Page 78 of Secrets in the Dark
“To be a useful human being, even if in soul only,” Abigail said.
“And you have a beautiful soul,” Mason assured her.
That brought a smile to her lips and she started to turn away, to begin her nightly walk of the streets, seeking to prevent much of the pain she had witnessed in her lifetime.
But she looked back at them.
“By the way, so you know, I enjoy your charming English detective inspector as well!”
Della laughed. Mason set an arm around her shoulder and they walked on into the house.
When they arrived, Sean was seated on the couch, studying his phone. He rose when they came in.
“I just returned myself. And... Well, I’ll take first watch. I don’t think that I could sleep.”
“It is morning, I think,” Mason said.
“Right. But some of us need to be functioning.” He let out a long breath. “I think that we need to speak more with Rick Fields. I think that I believe he intended no harm to anyone, but who on God’s good earth decided it would be all right to play a prank on someone with a prop knife when this is going on? He must know more about Jesse Miller, where he goes...how he’s existing here, right here, beneath our noses, and getting away.”
“Maybe. We will speak with him after he’s cooled his heels, being held overnight,” Della said. “Will he be charged?”
Sean nodded. “He may face a kidnapping charge. He’s refused legal counsel and is willing to speak to us. Maybe he is innocent of anything but a prank, but sometimes we might be able to lock someone up for sheer stupidity!”
“We’ll see what else he knows,” Della said.
“And here’s something else that frightens me,” Sean said. “He meant Sean to lure Stacey out—then I’m sure he meant to kill her, to up his timeline.”
Sean was so intense. Della lowered her head. Of course, yes. Stacey had been the “Ripper’s” target that night.
And it horrified all of them. But she thought that Sean had a bit of a more personal stake in it. He liked Stacey.
Whether Stacey liked him and whether they’d acted on a mutual attraction or not, she didn’t know. But both were young, industrious professionals, and from all that she’d seen, good people.
Maybe there was something there.
“We reached Stacey in time,” Mason said gently.
“Yes, and we have a policewoman watching her,” Sean said.
Della glanced at Mason and they both knew that Sean would feel better if he was watching her himself.
“Our Ripper wrote a letter. He claimed he’d take a victim. And we stopped him tonight. He’s going to be furious,” Sean said.
“I guess he will be. He’ll look like a fool—his letter is out there, and no one was killed in Whitechapel tonight,” Della said.
“No one that we’ve discovered,” Mason murmured.
“I think we did stop him. But this man is truly an organized psycho. He’s going to be more dangerous than ever,” Sean said.
And that was true.
“Then we must be more vigilant than ever,” Mason said. “Sean, I am awake. I can stay awake—”
“No, I’m fine. François went up quickly—he had just returned when I got here. He’ll be back down in less than an hour. We thought that while it won’t be much sleep, everyone could get a few hours, but we should get back to interrogate Rick Fields before noon.”
“A few hours will be fine,” Della told him.
Sean suddenly grinned. “If you sleep!” he teased, looking at the two of them.
