“They seem to be celebrating it,” she said. “They’re smiling and running to buy the newspapers. My God, how can people celebrate such a thing?”
“It’s interesting,” Will said, with a dark grin. “Danger is appealing. Especially to those with nothing to lose.”
“It’s going to be madness down there,” Gabriel said.
Indeed, crowds had already gathered all along the road to Dorset Street. The residents were all out watching the police. The police were attempting to hold people back from a small, dark doorway halfway up the road.
“There,” Gabriel said. “Miller’s Court. We won’t be able to get near it unless you can get in, Tessa. There’s a detective down there called Abberline from Scotland Yard. If we can get him over here, or one of the constables working inside the room . . .”
“I’ll get one of them,” Will said, breaking through the crowd.
He returned a few minutes later with a man of middling age, with a kindly appearance. He did appear to be very busy, and his forehead was creased with consternation. Whatever Will had told him, it was enough to lure him away from the place of the crime.
“Where is it?” he said, following Will. “You’re quite sure . . .”
“Quite sure.”
It was hard to keep people from following them, so Cecily, Tessa, and Gabriel had to block the way while Will led the inspector down an alley. He whistled a few moments later. He was standing in the doorway of a cheap rented room.
“In here,” Will said. The inspector was in the corner, looking quite asleep. His clothes were missing. “He’ll be fine, but he’ll likely wake up soon. Put these on.”
While Tessa took the clothes and changed herself into the form of Abberline, Will filled her in on a few more facts he had gotten from people in the street. Mary Kelly was probably last seen at two thirty in the morning, but one person claimed to have seen her as late as eight thirty. No matter what, whatever had killed her had probably long since vanished.
Once Tessa was ready, Will helped her push her way back through the crowd, down Dorset Street, to the small entryway that was Miller’s Court. Tessa stepped through the dark passageway into a very small courtyard, barely wide enough to turn around in. There were several houses here, cheaply whitewashed. Dozens of faces peered at her from dirty, broken windows.
Room thirteen was barely a room—it was clearly part of a larger space in which a cheap partition had been constructed. It was mostly empty, containing only a few pieces of broken furniture. It was very, very hot, as if a fire had blazed all night.
In all her time fighting demons, Tessa had never seen anything like this.
There was blood.
It was in such a large amount that Tessa wondered how one small body could contain so much. It had turned part of the floor black, and the bed, on which the woman rested, was utterly stained. There was no other color. As for the woman herself—she was no more. Her body was destroyed in a way that could barely be comprehended. This had taken time. Her face—there was nothing much left to speak of. Many parts of her were removed. They could be seen in many places, around her on the bed. Some parts of her were on a table.
A man was leaning over her. There was a doctor’s bag on the floor, so Tessa steadied herself and then spoke.
“Well, doctor?”
The doctor turned.
“I think we’ll have to move her soon. They’re trying to break in. We’ll have to move her carefully.”
“Summarize for me the general situation. I need a concise report.”
The doctor stood and wiped his bloodstained hands on his trousers.
“Well, a very deep cut across the throat. The head is nearly off. You can see the nose is gone, much of the skin. There are so many slashes and incisions in the abdomen I barely know where to start. The abdominal cavity is empty and her hands have been placed inside the opening. You can see he’s left some of the contents here in this room, but some are missing. The heart is gone. The skin on the table I believe to be from the thighs . . .”
Tessa could not really take in much more of the information. This was enough.
“I see,” she said. “There’s someone I have to speak to.”
“Make the arrangements for her to be moved,” the doctor said. “We can’t keep her here. They’re going to get in. They want to see.”
“Constable,” Tessa said to a policeman by the door, “see to it that a cart is brought.”
Tessa walked away quickly, back down through the crowd, breathing in as deeply as she could to get the smell of blood and entrails out of her nose. She felt a queasiness she had not experienced since her pregnancies. Will took one look at her and embraced her. Cecily came forward and put smelling salts under her nose. They had learned that smelling salts were necessary.
“Bring out the detective,” Tessa said, when she had recovered. “He’s needed.”
The inspector was retrieved and dressed. The smelling salts were applied, and he slowly came around. Once they had him on his feet and assured him that he had simply fainted, they left the area quickly and walked toward White’s Row.
“Whatever it was,” Gabriel said, “it’s likely long gone. It happened hours ago. By having the body indoors, it went unnoticed for some time.”
He took out his Sensor, but it showed no activity.
“I suggest we return to the Institute,” he said. “We’ve learned what we can here. It’s time to apply ourselves to the problem in a different way. We have to look at the clues it leaves behind.”
“The people,” Tessa said.
“The people,” Gabriel corrected himself.
*
They were more awake now. Tessa wondered if she would ever sleep again. She found the transition from East to West London more repugnant this time—the clean buildings, the space, the trees, the parks, the lovely carriages, and the lovely clothes and shops. And just a mile or so away . . .
“What is done cannot be undone,” Will said, taking her hand.
“You didn’t see her.”