Page 42 (1/2)

"Hey, Dad"

"Hey, Son Glad to see you What brings you out in the middle of the week like this?" He joined his father

"Beer?" Daniel asked, watching him curiously

"Sure"

His father reached into the ice chest at his side and produced his newest, self-bottled ood

"Okay, so what’s the probleerprint experts, technologists, those new high-tech lights that show sperm all over like in that Sharon Stone ice-pick ot all that, Dad Guess what else I have?"

"Don’t know Tell me"

He told Daniel about the corpse that had been beheaded, and he kept talking, describing Maone down to Jackson Square and that Marie Lescarre had given hi," Daniel said

"Yeah, it is, isn’t it? Can you giveon here?"

"Sure"

"What? Great! Help hed "Dad, Jack the Ripper’s last ists, even if a few more victims are thrown in the heap now and then"

"You’ve been reading," Daniel said soleed "There’s a task force on this, Dad Everyone’s been reading"

"All right, so you know about the ue John Druitt, an affluent young h med school, died in the Thames soon after the last , wound up in an insane asyluht have been a Jill the Ripper--probably a bitter midwife or the like, you know?-- and there’s the Royal theory--either the Duke of Clarence hirandson, or a court physician, Willia out of the Jack the Ripper Diary, written by Maybrick, who died of gastroenteritis not long after the murder Now, that was a sad case! Not for Maybrick, but his wife Poor thing She was condeland and the poor dear had been having an affair while her husband ran around all over the place I think the chap’s fa up condeot reprieved at the last minute"

"Dad--none of these people is in New Orleans ripping up hookers and beheading corpses!" Daniel shrugged, offering him a half-smile "Well, then, there’s the theory that Jack the Ripper was a true monster Made out of the mists and dirt and the tawdry poverty of the East End True evil"

"Great I can just tell the chief--and the newspapers--that I’rinned "Tell the ive ht a minute "Well, it is New Orleans Supposedly, zombies have walked in the shadows of the old plantations--and in the French Quarter, too, I would irunted

"Then there was that case in the prison in 1909 "

Sean frowned "What case?"

"An interesting one All the beheadings reen, was condemned to death for thethe trial that a drifter had killed the little girl Apparently, a lot of folk thought the boy was telling the truth, but you kno cruel some people can bewouldn’t have happened now, I can tell you, but back thenwell, anyway, theon during the days before his execution He was kept in solitary, waiting for the big day, then--I’ht"

"Dad! Da to do with anything The night before he’s due to hang, the boy kills hirinned "Strange--but why aed sohtly and with such force that well, that, he ht off Beheaded himself"

"Whoa--now that is one for the books," Sean admitted

"There’s a little o," Daniel said