The Whitechapel Conspiracy - Anne Perry [98]
“Who?” he demanded urgently. “If it wasn’t Annie Crook, what does it matter?” Unreasonably, he was disappointed. Only the horror in her face held him from looking away.
She gulped again. “It were Dark Annie,” she said in a strangled whisper.
“Dark … Annie …?” Slowly the horror began to dawn on him, cold as the grave.
She nodded. “Annie Chapman … wot Jack cut up!”
“The … Ripper?” He could barely say the word.
“Yeah!” she breathed. “The other places ’e were askin’ about coaches were Buck’s Row, w’ere Polly Mitchell were found, ’Anbury Street w’ere Dark Annie were, an’ ’e finished up in Mitre Square, w’ere they got Kate Eddowes, wot wos the worst o’ them all.”
Horror washed over him as if something nameless, primeval, had come out of the darkness and stood close to them both, death in its heart and its hands.
He could not bring himself to say the name. “If you knew it then, you shouldn’t have followed him the rest of the way back to the river police and …” he started, hysteria rising in his voice.
“I didn’t!” she protested. “ ’E went ter the police first, askin’ about a coach driver called Nickley tryin’ ter run down a little girl about seven or eight, wot ’e did twice, but never got ’er.” She caught her breath. “An’ after the second time ’e went an’ jumped inter the river, but ’e took ’is boots off first, so ’e din’t really mean ter kill ’isself, ’e jus’ wanted folks ter think ’e did.”
“What’s that got to do with it?” he asked quickly He caught hold of her arm and pulled her to the side of the pavement, out of the way of two men passing by. He did not let go of her.
“I dunno!” she said.
He was struggling to find sense in the story, to see the connections to Annie Crook and what it could have to do with Adinett and Pitt. But deeper, from the core of him, welling up in spite of all he could do to prevent it, he was fighting his fear for Gracie, and his fear for himself because she mattered to him more than he could control or knew how to deal with.
“But ’e knows,” she said, watching him. “Remus knows. ’E’s so lit up yer could see yer way across London by ’im.”
He was still staring at her.
“I saw ’is face in the lamplight in Mitre Square,” she repeated. “That’s w’ere Jack did Kate Eddowes … an ’e knew that! Remus knew! That’s w’y ’e were there.”
Suddenly he realized what she was saying. “You followed him there at night?” He was aghast. “By yourself … into Mitre Square?” He heard his voice ascend up the scale, trembling and out of control. “Haven’t you got the wits you were born with? Think what could have happened to you!” He shut his eyes so tightly it hurt, trying to force away the visions that were inside his head. He could remember the pictures of the bodies four years ago, hideous distortions of the human form, a mockery of the decencies of death.
And Gracie had gone there, at night, following a man who could be anything. “You stupid …” he shouted. “Stupid …” No word came to him that was adequate for his fear for her, his rage and relief, and the fury at his own vulnerability—because if anything had happened to her he would never have been happy again.
He was oblivious of people stopping to stare at him, even of an elderly gentleman who hesitated by Gracie, concerned for her safety. Then apparently he decided it was domestic, and hurried on.
Tellman did not want to care so much, about Gracie or anyone else, but particularly about her. She was prickly, wrong-headed about almost everything that mattered; she didn’t even like him, let alone love him; and she was determined to stay in service to the Pitts. The very thought of being in service to anyone set his teeth on edge, like the sound of a knife scraping on glass.
“You are stupid!” he shouted at her again, swinging his arm around as if he would smash something on the ground, only he had nothing to throw. “Don’t you ever think what you’re doing?”
Now she was angry too. She had been frightened before, but he had insulted her, and she was not going to stand for that.
“Well, I found out wot Remus were after, an’ that’s more’n you did!” she shouted