The hunt for the Ripper

Captain Jon Alexander and several of his top men walked into the fourteenth precinct of the City Constabulary and made their way to the Chief Inspector's office. Jon knocked on the frame of the door, "George Fredrick?"

A heavyset man looked up from a pile of reports with red-rimmed eyes, "Good morning, I am Chief Inspector Fredrick, how may I help you, gentlemen?"

Captain Alexander walked in and took a seat in front of the Chief Inspector, "This recent murder by the Westside Ripper, it targeted someone close to Lady Connaissance and her close associates. I'd like to have a look at the case and see if we can offer any assistance." He waved back to his men, "I have a few experts here that will be checking to see if any of this is the work of a professional assassination group as well as know techniques employed by foreign nations we have recently been in conflict with, I don't want to step on your toes here or take over your investigation, we'd just like to take a look at what you have and see if there is anything we might find that you haven't seen in the details."

The Chief Inspector nodded and said, "Please, we're ready for any assistance we can get. This murderer has been targeting only women, and his murders have been getting more gruesome with each new case. The last victim, for instance, had her skin removed and several of her internal organs removed. The coroner believes that she was alive through most of it."

Captain Alexander's fist balled up as he heard the details that hadn't been in the newspaper., "Why are you sure these murders are all being committed by the same individual?"

The Chief Inspector rubbed the bridge of his nose, "As you probably know, at this point we are just basing it on a hypothesis. The victims were all of a similar appearance, each was sexually involved with the assailant. The victims were all killed by an extremely sharp weapon, cut, not stabbed mind you. Each victim was killed in an area that was private to them and the crime scene was cleaned up by someone who was meticulous in their planning and execution."

Captain Alexander started to read through the reports the Chief Inspector had been reading and asked, "I recall reading in the newspaper that you believed the Ripper might be a butcher or a doctor, may I ask what that was based upon?"

Chief Inspector Fredrick nodded and said, "One of my men noticed that the blood at the scenes had been cleaned around the victim. The way a doctor or butcher would clean up his cutting area after he finished with his work. Also, the murderer has been removing parts of the victims, we believe that he might be collecting them as trophies." He took off his glasses and cleaned one of the lenses, "The way the pieces have been removed was clean, the way a butcher would cut up an animal or doctor would cut on a cadaver."

"You mentioned that the last victim had been alive as they were cut apart?" The vein on Jon's forehead stood out even as his voice was controlled.

The Chief Inspector nodded, "All of the victims." He sighed and then brought a number of drawings made at the crime scenes, "Oddly we found no signs of struggle as if the victims were aware but unable to fight back. That was another reason for linking the murders to a doctor. Doctors use a number of agents that allow them to complete the surgery with a patient who is awake. Our coroner detected the scent of such an agent, morphine, used at these murders."

Captain Alexander made a face, "How many people would have access to this morphine, here in the city?"

The Chief Inspector nodded, "Mm, the very rabbit hole I first jumped down. It turns out that this morphine is a drug that has become extremely popular in certain circles, the seedier segment of society. It has been brought in through the black market here to the City of Connaissance. We checked with all of the doctors here in the city but they all closely guarded their own supply and had a full accounting of each dose used and on whom."

Captain Alexander sighed, "How many doctors and butchers are there in the city, Chief Inspector?"

"One thousand, two hundred, and six. We have interviewed all of them and they were all able to give a solid alibi backed by witnesses."

Captain Alexander nodded, "If you don't mind, I would like to see that list, there might be someone linked to Lady Connaissance in some way, I'd like to follow such a lead."

Chief Inspector George Fredrick stood up and offered a handshake, "There is an empty office next door to the right, please, take it for your team's use. If you need anything at all, feel free to come to my office. I won't lie to you, I am not making progress and I'll take any help you are willing or able to provide."

*****

"Why are you making poor Edmonds clean this place so thoroughly? The doctor won't even be here until Monday. You're acting like your crush is coming over." Teslaimia rolled her eyes.

Emily pouted and said, "Says you, didn't I catch you staring into the mirror checking to see if you were pretty enough?"

Teslaimia raised her nose and snorted, "Ridiculous, I was just looking to see if a scar would be visible with some of my outfits."

Emily giggled, "I just don't want to be scolded again, he always seems to know when I have been pushing myself too hard."

Teslaimia shook her head, "Dummy, we can all tell. Your eyes get dark rings around them when you stay up too late and are stressed about something."

Emily looked shocked, "Why didn't you ever say anything?! How long? How long have you all been seeing it on my face?"

Teslaimia shook her head, "Why do you think everyone around you works so hard? They see you working like it's going to be the end of the world and kill themselves to keep pace with you. If I didn't interrupt you once in a while, they'd have burned out months ago."

Emily gasped and covered her mouth, "I just thought they loved their jobs."

Teslaimia shook her head, "If I didn't love that naive ignorance of yours I would have strangled you to death months ago."

As they bantered back and forth the doorbell sounded a few moments later Edmonds walked into the living room carrying two exotic flowers. One of the flowers was white with pink accents and the other was pink with white accents. Edmonds cleared his throat, "Your Highness.." He lifted the white flower and said, "A handsome young gentleman dressed in black left this flower for you and said, 'This flower reminded him of your scent and the way you looked as you walked past him." He looked at Teslaimia, "Princess Teslaimia, he then gave me this flower and said to tell you, 'Your beauty reminded him of this flower with its scent slightly more potent than the white flower but strangely pleasing even with its sharp sting."

Emily asked, "Is he still here? Send him in."

Edmonds shook his head, "No Your Highness, he said that it wasn't the time or date for his appointment with you and that he will be here soon."

Emily looked at Tesliamia who asked, "The doctor maybe?" Both women smiled and blushed a little.

Emily cleared her throat, "Thank you, Edmonds, could you place them in a vase with some water?"

Edmonds nodded and went back to his work. Teslaimia giggled and asked, "Do you think he intends to court us both at the same time?"

Emily smirked and said, "I think he probably just brought them over because he wanted to make sure he had our address correct and didn't want to embarrass himself by showing up empty-handed. The florist is on the first floor, remember?"

*****

Jon banged his hand down on the desk, "I have been through this damn list ten times, none of the names are jumping out at me. The only doctor she is seeing is one of us and Edmonds shops for her food so there is no connection there. Maybe Mabel was just an unlucky random victim. Did any of you find a connection to Lady Connaissance through the other women?"

They all shook their heads no. One of the soldiers asked, "Did Mabel look anything like Lady Connaissance? It seems to me based on the descriptions here, all of these women looked similar. Blonde hair, large breasts, slightly on the thin side. Victim three was slightly different I suppose, she was described as having raven hair and tan skin."

Jon was half listening and then he shot up looking at the soldier, "Staughler, say that again? Did she look like Lady Connaissance? No... Not really, but yes her figure and she was a similar kind of beauty just not identical or really that close."

Staughler asked, "Wouldn't victim three's description be what you might say of Princess Teslaimia?" He looked at the other men in the room, "Is this murderer in love with both of them?"

Jon started scouring through the reports, "When do these reports of murder start?"

One of the soldiers said, "If they have found all the bodies? Looks like the first victims started to appear while Lady Connaissance was unconscious." He shifted through some of the reports, " The dates of the murders are spread out pretty far though. Like once a week or sometimes once in two weeks."

Staughler nodded and said, "It's like the guy disappears for weeks at a time and then stops into the city for murder and disappears again."

Jon sighed and said, "There's a clue in here. Let's go give what we found to Chief Inspector Frederick, maybe it's a piece to his puzzle."

*****

Monday late in the evening the doctor stepped off the Duhan Lift on the tenth floor, a pair of guards greeted him, "Right this way doctor, she has been expecting you."

The doctor looked around with an intense gaze, he asked, "Do you stay out here all night?"

One of the guards nodded, "We change out with other guards so none of us has to stay up all night, Lady Connaissance and Princess Teslaimia have round the clock security. It's needed because there have been attempts on their lives already."

The doctor nodded and smiled, "That's good to know." He looked at them and said, "I am going to be removing stitches from the Princess tonight, she might cry out, would you like to have a guard inside during the operation to make sure everything is alright?"

One of the guards smiled and said, "Thank you, doctor, how long do you think you will need?"

He thought for a moment, "It should be done in just a few minutes. I'm going to check up on Lady Connaissance as well, she is still dealing with that head injury. I shouldn't need more than an hour in total inside."

The guard nodded and said, "We'll give the ladies some privacy then, if you're going to need more than an hour, just open the door and let us know, we'll be right outside."

The doctor gave him a smile, "I shouldn't need more time than that even with two of them, I'll make it quick and painless." He pointed at the door, "Do I knock?"