Part 13
William and Eliza watched helplessly as Detective Phillips got struck on the back of his head and dropped to the ground like a sack, face down and not moving. William could only assume this assailant was their suspect and Eliza's captor and took no chances.
He instantly grabbed his gun from by his foot and held it out firmly in the direction of their man. With his free hand he instinctively reached for Eliza, he stood up quickly pulling her up with him and moved himself to make sure she was safely behind him.
Their suspect remained silent as he regarded them in his room, and calmly took a few stalking steps sideways towards them. If he hadn't expected anyone to find them quite so quickly, he hid his surprise at their present well with his icy calm exterior.
"Detective Inspector Wellington isn't it? So nice to finally make the acquaintance of an officer of the great Scotland Yard." He told him with a false politeness.
"Don't move," William warned, his accent thick, holding his gun tightly and Eliza's arm even tighter.
"Put the gun away Inspector, that's far from necessary. I do so hate them." He waved his fingers as if she shoo William and his gun away.
He spoke eerily calmly and totally in control of himself, apparently unfazed by the situation he'd found himself in. He leered at them at them as he stalked the doorway back and forth.
"Drop the pole and get on the floor." William told him firmly.
William figured this was a fruitless request but asked it nonetheless. He could tell there was a steely cold determination in the person in front of him to be in control of this situation. William was going to have to keep his wits about him if he was to resolve this quickly.
"I don't think so," he replied, hitting the metal pole against his free hand, as if to show he had no intention of letting it go. He then spun it around in his fingers to show off, as a smile crept over his face.
With William holding her close behind him, Eliza could only step sideways slightly, but it was enough to see the man properly in the light for the first time. She could see his face more clearly in the warm firelight, though it did nothing to warm his features.
He'd taken off his top hat now and she could see the thinning light coloured hair, the surprisingly pale skin, his sunken cold dark hazel brown eyes, and his chilling smirk of confidence. What she would give to wipe that grin off his face!
Even as he tried to stand tall and seem intimidating, he was still small in height for a man and round in physical body appearance. His black suit of a carriage driver might have made him look the part, but in this light she could tell it was cheap, and to her, did little to help improve his supposed status in life. His cloak floated around him as he swayed on the balls of his feet while he moved back and forth.
She wasn't sure what the man's play was. Even from their slight distance, she could tell William was a good head taller then he was. William looked physically stronger and he was holding a gun out towards him. What hope did he have in getting away?
"I'm giving you to the count of 5 or I shoot you," William warned.
"No you won't, not in front of the lady." The man was full of self-confidence.
He had seen these two together, even seen some of their work. He had already made the assumption of an inappropriate romance between them. Why else would a ranking officer of Scotland Yard take the word of a woman, if not to get her into bed?
William blinked, perhaps he didn't want to shoot him, and certainly not in front of Eliza, but he knew that he might have to, and he would do it if he did.
"Who are you?" William asked
William had continued to keep a firm hold of Eliza's arm and he side-stepped and move them both backwards away from the man. He glanced over in Phillips direction, where he was laying motionless on the floor, passed out cold from the attack. From his distance it was difficult for William to tell if Phillips was breathing or not. He needed a plan and a quick one at that.
"I'd rather leave you to figure it out, you are a renowned police detective after all. Surely you can discover it."
William continued to move round slowly whilst shielding Eliza with his own body. An idea was formulating in his head, he just needed the man to move away from the doorway.
Eliza couldn't be sure what William was doing, but he wasn't letting her arm go. She certainly wasn't used to hiding behind anyone, but his firm grip meant on this occasion she had little choice but to go with it and to move around with him.
"You know I couldn't careless who you are. Either way you're going to pay for your crimes." William told him firmly, his Scottish accent strong, thick and clear, as he realised his way of taking control.
"On what evidence? Because I don't believe you have any. It's taken so long for anyone to even notice me." He was goading William and he knew it.
The man kept his eyes firmly on them, with an intimidating smile. He was in a position of control, and he took a self-assured step round and closer to them, clearly happy with his actions.
"I have enough," William lied, but sounded so confident the man gave a nervous laugh. He side-stepped again, moving Eliza along with him.
"I don't think so, Inspector." He practically spat out William's title. "I think I'm walking out of here, and you're going to let me."
He was overly confident with this thought. He knew he'd been careful, there was little to connect him to any of these women, and he'd been smart by keeping their bodies clean.
"Then you're delusional." There was no chance William was letting him go, he'd rather shoot him then let that happen.
"You know, I've been plying my trade for long enough, yet no one has ever paid the slightest bit of attention. Do you not wonder how?" He laughed, still careful not to admit to anything.
At this moment, William didn't really care how he'd been getting away with it. As far as he was concerned he'd made the mistake of perhaps wanting notoriety of his crimes, and that would be his failure. William was eager to continue to let him talk, he seemed to want to and all the while William was making minuscule unnoticeable movements forcing the man to move also.
"The key is never go to the same place twice in quick succession. Never have officers from the same station attend a crime. No police have ever knocked on my door. No journalist ever put anything together, even when the crimes were splashed all over their front covers. It was fun, reading about all those women, and wondering, waiting to see if this was the one the police would take interest in. Yet, no one ever did, so I continued to have my fun. I'm fairly certain if that man hadn't got your little friend here involved, you'd still be none the wiser about me."
That man, Eliza knew to be Mr Trewsbury. He'd already mentioned that he'd seen him with Clara, but this would mean that he had to have been watching him, driving him around, even after Clara's death. That would be the only way that he could know that he had hired her.
"I thought it was harmless, when I noticed him going to a private detective, and a woman no less. So fun, that he would go to a woman, especially after poor Clara. A woman would think it was just a simple case of a disappearance. If she got close I'd just treat her like the rest. After all, no one would take a woman seriously."
Eliza gave a quiet smirk. He'd underestimated her. From the moment she'd been hired she'd never accepted that this was a simple case of a disappearance. She knew she had done her job, and she'd done it well, even if it had landed her here in this room.
"Except you did," he said accusingly to William, narrowing his eyes and full of hate. "You listened to her. You brought her to your offices. You interviewed with her. What sort of a man works with a Woman like that?"
He scowled at William, as if working with her went against the unspoken male code, that men were important and women should be kept quiet and under control. For once William wasn't that bothered, he had the upper hand and he gave a subtle, small smile.
"Well, when you're sitting rotting in your jail cell never to see the light of day again, you can just remember, she put you there." William told him assertively, his eyes gleaming, knowing this would be a metaphorical kick in the teeth.
It did seem to unnerve him, the thought of a woman after all those victims being the key to his downfall. At the same time, he also seemed to notice what was happening in the room. The coolness of his eyes seemed to change as he looked at them.
William was getting the driver exactly where he wanted him, in the middle of the room and far enough away from the door that he could block it. Just a few more steps, that was all William needed so he could reach the doorway before the man if he tried to run.
He watched full of confidence, as it seemed to dawn on the man that getting him talking, and blocking his exit was William's plan all along. The smile on his face seemed to drop just slightly.
"You'll just have to try and catch me then!"
William let off two warning shots from his gun towards the door, to alert the other 6 officers as to where they were rather then to cause harm, and also to startle the man momentarily.
"Down!" William yelled, immediately dropping down to a crouching position on the floor and pulling Eliza down with him, as the man panicked and threw the metal pole he was holding in their direction and went to make his escape. The pole missed hitting them both completely and it clinked against the wall and rolled on stone the floor behind them.
William finally released his grip on Eliza's arm and moved like lighting from his position on the floor to get in front of the man, blocking the door and his escape from the room. They stayed still momentarily eyeing each other, wondering which of them would make the first move. Until the man ran at him, but William was prepared for him and the two of them collided together and instantly started pulling their punches.
Eliza quickly stood up and stepped backwards, pressing her back to the cold wall. She could only helplessly watch the scuffle between William and their suspect as they both threw punches, bump against the open door and the wall and tried to assert dominance.
They stepped back into the shadows of the room and with both of them in black suits and coats, it was only William's height that really set them apart. However, at times Eliza couldn't tell which way round they were fighting.
William still had his gun in his hand, though the man was trying hard to get him to drop it. Every few moments Eliza heard one of then grunt or groan. She couldn't just stand there watching them, arms flying, but equally she couldn't really intervene without getting caught in the crossfire
She looked around and picked up the metal pole. Perhaps she could throw it at them, only there was no guarantee that she wouldn't hit William and make things worse. She lifted up the pole to her shoulder, trying to figure out an angle to throw it, and who was who, and where to aim.
Then suddenly a gun went off, and she dropped the pole in shock at the unexpected loud noisy shot.
She watched both men drop to the floor, and for a moment the only sound was the metal pole she'd dropped rolling on the floor, then a stillness, as no one and nothing in the room moved. Panicked, she couldn't be sure who got shot, or where the shot even came from.
It took a few seconds for her regain her composure and to realize someone was suddenly screaming, a loud, high-pitched, bloodcurdling scream. With confusion, she turned to see that Detective Phillips was no longer lying on the floor out cold, but sitting up and holding his gun low, and in the direction of William and their suspect.
She'd been so focused on the fighting, she hadn't even noticed that Phillips had regained consciousness, seen what was going on and made a shot.
She turned back to look at William and the man to see a suited arm move to make a punch to a face, and the screaming stopped as quickly as it started.
Eventually, William pushed the dead weight of an unconscious man off him and pulled himself up to a seated position. He looked over in the direction of Phillips and noticed him now sitting up, having made the shot to their suspects leg, enough to hurt but not kill.
"Phillips you good?" William called out.
"I'm seeing two of ya Duke, but other then that…" Phillips replied, breathless and still a little dazed.
Phillips let out a heavy sigh then slowly lowered his gun, and with his free hand pressed the back of his head checking for blood. He winced with pain and he felt a lump and wet blood. That was definitely going to hurt for a while.
"Nicely done," William told him sincerely.
William finally looked over at Eliza who was staring, eyes fixed at him, with a mixed look of fear and relief on her face.
"You okay?" He asked in her direction. She could only nod to him, her heart pounding, and still recovering from the sound of the gunshot ringing in her ears.
"Natalie," Eliza suddenly said, as she remembered her in the other room, and she clutched up her long red skirt and moved quickly to go and find her.
William took another second to recover, before he stood up, and walked over to Phillips to check on him. He gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder and then he borrowed his tool kit, before following Eliza out the room.
Phillips gingerly stood up, steadying himself he dusted the hay off his trousers and jacket. He collected up the discarded rope that had been tied around Eliza's wrists to tie up their man, who was lying unconscious on the floor. He pulled at the man's tie to remove it and wrapped it around his bullet-wounded leg. The last thing he wanted was this man dying on them from blood lost.
"The doors locked," Eliza told William as he joined her in darkness of the corridor.
William moved her backwards, and unfolded Phillips' tool cloth. He took out the tools he needed, and even in the darkness made light work of the lock, and opened the wooden door for Eliza to rush inside.
"Natalie!" Eliza called, as she rushed into the room and turned to the far corner where Natalie was still huddled and shivering from the cold night.
"It's okay, you're safe." Eliza told her as she bent down to check on her. Her eyes barely opened and she could hardly move she was so frightened.
William had followed Eliza in the room and instantly noticed how pale and cold the young girl looked. He promptly took off his coat and handed it to Eliza to put round Natalie to try and give her some warmth.
Eliza sat down on the floor next to Natalie and hugged her, as Natalie burst into tears of relief that she was safe, then buried her head sobbing into Eliza's shoulder.
Eliza turned and looked at William, giving him a half smile of relief, as he half smiled back and nodded back. She held his eyes just for a moment. Silently they told each other they were all okay. They'd got their man.
Their quiet moment was broken by two uniformed officers rushing in, having missed all the drama.
To be continued….
A/N: Thank you again to everyone who has read this story and left a review. I hope all the cliff-hangers were worth it, they've finally got their man!
This story isn't quite yet complete so another update coming this week, and whispers quietly another little adventure for these two that just been finished and is totally different to this one.
