superior ranks.” Hacked to pieces apparently.”

The girl’s mother gasped out in distress and tears blurred her eyes.

Adriel glared at him and said,” I think you can go now, Officer.”

“That’s alright, Chief. They sad that I should stay down here and offer some support. It is the part of the job of the community branch.”

The mother turned to Adriel,” What was she doing in a place like that with a man at night?”

“Well you should know,” the junior officer said wearing his disapproval and contempt like a badge.

Adriel whirled around and said,” Get out of here now!”

Aria did not even wait before she went to catch hold of the collar of the police officer and drag him out while the man protested severely but since e was caught hold at an odd angle he could not even fight it off. Aria had him out in the alley before he could do any further damage. And voice out his indignation.