Chapter One
“It’s bad, Flint. Real bad.”
Inspector Tobias Flint followed his friend Sergeant Iain Kellerman through the barricade of officers and down the cobblestone alley towards where two constables were holding up a large sheet of fabric, shielding what was presumably the dead body from the public’s view.
It was only six in the morning and already there was a healthy crowd of onlookers trying to get a peek at the scene of the murder.
The appetite for gruesome death that ordinary people seemed to have, especially since the Ripper cases, continued to confound Tobias, who for the life of him would be happy to never see another dead body ever again.
Though given he was a chief inspector, heading up one of the units of the Criminal Investigation department at Scotland Yard, his chances of not seeing another dead body were nonexistent. “Death is always bad, Iain.”
“Aye,” the sergeant agreed, with a look of dread in his eyes that Tobias hadn’t ever seen before in his stalwart friend. “But there is death, and then there is this death. In all the years since we did our training together at Peel House, I’ve never seen anything like this one.”
Tobias paused and glanced at Iain. They’d worked together on brutal murder cases for the better part of fifteen years throughout their careers, but Tobias had never seen his friend so scared.
Not even when they’d tried to apprehend a murderer dubbed ‘the Slayer of Sydenham,’ and the killer had gotten the upper hand and had bailed up Iain, a gun pointed at his head. “It’s that bad?”
The burly man nodded. “Even Dr. Morton looked real disturbed seeing the body. A shiver racked him; it surely did…”
It had to be bad if Dr. Morton, one of London’s preeminent medical examiners who dealt with death daily, had reacted like that. “The doctor’s here already?”
“Aye, he arrived maybe twenty minutes ago. I knew as soon as I saw the state of the body, you’d want him here to examine it, so I sent an officer to fetch him.”
“Good.”
Dr. Morton was one of the best medical examiner Tobias had ever dealt with.
The man was thorough and meticulous, missing no details and helping Tobias establish some parameters about the scene of a crime and how they should be preserved by police first on the scene, to limit the contamination of evidence.
It was still a work in progress, particularly as some police had been on the job their entire lives and thought the idea of any evidence being able to be found, let alone used against criminals, was a load of nonsense.
“I’m telling you, Tobias, it’s the worst I’ve seen, and that’s the truth,” Iain confirmed. “It ain’t natural what’s been done to that poor girl. Almost like the Devil had a hand in it…”
His friend was never one to exaggerate. “Do we know who the victim is yet?”
Iain shook his head. “No. It doesn’t look like she was from around here, so might take a bit of time to find out.
I have some of the boys back at the station going through missing persons reports, and another crew going door to door around the neighborhood seeing if anyone knows of a missing woman similar in appearance to our victim. Nothing’s popped up yet.”
Hopefully, that would change. “What about any suspects or witnesses to the crime?”
The sergeant shook his head. “No to either. We do have the old bloke, a Mr. Murphy, who discovered the victim, inside Milton’s warehouse waiting with Constable Stubbings.
” Iain pointed beyond the scene of the crime, to a sign that read, ‘Milton Manufacturing.’ “And don’t worry.
Stubbings is under strict instructions to keep him in there until we’re ready to go speak to him. ”
“How and when did Mr. Murphy discover the body?”
“He was heading to work about four-thirty this morning, when he came across the scene. That’s also when Constables Ferguson and Stubbings were doing their patrols down this alley, so Mr. Murphy yelled out to them for help. They ran over to assist, and that’s when they saw the body too.”
“Does Murphy’s story seem plausible?”
“Well, he says he’s a factory worker at Milton’s, and he’s responsible for opening up thirty minutes before anyone else arrives, which is why he was in the alley—plus he had a key to get into the warehouse—so yes, his story seems credible.”
“Any chance he’s our killer?”
For a brief instant, Iain’s lips twitched at the corners in a semblance of a smile. “Not a chance in hell. The man’s ancient.”
Tobias raised a brow. “We’ve arrested old men for murder before.”
“Aye, that we have,” Iain replied. “But not only is this man old and frail, his back’s hunched over like the bloody Hunchback of Notre Dame’s.
There’s no way he had the strength or physical capabilities to do what was done to this poor woman.
Not to mention, he was damn near petrified about what he’d seen. ”
“I think we’ve both learned we can’t assume anything when it comes to murder.”
“We have,” Iain reluctantly agreed. “But trust me, once you see the scene and then see this man, you’ll understand what I mean”
“Very well.”
“Honestly, there’s no way this bloke’s our killer.
Hell, I’d wager a month’s worth of beers at the pub that he didn’t have a thing to do with it.
The boys said he nearly fainted when showing them the body, and he would have if Stubbings hadn’t grabbed a hold of him and steadied him.
But don’t worry.” Iain waved a hand in the air, forestalling Tobias’s next question.
“Like I said, Stubbings is keeping an eye on him in the warehouse, until we’re ready to speak to him. ”
“Very well,” Tobias replied. “We shall do so after I’ve inspected the scene.”
Iain nodded and then glanced over to where the constables were holding up the sheet.
“If you don’t mind, Inspector, I’ll leave you to inspect the scene, while I’ll go check in on my constables and organize some replacement guards for them.
I’ll meet up with you when you’re ready to interview Murphy. ”
It was always felt odd to hear his friend refer to him by his rank, but given they were within hearing shot of the other officers, it was considered appropriate. “You don’t want to talk me through your thoughts of the scene?”
“The doc’s there for that, and besides…” He leaned in closer towards Tobias’s ear and lowered his voice to a whisper.
“I’ll have nightmares about what I’ve just seen for months to come, so I have no desire to ever see it again, unless I absolutely have to.
” He pulled back and stood tall. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, sir? ”
“Yes, Sergeant, you’re excused.”
Iain nodded to him, relief flashing in his eyes, before he turned around and strode back towards the first barricade of police.
It truly must be bad if Iain Kellerman, dubbed ‘the Stalwart Scot’ for his unflinching, unfaltering behavior under pressure, was rattled. More than rattled, in fact. The man looked like he’d seen a demon.
Tobias turned and continued walking over to where the two constables were holding up a sheet in front of the scene of the murder, both now looking at him with anxious eyes.
He nodded to them, noting that the two junior officers appeared as if they’d also seen a ghost, their already pale complexions looking stark white.
“Lads,” he greeted them before steeling himself for the sight that would present itself on the other side of the makeshift curtain.
He stepped around the fabric and for a moment was frozen to the spot.
Iain hadn’t been exaggerating. The sight that greeted him was beyond anything Tobias had been expecting. Beyond anything he would have ever wanted to imagine or see.
Lying in the middle of the cobblestone street, for all the world to see, was a sign that read, ‘Act One’ and behind it lay a black, lacquered coffin with small, white hearts painted along the sides of it.
It was similar to what Tobias had seen magicians use to amaze an audience by sawing a woman in half, only to then restore her unharmed.
But if this had been an attempt at a magic trick, it had gone deadly wrong.
The box had been sawn in half and then pulled apart to reveal a woman inside.
Only rather than being restored unharmed, the woman had had her torso definitively cut into two halves, the bright crimson of her blood and her internal organs pooling onto the cobblestones beneath, a horrid river of crimson and body parts mixed with the soot from the air of the coal-powered factories in the area.
For a moment, Tobias thought he’d throw up. A feeling he hadn’t felt in years, not since joining the Yard and seeing his first dead body.
Pressing his lips together tightly, he clenched his fists as a sense of rage and injustice gripped him.
Whoever had done this was a demon from hell, and Tobias vowed then and there to catch him, no matter what it took.
Such an evil could not be allowed to continue to be unleashed on the innocents of the world.
This poor woman deserved justice, and justice he would deliver to her.
It was the least she deserved after suffering such an atrocity.
He forced himself to stare at the sight in front of him.
It was imperative he didn’t miss any details, details that could lead to her killer.
Methodically, he forced his eyes to examine every inch of the scene.
He noted that both halves of the box had each lid purposely hinged open, the left side revealing the top half of the woman, with the right holding the bottom half of her torso.
He glanced over to the left half of the box first. The woman’s green eyes were filled with an expression of what could only be described as an unimaginable terror as the glassy hand of death shone from her gaze.
Her blonde hair was arranged in ringlets around her face, and her hands were crossed over her chest, with both palms pressed together as if she were praying, while holding a white rose too.
She was also wearing a white gown that had been stained crimson from the waist down from the saw cut that had severed her torso just below her navel.
It was a sight that had been staged to elicit the most abject horror. A sight that was brutal in its simplicity. A sight he knew would haunt him for the rest of his days—and follow him to his grave.