Page 49 of Secrets in the Dark
Della sat in the free chair next to Edmund and leaned across the table, close to Hudson. “No, Mr. Hudson, you attacked me. And I fought back. And you’re such a sorry excuse for a man that one elbow and one swift kick sent you flying. Then again... Well, you’ve never had any kind of normal understanding of reality, have you? And all women are enemies. After all, your father had to be the biggest dickhead known to man, your mother killed him, and neither of them was a shining example of how to live, but, apparently, you’ve just decided you hate women and Dante gave you everything that you need to vent all that awful frustration you’ve had through life!”
For several seconds, Hudson stared at Della, his eyes burning, his hatred creating an almost palpable tension in the air.
The he rose to his feet in his rage, lunging toward Della.
Nine
Gary Hudson did little but hurt himself since a table sat between him and Della, and while she remained still, Mason and Edmund were up in a flash, walking around and catching the man by either arm. Heedless of being held back, he went into a frothing rage at her, screaming.
Mason and Edmund caught him by the shoulders, forcing him to remain still even as he continued spewing his venom, so angry he was garbling his words until he ran out of steam.
So angry that there was froth at his mouth.
Once he was seated, Edmund handed him a handkerchief—assuring him that it needn’t be returned as he did so.
Despite his show of fury, a glance from Mason assured Della that she needed to keep pressing while they had him in such an angry state.
“Seriously, pathetic!” Della said. “I do mean a sorry excuse for a man.”
She was dismissive and casual.
And she managed to truly ignite something dark within him.
He was calmer, no longer foaming—but still furious.
“Oh, you go ahead and talk, you bitch! You need to have two men protecting you now as you sit there, thinking you know me. Protected and acting like you’re all tough. I would have had you! I could have had you a dozen times. Sorry excuse for a man? You tell it to that pretty girl I left on the bank of the Thames! You tell her because she loved me and wanted me right up to the minute she looked into my eyes and knew that she was going to die!”
“We’ve got him,” Edmund said, shoving the man back in his chair. It took another moment for Mason to release him.
When he did, he spoke dryly, “He’s all hot air, Edmund. He didn’t kill anyone. He gets beat up by a woman, and now he thinks he needs to prove his manhood or something.”
“Stupid, stupid Yank!” Hudson was all but frothing again. “I didn’t kill just one. I got two of them. I like to be international, too, just like you. The first girl. Her name was Colleen something. She was an American tourist, so silly and ridiculously in love with a man with a British accent, a bloke who was going to show her all around London. She was a pathetic slut, so eager! So easy to drug. And the media, of course, went crazy! It was so wonderful. Then, of course, I didn’t want anyone to assume it was someone with a thing for American tourists, so I had to go for a British lass. Poor, poor baby! She had been having a rough time getting over a romance and she eagerly accepted a drink from an understanding man, a good-looking bloke—”
“Good-looking?” Della interrupted. “Passable, maybe.”
“Cunt!” Hudson raged.
She shrugged and he went on, determined that she realize his prowess.
“She was the pathetic one, I’m telling you! I might have done her a mercy. But women are...universally stupid and wretched! I practically spiked her gin and tonic right before her eyes. Their names aren’t even important, not to me, but I do remember her name, given and surname—she was Isabelle Ainsley. The headlines on that kill were exceptionally wonderful! Oh, I was so damned good and it was so easy, you would have laughed! Easy to get her away, easy to get her back. There was no one about and I was able toleadher from the street, dead as the proverbial doornail! I had time and I wrote on the embankmentDracula lives! I think Dante was jealous, I did such amazing work.” He paused for a minute and stared hatefully at Della. “Pathetic! You don’t begin to know, but you will. Because you will find yourself the pathetic one in the end! I will not be held. I will be free. And I will prove to you what a man you see before you!”
Della looked at Edmund and shrugged. “I might have a drink with a man like you, but I’d never have one with a fellow like him. And it seems that he must drug a girl to get her to do anything with him. I’m guessing that he drugged Leslie Bracken, too, and even if she was an American, that would be the only way that he could get her to look at him twice.”
Hudson was tense and silent.
“He didn’t kill Leslie Bracken,” Mason said, speaking to her and Edmund. Then he turned on Hudson. “She was killed by the man who now wants to be the Ripper. The one who is stealing all your thunder.”
“He’s not as good as me! He had to find a new thing and he’s a horrible copycat—couldn’t even think something up on his own!” Hudson spat out angrily.
“Who ishe?” Edmund asked.
“Wouldn’t tell you his name if I knew it!” Hudson said.
“I would tell us anything that you could. It might help with your sentence,” Mason said.
Hudson started to laugh. “What, you stupid American? We don’t have the death penalty in England. We’re civilized!”
“Well, you could shave off a few years of incarceration,” Edmund told him.
