‘No, Watson,’ Holmes said. ‘It is not clear. Someone like Moriarty does not break locks and climb through windows himself. He gave orders to others. He was the commander-in-chief of the criminal world, not a foot-soldier.’
‘Then why . . . I mean, how . . .?’
‘Success is too easy for him. He needs change and danger as others need drugs. He was the best at mathematics, then the best at crime. Now he has chosen murder.’
‘Do you mean that he kills just to amuse himself?’ I asked.
‘Yes. He enjoys the danger. But there is another reason. He wishes for a battle with me — the most successful criminal against the most successful detective. It will be a fight to the death.’
‘Then these women that he kills . . .’
‘They mean nothing to him. He just uses them because they are necessary to his plan?’
‘His plan?’
‘Yes. I have said that he kills because he is bored and because he wishes for fight to the death with me. There is a third reason. He wishes to destroy the world we know.’
‘He is mad!’
‘No. He is not mad. He is evil itself. He wants to bring fear into our lives, to make everyone in London afraid to go out at night, afraid of every sound and shadow. London will become a city of strangers, seeing danger in every neighbour. How can people live like that?’
He was silent for a moment. Then he said, ‘I alone can stop him. And stop him I shall.’
Several days later, Inspector Lestrade called to see us again.
‘Are you ready to arrest the Whitechapel killer yet?’ Holmes asked him.
‘We are continuing to make all possible . . .’
‘Enough, Lestradde! Have you caught him yet?’
‘In a difficult case like this . . .’
‘Yes or no?’
‘No,’ Lestrade said, ‘but we hope . . .’
‘Of course we hope. We must always hope. But the people of London will not wait for ever for the police to arrest Jack the Ripper. Do you think you could enjoy life as a policeman in Canada, Lestrade?’
Lestrade tried to smile. He said, ‘I believe we shall only catch him if we have the luck to find him while he is actually murdering some poor woman.’
He looked surprised when Holmes said, ‘That is the first sensible thing I have heard any policeman say about these murders. We must catch him red-handed. A drink, Inspector?’
‘Yes,please, Mr Holmes said coolly. ‘Let us look at the dates of the murders. He kills, waits a week, kills again and waits three weeks before the next murder. This changes only when he has, as he tells us, ‘no time to trip’, and has to kill twice on the same Lestrade, this is no crazy killer. This is a man who is following a plan. He works only in Whitechapel, and in the early hours of the morning.’
Lestrade looked helplessly at him. ‘What shall we do?’ he asked.
Holmes jumped to his feet. ‘I think he will try to kill again on Monday night. The first murders were on a Friday, a Saturday and a Sunday. He moves a day forward each time. We must close up Whitechapel like a box which he cannot escape from. We shall need every policeman you have.’