S. J. Bolton - Now You See Me

About the Book

Despite her life-long fascination with the infamous Jack the Ripper, young London policewoman Lacey Flint has never worked a murder case or seen a corpse up close. Until now

As she arrives at her car one evening, Lacey is horrified to find a woman slumped over the door. She has been brutally stabbed, and dies in Laceys arms.

Thrown headlong into her first murder hunt, Lacey will stop at nothing to find this savage killer.

But when Lacey receives a familiar letter, written in blood, pre-fixed Dear Boss, and hand-delivered, it is clear that a Ripper copycat is at large. And one who is fixated on Lacey herself.

Can this inexperienced detective outwit a killer whose role model has never been found?

Contents

For Andrew, who reads my books first; and for Hal, who cant wait to get started.

Prologue

Eleven years ago

LEAVES, MUD AND GRASS DEADEN SOUND. EVEN SCREAMS. The girl knows this. Any sound she might make cant possibly travel the quarter-mile to the car headlights and streetlamps, to the illuminated windows of tall buildings that she can see beyond the wall. The nearby city isnt going to help her and screaming will just burn up energy she cant spare .

Shes alone. A moment ago she wasnt .

Cathy, she says. Cathy, this isnt funny .

Difficult to imagine anything less funny. So why is someone giggling? Then another sound. A grinding, scraping noise .

She could run. The bridge isnt far. She might make it .

If she runs, she leaves Cathy behind .

A breeze stirs the leaves of the tree shes standing beside and she finds she cant stop shaking. She dressed, a few hours ago, for a hot pub and a heated bus-ride home, not this open space at midnight. Knowing that any second now she may have to run, she lifts first one foot and then the other and takes off her shoes .

Ive had enough now, she says, in a voice that doesnt sound like her own. She steps forward, away from the tree, a little closer to the great slab of rock lying ahead of her on the grass. Cathy, she says, where are you?

Only the scraping answers back .

The stones look taller at night. Not just bigger, but blacker and older . Yet the circle they make seems to have shrunk. She has a sense of those just out of her line of sight slipping closer, playing grandmothers footsteps; that if she spins round now, there theyll be, close enough to touch .

Unthinkable not to turn with an idea like that in her head; not to whimper when a dark shape plainly is moving closer. One of the tall stones has split in two like a splinter of rock breaking away from a cliff. The splinter stands free and steps forward .

She runs then, but not for long. Another black shape is blocking her path, cutting off her route to the bridge. She turns. Another. And another. Dark figures make their way towards her. Impossible to run. Useless to scream. All she can do is turn on the spot, like a rat caught in a trap. They take hold of her and drag her towards the great, flat rock and one thing, at least, becomes clear .

The sound she can hear is that of a blade being sharpened against stone .

Part One

Polly

The brutality of the murder is beyond conception and beyond description.

Star , 31 August 1888

Friday 31 August

A DEAD WOMAN WAS LEANING AGAINST MY CAR.

Somehow managing to stand upright, arms outstretched, fingers grasping the rim of the passenger door, a dead woman was spewing blood over the cars paintwork, each spatter overlaying the last as the pattern began to resemble a spiders web.

A second later she turned and her eyes met mine. Dead eyes. A savage wound across her throat gaped open; her abdomen was a mass of scarlet. She reached out; I couldnt move. She was clutching me, strong for a dead woman.

I know, I know, she was on her feet, still moving, but it was impossible to look into those eyes and think of her as anything other than dead. Technically, the body might be clinging on, the weakening heart still beating, she had a little control over her muscles. Technicalities, all of them. Those eyes knew the game was up.

Suddenly I was hot. Before the sun went down, it had been a warm evening, the sort when Londons buildings and pavements cling to the heat of the day, hitting you with a wave of hot air when you venture outside. This was something new, though, this pumping, sticky warmth. This heat had nothing to do with the weather.

I hadnt seen the knife. But I could feel the handle of it now, pressing against me. She was holding me so tightly, was pushing the blade further into her own body.

No, dont do that .

I tried to hold her away, just enough to take the pressure off the knife. She coughed, except the cough came from the wound on her throat, not her mouth. Something splashed over my face and then the world turned around us.

Wed fallen. She sank to the ground and I went with her, hitting the tarmac hard and jarring my shoulder. Now she was lying flat on the pavement, staring up at the sky, and I was kneeling over her. Her chest was still moving just.

Theres still time, I told myself, knowing there wasnt. I needed help. None to be had. The small car park was deserted. Tall buildings of six- and eight-storey blocks of flats surrounded us and, for a second, I caught a movement on one of the balconies. Then nothing. The twilight was deepening by the second.

Shed been attacked moments ago. Whoever had done it would be close.

I was reaching for my radio, patting pockets, not finding it, and all the while watching the womans eyes. My bag had fallen a few feet away. I fumbled inside and found my mobile, summoning police and ambulance to the car park outside Victoria House on the Brendon Estate in Kennington. When I ended the call, I realized shed taken hold of my hand.

A dead woman was holding my hand, and it was almost beyond me to look into those eyes and see them trying to focus on mine. I had to talk to her, keep her conscious. I couldnt listen to the voice in my head telling me it was over.

Its OK, I was saying. Its OK.

The situation was clearly a very long way from OK.

Helps coming, I said, knowing she was beyond help. Everythings going to be fine.

We lie to dying people, I realized that evening, just as the first sirens sounded in the distance.

Can you hear them? People are coming. Just hold on. Both her hand and mine were sticky with blood. The metal strap of her watch pressed into me. Come on, stay with me. Sirens getting louder. Can you hear them? Theyre almost here.

Footsteps running. I looked up to see flashing blue lights reflected in several windows. A patrol car had pulled up next to my Golf and a uniformed constable was jogging towards us, speaking into his radio. He reached us and crouched down.

Hold on now, I said. People are here, well take care of you.

The constable had a hand on my shoulder. Take it easy, he was saying, just as Id done seconds earlier, only he was saying it to me. Theres an ambulance on its way. Just take it easy.

The officer was in his mid forties, heavy set, with thinning grey hair. I thought perhaps Id seen him before.

Can you tell me where youre hurt? he asked.

I turned back to the dead woman. Really dead now.

Love, can you talk to me? Can you tell me your name? Tell me where youre injured?

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