City of Darkness (City of Mystery) Read Online Free PDF Page A

the area and move the crowd.
    “What I am suggesting,” Phillips said
calmly, “is that the best solution to public panic is bringing the killer to
justice.  And part of that task is to preserve every shred of evidence.”
    “I agree,” Eatwell said, with such an
audible sigh it was plain he did not.  “Despite the difficulties, I assume you
did learn some things?”
    “Of course,” Phillips said, glancing
down at his papers.  “We feel safe in saying the same person committed both
crimes.  The killer is most likely left-handed, for the wounds on both victims
were made in a left to right pattern.”  He illustrated with a trembling
diagonal slice of the air.  “If not left-handed, then he’s as skillful with the
left as he is with the right.  Both women had their throats slashed from ear to
ear, as the papers so gleefully reported, and in Chapman’s case the head was
almost severed.  These mutilations were deftly and skillfully performed on both
victims.”  The doctor looked up, his aged eyes sharp and piercing.
    “It is impossible to overstate the
significance of this last point.  It suggests a killer with anatomical
knowledge.  Chapman had her kidneys and ovaries removed and apparently taken.  The
murder weapon was a knife about four to six inches in length and extremely
sharp.  As sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel.”
    A tickle of excitement began in Trevor’s
throat. “Are you suggesting that the killer could be a physician?”
    Inspector Eatwell slapped a palm to
the table in protest.  “I hardly feel a beast such as this could be a man of
medicine, nor a gentleman of any sort, for that matter.”
    “Educated at Cambridge!” scoffed a
detective from the back of the room.  The other men snickered.
    Trevor scribbled in his journal:  
”Doctor?”
    “Were they raped?”  The voice came
from the back.  Abrams.
    “No,” Phillips said.  “Whatever his
game, that’s not it.”  He looked directly at Trevor.  “Earlier you said the
killer had been in a frenzy, which I’ll admit is a logical assumption, but one
the facts don’t support.  Our killer is vicious, certainly, but methodical. 
The victims showed no signs of struggle and there was very little blood at the
murder sites.”
    Trevor looked up from his journal. 
“But there were mutilations, even organs removed…. Why no blood?” 
    “There’s very little bleeding after
death, Detective.   Once a heart stops beating, blood begins to gel in the
veins and arteries of the body.  Perhaps they were smothered or strangled
first, or it’s possible that the first wound was so well-placed the victims
were dead by the time they hit the ground.  In the Chapman case especially,
there was far less blood that one might expect, so quite possibly the killer
drained blood from the body.”
    “Drained blood from the body?” Rayley
Abrams asked the question that everyone else in the room was thinking. 
“Wouldn’t that take a rather long time?”
    “Anywhere from twenty minutes to an
hour,” Phillips said.  “Depending on his skill and experience level.”
    The room sat in silence while the
detectives digested this information.
    “Could the two women have been killed
someplace else and their bodies dumped at the site where they were found?”
Trevor finally asked.  “Draining blood would take a certain kind of equipment
wouldn’t it?  Something less portable than a knife?”
    “I doubt even a madman would risk
being seen dragging a dead body about the streets of London, Detective.”
Inspector Eatwell interjected coolly, as again snickers arose from the back.
    “Tubes and hypodermics are really all
that’s required,” said Phillips.  “A bottle or pan to catch the blood, of
course.  It’s more a matter of having the skill to tap the right vessels in the
right places and the ability to find them quickly in the dark.”
    “So we are speaking of a doctor,”
Trevor said. 
    “That is a possibility, but one