From Whitechapel

by Clegg, Melanie

  His face twisted with anger and he jumped forward, raising the hand holding the knife only to find it blocked by my hand as I quickly raised my knee up between his legs. When he dropped, groaning to the ground, I finished him off with a punch to the face which made his nose explode with blood all down the front of my skirt. ‘Now, who’s learning a lesson?’ I shouted, raising my fist to punch him again just as a pair of arms came from behind and raised me up in the air before lifting me away from him. ‘Cora?’ I looked back over my shoulder but she was nowhere to be seen.

  ‘Now then, missy,’ a gruff voice said close to my ear as I was put back down on to the pavement. ‘I’m going to ask you to come quietly to the station with me.’

  I struggled against him for moment, pushing back with my elbows but then gave up and pulled away. ‘Are you going to arrest me, officer?’ I asked. ‘I was just acting in self defence.’ The local policemen were too cowardly to walk down Dorset Street on their own and his fellow was bending over my challenger, who was rolling about and groaning on the ground. ‘What do you expect me to do? Stand there and let the likes of him clobber me?’ Still worried, I looked around for Cora and with relief saw her standing, still and silent, in a doorway nearby, her shawl pulled close about her face, hiding it from view. She met my eyes and gave a gentle shake of her head. No, her eyes seemed to say. Don’t tell.

  ‘You’ve been drinking,’ the policeman said to me with a look of disgust. ‘You’d better come along with me.’

  I laughed then, unable to stop myself. ‘Are you planning on arresting everyone who’s had a drink or two tonight?’ I said as he took hold of my arm and half pulled me up the street. ‘Good luck with that, copper.’ I looked back over my shoulder at Cora but she’d already gone, plunging further into Dorset Street, more frightened of her father and sister than whatever lay in wait for her in the dark alleyways of Whitechapel. I feared for her, but what could I do? She’d never forgive me if I drew the eyes of her father’s colleagues towards her so all I could do was let her go and hope that no harm would come to her.

  Behind us the other policeman was half carrying, half dragging my opponent, grabbing him by the collar and occasionally clobbering him about the head when he put up some feeble resistance. ‘Maybe we should put them in a cell together and let them fight it out,’ he shouted to the policeman who had me.

  ‘Don’t you bloody dare,’ I whispered, ‘or you’ll have a corpse on your hands in the morning and it won’t be mine.’

  He snorted, pulling me up closer. ‘Think we care about that? Think we care about the likes of some gutter rat like him? You’d be doing us a favour, Miss.’

  Despite their jokes, we found ourselves in separate cells in Commercial Street police station once they’d taken down our names and given us the usual half hearted talking to about keeping the peace. It wasn’t so bad really, I thought, as I settled down on my haunches in the women’s cell in the main foyer which I shared that night with the usual motley collection of tarts, vagrants and pick pockets.

  ‘What you doing in here, Em?’ one woman, a grubby faced blonde in faded pink silk said, blowing a kiss at the policeman who dumped me without ceremony on the floor then slammed the cell door shut behind him. ‘Not like a fast runner like you to end up in the old clink.’

  I grinned and shrugged. ‘First time for everything,’ I said, rubbing at my arm where the policeman’s fingers had sunk none too gently into my flesh. ‘What you in for, Alex?’

  She laughed and raised her skirts above the knees with a sly look. ‘What do you think? Only this time I gave him a slap didn’t I because he didn’t want to pay up, the bastard.’

  ‘Funny how it’s always us who take the blame isn’t it?’ another girl piped up from the other side of the cell.

  It wasn’t really funny at all though, I thought as I peered through the cell bars, which looked out directly on to the lobby so that the sergeants on duty could keep an eye on us. I knew from bitter experience that there was no point appealing to their better natures and so settled down for the night, making myself as comfortable as I could on the cold tiled floor and trying not to think about what had become of Marie and Cora. ‘I’ve let them down,’ I whispered to myself, wishing that I hadn’t risen to the bait, had just kept my head down and kept on walking, one foot in front of the other, to Miller’s Court. ‘I’ve let everyone down.’ I thought of Marie as I had last seen her - flushed with pride at her own cleverness and tapping the side of her nose as she told me about the windfall she was expecting from Miss Redmayne.

  ‘She’ll pay a pretty penny for what I’ve got, so she will,’ she’d whispered, leaning in so close that I could smell the gin on her breath. ‘And then I’m out of here and straight back home, so I am. I’ve had enough of London. Time for home, I reckon. Time for fresh air, good food and the hot, sweet arms of a loving man.’

  Home. I couldn’t bring myself to think of that either but what else was there to do that night but huddle against the wall and think and dream of things that could never be? I pinched myself as Albert’s face, earnest and not especially good looking, floated into my mind. There was no profit to me there, no benefit in thinking of things that could only fill me with regret for what I had thrown away. For I had thrown him away, I knew this now, and had no way of getting him back again.

  I slumped against the wall, beating my head gently back against it as I let my thoughts drift on. I had failed. I’d failed Polly, Annie, Cathy and even Martha, God rot her. I couldn’t take any responsibility for the other woman killed, the Swedish one who had her throat cut the night that Cathy was ripped. She was none of my doing. I knew my man and that was none of his work.

  Marie though. I’d let her down so badly. Yes, she was stupid and careless, spinning her silly bloody tales and bragging about things when she should have kept her mouth shut but look where it had got her and no one deserved that. It was all my fault as usual. Mine alone, for it was me who opened the window that night in Calais and shouted down into the yard and it was me who had run down in my nightdress and seen and been seen. It was all my doing. Mine and mine alone. ‘I’m so sorry, Marie,’ I whispered. ‘I’m truly sorry.’

  I don’t know how long I sat hunched up in the darkness, dwelling on the mistakes of the past and trying not to think about what might be happening in the present. At one point the sergeants behind the desk changed shifts and I watched silently and without interest as two went away and two more, both young and yawning wearily behind their hands with hair that looked like they’d only just tumbled from their beds, took their place.

  As the hours passed, the other women stopped chatting, fighting and crying and one by one gave themselves up to sleep, their heads resting either on the cold tiled floor or each other, their mouths falling slack as their snores mingled together. I had no need for sleep and took a sly nip of brandy from a hip flask that rolled out of someone’s pocket, determined to stay awake for as long as it took.

  One of the young policemen started whistling a merry tune and wandered over to the street door, which he opened before poking his head out to look up at the sky. ‘The rain is easing off,’ he said, turning to smile at me. ‘It’ll be a cold morning though.’

  ‘Another country boy,’ I said, thinking of my conversation with Cora and wishing with all my heart that she was there with me.

  ‘That I am, Miss,’ he said with a grin before strolling to the door beside the counter, which I knew led to the living quarters upstairs.

  ‘Em.’ And there she was. Pale and tearful in the same dress that she had been wearing earlier on. ‘It’s time to go.’ She nodded to the young policeman and he stepped forward with his keys clinking between his fingers.

  ‘You sure, Cora?’ he said, looking at me doubtfully.

  She gave a firm nod. ‘Sure as eggs, Ned,’ she said and it was only then that I noticed the large cloth bag she carried at her side.

  ‘You’re coming too,’ I said dully.

  She nodded. ‘I h
ave to,’ she said, stepping aside as Ned unlocked the cell door. ‘There is nothing here for me. Not really.’

  ‘What about your Mr Mercier?’ I said, struggling to my feet then slipping out through the open door, hoping to God that none of my cellmates would wake up and notice my departure. There’d be hell to pay if they did. ‘He’s worth staying for, isn’t he?’

  She went pink about the ears. ‘He’s not interested in the likes of me,’ she said in a low voice before looking at Ned. ‘Don’t you go shooting your mouth off about Mr Mercier and me,’ she warned him. ‘There’s nothing going on there.’

  He grinned. ‘Of course not, Cora.’ He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. ‘My lips are sealed.’

  She smiled back and handed him a small envelope. ‘Give this to Cat, won’t you? Just say that I left it on the desk. She’d be mad as hell fire if she knew you’d help me go.’

  ‘I’ll keep my mouth shut, never fear,’ he said, looking worried and scratching the back of his neck. ‘You will be alright, won’t you?’

  She hesitated for a second then nodded. ‘Better than alright.’

  Chapter Thirty One

  We held hands and ran together down Commercial Street, pausing at the top of Dorset Street to catch our ragged breath. ‘It’s all the stinking smoke above this bloody city,’ I said, half laughing, half wheezing. ‘I could run for miles back home.’ I looked at Cora as she pushed her hair back from her face. ‘I was worried about you earlier on,’ I said. ‘After that copper carted me off to the cells and I had to leave you all alone.’

  She grinned. ‘I’m tougher than I look,’ she said, ‘and I’ve lived in Whitechapel all my life so I know it like the back of my hand. No need to fear for me, Em. I know what I’m about.’ She took my arm and we continued down Dorset Street, now almost deserted except for a few vagrants struggling to sleep on the doorsteps and the heavy tread of a group of drunk men wending their weary way down to one of the doss houses at the end.

  It was almost dawn and the street would be busy and humming with life again within a couple of hours. Already I could see the sky above us becoming tinged with the purple and here and there I could see gas lamps flickering behind windows. ‘I hope we’re not too late,’ I whispered to Cora as we arrived at the Miller’s Court archway.

  Her grip tightened on my arm as we went slowly up the dark passageway that led up to the yard and for all her tough talk, I knew she was as frightened as me when we came out the other end and found ourselves standing outside Marie’s door. ‘Listen,’ I said. ‘Can you hear anything?’

  Cora put her head to one side then shook it slowly. ‘Only the pump at the end of the yard dripping and a cat crying upstairs and… and…’ She shook her head again and put her bag on the ground as if weary. ‘Maybe she’s asleep.’

  ‘Maybe.’ I pulled gently away from her and put my hand on the doorknob, my heart thudding hard against my ribcage now as I slowly turned it. ‘Oh, please just be asleep, Marie,’ I whispered as with a creak, the door swung open, sticking a little as it always did.

  ‘Is she there?’ I could feel Cora’s breath hot against my neck as I slowly tiptoed into the room, which was warm thanks to the fire that blazed in the small hearth with a sharp sickly metallic tang in the air. ‘The fire is still going.’

  I didn’t reply. I couldn’t. I was staring at the bed, at the thing on the bed. The thing that used to be my friend Marie but was now little more than a heap of tortured bone, flesh and hair. And blood. So much blood. ‘Don’t look,’ I said to Cora, dragging my gaze away from those wide terrified eyes, the gaping mouth that had been cut away so that her teeth were bared at me in an awful grimace, the bloody wound that used to be her nose. What was it she was always saying? ‘My Mam always says that I’ll get my nose snapped off one day if I don’t stop poking it in other people’s business.’ I could have wept. ‘Jesus Christ, don’t look.’ It was too late though and I took hold of Cora’s shoulders as she gave a terrible, high pitched keening sound.

  ‘Murder. Oh, murder!’ she wailed as I slapped her cheeks then pressed my forehead close to hers so that our faces were touching and breath mingled. ‘He’s killed her, Em. We were too late. Why are we always too late to stop it happening?’

  ‘We were too late this time,’ I whispered urgently, grabbing her jaw and forcing her to tear her eyes away from the mess that lay ripped apart and sprawled on the bed. ‘Look at me, Cora. Look at me. We won’t be too late next time, I promise you.’

  She stared at me in horror, her mouth working and her eyes huge, then tore away from my grip and whirled out of the tiny room to the yard, where I heard her loudly retching soon afterwards. ‘Goodbye, Marie,’ I whispered to the body on the bed. ‘I’m sorry that I could not come to you sooner.’ I made myself look at what remained of her face for the last time, forcing myself to meet those wide, terrified eyes, to remember how she had been in life, so gay, so lively. That laugh. ‘My Mam always says…’ ‘Until we meet again.’

  I slowly turned and left the room, closing the door carefully behind me as I went then, following some odd instinct, putting my hand through the broken window to put down the latch. ‘Are you alright now, Cora?’ I asked quietly, peering into the gloom of the yard. ‘I’m sorry you had to see that.’ I could hear her sobbing but could not see her until I took a step into the alley and saw her leaning against the wall, crying and wiping her mouth with the hem of her skirt. ‘Cora?’

  She looked up at me then and shook her head. ‘No,’ she said, throwing up her hand to keep me from her. ‘Stay away from me.’

  I sighed. ‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘I don’t know what else to say. I’m so sorry.’ I took a tentative step towards her and held out my hands. ‘Honest. I’d give everything for that not to have happened.’ There was no point reminding her that it wouldn’t have happened if one of her father’s mutton headed colleagues hadn’t arrested me when we were a stone’s throw away from Miller’s Court earlier on as I could see from her expression that she was thinking the same thing.

  ‘What are we going to do, Em?’ she whispered, angrily scrubbing at the tears that rolled down her pale cheeks. ‘He’s coming for us, you know he is.’

  She was right of course but I couldn’t bring myself to agree. ‘We’ll think of something, Cora,’ I said instead. ‘He won’t be able to find us after we leave Whitechapel anyway.’ I looked at her. ‘Unless you’ve changed your mind about coming with me, that is?’

  She hesitated then gave a sad little shake of her head. ‘What else can I do?’ she said. ‘If he’s taken your Marie then he might come for Cat next.’ She started to cry again. ‘I can’t let that happen, Em, I just can’t.’

  I went to her and put a gentle hand on her arm. ‘We won’t let it happen to anyone else,’ I whispered. ‘I promise.’ I put my arms around her and pulled her close as she sobbed against my shoulder, rocking and shushing her as I would do a child. ‘We’ll go to Liverpool Street now and see about getting out of here for good. He’ll never be able to find us again and if we’re not here to menace then he won’t have any reason to leave his blasted bloody messages any more, will he?’ I felt her nod against me and tightened my embrace. ‘Just be brave, Cora. Not long to go now, not long to go until we’re free of this place and can put it all behind us.’

  She pulled away and looked up at me then, her eyes still wide and frightened. ‘I won’t ever be able to forget what I just saw,’ she whispered. ‘Not until the day that I die.’

  I nodded. ‘Me neither, my love,’ I said grimly, thinking again of that raw, bloody face, those wild, staring eyes, the grotesquely grinning teeth. ‘Me neither.’

  We carried her bag between us and turned our feet towards the nearby docks, our plan being to hitch a ride on the first boat that would carry us away from London, reasoning that if we didn’t know where we were going to end up then neither would our man Jack. ‘You’ll be able to write home though,’ I reassured Cora. ‘Just as soon as we’re all settled and know
that we’re safe.’ She nodded but said nothing and I knew that she was scared of what the future held - after all, so was I and this wasn’t even the first time I’d packed up my things and run away in the night. ‘It’ll all be alright,’ I whispered, giving her a quick, fierce hug as we turned down an alley. ‘Just wait and see.’

  She saw the man who loomed out of the darkness ahead of us before I did and gave a cry of shock and lurched back, dropping her bag as she almost tripped over her own feet in her haste to get away. ‘No.’ She tugged at my arm but I couldn’t move. ‘No.’

  ‘So here we all are,’ he said, grinning almost cheerfully as he strolled towards us. This was the first time that I’d seen him outside the shadows and I stared at him almost curiously as he came towards me, surprised by how utterly ordinary, how forgettable he looked. I could have walked past him in the street a thousand times or more and not have noticed him. Maybe that’s why he did it, why he craved the attention, why he wanted our eyes fixed firmly upon him just as mine were riveted to him at that moment. ‘Cosy, ain’t it?’ There were splashes of blood, Marie’s blood, on his grey shirt front and across his face and a slight tinge of pink to his hands as he pulled his knife out from within his shabby black coat. ‘I’ve been waiting for this moment, ladies. Longing for it, in fact.’ He stank of old blood and grime, like a slaughter house on a hot day. I could almost hear the flies buzzing as he moved, sense the fear of the animals as they waited to die.

  I could hear Cora crying behind me and begging me to run, to come with her, to stay alive but I still couldn’t move. I just stayed rooted to the spot as if turned to stone as he walked slowly towards me, his knife glinting wickedly in the dim light. ‘You’re going to stop,’ I said and my voice sounded strange and high pitched and not like my own at all. ‘This is going to stop right now.’ I turned my head and looked at Cora then. ‘Go,’ I said to her. ‘It’s me he wants, not you.’