From Hell (10 page)

“
How do you know it’s one
of us?” George asked. His voice was barely a whisper.

“
Actually, we’re pretty
certain that it’s more than just one person,” Scarlett
said.

George grabbed the bottle at hearing
her words, chugging down another mouthful. His chin drooped toward
his chest when he was done, the bottle hanging from his
fingers.

“
I stumbled across a
suspicious man,” I told him, “but lost him when my associate and I
were attacked by a group of men claiming to represent the
Committee. After we’d picked up his trail again, we found him
hiding in a derelict home.”

“
You captured him?” George
sat upright, nearly losing hold of his brandy.

Scarlett shook her head and pointed at
my coat. “No, he managed to get away after wounding Fra—Mister
Yardlow, here.” She winked at me.

George noticed the blood on my jacket
for the first time. “You’re hurt. Do you need—” He started to get
up.

“
Just a graze. The coat
will need more stitches than I will.” I waved him back into his
seat “Alongside Jack were several men who’d attacked us earlier;
ones claiming to be part of your organization.”

George’s eyes closed. He took another
sip and set the bottle aside, running his hands through his hair as
he stared at the face of his desk. His lower lip quivered, and he
bit down on it. This wasn’t something he wanted to hear.

“
How well do you know
Charles Braun?”

“
Charles?” Lusk looked up
at me, surprise etched across his features. “He’s a good man; a
moral, family man. He wouldn’t condone these murders or the attack
on you. There must be some mistake.” George shook his head in
defiance.

I raised my hands to pacify him. “I’m
not casting blame, just simply eliminating suspects.” Which was
somewhat true. I had no idea who was behind the killings but it
didn’t take a genius to realize that Braun’s men were far more
likely to be behind the attack than Lusk’s followers, planting the
spotlight squarely on Braun, regardless. He might not be directly
connected, but his people sure wanted Scarlett and me out of the
way. That didn’t exactly paint him in a positive light.

“
Is Charles a stocky man?”
Scarlett asked. “Middle-aged; of average height and strong
build?”

George shook his head. “No, no, not
even close. Charles is middle-aged, certainly, but he’s thin as a
raven, with hair as dark as one. Quite tall, as well. He’s stands
above me by half a head.”

Scarlett smiled then, reaching across
the desk to pat George’s trembling hand. “Then it isn’t Charles we
seek, so rest easy.”

George let loose a quiet sigh, his
gaze locked on Scarlett’s pale hand.

“
That settled,” though I
wasn’t really sure it was, “we need your assistance to root out
Jack and his followers.”

“
How do you propose to do
that?”

I smiled. “I’ll tell you.”

Twelve

“
Do you really think this
is going to work?” Scarlett asked.

I shrugged. “Maybe.” It wasn’t like
I’d had a grab bag full of options. The plan was the plan, for
better or worse.

After telling George what I wanted him
to do, I let him in on the latest killing, giving him the location
and just enough details to make sure he was angry that yet another
woman had been murdered under his watch and so he could inform the
police. Believing his people were in on it would light a fire under
his ass and have him hustling to help set the trap convincingly
enough. And while Lusk might trust Braun not to be involved, I
certainly didn’t. But even if he wasn’t, it was clear his people
were somehow.

I’d left out my suspicions of the
murders being ritualistic to keep George from asking too many
questions, but I’d provided him enough information to be sure he’d
spread it around, and quickly. I wanted Braun’s lackeys to know
that it was me who discovered the body, and that I was closing in
on the killer. Wherever Jack was, he and his associates needed to
feel like they were under the gun. I wanted them cagey.

Scarlett and I watched from a
neighboring rooftop as the members of the Vigilance Committee
gathered and filed into the local meeting hall where they always
met. George had passed the news on without hesitation, and his
people were responding just as I’d hoped. With barely sixty
some-odd members to their credit, it would be easy to account for
who wasn’t there, and that was George’s job.

I didn’t figure any of the thugs who’d
attacked us would show up, let alone ol’ Jacky himself, but you can
never be too certain. That’s why we were camped on top of a nearby
roof where we could get a clear view of the only entrance into the
hall. If Jack popped in, we’d take him down on the street. If he
didn’t show his face, well, he would likely pop up soon
enough.

“
I saw someone fitting
Braun’s description go inside, but I don’t recognize any of the men
from the alley or the house,” Scarlett said.

“
Me either.” That fact
made me feel a little better about the plan.

If the thugs couldn’t be bothered to
show up for appearance’s sake, they were more likely to be out
looking for Scarlett and me. And seeing how George had made it
clear we had information that would reveal who the Ripper was, it
was only matter of time until they showed up, whether Braun was
involved or not.

I checked my pistol, making sure it
was loaded and ready to go, and slipped it back into my coat
pocket, my fingers reluctantly releasing it. “Guess it’s time.” The
fun part was just beginning.

Scarlett nodded.

A quick breath steadied my nerves as I
crossed the rooftop and jumped to the building beside it and made
my way down several blocks of rooftops before I stopped above a
battered tenement building. I surveilled the nearby area to make
sure I was alone, and then hopped over to the one story apartment
we’d rented after leaving George’s in the morning. We’d prepared a
quick entryway in the roof, allowing me to slip inside without
being noticed, the only door to the apartment at the back of the
dark alley separating it from the building next door. With all the
windows boarded up, the door was the only apparent
entrance.

Once inside, I pulled the roof panel
shut and bolted it down. The darkness settled over me.

Dust wafted up as I moved about the
small room, settling atop the shallow pool of liquid that puddled
near the door as I examined the last minute preparations I’d made.
Scarlett had provided cover while I hauled in pieces of wood and
metal to provide some miniscule measure of cover once shit went
down. I’d erected a couple of makeshift walls that I could duck
behind, since I was certain Jack would bring his gun. His pals
would probably have a couple, as well. And while I could handle
being shot once or twice, more than that would slow me down too
much. The last thing I needed was Jack adding me to his list of
victims. That would just be embarrassing.

With as much confidence as I could
muster, I stood in the middle of the room and waited, hand buried
in my pocket, fingers massaging the pistol grip. I figured Jack
would wait until George’s emergency meeting started before trying
anything. He wouldn’t want to the Committee to see him taking me
out, so it made sense to would wait until they were busy. And
seeing how Lusk told folks I had a description of the Ripper but
wasn’t ready to divulge it to anyone just yet, not even George,
Jack would be desperate to make sure I never did. I just hoped Lusk
had been as subtle as I coached him to be. If Jack thought I was
luring him into a trap, my little surprise could come to a horrible
conclusion.

My heart thumped loudly in my chest as
I stood there wondering what the hell I was doing. I’d planned for
a quick escape if things went bad, but I just couldn’t get
comfortable being the bait. It wasn’t a good feeling.

I glanced up at the roof panel and
contemplated climbing out and surprising Jack outside, but I knew
that was a mistake. Out on the streets, there was plenty of room to
run and hide and disappear. Inside the tiny apartment, there was
nowhere for him to go. We might exchange gunfire, but I was betting
I could take more bullets than he could. The odds were in my favor
inside, I kept telling myself. The nagging voice of reason,
however, reminded me they weren’t good, no matter how I fudged the
numbers.

A quiet
creak
at the front
snapped my attention back to reality. Someone was leaning against
the door, listening. I held my breath and eased my revolver out.
Things were about to get real hectic.

Then there was an odd
scratching noise outside, as if a cat were clawing at the door to
get in. It went on for a minute or so, a slow, methodical scrape. I
couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the hell it was. If
Jack was trying to kill me with suspense, he was doing a damn good
job of it. The
scritching
sound deepened for an instant, and then I felt
the cold draft of magic tingle against my senses, a phantom itch
that prickled the hairs on my arms. I recognized the feeling
immediately. Jack had cast a ward on the apartment.

I drew a deep breath as
the reality of what he’d done sunk in. Unlike the silencing sigil
he’d set in the wall at the murder scene, this ward was aimed
outward, so to speak. I could hear my pulse thrumming through my
ears and the creak of my knuckles on the Webley, the quiet shuffle
of feet outside, but I’d been sealed inside the magical barrier.
Anything that happened in the apartment would be blocked from the
ears of anyone on the other side of the wall. Jack had cut me off
from the world with an apprentice level spell, and I hadn’t even
given it a thought. I sighed. Uncle Lou would be
so
proud of me. My only
thought was to survive long enough to lie to the old man. Jack
didn’t give me time for anything else.

Unlocked, the copper knob turned with
the barest of sounds, and then the door was flung open, slamming
into the wall. The stomp of boots resounded heavily as five men
stormed inside, and I could see the shadows of several more
lingering outside. Jack might to realize he was walking into a
trap, but he was ready, regardless.

My eyes shifted from the door to the
men in front of me. I recognized several of them from our encounter
in the alley. An instant later, I was staring down the dark barrels
of a handful of pistols, a serenade of hammers being cocked back in
unison.

“
Evening, gentlemen.” Only
fifteen feet from the impromptu firing squad, I questioned just how
fast I could dive behind my ramshackle barricades before I got my
balls shot off.
Reason
laughed its ass off in the back of my brainpan.

None of the men so much as batted an
eyelid at my greeting. They stood without moving, guns pointed my
direction without saying a word. Their faces were screwed up into
forced sneers, and their hands quivered behind the triggers. I met
them with a smile. For all their willingness to beat a man down in
a dark alley, none seemed very comfortable behind their pistols.
These men weren’t murderers by nature. They were here because
they’d been made to come here.

“
Where’s Jack?”

A quiet chuckle answered my question.
Jack sauntered into the room, easing the door shut at his back,
sealing his rear guard outside. His pistol hung at his side in a
casual grip. Unlike his partners, there was no stiffness in how he
held it. The gun was an extension of his massive arm. Jack was a
killer, through and through.

He stared at me through narrow, dark
eyes, his gray bowler set high on his head. He was every bit as
large as I remembered, his thick chest rising and falling with an
easy cadence. His face was neatly shaven and his clothes
immaculate, something I hadn’t noticed the last two times I’d seen
him. Despite that, there was no hiding the pugilist beneath all the
civilized decorum.

“
Nice to know you’re as
stupid as you look,” I told him. Baalth’s advice about keeping my
mouth shut echoed in my head, but I pushed it aside and smiled.
Sometimes you just needed to tempt the bull. I just hoped I didn’t
get the horns all up in my squirrely bits.

“
And this is from the man
who trapped himself with no way out except through us. You think
your girly can get through my men?” He shook his head. “I’ll add
her to my collection before the night’s out, be sure of that,
mate.” Jack grinned as he stepped toward, easing between his men
whose guns never faltered. He added his to the array. “You should
have minded your own business. Now you’re going to be just one more
mutilated body for the police to scrape up. I wonder if you’ve a
cunt to cut out so I can leave it dripping on the doorstep.” Jack
laughed, baring his teeth.

I met his cold eyes. He knew I’d set
him up, but he had no clue who I was or what I was capable of.
Better still, he didn’t have the slightest idea about Scarlett. She
was just a pretty face he wanted to carve up. I’d like to see him
try.

“
Actually, I’m sure
my
girly
can do
exactly that.” I only hoped Scarlett wasn’t waiting on the sound of
gunfire before she decided to make an appearance.