A Murder in Whitechapel

Lucy was long used to the dreary streets of Whitechapel. It was one of the poorer districts of London, in the East End, and she had lived there all her life. It was summer, so the climate was relatively mild, as all English summers were. It was the summer of 1888, during Queen Victoria’s reign. But she had scarcely a thought to pay toward such trivialities as the weather. After all, the rent was soon due and poor though her lodgings may be, the streets would be crueler by far. This fact was plainly evidenced by anyone who cared to look down any alley, and saw the pitiful beggars, some lucky few with some meager rations that they had managed to scrounge up from who-knows-where. Of course, she had long since stopped looking, knowing all too well from past experience what she would see. Instead, she merely walked on by, continuing her path down the relatively safer and far less squalid Whitechapel Road, the heart of the district.

Her footsteps echoed soundly on the cobblestones of the street, which was oddly empty even for this time of night. But, they were probably all off elsewhere, drinking and gambling. It wouldn’t be surprising. The distinctive odors of beer and blood lingered in the air from the nearby breweries and slaughterhouses. It wasn’t exactly pleasant, but to anyone who lived in Whitechapel, it was familiar. She nodded to a constable as she passed him on patrol, but otherwise paid him little heed. It was sometimes assuring to know that the police still patrolled here, far from the upper-crust of society. Although, many times she had wished they didn’t, as in her profession she didn’t really care for the trouble they could bring.

Some might have said it wasn’t very wise, her being out on the streets alone at night like that, but she had a purpose that couldn’t be ignored. If it hadn’t been for her late-night errand, to try to find a method of earning some money, she wouldn’t do anything as risky and dangerous as this. Lucy knew that her landlord certainly had never been the forgiving type; it was either pay on time, or get kicked out, which had happened to many others before her. That was the last thing she wanted to have happen.

Still, Lucy was well aware of the dangers in her neighborhood, with its thieves and ruffians aplenty. When she thought she heard a sound behind her, like the faint echo of footsteps, she spun around rapidly on the spot. She stood there for several seconds, her breath seemingly caught in her throat. As she desperately tried to breathe and rapidly assess the danger, she looked around her frantically. Was someone following her? She certainly didn’t see anybody, as she peered deeply into the darkness surrounding her on all sides. Surely the shadows cast by the gas lamps that lit the street had never been this dark before, as they hovered menacingly, like some monstrous birds of prey wanting to reach out and suffocate her, pull her into them and never let her go. Finally, her breathing began to slow, but the shadows were still haunting her. She began to run now, frantic to get to the corner where her friend Emma would be meeting her.

After running for what seemed to her like forever, but was in reality only a few minutes, she began to run out of breath and had to slow down. Finally, she stopped completely, and tried to get her bearings. After a few seconds, she knew exactly where she was; she decided it was best to bypass the dangers of nearby Thrawl Street and took the shortcut to her destination by ducking down an extremely short, narrow, dark alley that was located just to her right. When she emerged from the darkness on the other side, she looked to her left and saw Emma nearby, waving her over. They were near Commercial Street, very close to the particular dangers of Dorset Street, which neither of them would ever dare to venture down, especially at night.

As Lucy gratefully ran over to meet Emma, she was gladder than ever to see her friend. There was still a slight uneasiness in her mind, but she shook it off as she smiled wide and hugged her friend happily. Then she stood back and took a great sweeping look at her from head to toe. Lucy had always known that Emma was far prettier than her, with her shiny, curled, blond hair falling well past her shoulders. She was fairly tall and skinny, with blue eyes, and lots of men professed their love for her nightly. But tonight she outdid even herself, wearing a white dress that looked far more regal and expensive on her than what Emma would ever actually be able to afford, and which did amazing things for her figure. This was in stark contrast to Lucy herself, with her long, curled, black hair and green eyes. She was wearing a red dress with a black shawl over her shoulders. She knew that she’d never be nearly as beautiful as her friend.

“Where were ya, I was gettin’ worried? Ya was supposed to meet me near a ‘alf ‘our ago. You ain’t ‘urt or nothin’ are ya?” She said in her slight Cheapside cockney accent, looking a bit concerned. Lucy gave her a small smile in return.

“I ‘ad a bit of a fright back there a ways, but I’m alright. I thought someone ‘ad been followin’ me. Scared me nearly outta me skin.” Lucy just laughed it off. “Me mind musta ran away on me for a bit.”

“Well, let’s go inside ‘til ya calm down a bit, we can ‘ave a drink.” Without waiting for an answer, Emma just took her arm and dragged her inside the pub they had been standing near the front door of. It was a raucous establishment, laughingly called The King’s Head. It was packed with all manner of poverty ridden residents of the East Side. The foul language echoing from all corners of the small building would make any Lord of society turn red with embarrassment, and even Lucy never ceased to marvel at some of the words that her ears would catch. In one corner, a handful of men seemed to be playing some type of card game, with what appeared to her eyes to be a great deal of money at stake. In another, a small group was racing each other in downing pints, the liquid running down their roughly-shaved chins. Everyone seemed to be loud, and dirty, as if they had never bathed in their lives and didn’t care to either.

After looking around at the crowd, the two young women seemed with one mind to head directly for the bar, right across the room in front of them. They sat down on the only available stools, right at the very end. To the barkeeps impatient question of “Whatdya want?” the two each ordered a pint, Emma setting a shilling down on the bar. After taking the money, the barkeep spent a minute getting them their pints, and then they sat back and relaxed to sip their drinks. After a few minutes, Lucy suddenly had the distinct feeling that someone was looking at her, it was as if a pair of eyes were piercing right through her. Suddenly disconcerted, she looked around curiously, half afraid that the feeling was all in her head. This was the second time that day something like that had happened after all.

Suddenly, as her eyes looked towards the other end of the bar, they met another pair of eyes. They belonged to a man, and he was staring right at her. At first Lucy was startled, why was he looking at her? He was fairly handsome, she supposed, and had the look of a real gentleman. He also appeared to be at least decently young, maybe in his early thirties. It was a bit strange that she hadn’t noticed him before, as he stood out quite distinctly in their current surroundings. For one thing, he was clean-shaven, and was also very well dressed, especially when compared to all the other men in the pub that night. He had the darkest brown eyes, almost black, that were absolutely captivating. They had a glimmer of intelligence in them, along with something else that couldn’t be deciphered. After pulling her glance away from them, she noticed that he was wearing a brown top-hat over short, dark hair; he was also wearing a long, brown tweed jacket and matching pants with expensive shoes. What could he possibly want?

Then, Lucy suddenly remembered that Emma was sitting right next to her. “Em, do you see that bloke? ‘e keeps staring at me. What do you reckon ‘e wants?” She pointed down toward the end of the bar, talking loudly to be heard over the din of other voices and sounds, and Emma turned to look. Lucy now noticed slightly to her chagrin that the man had now broken his gaze and focused on his drink.

“Aye, the one in the ‘at? Oy, he’s a right ‘andsome one ain’t he? Do ya really need me to tell ya what he wants? I reckon it’s obvious.” She gave her friend a knowing, conspiring look. “’e likes ya, don’t he.” Lucy was immediately regretting she had ever asked; it was just embarrassing. Besides, she had to be wrong anyway, he didn’t like her.

Finally, after several more minutes, the man quickly downed the rest of his drink, thumping the glass down on the bar before pushing it toward the barkeeper. Then, he rose smoothly from his place and walked almost regally toward the other end of the bar, where the two women still sat. Lucy was rather surprised to see him heading in her direction, having been expecting him to just leave when he was finished, this place wasn’t anywhere near his obvious level of society after all. Yet, he was coming over to them.

Then, there he was, standing just a few feet away. They both turned to look curiously at him. In a very gentlemanly gesture he smoothly swept his hat from off of his head and made a short, polite bow in their direction. Then with his hat held firmly in front of him in one hand, he finally spoke, his voice as captivating to Lucy as his eyes had been. “Greetings, would you ladies be horribly inconvenienced if I were to join you for a brief time, I thought perhaps we could talk?” His voice sounded smooth, with intelligence and formality quite evident, along with the civility and politeness. He was obviously well versed in good manners, Lucy marveled, she had never come to the acquaintance of anyone quite like him before. She couldn’t accept his proposal quickly enough.

With barely a glance at Emma, she answered him, as politely as she knew how in her limited knowledge lest she embarrass herself. “Aye, sir, you are most welcome. Please, pull up a seat if you can find an empty one.” At that, he glanced around for a few moments, and spotted a freshly abandoned stool. He quickly ran and seized it before someone else could try to claim it. He carried it over, and they moved their stools slightly to one side to give him some room to squeeze in. It was a rather cramped, closed-in situation that resulted. None of them were very comfortable.

“There is a table over there that just became available; we need not be this closed in.” the man suggested. Lucy and Emma both looked across to where he had indicated. Sure enough, Lucy noted that there was a free table in the far corner. It was just big enough for a small group like theirs. They looked at each other for a moment, before nodding their assent. He smiled and stood up, placing his hat back on his head to free both hands, he then reached a hand out to each of them. Charmed, they both allowed him to lead them across to the corner table. On the way there, they had to dodge a drunk who was weaving his way recklessly across the room, and in the process nearly knocked Lucy over. He would have, if the mysterious man holding her hand hadn’t spotted the inebriated man coming and pulled her quickly backwards, causing her to stumble straight into his chest, but safely out of harm’s way.

When they got to the table, the man let go of their hands in order to pull out chairs for both of them before taking his own, thereby cementing Lucy’s impression that he was a real gentleman. After they sat down he got that deep, captivating look in his eyes again, as he resumed his earlier obsession of staring intently at her as if he could see straight through into her soul if he looked hard enough. Then, it finally occurred to Lucy that they didn’t know who he was. “Sorry, sir, but do you think you could give us your name? You ‘aven’t said who you are.” She used the same polite tone she had used before. His eyes suddenly flashed with what appeared to be deep amusement.

“Names are not important. But, perhaps if you were to give me yours, I might consider it.” There could be no doubt now, he was definitely amused, but by what, Lucy could only wonder. It completely perplexed her. Still, he seemed nice enough. She decided to tell him.

“Me name is Lucy, and this is me friend Emma.” She said, nodding her head in Emma’s direction across from her, even though she was the only other person with them. He still continued to stare at her, only acknowledging Emma with a quick movement of his eyes, before fixating them right back on Lucy again. It was becoming obvious even to Lucy which of the two of them he actually had any interest in.

Emma must have realized how little attention either of them was paying to her. She was quick to make her excuses for departure. “Well, ain’t it gettin’ late, I ‘ave somewheres to be. Luce, ya come see me tomorrow, ya know the way.” With that she stood up, and the man rose to his feet as well, which wasn’t something either of them had ever seen before. It was rather charming though. Lucy got up from her chair and gave her friend a quick hug farewell. Then Emma turned and quickly walked out of the pub, ignoring all the men who called to her, but they were all drunk and broke anyway.

The man reclaimed his seat immediately after Emma departed, scraping the chair across the floor as he pulled it back towards the table, and then resumed staring at her. It was beginning to become a little disconcerting, but he seemed nice enough, so she didn’t comment. It might just be a small oddity of his after all, and almost everyone had one or two, so it would likely have been rather rude to mention it. After a few moments he smiled, a small thoughtful smile, as if he was thinking about something that pleased him. Lucy failed to notice that he had not given his name, or any other information about himself.

“Dearest Lucy, I just now realize that I have not yet told you how beautiful you are, please forgive me my egregious oversight. You are exquisitely captivating.” Lucy felt a blush fly quickly over her face as it suddenly grew warm. He reached out and gently took one of her hands. “In fact, I would very much enjoy it if you would accompany me elsewhere tonight.” This managed to shock her. Not so much the question, as the way it was asked. As if it was truly genuine. Well, she supposed he seemed wealthy enough, so she might as well. She nodded, a small smile playing on her face.

He rose from his chair once more, and extended a hand for her, which she willingly took as she rose up to a standing position. Then, he quickly led her out of the rowdy pub, and back onto the comparatively quieter street. “Where are we going?” she asked quietly after a few minutes of walking in silence. It took a few moments before he answered her.

“You will discover that soon enough.” He said just as quietly as the question she asked had been. His answer wasn’t really unkind, but the tone did strike her as a little bit strange, her instincts began to prod at her but she ignored them. When she looked around, she found they were on a nearly barren street. The more they walked, the tenser the man seemed to become, as his grip on her hand tightened. He also began to look sterner and far more serious, even in the dim light that they had available to see by. When she finally tried to pull free, jerking her hand quickly backwards, he just tightened his grip and pulled her along harder. Then she really started to get scared, and regretted her decision to go with him.

She was just about to scream when he suddenly spun around, his hands quickly going upwards to tighten vice-like around her throat, pushing her hard into the wall of a nearby building. She frantically gasped for air, as her lungs began to feel as if they were ready to explode. She desperately tried to claw at the back of his hands, to try to make him let go, but he wouldn’t release her. As her world slowly began to go dark, the last thing that she sensed was him releasing one of his hands to reach into the inside of his jacket, and pull out a knife. Then, she faintly felt something slide deeply, painfully, into and across her throat, and afterwards felt no more.