Page 45 of Secrets in the Dark
But now...
He was grateful that he didn’t have to be alone with the man.
He’d want to strangle him with his bare hands.
And they didn’t even know how much blood might be on the man’s hands, just how many victims the man might have claimed.
But that would come.
He’d be questioned. And questioned. In a room where others could observe, and someone would stop Mason if he went after the man’s throat.
Eight
Gary Hudson did not accept being in custody easily.
Edmund had been at the station as Della and Mason arrived—in a separate police car from that which had escorted Gary Hudson. Held in an interrogation room, Hudson spent his first minutes pacing the room and banging on the one-way mirror.
Sean arrived while they watched Hudson, listening as he raged about being abused by the police—and how he had been viciously attacked by a sick and perverted woman who was now falsely accusing him. She wasn’t even a Brit!
He went on and on and on.
“You attacked him?” Edmund asked Della, curiously amused.
“I elbowed him,” she admitted. “Pretty hard. Okay, and when he backed up a bit, I did give him a pretty good kick. I really didn’t want him coming back at me again.”
“Had something to do with the knife at her back,” Mason explained.
“We saw him watching us at Manor Park Cemetery where the Ripper’s second victim, Annie Chapman, is buried. When we went to find him—” Mason began.
“He found me first,” Della said, “to my great embarrassment. Slipped up behind me and set his knife against my ribs and told me that, desperate to save my life, I would do what he commanded me to do. Thankfully, Mason came around right when I didattackhim, elbowing him so hard it sent him back a foot so that I could give him a kick. Then, he finally dropped the knife. Oh, he didn’t want to kill me in the cemetery because he knew that Mason was walking around somewhere. He did say something true—victims obey a kidnapper because they cling to every moment of life, hoping that someone will come to their rescue or that they’ll find a way to escape.”
“Except he had no idea just who he was attempting to kidnap,” Mason said. “And while I thought the man might just be a misogynistic jerk, Della knew from the beginning that his hatred of women might lie a lot deeper.”
“You had questioned him?” Sean asked.
“He was at the pub, but not on duty yet. We suspected that since a figure resembling one of Jesse Miller’s possible disguises had been seen at City Cemetery, the murderer might be looking at Manor Cemetery, too, visiting the grave of the Ripper’s second victim,” Della explained.
They glanced through the window. Greg Hudson was still ranting about being attacked and railroaded by an American woman. She couldn’t get her job done, so she attacked him, trying to do anything to look like she was halfway competent. Because, of course, a woman can’t possibly be a reliable agent.
“Do you think that he’s our Ripper killer?” Edmund asked. He winced. “Of course, he discovered the body during the vampire killings and we interviewed him immediately after. But...well, he pulled the wool over my eyes. He appeared to be so sincerely distraught. I can show you the tape of that interview. He managed something close to tears—he’d been so horrified to realize that she wasn’t sleeping, she was dead.”
“We’ve all interviewed a suspect and not seen what was lying beneath,” Mason assured him. “The question is, who do we send in now?”
“You are a team player, huh?” Edmund said.
Della lowered her head, smiling. Edmund had expected Mason to take the lead as apparent “head” of their specialized international unit. But Mason had no desire for the spotlight, which made him a great leader. He listened to others and gained from their insight and experience.
“Edmund, you met him first, if you want to go in. I’ll join you in a few minutes, maybe get him aggravated, and then we’ll hopefully get him to say something that gives us a clue as to his involvement in the first murder and perhaps others,” Mason said. He hesitated. “I don’t know why—gut reaction, or logic, not sure which—I don’t think that he’s the Ripper killer. The vampire killings were all abetted by Stephan Dante, whether at the scene or through his instructions and descriptions. These new killings are organized, well thought out, even studied. I do think Gary Hudson is guilty of something and that he might well have been one of Stephan Dante’s disciples. He might well have killed one or all three of the vampire victims in London, and he might well know about any other followers Dante trained.”
He paused, frowning, excused himself and looked at his phone.
“Carter,” he said.
He listened, and then looked at the others again. “That was Jeanne. He knows that we have Hudson here, but he suggested we let him stew a little—we might want to meet him at the medical examiner’s office. I think I have a working grasp of English law, but—”
“I have suggested legal counsel, I’ve gone through all the formal steps. And, yes, we can hold him for twenty-four hours before charging him,” Edmund said. “Sean and I already went through the evidence on the previous cases and we’re ready to try to put it all together at some point, but here’s my suggestion—Sean and I will observe Gary Hudson as hestews, while you and Della meet up with Jeanne and François. In fact, I think it’s a good idea.”
“We need to let him think that we consider other things more important than him,” Della said. “Ego is everything to this man. Dante would be the Vampire King—he wants to be a king, too.”
