by Eric Black
“Time travel?” Vincent rasped.
Jack looked closely at Vincent. “Haven’t you been paying attention? What you are experiencing is real. I know that deep down you still doubt that and hope that this turns out to be some elaborate dream but I’m telling you that’s not the case.”
Vincent turned to Wilson. “What do you know about this?”
“I know quite a bit. I am a time traveler as well. You probably won’t believe this but I was born in the year 2113. I came back in time to become the President of the United States. But you see how that worked out.”
“I don’t understand,” Vincent replied. “How can you be from the future? You were the President of the United States. Or least you should have been.”
“Exactly. I should have been. That was before Libby and you showed up and changed everything.”
The name of his dead wife brought an instant sadness to his heart that Vincent was sure he would never get over. He felt the pain but moved through it. “Well, you’re right we did. But it wasn’t anything we did in the future. I’m still not sure how or why I’m here.”
Wilson looked Jack. “We’re not sure either.”
Vincent turned and looked at Jack as well. He hated the man. “What does he have to do with anything besides being a coward and a murderer?”
“Vincent, let me introduce you to Jack the Ripper.”
The name caught Vincent by surprise. “The Jack the Ripper? But how is that possible?”
“Jack is the one who invented time travel. His original technology, however, had some undesired complications. It changed his personality and turned him into a killer. He originally went back in time to with the idea of stopping Jack the Ripper. Instead, once he got there he found out that he was actually the world’s most notorious serial killer.”
“But I’ve changed,” Jack said.
“You’ve changed?” Vincent mocked. “You killed my wife. I’d say you’re who you’ve always been.”
“No, he’s right,” Wilson answered for Jack. “He has changed. When he killed your wife, everything changed. Including the ability to travel through time.”
Vincent smiled. “It serves you right. If I can’t kill you, at least I can see you stopped. I don’t know how you face yourself. You should kill yourself and make it easier on all of us.”
“I’ve tried,” Jack replied. “The paradox won’t let me.”
Vincent was still in awe of who Jack was. “Tell me again about this paradox. I’m having a hard time taking all this in.”
“The causality paradox does not allow one to go back and change their own timeline,” Wilson explained. “For example, if you went back in time and for whatever reason wanted to kill your great-great grandfather before your great-grandfather was conceived, the universe would stop you because if your great-great grandfather died before starting your line, you would cease to exist. Thus, the universe protects the future.
“Now, if something in the past will affect the future in an unnatural way, then the universe will stop that as well. That’s why you can’t kill Jack – believe me, I’ve tried myself – and Jack can’t kill himself. Jack has some importance in the future that the universe would like to protect. Any attempt to kill him, either through his own efforts, the efforts of someone else or an accident, the universe will not allow it to happen.”
“So what possible use could the universe have for someone like him in the future?” Vincent asked aloud to no one in particular.
Jack started to answer but Wilson interrupted. “I guess we’ll see. In the mean time we should hold tight here.”
Vincent looked at Jack before answering. He wanted to make sure that Jack was listening. “That’s fine. But Jack better hope that the universe doesn’t give up on him. I’ll bide my time.”
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
Bourg-en-Bresse, France – December 1898
Bagster Phillips never forgot his encounter with Jack the Ripper at the Golden Goose. When Jack’s body disappeared into the future and was lost to him, he was haunted by that moment and he knew he was never going to be able to disremember it.
In the following months, Phillips obsessed over what else he could have done. He managed to move on only slightly but the obsession was so deep that he began seeing the Ripper’s hand in every new crime he came across.
It was in those months after Jack disappeared that Phillips took notice of a series of murders in France (through an anonymous letter). Joseph Vacher, known to the public as the French Ripper, had been apprehended in Ardèche, France. He had attempted to murder a woman in a field there. She fought back and her screams alerted her husband and son who came to her rescue. The two men overpowered Vacher and took him to a local police station. Vacher, once in custody, admitted to a series of murders including one woman, five teenage girls, and five teenage boys over a three year period.
Vacher claimed insanity, using the defense that he had been given a non-traditional cure for rabies as a child that had altered him. Later, he changed his reasoning claiming he had been sent there by God to make people understand the true virtues of faith. He was judged sane and after a trail, was sentenced in October 1898 to death by guillotine.
Phillips found the case interesting and went to France (although he had retired in June of 1898) to offer his services to the local police. The police there knew of his work with the Jack the Ripper murders and welcomed his help. They were not entirely convinced that Vacher had acted alone and were curious if Phillips could help prove this theory.
Phillips went back through the evidence and found nothing that would indicate that Vacher was not the lone murderer. In all, he spent two months going through everything and was about to make his final report when it was pointed out that he had not actually interviewed Vacher.
Phillips was more interested in the science of solving crimes and found that people were generally a waste of time. There were people who studied other sciences who would argue there were methods of determining truth from observing the features of that person, such as their eyes, but this science did not interest Phillips. In the end, it was curiosity more than anything that encouraged Phillips to meet with Vacher face-to-face.
Vacher was isolated as they were concerned for the safety of other inmates and was asleep when Phillips entered the cell area. He looked down at the sleeping man. He knew Vacher’s history and found it difficult to believe any man could be capable of such violence and yet look so normal. Then, he thought of his drink with Jack.
Vacher had fallen in love with a woman when he was a young man and that woman did not return his love. Worse, she mocked him. He responded by putting four bullets in her. Afterwards, he turned the gun on himself, shooting himself twice in the head. He did not die but was paralyzed on the left side of his face. He was put in a mental institute and despite none of the treatments working, the doctors released him as completely cured a year later. Now, he was back in custody as a serial murderer.
As Phillips looked down at Vacher, he saw something strange behind Vacher’s ear. “What is that?” Phillips asked the attending officer.
“I’m not sure, Monsieur. I have not seen that before.”
Phillips looked closer at the object that was small and round. Vacher was still sleeping and Phillips took the risk and reached down through the bars. He removed the item from behind Vacher’s ear.
Phillips had just pulled his hand back and was studying the object when Vacher opened his eyes. He looked up at the men, chose to ignore them and stretched. He scratched his head and then stopped. His eyes went wild and he sat straight up.
Vacher stood up and locked eyes with Phillips. In Vacher’s eyes, Phillips could see the dangerous belligerence that reflected the murderer within. Then, Vacher looked at Phillips’ hand and saw the object that should have been behind his ear. He erupted in French profanity and threw himself against the bars of his cell.
Other officers were called in. “I’m sorry, Monsieur,” the original attending offic
er said to Phillips, “it looks as though you will not be able to speak with him after all. In fact, I am afraid he has lost the rest of his mind.”
Phillips nodded in understanding.
Two days later, Phillips attended the execution of Vacher on December 31, 1898. Vacher refused to walk towards the scaffold that held the guillotine and had to be dragged by the executioners. Phillips pronounced the headless body dead.
Phillips retired to his small room and pulled out the item he had taken from behind Vacher’s ear. It was small and round and didn’t resemble really anything he had seen before. It was made of a flimsy material that was mildly opaque. On the backside of the item were several small silver lines. Phillips considered several possibilities but was not able to determine what the object was or what its purpose might be.
Finally, he resigned to placing the item behind his ear in hope that he would better understand the intent. He found that the item was adhesive, even though when he touched the object there was no stickiness and once placed on his skin, it stayed in place.
He felt slightly strange but thought it was anxiety over the case and lack of sleep. He thought of how much easier it had been when he was younger and had the energy to work long hours on cases without slowing down. He recalled the first time he walked into Scotland Yard many years prior as a young man – a boy really.
That thought triggered the device.
Phillips disappeared.
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
Bourg-en-Bresse, France – January 1899
“Can I help you, sir?” a voice asked. Phillips wasn’t sure where he was. Perhaps he had blacked out. He had been in his room in France and now it seemed he was in Scotland Yard – Scotland Yard as it looked many years prior.
“Can I help you, sir?” the voice repeated, only this time a little sterner.
Phillips looked up and saw the man who was speaking to him. He would recognize the man anywhere. The man was his mentor. Only he looked as he had when Phillips was a young man, not the wasted old man his mentor would become.
“William?” Phillips asked.
William looked at Phillips. “Aye? How is it you know my name? I have no markings. Do I know you from somewhere?”
Phillips smiled. “It’s me, Bagster. Bagster Phillips.”
William didn’t smile back. “Have you been taking the drink, man? If you’ve taken a nip or two, be gone with you. We’ve enough to lock up around here without an old man to worry about.”
Phillips was confused. He knew the man in front of him – he almost saw him as a father – but William did not seem to recognize him. He tried again. “You are my mentor. I don’t know how you are here, still alive, perhaps this is a dream?”
William grew angry. “Look, you old fool. Leave or I’ll take you to the cell, which you don’t want, believe me. Them are bad men in there and no place for an old man. Do you have a place to go?”
Phillips, in a numb haze, nodded that he did and an image of his home in London pierced his mind. Scotland Yard disappeared and he found himself sitting in his living room in the present time. “What’s happening to me?” he asked aloud.
He thought briefly of Hanwell Asylum in Wales and wondered if he was lunatic enough to be admitted there. The next moment he was inside of the walls of the asylum.
In his fear, he asked God to be with him and thought of the original chapel of the asylum. He found himself facing the chapel, not as it looked in his time but as it looked several decades earlier when it had first been built. The newness of the building unnerved him.
He again thought of his home in London and again he was there during the present time.
This went on for some time until Phillips recalled the item that had belonged to Vacher that he had placed behind his ear. He removed the item and the strangeness that he had felt only a moment earlier disappeared. He thought of the room in France where he had been staying. Nothing happened. He thought of some other places he had been over the past year. Again nothing happened.
He returned the item behind his ear and again thought of his room in France. Suddenly he was in that room.
Phillips took the item from the back of his ear again. He looked at it very closely. He didn’t know what the item was exactly but he knew it was something very special and something that would change everything for him.
He was interrupted from his thoughts by a knock at the door. He rose from his seat and opened the door to see the Commissaire from the local station. “Is everything okay, Monsieur?” the Commissaire asked.
Phillips was confused briefly. “Of course I am. Why would I not be?”
“You missed your dinner with the Inspecteur Général. That is unusual for you, no?”
Phillips remembered the appointment. He was embarrassed. “Yes, of course, dinner. I truly apologize. In fact, it has been quite a day. I am quite embarrassed to tell you that I am an old man and as a result, I do not have the endurance I once had as a young man. I fell asleep and have only just now awoken.”
The Commissaire smiled. “It has been quite a day. Yes, you’ve contributed much. Your exhaustion is understandable. Would you like me to extend your apology and reschedule dinner for tomorrow night?”
“Thank you. That would be capital. I appreciate your time in coming here and apologize you were put in position to check on an old man.”
The Commissaire smiled again. “It is my pleasure, Monsieur Phillips. Good evening.”
“Good evening,” Phillips replied closing the door. Missing a scheduled dinner was not in his nature and he was sorry it had happened. Normally it would have bothered him but as he closed the door, he forgot all about the dinner once again. His thoughts moved back to the item he had taken from Vacher.
He sat down in the lone chair in the room and thought more on Vacher. He realized that Vacher could have escaped any time he wanted to. He wasn’t sure why Vacher would allow himself to go through imprisonment and psychiatric treatment if he simply just could have left. Perhaps Vacher actually was insane, he said to himself. Maybe this item caused that. I need to be careful.
He took the night to determine what he would do next, although he was fairly certain what his next action would be. In the morning, after rest and with a clear mind, he confirmed to himself the decision he had already made the previous evening.
Phillips attached the item to the back of his ear and disappeared.
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
Ypres, Belgium – Present Day
Phillips spent the next few months learning about the item behind his ear. He learned that he could travel to any place or time he wanted by pure thought. During this time, he learned to master the device and also became much better at pinpointing exact locations and dates.
After much thought, Phillips decided if he was going to use this new ability to make the world a better place – the reason he decided to join the police force in the first place – he would need more freedom to do so, unhindered by other commitments. He knew he would have to fake his own death.
He discussed this with his wife and told her that he would never be able to live a private life due to his work with the Ripper case. Although she didn’t understand why they didn’t just move without the deception, she agreed.
They agreed to move to Cardiff, in Wales, where they would be away from the public eye. Cardiff was a big enough city where many of the luxuries of London existed, plus the population would allow Phillips to blend in where he could live out a normal life. They changed their last name to Williams.
The newspapers were told that Phillips died from bleeding caused by a stroke on October 27, 1897. Scotland Yard was involved in the cover up as a plot to draw out Jack the Ripper. “With me out of the way as far as the public is concerned, Jack the Ripper may gain more confidence and hopefully that will be his undoing,” Phillips explained to his former partner Dr. Percy John Clark. “His arrogance will allow us to get closer to him. With my death, I can move in circles that are difficult for me to move a
mong now. Once I catch him, I can truly retire quietly in anonymity.”
Scotland Yard was skeptical that Jack the Ripper was still alive – the case was officially closed; but Phillips, even though he was now retired had been an integral part of the force for many years and so, it was agreed upon and set forth.
It would have been easy for Phillips to go back and wait for Jack to show up at the crime scenes and stop him there, but he was nervous about being seen. It was true he was much older than he had been when the murders first started occurring but he would still be recognized if someone saw him. He didn’t want the Bagster Phillips who still lived in the past to become the primary suspect.
The reaction of Jack the Ripper himself was also an unknown. Jack’s senses and survival instincts would be heightened during the murders. He certainly didn’t want to be killed by the Ripper.
Phillips was curious about Jack. The horror he had felt at the Ripper murders had given away to fascination now that the possibility existed that Jack possessed a similar item to Phillips allowing Jack to move through time as well. How else could Jack have disappeared right before my eyes?
Phillips was sixty four years old. He was not a young as he once was but he had kept himself in fairly good shape. He believed that as an officer of the law he had an obligation to keep himself not only morally fit but physically fit as well. He was thankful that he had taken such an approach to life as he would need all the energy he could muster to carry out the task that he had now set before himself.
Over the next two years, Phillips followed the trail of murders throughout history, looking for signs that those murders might have been committed by Jack. He knew what Jack looked like and wanted to confront him if he could determine an area in which he might live. His plan was to catch Jack by surprise.
