Rose gasped.
This was the second time that she had seen a body displayed like this. Along the wall were the words 'love from…' written in what appeared to be blood from the body. The assumed murder weapon, a razor, lay on the floor, now crusted over with blood. The victim had been identified as a man just moments before.
The last murder was thought to be an isolated case, and it never occurred to people that this could be a chain of events. But with the second body brutally murdered in the same way, Rose was beginning to think that it was no coincidence.
"You ok there?" She spun her head around quickly, coming face to face with another Auror. He was dressed in the same clothes as her: a billowing black cloak. Most people had laughed when she had explained why Aurors wore black. It was to represent how they did their work with the people in the dark, and to show respect to the many people killed in their line of work. Many mocked how dramatic the Aurors seemed to be about their line of work, but it was times like this when people's lives were at stake that it was absolutely necessary.
"Ah, yes. I'm fine thanks." Rose replied, keeping her face a blank canvas. She had noticed that in her line of work, emotion was frowned upon.
"We'll catch this person soon. This can't keep happening." The other Auror said, a hint of desperation in their voice.
She nodded her head along to what they said, before turning away. Rose then crept forward to examine the body carefully. Although magic was a huge asset, it did miss things occasionally, and Rose now was very careful to use the muggle skills her mother Hermione had taught her to notice anything out of the ordinary.
Walking all the way around the body, she scanned the flesh that seemed unharmed for any clues. It all appeared in tact; nothing seemed amiss.
The mumbles of voices that were distant a few minutes ago suddenly became clearer and louder. Rose, still glancing towards the body, recognised them as the muggle police, and tuned in to hear what they were saying so that she could report back to the head of the Auror Office.
"What a strange item to leave behind, isn't it?" she heard one man utter to the other.
"Oh yes, quite strange."
"I mean, who drops a book at a murder scene?"
Rose walked briskly towards the table where the items of question had been placed earlier. Luckily, it seemed that the men who were supposed to be taking care of the items had been distracted by the body, which gave Rose ample time to look at the items in question.
The first item that her eyes landed upon was a pink ribbon, and a lipstick without a lid. The word 'KILLER." had been scribbled down in what appeared to be the bright red lipstick in block capitals. On the white sticky label on top of the bags was the inscription:
This is the second time that a pink ribbon has been found tied around the victim's mouth with the same word on it.
Her eyes lifted from the ribbon and landed on the next item: a book. It appeared that the book was a muggle story. Unfortunately, she couldn't tell anything for definite through the tinted bag they had placed the object in. She didn't risk touching it and leaving her fingerprints on the pages, but after a moment of close observation, she did notice a note that had been placed next to it saying:
This item may be linked to a murder case, and should not be taken out of the bag.
The words 'Whitechapel' have been underlined many times in this book, along with the words 'murder' and the name 'Jackie'.
Rose's lips twisted into a grin; she now knew where she had to look.
After apparating from the murder scene to the closest muggle library, Rose closed the door and headed straight to the computers. After logging on a couple of moments later, she brought up the webpage and began searching. She didn't bother with the word 'murder' as that would bring up too many irrelevant search results and she had a feeling that the word 'Jackie' would not help her in the case until she had figured out the first couple of clues in this mystery.
She typed in the word 'Whitechapel', but after it only brought up websites about what tourist sights you could see there, she added the words 'Whitechapel stories'. Straight away this displayed many search results about the stories set in 'Whitechapel', but one caught her eye straight away. Rose clicked on the website and began to scan what it was about. Nothing popped out, until she saw the word 'Jack' appear.
The story seemed to be about a man who called himself 'Jack the Ripper'. This person liked to kill prostitutes late at night, when it was dark. Many letters were sent in to the police, signed with his name, but no-one was sure if they were really from him. Many suspects had been taken in for questioning; however, no-one was ever charged with the murders that 'Jack the Ripper' had committed.
Rose hated to say it, but now she was more confused than ever. Was it too much of a jump to assume that Jack the Ripper could be Jackie the Ripper? Why was the book dropped?
A few days later, Rose had heard from the Auror office that more evidence had been found concerning the death of the two men. The fingerprints found on the book that was dropped at the crime scene had found a match at a house about 10 minutes from where the victim was killed.
Picking up the phone, she called another Auror to come and examine the house with her. She then grabbed her wand, a camera and a few other necessities before exiting the house.
A few moments later, she met up with her fellow college outside the apartment.
"Hello." Rose uttered in a greeting. The only response that she received was a slight nod from her companion.
Entering the house, Rose scanned the hallway for immediate threats, but there seemed to be none. The Auror next to her had his wand out, and was waving it slightly. She cocked an eyebrow in question towards his actions, and waited until he responded:
"There are no protective spells on this house, no hidden surprises, nobody hiding. We should be fine to split up. I'll take upstairs if you can take the front room and kitchen?" She nodded in response.
They climbed the stairs together before separating in the assigned rooms. Rose calmly walked into the front room, expecting the worst. To her upmost surprise, the room looked perfect. Everything seemed in its right place, as it would in any other house. There were two well-worn brown arm chairs next to the window, and one three seat sofa in the gap left. In front of the sofa was a coffee table, and on top of this was a silver laptop. Curiosity spiked, Rose sat down of the sofa, tucked her feet around the coffee table's legs and pulled it forward.
A faint CLICK! Was heard before Rose jumped up and pulled out her wand. She carefully scanned the room to see if anything jumped out on her. When she had waited an appropriate amount of time, she then sat back down in the seat. Placing her feet in front of her this time, she noticed a slip of white paper on the ground. Could this have fallen out when the table clicked? Examining it, she read the words
If ever in doubt, head to the address below to remind yourself why you are doing this.
There was an address listed below. Pocketing the piece of paper, she loaded up the computer; it needed no password to enter. The internet tab was already open, as was her Amazon. The top screen of Amazon said:
Your deliveries will arrive on the Estimated Date of Delivery.
Below were the four items that she had ordered.
Rose's eyes popped out of her head as she took in what the killer had ordered. A book detailing everything about Jack the Rippers killings and three posters. What were the posters for? Glancing back down at the screen, she noticed that the Due Date for these items had already passed.
Looking around the room, she didn't see any bookcases. She placed the computer down and exited the room. Entering the kitchen, she spotted a silver bookcase in the corner of the room. A few minutes later, after scanning the shelves, she had the book about Jack the Ripper in her hand. She then unzipped her backpack and placed the piece of paper she had stumbled upon earlier and the book inside.
Her companion's voice lulled her to the bottom of the second flight of stairs where the Auror was beckoning her to come up.
"You have to see this." Were all the words he uttered before he pushed her lightly forward.
Her mouth hung open.
All over the walls was the word 'Jackie'. The posters that the killer had bought earlier were placed on the walls, with the two extra letters of 'ie' on the end. Her assumption had been correct; they did call themselves 'Jackie the Ripper'.
"Anything to note about downstairs?"
"No, I just saw that she had bought the posters that are in this room." She had made a quick decision to not tell him about the note. She would check out the address later tonight.
Rose sat in bed later that night, and picked up the journal that was by the side of her bed. Thinking carefully through what she would write down about today, she picked up a pen and began writing.
Notes
*Jack the Ripper book – intense detail on deaths in book.
*Address on piece of paper leads to a room filled with photos- who are they?
Pen hovering over the scribbled writing, Rose thought over what to write about the conclusion she had come to.
When Rose had apparated to the address, she had expected to find another apartment, just like the one she had been in earlier. What she didn't expect to find was one single room, filled with photographs. They were all stuck to the ceiling, to the walls, placed neatly on the floor. A think black line separated a pile of photographs. There was one side labelled 'before' and one labelled 'after'. The ''before' side had words such as love, happiness, joy, written neatly in cursive writing; these photographs were of ones of two young children. One the 'after' side, there were block capitals expressing extreme emotions of anger and hate. Jagged edged photographs of the same man repeated themselves on every wall.
It seemed to Rose that there must be a link between the man and the children- did he do something to them causing the killer to become revengeful?
Shaking out the daze she had been it, she picked up her pen again and jotted down some more notes about her ongoing today. A few minutes, an idea struck her, causing her to pick up the detailed book. Two names had been underlined in the book: Mary Ann Nichols and Annie Chapman. Mary Ann Nichols had been stabbed 36 times, and Annie Chapman had been killed after 1:35 am.
Suddenly, Rose started to flick through the book until she found the page that she wanted.
And Rose knew what she had to do.
It was between 12:30 and 12:50 am. The last two victims had been killed just a street away from each other, meaning that the next murder could fall in the street across from that. A few hours earlier, Rose had called in the Aurors and explained the situation to them.
Her watch silently beeped, signalling it was time. This meant that it was just a waiting game now.
Time seemed to go agonisingly slow as she tried to view the street from all angles. Finally, a man appeared. He seemed exhausted, and was barely managing to drag his feet when a woman appeared at the end of the street. She was wearing a name badge that had three letters on it: JTR.
Rose then knew.
Sending the signal, she stepped forward and revealed herself just as a glittering silver object was raised above the man's head. Striding forward, two Aurors took the woman's hand and quickly stunned her, causing her to collapse in their arms.
A half smile forming at the edge of her lips, she touched the tin can that the rest of the Aurors already had a hand on, and closed her eyes as the pushing pulling motion began. A few seconds later, she opened her eyes again to see the Black interrogation room.
Rose took a seat, as was already planned, and watched the other Aurors file out of the room. Soon, it was just her, the now wide awake woman, the Auror who had accompanied her to the apartment, and the head of the Auror office.
What followed was a detailed conversation of Rose's thoughts and theories.
"Rose, how did you know that she would be there at that time?" The head Auror asked.
"It was too much of a coincidence for the first two murders to be exactly the same as Jack the Rippers. And when I phoned up the police and found out that there had been 36 stab wounds on both victims, I knew that it couldn't be a coincidence. I mean, it all started with the killer dropping the book."
"Did you mean to do that? Drop the book?"
"No," the killer spoke for the first time "I didn't mean to drop it."
"Well, you'll have time to think about how horrific your actions were for the rest of your life. You won't be getting out of prison anytime soon."
The Auror made a few shooing motions subtly to send Rose out of the room, but before she could stop herself, words escaped her lips:
"Why did you kill everyone? I found the room with the photographs on separate sides but that's the only thing I can't figure out. Why did you do it?"
The killer looked into her eyes before responding to Rose,
"Excuse me do you have any children?" Rose shook her head in reply, the woman continued, "Well I did. I had two, beautiful boys. One boy and one girl. The girl was a year and a half younger then the boy, but the way they treated each other you couldn't tell. Their father died when the boy was born, and for a few years I was single, and content bringing up my children with me; they were my pride and joy. And then one day, I was out with my friends for a night out, I hadn't been on one in years. That night, I met a man. At first, he was perfect. Complimented me, bought me gifts. We met up outside of the pub, and I invited him to meet the children: I was that sure that he was the man for me.
"But then he got possessive, clingy, downright demanding. He kept saying that I spent too much time on my children and not enough time on me. I knew that something was wrong, but I didn't know how to fix it. And then it happened. One night I had stayed over to grab my bag, but he thought that I had gone to work. He had promised to stay in the apartment, and when I saw him sneaking out I couldn't resist following him.
And then I saw him, with a group of men dragging my beautiful children out of the house. The babysitter was knocked out cold on the back lane. I saw the gun. One minute they were there, and the next they weren't." Silence had descended on the room, and Rose felt pity rise up in her. No matter what, nobody deserved to see their children die. "Filled with distraught, I raced back to his apartment, and grabbed my bag and slipped out. I had to make it seem realistic, you see, so that he wouldn't notice anything. On my way out of the house I saw a Jack Ripper book, a small one, detailing his crimes. And then an idea struck me on how to get him back. I had to come up with an inventive idea, one that would grab their attention, otherwise they wouldn't notice me.
And then I struck. I managed to kill that disgusting man, and one more that helped him. The kills I performed were going to continue until I had killed every man that night. But then you caught me. I just wanted revenge for my poor babies."
The killer slumped in her seat, a look of desperation seeping into her eyes, tear beginning to form at the corner of her eyes. Rose couldn't find the will to even maintain eye contact with her, unsure whether to feel anger at the deaths or pity for what the woman had been through. She stood up, her head bobbing a silent goodbye to the other Auror, and exited the room. She couldn't continue with this case that was for sure.
"Well done Rose." Was heard before she exited the room.
Rose walked down the seemingly never ending corridor, lost in her thoughts; it had been a long day, she needed to relax. Just as she was taking off her billowing black cloak, her phone began to buzz. As she glanced down at the phone, she sighed and replaced the cloak back around her shoulders. Work just never stopped.