The Ripper Affair

Chapter Thirty-Seven And If Not, Vengeance

Aberline hammered at the interior of the front door of 34½ Brooke Street, using quite colourful language, while Clare made himself comfortable on the stairs and, in defiance of all good manners, puffed at his pipe. No servant hurried to find the source of the noise; Miss Bannon had no doubt given orders.

There was no use in seeking to escape until the mistress of the house released them. Little good would be done by exhausting oneself as the good inspector was currently doing, but at least if the man was shouting and hammering he was exactly where Clare could see him.

It was the other man who gave Clare some pause.

Mikal had appeared in the smoking room just after dinner, looking grey and drawn as he did on those rare occasions when Miss Bannon left him to cool his heels. Just behind him had drifted the cadaverous Finch, who did not even deign to glance at the glowering inspector. Instead, he had presented Clare with a folded missive of familiar creamy paper, a delicate, feminine hand–also familiar–on its outer flap, his own name traced with her usual care.

The note inside the folds was extremely simple.

Come and find me.

Which was all very well, Clare thought, but locking them inside her house so deliberately was rather a bar to her stated wish.

The inescapable conclusion, since it was unfathomable that Miss Bannon had not planned this to a fare-thee-well, was that she intended them to issue forth… but not quite yet.

So, he smoked. He had taken the precaution of changing from dinner-dress into something a fraction more suitable to chasing a sorceress across night-time Londinium. Philip Pico, having apparently arrived at the same conclusion, had done the same. Or perhaps he had not dressed for dinner at all.

The rufous youth had settled himself easily on the stairs below Clare, and gone still as a stone. He eyed the inspector’s display with an air of faint condescension, but when his gaze drifted across the silent, haggard Mikal, it became troubled indeed.

Tabac smoke, fragrant, drifted up and was sorcerously compressed near the ceiling into neat spheres that bumbled off in search of a chimney. Clare had arrived at a number of conclusions, but the nagging sense of a missing piece would simply not cease.

Aberline finally left off hammering at the door. He whirled, and fixed Mikal with a baleful glare. “You. Where is she? Why, I’ve a mind to—”

“Cease your chatter,” Mikal returned, amiably enough. “Or I shall make you.”

Clare puffed again, thoughtfully. Quite a riddle the lady had posed. Quite.

Aberline clearly thought better of provoking the Shield any further; he cast about for a new target. “Where’s that knife-throwing son of a whore? Finch!”

“Do be quiet,” Clare remarked. “And do leave Mr Finch be. In any case, he will not answer your summons. There is only one being who commands that man, and she is not at home.” He puffed again. “When you have calmed, sir, we shall proceed.”

“Proceed? We are sitting here while… what on earth can she be doing? What could have possessed the bit—”

It was, strangely enough, Pico who interrupted. “Watch your tongue, guv.” He actually bounced to his feet as well, and his hands were fists. “I’ve had about enough of your high’n mighty.”

Clare sighed. “This solves nothing.”

Whatever Aberline might have replied was lost in a soughing sound.

Clare tilted his head, and the massive clock at the end of the entry hall spoke. In the midst of its chiming, a subtle pressure drained away, and Clare gained his feet with another weary sigh.

Midnight, precisely, and the crackle of live sorcery could only mean one thing. “I believe the door will open now,” he observed. “And our murderer will strike again tonight. I further believe Miss Bannon rather desperately requires our aid.”

Mikal nodded. “Yes.” The word was chilling in its flatness. “The house is no longer sealed. I am no longer Confined. Yet I cannot sense my Prima.”

“Bother.” Archibald jammed his hat firmly onto his head. “I had hoped you could find her in some sorcerous manner.”

The Shield looked positively sick under his dark colouring. “If she is… alive, I could. But I cannot sense her.”

Clare stared for a moment. Aberline’s mouth hung open, and the inspector blinked several times. Mercifully, he remained silent.

“She could have set the house and my Confinement to release at this moment,” Mikal continued. “Or… not. It would release if she…”

Clare cleared his throat. Down, Feeling! Logic. Logic must serve here.

But… Emma. She had been so pale, and taking only water. So certain she would have no trouble finding the next victim.

She betrayed a certain familiarity with Whitchapel. The listening look she wore, when inside its environs. Her origins, however obscure, were no doubt of a sort to make her familiar with Want, Vice, Crime, and other unsavouries. She was also connected to Victrix, and hence Britannia, in numerous ways. Not to mention her rather incredible ability to find a treasonous criminal once she set herself seriously about it.

It would make quite a bit of sense for this lunatic sorcerer to see her too great a threat to continue breathing.

It would further make quite a bit of sense for Miss Bannon to wave herself before such a man in the manner of a rag waved before a bull to engage its fury.

She had such a distressing habit of disregarding her personal safety.

Emma. For God’s sake. Do not… do not be…

He forced himself to think upon it, the cold tearing in his vitals savagely repressed. “She is not dead,” he said, finally, conscious of the lie. He told himself it was necessary, that the Shield would be of more use if he held to faint hope. “She is most likely incapacitated in some manner. Pico, my pistol.” He accepted the weapon with a nod. “Now, gentlemen, I trust everyone here sees the course we must take.”

“I am afraid I most certainly do not see—” Aberline began.

Clare fixed him with a steady gaze. “Your knowledge of the worst sinks in Whitchapel, where I have deduced this monster is no doubt hiding, is very valuable. We may even, should we be forced to, find a poppy den and hope your small talent at sorcery will help. I am quite prepared to be ungentlemanly about this, sir, and furthermore, Mr Mikal will take it badly should you give anything less than your full effort to finding our sorceress.”

Aberline had gone the colour of milk. He glanced at Mikal, opened his mouth, shut it, and nodded. There was a fire in the back of his dark gaze that promised much trouble later.

At the moment, Clare did not care one whit.

Emma. He had to examine his pistol, critically, as if assuring himself of its readiness.

Bulldog. Made by Webley, very fine. Gift from Emma, to replace the pepperbox. Fully loaded. His faculties replayed the loading procedure, but just to be certain, he checked the chambers. Five shots, .450 Addams cartridges, and there were more in his pockets, should he need them. For emergencies, the sorceress had said with a smile, presenting him with the walnut box.

He swallowed, very hard, and slid the weapon into its holster. A moment’s work had it buckled to his belt, and the familiar weight was not nearly soothing enough.

Archibald Clare drew himself up to his full, if somewhat lean, height. “Pico, lad, go and tell your uncle we shall be taking the carriage, if Miss Bannon left it for us. On the shelf in my workroom you will find a decent purse for just such occasions as this. Mr Aberline, come with me; you shall be clothed properly for our descent. Mr Mikal—”

“I know my part,” the Shield replied, and turned on his heel.

“If you feel any inkling of Miss Bannon’s, er, location—”

“You shall know. And if not… vengeance.” He disappeared to the far side of the stairs, no doubt heading for the stable to rouse the coachman. “Hurry.”

“Never fear,” Aberline commented sourly. “The sooner this is finished, the better.”

“I hope she’s alive, Inspector.” Clare paused. “For your sake.”

The man actually bristled. “Do you mean you—”

“No, you need not worry about me. You do, however, need to worry about Mikal. Come, let us find you more suitable cloth.”

“Stop!” Aberline cried, and almost threw himself from the carriage. He would have landed ignominiously face-first on cobbles if not for Pico’s lightning-quick reflex to grab at his jacket; Harthell cursed roundly as he pulled the vehicle to a juddering halt. The clockhorses, unhappy at being roused at this hour and further unhappy at such treatment, let their displeasure be known.

“Canning!” Aberline hailed what Clare, blinking, perceived to be a hurrying shape on the pavement. “I say, man, halt!”

“What the devil–oh, it’s you.” The voice had an odd lilt, possibly Eirean. “Where have you been? Don’t you know?”

“Obviously I do not, sir.” Aberline motioned the man closer. “What news?”

Clare squinted, and made out what had to be a fellow inspector. The man’s hat plainly shouted he was of the Yard, and his serviceable shoes held steaming traces of Scab’s kiss. He was bandy-legged and thick-necked, and when he stepped under a sputtering gaslamp, Clare could see bright blue eyes and a reddened nose. Fog-moisture clung to his jacket and hat, and the steaming from his shoes added vapour to the choking mist.

How very odd. He had not, in his small experience of the organic sludge coating Whitchapel’s floor, seen it behave in just this way.

“Another murder. The worst yet. Dorsitt Street. And the Scab… well.”

“The Scab? What of it?”

“It hasn’t come out. And where it has, it behaves oddly.”

“As if it ever behaves in a different manner.” Yet Aberline looked troubled, and he did not pursue this fascinating tidbit. Instead, he turned the conversation in quite another direction. “Where are you bound?”

“I’m to the Yard to report to Waring. There was some chalk on a door–something about the Yudics. He ordered it rubbed out, but too late. The entire Eastron End is up in arms again. There’s a Yudic church burning, mobs looking for Leather Apron all the way to the Leae. Even Soreditch is restless.”

“The murder in Dorsitt?” Aberline prompted, as the horses stamped and champed.

“It’s dire, Aberline. It’s inside a doss, for once, but that meant he had time to do his work. A real artist, our ripping lad.”

“How bad is it?”

A bitter laugh greeted this query. “I’d say, don’t dine before you view it, sir. Everyone’s been at six and seven trying to find you, sir. Shall I tell Waring you’ve been sighted?” His tone plainly said that he expected a refusal of this generous offer.

Surprisingly, though, Aberline nodded. “Do, there’s a good fellow. Tell him I am at the scene already. Dorsitt Street, you say?”

“Aye, between the Bluecoat and the Britannia. The ginhouses are near to empty serving the thirst of every blighter in the Eastron End come to view the scene, and it will only get worse. I’d use a whip for the crowds, if I were you.” A half-bitter sound of amusement, and Canning touched his hat. “I’ll be off then. I’ll tell Waring you were already there. Fine carriage, by the by.”

“Do you think so? Many thanks, sir, and regards to the missus.”

“You should perhaps think on your own, there’s a letter on your desk from her.”

Aberline winced visibly. “I see. Good evening, Canning.”

“Good evening. You’ll need one.” The man took himself off at a trot again.

“Dorsitt Street, as fast as you may,” Aberline called to Harthell, whose reply was a snort saying that he had heard, thank you, and mind to shut the door.

Clare eyed Mikal, who had not moved during the entire exchange. The man’s eyes were downright unsettling, catching some flash of random illumination and glowing gold. His hands had been loose and easy on his knees, but they had slowly tightened over the duration of the conversation. Aberline settled back next to Clare as Pico shifted a trifle uncomfortably.

I would be uncomfortable too, next to that stillness. Clare cleared his throat. “That does not sound encouraging.”

Aberline made as if to wring his hands, thought better of it, and sighed deeply. “I have never heard Canning refer to a crime in quite such terms before. No doubt our mad sorcerer has surpassed himself.”

The whip cracked and the carriage jolted forward. Clare still examined Mikal closely. The Shield’s gaze had fixed on a point over Aberline’s head, and the only thing more disconcerting was the slow unclenching of his fists.

“You did not ask for particulars,” Clare noted, finally. A description of the victim might aid us at this moment.

Or are you afraid?

“I did not think it wise.” Aberline dusted an imaginary speck from his borrowed trousers; the carriage jolted them all most rudely. “We shall see what Leather Apron and his creature have left us soon enough.”