Sorry for the long wait everyone, i had MAJOR writers block, then this week I literally had NO time, but here you go thank you all for sticking with me! I hope you enjoy it, I tried to make it a bit longer than usual, to make up for the long break! I'll try and update again by next week but no guarantees! Happy Memorial Day to all US peeps, and for others, happy end of weekend (or not)!

SORRY I uploaded the wrong chapter, but it's correct now. Blame my nonstop week!


The next morning Phryne and Jack were awoken to a light tapping on the door.

"Miss Fisher, can I come in?" They heard Dot's voice at the other end of the door.

"Of course Dot," Phryne replied sleepily.

"Hugh just rang, and asked when Jack would be in," She said as she came in, tidying as she went, but looking everywhere but the bed.

"Crikey, what time is it?" Jack asked, suddenly in a panic.

"Oh not to worry inspector, Hugh just went in early to go over his notes from yesterday." Dot replied, still with her eyes anywhere but Phryne's bed. "It's only half six. I picked up some clothes for you yesterday, they are in a suitcase by the door, and Mr B has breakfast ready for you two whenever you are ready." She turned to leave "Oh and Bert and Cec said they have some information for you. They are in the kitchen entertaining Jane and Ruth." And with that, Dot quickly exited the room.

Phryne groaned, and looked over at Jack. "Well I suppose we should get up, but I must say, waking up with you makes the early hour much less unpleasant."

"I'm flattered Miss Fisher, that you hold me to such high esteem to consider me worth waking up for, I though you dilatants slept until all hours of the day" Phryne laughed.

"Yes, right after we roll over and heel." With that, she rolled on to her back, and looked up at Jack sweetly. "Well I suppose we should go downstairs and get some breakfast, and check on Jane and Ruth, make sure they slept last night." Jack patted her head.

"Good girl" And got out of bed. Phryne sprung out in outrage, and then, remembering herself, laughed it off, and put on her dressing gown to go downstairs. Jack noticed that his gown was also hanging in Phryne's wardrobe and lifted it off the hook.

"I think I am going to take a bath before meeting you downstairs,"

"Alright, just don't be too long or I shall tell Mr B to take away the food."

"You wouldn't, would you?" Phryne just smiled and walked out the door.

The girls were sitting at the kitchen table being entertained by Cec and Bert, who had come to deliver their information. She sat down and took a bite of a fresh baked scone. "What have you got for me boys? Anything useful?"

"He's dodgy alright, he met with Squizzy—" Bert was cut off by the telephone ringing again. Dot picked it up, they could hear here speaking down in the front hall

"Hello Hugh—what's wrong? I'm not sure, I think he is upstairs in the bath—I suppose I can fetch him, would you like to speak to Miss Fisher? Alright I'll fetch her, and I'll have Mr Butler fetch the Inspector." Dot said, and Phryne heard Mr B already speaking to Jack upstairs. Two years with the man, and she still didn't know how he managed to be a step ahead every time. She picked up the phone and wasn't prepared for what Hugh said.

"They have found the body of a girl in the alley behind where the victim was found. The commissioner wants the Inspector on the scene as soon as possible."

"Alright, we will be there as soon as possible. Thank you Hugh." Jack arrived downstairs as Phryne hung up the phone.

"They've found another body a young girl, in the alley behind where our first victim was found, Jack they have to be connected." Jack saw the fear in her eyes. She wouldn't admit it but she was scared for Jane.

"Well the faster we get to the scene, the faster we can get to the bottom of this." Jack replied, knowing Phryne wasn't going to want to open up about this now, when there was work to be done.

"The sooner the better, I'll have Mr Butler pack you a breakfast, and Dot can bring us lunch later, I just have to say goodbye to Jane and Ruby." Jack followed her into the kitchen, instinctively feeling quite protective of her. "Girls, I want you to stay close to the house all day. If you want to go for a walk, take Mr Butler, but don't stray far, this case has me worried, I don't want anything to happen to you, alright?" Phryne stroked Jane's hair, and kissed her on the head.

"What's going on Miss?" Ruby asked

"Don't worry Ruby I'll explain more you later, you can stay here for the next few days, it's probably safer for you here, is that alright?" Ruby looked puzzled, but trusted Jane and nodded.

"Of course you are welcome as long as you like" Phryne smiled. Jane had grown so much since she had been away. "Right well Jack and I are due at the station, but be good girls." And she and Jack headed out, Jack's hand placed softly on the small of her back, in a protective and comforting gesture. "I think I'm going to go talk to Mr Hisor's (* the victim*) mother today, see if I can get any more information from her, then I'll meet you back at the station, and you can update me on the new victim. Perhaps the two aren't connected.

"Do you actually believe that?"

"Of course not, I have a feeling there is a great deal more going on here than we know, but it's worth harbouring the hope."

They arrived at the station in Phryne's Hispano, and bid each other goodbye, as Phryne headed off on her mission.

When she knocked on the door of the grieving mother, Phryne began to calculate what she was going to ask, wanting to use her time wisely in order to get back to Jack, and their newest victim. She knew, as always it was a matter of delicacy with subtle prying.

"Oh you're back" was her greeting when the mother opened the door.

"I'm sorry to bother you Mrs Hisor, I just wanted to know a little more about your son, so we can make sure to get as big a picture of what happened to your son." She said kindly despite her cold reception.

The woman warmed to her slightly and invited her in, offering her a cup of tea. They sat down in the woman's little dining room.

"Johnny was such a good boy, he worked so hard. His father died when he was just 11, and I would have been put straight to work in the factories had he not gotten a job at that bank. Lord knows how he pulled in enough money as a messenger back then but he brought in enough to survive. We pulled though, until he slowly moved up the ranks."

"Did he have any friends as a boy, anyone he still kept in touch with?" She asked, attempting to find out if perhaps his work as a 'messenger' wasn't exactly what his mother described.

"Oh yes," she pulled out an old picture of Johnny shoulder to shoulder with another older looking boy. Johnny was grinning, but the boy was much more austere looking,

"What was the other boys name?" Phryne asked, he looked familiar, but she couldn't quite place why.

"I can't remember, but he and my Johnny were near inseparable until a few years ago, when he got promoted to manager at the bank."

"Could I hold on to this photo? I would like to run it by my partner to see if he can find the boy's name, just to make sure that he of course had nothing to do with your son's death."

"Alright" She seemed hesitant, but decided to trust Phryne with her treasure. "Just you make sure you get it back to me."

"Of course," Phryne replied. She handed the woman her card, and said "If you remember anything please don't hesitate to call. She thanked the woman for her time, and departed.

She met Jack at the morgue where he and Mac were just going over the girl's autopsy results. Jack didn't look pleased.

"Her death was made to look similar to our first victim, Mr Hisor, but ligature marks on her neck suggest that her death was strangulation." Mac explained, as Phryne walked in.

"Well that certainly changes things. Jack , but still… I need you to take a look at a photo for me, it's of Mr Hisor and a friend of his, who seems to me, to look quite bit like Squizzy Taylor. Could be a possible lead."

"I'll look into it."

"Anything else for us Mac? Any startling piece of evidence that could lead us to our killer?" Mac was looking at the girl, with a puzzled expression on her face.

"I know that look Mac, what have you found?" She knew Mac only looked puzzled like that when she had a piece of information that didn't quite add up.

"I've seen another death like this earlier this week, out of your jurisdiction Inspector, a girl, similar in age to this one was found dead with similar marks on her neck. It will be a bit before I can compare the two bodies and the marks, but I'll wager there's a good chance you have a potential serial killer on your hands."

"I knew something didn't feel right about this case, if we can get Taylor in the interview room we may be able to find out his story, he may not be the killer after all. I'll head down to see if I can get some information from him and convince him to come in."

"Are you sure that's safe?" Jack questioned, knowing Phryne would do it regardless.

"It doesn't matter if it's safe Jack, it's the easiest way to get him in and get information, and anyways, I'll have Cec and Bert nearby in case anything goes wrong! Meanwhile you can look into these two girls that have come up and see if they have anything in common.

"Are you telling me how to do my job Miss Fisher?"

"No," She said indignantly and then walked up to him and whispered "I'm just making sure you stay busy while I'm away so you don't think too much about what we will be doing tonight" Jack let out a low grumble, while Mac iterated her protestation at their behaviour.

"I can hear you Phryne," She yelled as Phryne walked out the door.