Come now,' I said. 'Holmes was right. There was a
murder on the night he told us that there would be.'
Lestrade laughed. 'Oh yes. There was a murder all
right. We had hundreds of policemen on the streets,
but we couldn't stop the murder or catch the killer.
The police were everywhere _ except the little corner
of Whitechapel where the girl died.'
He spoke in a low voice as he continued, 'I've never
seen anything like it. It will be days before I can eat
meat again.
You're lucky you didn't see her, doctor. We had to
keep the worst thing of all out of the newspapers, but
I can tell you. The girl was pregnant. He cut her up,
and he cut up the baby, too.'
I felt a cold hand touch me. 'He will kill twice tonight.'
. 'What did you say?'
'Oh, nothing. What are you doing to catch him?'
'What can we do? Nobody heard a scream or saw
anything.' He looked again at the telegram. 'Who is
this "M"?' he asked. 'Oh, he just means the murderer,' I
said.
After Lestrade left, I tried hard to think of some other
way of explaining what I had seen that night. I had
seen Holmes cutting up the body, but I had not seen
him kill the girl. How could my dear friend possibly be
this terrible killer? Perhaps it was all part of some
clever plan that I did not understand.
For some days I thought I had found an answer to
the problem, but then a telegram arrived from
Holmes, who was now in Switzerland. It said, 'M is no
more. Returning Saturday. Holmes.'
Suddenly I realized that I
was afraid of seeing him
again, and my worry
returned, stronger than
ever. Was he the killer or
not? I had to know the
truth - and quickly. To
help me think clearly, I
wrote down what I knew.
Is Sherlock Holmes the
Whitechapel murderer?
The arguments for:
1 He was in Whitechapel on the nights of the
murders, and alone at the right times.
2 When he was out of London or I was with him, there
were no murders.