Page 10 of Secrets in the Dark
He stared at her, frowning for a minute.
“Oh, come on! You do see news here,” she told him.
Dante leaned back, smiling again as he shrugged. “Good old Jack is back. He’ll never be as talented as me. But...he’ll have his fun! And letters to the newspapers! Just like the original.”
“Well, according to most profilers, detectives, psychiatrists and historians through the years, every one of the letters was a hoax.”
“Not true! He sent a piece of a victim’s kidney to some dude with a letter!”
“Right. But forensics at the time couldn’t even prove if it was human—or animal.”
“A human is an animal.”
“A human or a different animal. Anyway, I guess your friend who would be king of the Rippers didn’t study all the files on the case. But, hey, whatever.”
He leaned forward. “But no one knows for sure, do they? There are still several suspects that scholars argue over. Maybe the kidney was human and maybe the letter was written by Jack the Ripper. Since the world is going on theory, so can the king of the Rippers!”
“All right, so...one of your followersdoeshave his sights on becoming the next Jack the Ripper,” Della said.
“Maybe.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
She stood to leave again.
“You can’t go yet!”
“Why not?”
“You’ve barely been here.”
“Right. But I have what I need. Unless you want to give me a name.”
“Jack the Ripper.”
“Bye-bye!”
“I’ll make him watch me drink your blood!” Dante cried angrily.
She didn’t reply. She tapped on the door and the guard opened it to let her out. “Glad that guy is cuffed and chained,” he said, shaking his head.
Della smiled and nodded.
Dante was yelling about his prowess and how she would regret not realizing his power, slamming his fists against the table.
“Let him burn some of it out, that’s my suggestion,” she said, “and thank you.”
Mason, Edmund and Philip Law were just coming out of the observation room as she left the guard.
“He was right about one thing—we arrested him, but if I’d been forced to shoot him, well, hmm, I don’t think I would have lost sleep over it!” Mason said.
“I may ask you to pop in there next,” Philip said. “He still thinks he’ll get his hands on Della. But you really infuriate him. And angry people spout out things, so...”
“I do my best to apprehend those who need apprehending,” Mason said. “I, like Della and many of our ranks, feel mixed on the question of life imprisonment and the death penalty. But, hey, I’m human and sure, I want to throttle the bastard when he starts at Della, but...”
“We need him to talk,” Della said.
Mason looked away for a minute.
