Jack the Ripper kills again
On Monday night Whitechapel was full of policemen, all ready to catch Jack the Ripper. Nothing happened. Only Lestrade enjoyed this.
'You have failed, Mr Holmes,' he said. 'Your idea was very clever, but you made one mistake. You forgot to tell the murderer about it!'
Holmes and I took a cab back to Baker Street. We were both too tired to talk then, but later that day I said, 'Holmes, what did happen? What went wrong?'
'We did not really fail. Moriarty could not kill anyone because we were there. But 1 badly wanted to catch him at his work, and there I failed.'
'He was there, then?'
'He was there. He saw what I had done, and realized that he could not kill a woman that night.'
'Then you did not fail! We have beaten him.' Holmes shook his head slowly. 'No, Watson. We have not beaten him yet. Think how angry he must be! I have stopped him once, and now he will try harder to kill me. He will go on with his planned murders, and he will do everything possible to make sure that he succeeds.'
'But Holmes, how do we ... ?'
'Remember, he kills, waits a week, kills again and then waits three weeks. So he will kill again next weekend. 1 must talk to Lestrade. But tonight, Watson, we shall amuse ourselves at the theatre.'
He would say no more, but that night, while we were at the theatre, he disappeared from my side without a word. 1 did not even see him leave, and for several days I neither saw him nor heard from him. Then, at dinner time on the night when we had hoped to
catch Jack the Ripper at his work, he suddenly appeared again in Baker Street.
'Holmes!' I cried. 'Where have you been?'
'Don't worry, old fellow.' He sat down by the fire. 'I have been keeping Moriarty busy and playing games with him. He has chased me all over the country, but, as you see, I am still alive. I shall tell you my adventures some other time. Lestrade will be here in a minute to discuss tonight's plan.'
When Lestrade arrived, he did not seem at all pleased to see us.
'So, another of your clever little plans, Mr Holmes,' he said coldly. 'Do you really think we shall see the killer tonight?' 'He will be at work tonight,' Holmes replied. 'The only question is, shall we be ready for him? I suppose you have done everything that I ordered you to do?'
'We are ready for him.'
'Then let us go. We must not keep Jack the Ripper waiting.' It was a cold, windy night, and we were grateful for our thick coats as we sat in the cab. It took us to the big police station in Commercial Street. Hundreds of policemen were waiting there to begin the night's work. Holmes and I sat down to wait, too.
After some time I said to Holmes, 'This waiting is terrible. 1 wish we could do something.'
'We can,' he replied.
'When a crime is reported. Until then we can only wait. The murderer could be anywhere out there.'
Holmes picked up a piece of paper and a pencil. 'He could.
But I think I know where he is. Look at this.' This is what he showed me:
'The letters E, S, C and N are Eddowes, Stride, Chapman and Nicholl, the last four women he has
murdered,' Holmes said. 'The diagram shows the place where each died.'
'And X, I suppose, is some unknown woman, the one that he plans to kill tonight,' I said. 'But how do you know where to put the X on your diagram?'