I found out the strangest thing the other day, there was actually a short spree of Jack the Ripper copy cat murders in early 1900. The killer was wounded when he tried to escape and died later, his idnetity wasn't uncovered. Weird, Eh?.
Discliamer: I own nothing but the character Lady Agnes Black.
The five sat around the table in the office that used to be Bond's, anticipating the arrival of the new M who was late. Mins had forgotten about Lady Agnes Black to Jekyll's relief.
"So," Skinner started, "How was Kenya?"
Skinner was not really interested, for during his one visit to the African country he was bored out of mind, but he was desperate to break the silence.
"Hot," said Jekyll absent-mindedly, "And Humid, but mostly Hot."
The sound of the door opening brought attention to it and the man who entered, the overweight man from the funeral who delivered the hypocritical speech. Sawyer briefly thought he was an accurate embodiment of two deadly sins, sloth and gluttony.
"Sorry I'm late." He said, obviously laying.
"I've been selected to take up all the responsibilities of Bond"
"As you wish Mr. Holmes. My name is Mycroft Holmes(1), you shall refer to me as M." said Skinner, and got promptly swatted in the arm by Sawyer.
"It's Col. Holmes, Mr. Skinner." he angrily said.
'And Wrath..' Thought Sawyer.
"A few days ago, Bond was assassinated while on his way to MI Headquarters, his two Lieutenants and Coachman were also killed in the process, we have knowledge that a secret dossier from foreign Intelligence was delivered to Bond shortly prior to that. The Dossier has disappeared, we do not know from where this dossier came from or what is it exactly, we only know it's a matter of an absolute threat of great proportions. There was more than one assasin, one was shot by Sir Campion before he was taken out himself."
"Haven't the culprits told you what it is?" asked Nemo.
"Don't be ridiculous, Doctor. The so-called culprits are actually convicted rapists whom we paid their families in exchange so that they claim they killed Bond, It's a mere rouse meant to set the British public and offecials' mind at ease."
"And you want us to bring the assassins to justice"
"I want you to retrieve the dossier, if you happen to uncover the assassins and bring them forth, It'll be just as fine."
It occurred to Sawyer that Holmes didn't like the late Sir Campion one bit, Envious of his position perhaps.
"We have posponed the burial of the agents and the coachman in anticipation of the autopsy.
"Furthermore, I have assigned one of Bond's loyal employees, he knows much about him. He will report to you soon"
"Do you have any idea what Bond was doing in that part of London at the time?" asked Mina.
"No. That is for you to find out."
"Anything else?" Asked M.
The League already knew what they wanted and only the actual investigation was left.
"Meeting adjourned."
It was night and Jekyll had just finished unpacking, he had a big day ahead of him with autopsy of four men. He was due in a minute to attend a card game organized by Skinner, with Sawyer and the first mates attending to celebrate the reunion.
"We need to talk."
The sweetest voice to Henry spoke with a somewhat stern tone, he turned to see Mina standing in the doorway, out of clothes she wore to the funeral and the meeting and in her usual attire (Not that there was much difference color-wise), he suddenly remembered the incident with Lady Agnes Black, and he went paler than usual.
"What's it about"
"Tomorrow's autopsy."
Jekyll was relived, "What about it"
"The body's of the two agents and the coachman have just arrived, the assasin's will be here soon as well. I was just wondering when would you like to begin"
"It's not too pressing, let's do it first thing in the morning"
"Not first thing, I hope."
As if floating on a cushion of air she glided over to him and planted a kiss on his lips, which he responded generously to.
"I've missed you, Kenya was so terrible. Of course a great part of it was due to the scores of operations I performed a day, but it would have been much easier with you"
"Paris wasn't as sparkling as it should without you either."
The second kiss went even longer.
"I think Skinner and Sawyer are getting restless waiting for you." Said Mina coyly as she pulled back.
"Right, those two." Said Jektll as he Put on his Jacket and went to leave.
"On second thought, they can wait." Said Mina, "Who is she?"
'Bollocks, she remembered.'
"Who is whom"
"You know whom, Lady Agnes Black, you know, early forties, brown hair, your former fiancé"
"Oh, her! I can't really sum it in a few words"
"But she should have been married to you"
"Of course there is am abbreviation and that is it"
"And during the year months you've known me, you didn't ever though you'd mention it to me"
"It never came up"
"That's your response? It never came up?"
"If anything, we've learnt to accept each other despite our pasts, all f us"
"I can't accept you despite of your past if I don't know what It is that I'm accepting in despite of which"
"Valid point, but you have a past as well, you must have secret you haven't shared, and I don't mind"
"I do, but none as important as yours, most of what I've learnt of you was by coincidence, I didn't know you were actually old enough to be my father, I didn't know you were Jack the Ripper, and by god I didn't know you were almost married to some pretentious gray-eyed wench!"
"You may have noticed, but It's you who I love, not said 'wench"
"Fine, what about her? Who was she and how did you come to know hr"
"She used to frequent the library of the hospital where I used to work, we had scientific discussions, then one day I proposed and she agreed"
"So what happened"
"Well, certain matters aroused, we discovered how incompatible we were so we separated. Satisfied"
"Very much!" She yelled, "Do you have any other secrets of the caliber? Are you the czar of Russia as well?"
"Not to the extent of my knowledge, look, I've barely thought of her for a decade, and the reason I've neglected to mention her is that I concider all that the life of someone else. You understand, do you?"
"I suppose." Said Mina angrily as se walked out, leaving Jekyll to ponder what's happened just now.
"Does this mean you're not coming by tonight?"
Jekyll woke up, alone, feeling refreshed and glad he didn't touch a drink the night before unlike the Spy and the crook.
After placing the kettle on the stove to brew some tea he headed to the bathroom, splashing some water on his face as he stood above the basin sink, then wiped the blade of his razor, opened the jar of shaving soap and dipped the brush.
"Let me out."
There in the mirror was Hyde, a calm yet menacing look across his face.
"I'm sure I will soon." Said Jekyll as he spread the cream on his face.
"You will let me out now!"
"You know I can't do that." Said Jekyll as he started shaving his stubble growth, trying not to pay Hyde much attention.
"You know you want to..."
"No I don't."
"Blatant lies from a worthless man, you wanted to take it last night more than you wanted to be with her."
"You know how it is Hyde, I become you, not the other way around"
"Are you sure? Can you honestly tell me that your respectable self proceeded me; your true instincts? Are you sure I wasn't there first before I decided to become a respectable man? And the serum was just what brpugh me back to my sences?"
Jekyll stayed silent and finished shaving, got dressed and left for the infirmary, all the time doubting himself at the effect of Hyde's words.
Four bodies were laid on wooden tables; on the wall were pictures from the crime scene. The temperature of the room was lowered to keep the bodies from rotting too quickly. Mina was already there, the white sleeves of her shirt were already rolled up, and her hair was in a bun.
"Good Morning Dr Jekyll," she said, emphasizing the word Doctor, she was obviously angry, "Did you Enjoy your sleep?"
'She's so adoreable when she's angry.' he thought.
"Good morning Miss Murray. And no, I didn't sleep very well."
She handed him a can of a Turquoise creamy substance, he rubbed it beneath his nose and he could smell the strong aroma that concealed the smells of the decaying flesh.
"Agent Jones," she said as she pulled the sheet of cloth covering the first corpse, "Late thirties, shot twice, knee then head. I've already ordered a sample of his blood to be analised as with the others."
After a few minutes of examination, Jekyll said "I think I'm ready to rule Mr. Jones cause of death as the bullet in his head, nothing out of the ordinary here, besides the fact that his skull has been pierced."
"Agent Gibson, Late twenties, Shot in the chest..."
"When we graduated college, Utterson and I, there was this girl he was interested in..."
"...The bullet..."
"Hear me out for a second, Utterson had his heart set on marrying her, then one day, she's killed by some rapist, and they never caught him. Utterson was devastated, he was on the brink of insanity, that's when I first thought Man could do without their evil. Then one day, many years later Hyde came upon a drunk in some brothel, and he was talking about how he raped a woman and killed her a decade ago, and he heard the drunk describing her in striking detail. Hyde then lured him into a dark ally, and clobbered him almost to death, the man never walked again."
Mina was silent, "That's one of many dark secrets, ones that I'd rather not be my own and although me being Engaged once before isn't that terrible... I guess it's a little hard to conjure such memories as Agnes without remembering other such things as me being part of Jack the Ripper or me killing Sir Danvers or all those men and women."
"I understand." She said with a faint smile, and then continued, "It's not really her, It's something you said, when you called me your associate"
"Well, Some may misunderstand if I said lover"
"You're right," she said abruptly and then continued as if nothing happnened, "The bullet missed his heart but struck his spinal column, after piercing his lunge, he drowned by his own blood. Must have taken him twenty minutes to die."
After the examination Jekyll ruled the cause of death as a chest wound.
"Mr. Samson, Bond's coachman, single entry wound in the neck."
As Jekyll examined the wound Mina went to splash some water on her face, she was hungry and tired, and seeing as it was early morning it would be some time till she could feed. She suddenly found her mind straying off to think about her son Quincy, he would be four soon, she would love to see him once, but seeing as she and Dr Steward had agreed it would b too complicated for him to be raised by an Immortal mother It would be better if he was raised under the care of Dr Steward, besides the fact that she could never trust herself in her condition with a helpless child, a moment of pure ravenous hunger could cause her to do the unimaginable.
"This is odd!"
She turned her attention back to Dr Jekyll, who was looking at a picture on the wall.
"What is it"
"I think the Samson was killed elsewhere"
"That's impossible, witnesses saw him drive the coach"
"Look, in the picture he's on his back, with a pool of blood around him. The entry wound is in his chest, but there is no exit wound, so technically there shouldn't be that much blood around him"
"So, he was knocked onto the ground and someone shot him in the chest, why is it necessary that he was brought from elsewhere"
"Look at his shirt, the blood looks like it was poured on, which is easy t avoid if done carefully, and since it was needed, Samson was already dead to begin with, corpses don't bleed you know"
"So you're saying"
"I'm saying that the coachman was killed that night, by poison perhaps, then someone else assumed driving the cab probably to lure Bond into the location of the assassination. Then the body was brought there and shot him in the chest, poured some blood on and around the body to make it look like he was killed there."
"So, we should probably be looking for the false Coachman? The one aligned with the assassins"
"Yes! He will be the one to tell us where the second assassin is or he is."
Mina was grinning by that point, making Jekyll blush and say, "Am I sounding too overzealous"
"No, I just love seeing you amerce yourself in medical detective work."
Jekyll smiled back, and felt the urge inside him grow; he moved in closer as she closed her eyes and leaned forward and...
"Ehem."
Eyes snapped shut and they pulled back quickly.
"Is this a bad time?" Asked Sawyer, hat in hand with a childish smirk on his face.
"Yes." Said Mina laconicly.
"Sorry about that." he said in an unconvincing manner, "I'm off to the crime scene. Need anything"
"Scrapings of the coachman's blood, please."
Sawyer and Skinner walked through the vacant intersection that saw the death of Sir Campion which was being guarded by the police, Sawyer crouched to the spot where the Coachman was found and scraped some dried blood with his knife and placed it in a velvet napkin.
"What do you think you're doing?"
The two looked at the man of his mid-forties, black haired, athletic and mustached, sporting a black suit, obviously the agent sent by M.
"I'm Agent Sawyer, this is Agent Skinner, with the special branch. Our Colegue requested some samples"
"I see, I'mAgent James Hansen(2) with MI5," said the man as he shook hands with both, "I'm sorry, I just expected someone older"
"We get that a lot." said Sawyer, "Any impressions?"
"There was one extra assassin, the one found dead was probably a decoy, his rifle wasn't fired, and was actually unusable. Plus there were no casings on the roof which he fell from"
"How do you know three was only one other assassin?" asked Skinner.
"Some casing were found over there." Said Hansen pointing at a corner, "We found five casings over there, which match the number of bullets found in the bodies of the deceased. No other casings were found anywhere else"
"Was he positioned there"
"Yes, we found smoked tobacco leaves that he most have smoked while he was waiting, why"
"Most snipers would prefer to be positioned on a rooftop, much like our decoy, makes it easier to aim, disappear and escape, our friend here was in a spot where he could have been caught if he made the tinniest mistake." explained Sawyer.
"Your point being"
"Nothing, it's just interesting that he would put himself out like that, must be very good or very cocky"
"Seeing as al his bullets hit critical points, I'd say both."
(1) Sherlokc's older, smarter, lazyer brother.
(2) A character from the movie, 'The Ripper', a police Inspector investigating the Whitechappel murders. Although the events of that movie contradicts with this story's prequel, let's just not think about it, Okay?