‘No!’ I screamed, running as fast as I could to reach him. D and Victoria disappeared across the road and the detective and I ran as fast as we could, first reaching a wounded Albert. He was laid on the floor howling in pain, trying his hardest to get back to his feet but the bullet had hit him in the thigh. His trousers were already soaked in his own blood, and his hands were also bright red as he tried to put pressure on it. He tried to stand as we approached him but his legs buckled under the pressure and he shrieked in pain. I could tell the detective was conflicted between staying to assist Albert and chasing after Victoria. He removed his tie and as quickly as he could with shaking hands tried to tie it around the wound for added pressure. This was all taking far too long, D was getting away with Mrs Summers and we would lose them if we didn’t hurry; without warning to the detective I decided to go ahead myself. I ran across the street, narrowly missing oncoming horses, and sprinted as quickly as my legs would take me into the narrow alleyway they had disappeared into.
‘Tom, no.’ I heard the detective shout after me. I wasn’t stopping, and I didn’t look back to see if he was following me.
I continued down the deserted lane until I came to another main road, I instantly recognised it as The Mall, due to the Admiralty Arch directly to my left, the iconic entrance to The Mall. This road was much wider than any other in London, but there was no sign of anybody on the pavements, it was mostly dark and I was at a loss of which way to go. I began to cross the road, and as I did so I heard a small scream coming from up head, there was a small passage I hadn’t noticed beyond the arches and I took off again at quite a speed. When I came out the other side onto yet another road I this time recognised myself as being on Whitehall, the carriage I had only recently left was still parked at the side of the road, and there at the opposite side of the road was D, escorting Victoria along the pathway and into the shadows of another narrow lane, so narrow I didn’t even realise a gap between the buildings was there. I couldn’t see it but I could tell by how he held her that the pistol was aimed into her back.
I ran across the road and heard the faint voice of Detective Matthews calling me from behind. I didn’t have time to wait for him or I might lose them completely, and so I crossed the road and followed them into the backstreet. The darkness made it difficult to see, the lane was so narrow, and the walls at either side felt as though they were closing in on me. It was so narrow I could physically touch both walls at the same time. After a couple of seconds I came to a cross path, but which way did they go?
I stood for a second to listen, hoping Mrs Summers would scream again, or even the sound of scuttling of feet, but I could hear nothing. I wasn’t familiar with these back streets and so didn’t know where any of the three went. Suddenly footsteps approaching me from behind came towards me at speed. The darkness disguised the figure coming towards me, and I panicked.
‘Tom,’ it was the detective, ‘you need to be careful son, Mrs Summers won’t want you to be hurt in all this.’
‘I am ‘elping, and we’re runnin out of time.’
‘Okay, you go right, I will go straight on,’ Detective Matthews ordered, ‘he won’t have gone left, that would surely lead back towards where we came from.’ Without hesitation I did as the detective asked and ran down the dark narrow lane. The backs of the buildings were littered, and numerous times I nearly tripped over. I could barely see a thing, but the smell of the alley was the most over powering thing I had ever smelt. I could only imagine what I must have been stepping in.
Eventually I came out onto another main road. I scanned around but could not see them anywhere; knowing that going left would eventually lead back to Trafalgar square I decided to follow the road to the right. Sticking to the pavement my eyes scanned down alleys on both sides of the street. I still could not see or hear either of them. Finally I reached the Embankment. The river Thames was dark and silent. I had lost them.
Chapter 24
Detective Matthews
I shouted after Tom not to chase after them, but he was not listening. The commotion going on in the street caused members of the Union club to appear in the doorway.
‘Police,’ I asserted myself, trying to not alarm the handful of people who had appeared, ‘please can somebody call an ambulance for this gentleman.’ I stood and dashed across the road as quickly as I could, I knew Albert was going to be okay. It was Victoria and Tom I was concerned about now. I could hear Tom running up ahead of me, and I eventually caught him up trying to decide which way should go. I convinced him to take the right hand alley, I knew he wouldn’t go home so I hoped I was directing him in the opposite direction, or at least keep him out of harms way.
I began to run along the middle path as quickly as I could, there was no sounds of D or Victoria coming from up ahead. I was beginning to panic, what if I had sent Tom towards them by mistake, and what if I was too late?
I came out onto another main road just in time to see Victoria and D disappear between two buildings at the opposite side of the street. D’s eyes caught my own as he pushed Victoria ahead of him. I raced towards the passage as quickly as I could, it again was dark and I slowed to try and hear them ahead of me. Coming up on the right hand side was a doorway, a small lamp above lit the small area. There was a woman standing underneath, at first I thought it was Victoria.
‘Excuse me Miss,’ I said ‘have you seen a man and woman pass by just moments ago?’ The woman turned to face me, her face gaunt and her make up smudged.
‘I have seen no one.’ She spoke with a hoarse voice. There was something about the way she was looking at me that I found unsettling. I knew she was lying. I moved closer to her, her eyes widened with fear.
‘I mean you no harm.’
‘Go,’ she hissed, ‘leave me be.’ I saw movement behind her, she was hiding something.
‘Madam I am a police officer and I order you to stand away from that door.’ She fell to the ground in tears, and behind her was D. He had Victoria restrained and held her mouth so she could not speak. Upon seeing me he let Victoria go, pushing her further into the doorway before launching himself at me.
‘Leave us be detective,’ he shouted in my face as he pushed me backwards, ‘Victoria and I have unfinished business and you will not come between us again.’ I managed to hold my own and pushed back against him, in height we matched but his strength was clearly greater than my own.
‘Do not harm her, she has done nothing to deserve this.’ D pulled the pistol from his pocket but I managed to restrain him enough to point the weapon in the opposite direction. The frightened woman from the doorway returned to her feet and fled as quickly as she could. D immediately turned to see, fearful that it was Victoria escaping, yet for some reason she remained crouched in the doorway sobbing.
The fighting between us continued. D pushed me up against the wall causing my entire back to burn with agonising pain. I managed to retaliated and thrust all my energy into pushing back against him. He stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, pulling me over with him. The brawl continued on the ground, each of us trying to get the upper hand, myself also trying to get the pistol from his grip.
Movement from under the door lamp caught both of our eyes, it was Victoria. She had finally come out of the shadowy doorway. She stood over us as we struggled, before she took off down the alley at speed. I knew he would easily catch her, so I needed to hold D up as long as I physically could.
‘Victoria!’ He shouted after her, his anger rising further. His voice echoed through my ears. He managed to free one of his hands from my grip and in one swift movement brought it crashing down onto my face. I could feel the blood flowing from my nose almost instantly. He raised his fist again, this time I tried to protect my face, but instead he punched me in the stomach. Winded and gasping for air I unintentionally let go of the hand which held the pistol.
‘Bastard.’ He spat at me, and rose to his feet. The last thing I saw was his foot coming towards my face.
Chapt
er 25
D
I caught Victoria much quicker than I had anticipated, she struggled somewhat at first but soon grasped that she was not strong enough to escape my grip. The problem I now faced was that I had no plan at all, I had originally thought I would follow them back to Vincent Square, where it is much quieter, and I would have been able to have confronted them with nobody around. I certainly didn’t expect to be doing this in the centre of the city. I was making it up as I went along, trying to think of a quieter spot for me to simply speak with Victoria before I killed her. The further I dragged her the more I realised there was no such thing as a quiet spot in central London, even at this late hour. I think she knew I didn’t have a plan either, I could sense her complacency.
We eventually reached the edge of the Thames and I dragged her down onto a small stone jetty behind some enormous monument. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best I could do. The Thames was much quieter than the street, and here we were more out of sight of the road. I released her wrist and pushed her closer to the water’s edge, making sure to block her way from trying to escape. She stumbled as I shoved her, but remained on her feet. She stood there for a couple of seconds holding her wrist I had been squeezing, her panting breath the only sound she made as she tried to compose herself.
‘You will be surprised to see me?’ I said with pleasure. I had waited so long to confront her, I had planned every work in my head of how the conversation would go.
‘No.’ I was a little taken back by her cold response.
‘How long have you known me to be in London?’
‘Only a couple of days. It was you that placed the suitcase on my doorstep, the one left behind in Whitby.’
I laughed with utter delight, amused that my little plan had indeed worked. She finally turned to look at me, yet she continued to cradle her arm. ‘How did you get out of Whitby without Detective Matthews or Constable Taylor arresting you?’
‘Ah you have not heard the tale of that evening, what a shame, it is a good one. You see your beloved Detective was too busy taking a swim in the harbour to concern himself with me, and the Constable took a little unconscious sleep on Church street. But no matter about them, they are weak and can only handle the petty criminals.’
‘You should never have come after me, you should have stayed in Whitby, preferably behind bars.’ Her voice was filled with anger and rose with every word until she was shouting. ‘Now let me go so I can be with my husband; I need to know he is okay.’
‘Your husband?’ I chuckled, not because I found anything amusing, but because I knew it would annoy her further. ‘Your husband will be dead by now. You have nobody left.’
‘No!’ she shouted, and tried to force her way past me. I pushed her back and she fell onto the ground. ‘I will never be alone, not as long as I have my family and friends. You are the one who has nobody and it kills you to see others happy whilst you remain loveless and alone.’
I walked over to her and picked her up from the ground by her hair, pulling her close to me so I could whisper in her ear. ‘You know nothing about me.’ I tried to remain composed but the tension in my voice was clearly visible. ‘You think you know me by what I have done, but I am more than simply what I have done. You know nothing of the things I have seen, the troubles I have been through or even the what I have lost.’
‘You are a monster, and that is all you will ever be known as.’ She again tried to push past me but I held her in place by her shoulders.
‘You claim to know me, but did you ever stop to think where I came from, what I was before I took the lives of Whitby’s women. No, you people only think of yourself. Take my book for example, do you even know why it meant so much to me, why seeing it tossed into the North Sea was so devastating?’ For a second she stopped struggling and looked me dead in the eye, the first time she had properly looked at me tonight.
‘I know the book was signed,’ she said, and I could see it in her face that she was trying to remember, ‘but a lost signed book is surely no reason to kill.’
‘Of course that is what you would see.’ I sighed. ‘Well it has gone now, and since that day I have been planning a way of paying you back for the heartache you have caused me. Thinking about how I can make you feel exactly the same way as you made me feel. It took a while to finally decide what to do, and then the idea simply walked past me in the Square.’ Her eyes bulged in horror, I couldn’t tell if she had figured it out already or was simply preparing herself for the worse.
‘What have you done?’
I laughed, entertained by her suffering tone.
‘I had originally thought that killing you would be punishment enough, but then that is not really suffering if the act is over quite quickly. Dead and the pain dies with you. I knew to really make you suffer I had to take from you what you took from me. Something you loved.’
‘What have you done?’ she said, the anger in her tone rising more and more. I couldn’t hide the smirk forming across my face. Seeing her like that was even more stimulating to me than I had anticipated.
‘I recall you telling me that you had never read Dracula by Bram Stoker; it really is a good book. I’d lend it to you, but…well, you know’
‘Stop changing the subject and tell me what you have done.’
‘You know Dracula is a wealthy business man, he also happens to be a vampire.’ I continued, speaking slowly and calmly as this seemed to infuriate her more. ‘He has such a remarkable power to force people to do as he desires of them and the authority to get the respect he justly deserves. For those reasons alone I truly idolise him, to have that aura and sway towards others makes you untouchable. However Dracula does have the thirst for blood and although clearly not a vampire myself I can relate to the thirst once you have tasted it first-hand. I never thought I would, but it has a strange addiction to it that can only be described as a thirst. The fresher the better, you see fresh blood is still warm.’
‘I don’t understand the point of your story.’ Her voice was now much quieter than before, with a sense of tiredness and defeat coming from it.
‘In the book, Dracula arrives in Whitby, it sounded a pleasant place, hence my own moving there. Anyway, in the book Dracula’s first victim is a beautiful woman, who he finds very attractive. Her name was Lucy.’ Victoria gasped and took a step away from me.
‘Where is my sister?’ I smirked, too amused by her pathetic nature.
‘I have been spending quite a bit of time with your sister. Her late arrivals home smelling of alcohol, many of those time I was with her. She liked to tell me about herself, in fact, that’s all she cared to talk about. Occasionally, she would talk about you and Albert, but not very often, I soon learned that all she really cared about was herself.’
‘Tell me what you have done with my sister?’ Victoria’s temper was again rising.
‘You are certainly the sister with the intelligence. I cannot imagine you getting drunk in a dirty tavern full of men. I’m surprised she made it home each time. Although I was there occasionally to assist her.’
‘You’re lying. Did you trick her into feeling sorry for you like you did me?’ Her comment infuriated me and I lashed out, slapping her hard across the face; she stumbled back another step.
‘I ensured she returned to your house that night the case was on the doorstep, I escorted her back myself. I even spoke with her two days later when she was fully rested to ensure she was okay. She had told me already her plans to return south, but it was not until she decided to return on Sunday evening that I was polite enough to offer to take her home myself.’ Victoria didn’t respond but her eyes widened as I continued. ‘I was concerned you might recognise me driving the carriage so I parked the horses two doors away just in case.’ I could see tears beginning to form in Victoria’s eyes, her lips began to quiver.
‘So this is your plan. To kill my sister and husband so I am left empty and alone?’
‘Ingenious really, don’t you think?’ She bega
n to weep, a defeated look washed over her face. ‘I predict the police will already be searching for me, after all whether Albert is dead or not they will be looking for the person responsible.’ I took out the pistol and raised it at Victoria. ‘Now hold still, I will make this instant so you do not feel it. I will rid you of the pain and misery and make all your suffering come to an end.’
‘No, wait.’ She wiped away the tears falling down her cheek, and held her hands in front of her in surrender. ‘Please don’t kill me, I am with child.’ For a moment I paused, could she be just saying that to fool me into letting her go. ‘I’m not lying. It is the truth so help me god. I also think it could be yours.’
Chapter 26
Victoria
‘How can that be?’ he said, lowering the pistol.
‘I was told last week by the doctor. He said I was just over three months, which puts it around the time I was in Whitby.’
‘That does not mean anything,’ he hissed with anger.
‘The night I woke up in your bed, after you carried me away unconscious, I think you were not a true gentleman that evening as you would like me to believe.’
‘How dare you? I was nothing but gracious to you. I took you in so that you didn’t lay unconscious in the freezing street. You are making it up; I don’t believe you are even pregnant.’
He raised the pistol again and walked towards me. I found myself backing away as close to the water’s edge as I could manage. The small jetty had a slight wall around it, no higher than my knee, and as I felt it against the back of my legs I knew I had nowhere else to go.
‘Wait, please don’t do this.’ My voice was now shaking and my legs began to tremble. He approached me and stood so close to me I could feel his breath against my face. With his right hand still holding the pistol, he placed his other firmly onto my belly, and looked me dead in the eyes. For a moment we were both motionless, I knew he was trying to decide if I was telling the truth or not, but how else was I supposed to convince him.
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