“Ah!” I said, finally comprehending the nature of the problem. “Would I be correct in assuming that the attempt to break out was made in the vicinity of the souls of Elizabeth Stride, Annie Chapman, Catherine Eddowes, Mary Kelly, and Mary Ann Nicholls?”
“His five victims,” said Saint Peter, nodding. “Actually, two of them are beyond even his reach, but Stride, Chapman and Kelly are in Purgatory.”
“Can you bring those three to Heaven?” I asked.
“As bait?” asked Saint Peter. “I am afraid not. No one may enter Heaven before his or her time. Besides,” he added, “there is nothing he can do to them in spiritual form. As you yourself know, one cannot even communicate with other souls here. One spends all eternity revelling in the glory of God.”
“So that is what one does here,” I said wryly.
“Please, Mr Holmes!” he said severely.
“I apologize,” I said. “Well, it seems we must set a trap for the Ripper on his next escape attempt.”
“Can we be sure he will continue his attempts to escape?”
“He is perhaps the one soul less suited to Heaven that I myself,” I assured him.
“It seems an impossible undertaking,” said Saint Peter morosely. “He could try to leave at any point.”
“He will attempt to leave in the vicinity of his victims,” I answered.
“How can you be certain of that?” asked Saint Peter.
“Because those slayings were without motive.”
“I do not understand.”
“Where there is no motive,” I explained, “there is no reason to stop. You may rest assured that he will attempt to reach them again.”
“Even so, how am I to apprehend him—or even identify him?” asked Saint Peter.
“Is location necessarily meaningless in Heaven?” I asked.
He stared at me uncomprehendingly.
“Let me restate that,” I said. “Can you direct the Pearly Gates to remain in the vicinity of the souls in question?”
He shook his head. “You do not comprehend, Mr Holmes. They exist in all times and places at once.”
“I see,” I said, wishing I had my pipe to draw upon now that I was in human form. “Can you create a second gate?”
“It would not be the same,” said Saint Peter.
“It needn’t be the same, as long as it similar to the perception of a soul.”
“He would know instantly.”
I shook my head. “He is quite insane. His thought processes—such as they are—are aberrant. If you do as I suggest, and place a false gate near the souls of his victims, my guess is that he will not pause to notice the difference. He is somehow drawn to these women, and this will be a barrier to his desires. He will be more interested in attacking it than in analysing it, even if he were capable of the latter, which I am inclined to doubt.”
“You’re quite sure?” asked Saint Peter doubtfully.
“He is compelled to perform his carnage upon prostitutes. For whatever reason, these seem to be the only souls he can identify as prostitutes. Therefore, it is these that he wishes to attack.” I paused again. “Create the false gates. The soul that goes through them will be the one you seek.”
“I hope you are correct, Mr Holmes,” he said. “Pride is a sin, but even I have a modicum of it, and I should hate to be shamed before my Lord.”
And with that, he was gone.
* * * *
He returned after an indeterminate length of time, a triumphant smile upon his face.
“I assume that our little ruse worked?” I said.
“Exactly as you said it would!” replied Saint Peter. “Jack the Ripper is now where he belongs, and shall never desecrate Heaven with his presence again.” He stared at me. “You should be thrilled, Mr Holmes, and yet you look unhappy.”
“I envy him in a way,” I said. “For at least he now has a challenge.”
“Do not envy him,” said Saint Peter. “Far from having a challenge, he can look forward to nothing but eternal suffering.”
“I have that in common with him,” I replied bitterly.
“Perhaps not,” said Saint Peter.
I was instantly alert. “Oh?”
“You have saved me from shame and embarrassment,” he said. “The very least I can do is reward you.”
“How?”
“I rather thought you might have a suggestion.”
“This may be Heaven to you,” I said, “but it is Hell to me. If you truly wish to reward me, send me to where I can put my abilities to use. There is evil abroad in the world; I am uniquely qualified to combat it.”
“You would really turn your back on Heaven to continue your pursuit of injustice, to put yourself at risk on almost a daily basis?” asked Saint Peter.
“I would.”
“Even knowing that, should you fall from the path of righteousness—and it is a trickier path than your churches would have you believe—this might not be your ultimate destination?”
“Even so.” And privately I thought: especially so.
“Then I see no reason why I should not grant your request,” said Saint Peter.
“Thank God!” I muttered.
Saint Peter smiled again. “Thank Him yourself—when you think of it. He does listen, you know.”
Suddenly I found myself back in that infinite grey landscape I had encountered after going over the falls at Reichenbach, only this time, instead of a shining light, I thought I could see a city in the distance…
* * * *
Holmes!” I cried. “Is it really you? Can it indeed be that you are alive? Is it possible that you succeeded in climbing out of that awful abyss?
—The Adventure of the Empty House
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
John Gregory Betancourt is a best-selling science fiction, fantasy, horror, and mystery author. His most recent publication is Pit and the Pendulum a collection of his “Pitbull” Peter Geller mystery stories. He is the writer of four Star Trek novels and the new Chronicles of Amber prequel series, as well as a dozen original novels. His essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in such diverse publications as Writer’s Digest, The Washington Post, and Amazing Stories.
Marc Bilgrey is the author of two humorous fantasy novels, And Don’t Forget to Rescue the Princess and And Don’t Forget to Rescue the Other Princess. His serious fantasy, science fiction, horror, and crime short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies, including, Slipstreams, The Ultimate Halloween, Merlin, And Crafty Cat Crimes. As a writer/cartoonist, his cartoons have been featured in magazines and newspapers such as, The Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, and Funny Times.
Rhys Bowen is a New York Times bestselling and Agatha and Anthony award-winning author. She created the atmospheric Molly Murphy mysteries, set in turn-of-the-century New York City and the Royal Spyness mysteries—sparkling British comedies featuring penniless minor royal Lady Georgiana in the 1930s.
Carla Coupe fell into writing short stories almost without noticing. Two of her short stories—“Rear View Murder” in Chesapeake Crimes II and “Dangerous Crossing” in Chesapeake Crimes 3—were nominated for Agatha Christie Awards. Her Sherlock Holmes pastiches appear in Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine and Sherlock’s Home: The Empty House.
Jack Grouchot is a retired investigative newspaper journalist and a former federal law enforcement agent specializing in mail fraud cases. He lives on a small farm in southwestern Pennsylvania, where he writes and cares for five boarded horses. Besides newspaper stories, Grouchot has co-written and edited a nonfiction book, Pittsburgh Characters, published by The Iconoclast Press of Greensburg, Pennsylvania. The author, an active member of Mystery Writers of America.
Bruce Kilstein majored in English at Franklin & Marshall College. He went on to study medicine and began devoting more time to writing as a creative outlet. He uses his medical and surgical experience in many of his stories. He enjoys writing in different genres including historical fiction, horr
or and mystery.
Michael Kurland is an American science fiction and detective fiction author. His first published novel was Ten Years to Doomsday (written with Chester Anderson) in 1964. Other notable works include The Unicorn Girl and two novels set in the world of Randall Garrett’s Lord Darcy, Ten Little Wizards and A Study in Sorcery (available from Wildside Press). Following the success of his Edgar-nominated The Infernal Device and A Plague of Spies, Kurland turned his attention to detective fiction. Several of his subsequent novels feature Sherlock Holmes’s nemesis, Professor Moriarty.
Gary Lovisi is a recognized Holmes aficionado and has written several Holmes pastiches, including “Mycroft’s Greatest Game” and “The Loss of the British Bark Sophy Anderson.” He authored the reference bibliography Sherlock Holmes: The Great Detective in Paperback.
Richard A. Lupoff has written sixty volumes of fantasy, mystery, science fiction, horror, and mainstream fiction. His recent books include the collection Killer’s Dozen, Quintet: the Cases of Chase and Delacroix, Before 12:01 and After, The Universal Holmes, and Terrors, Visions, and Dreams. His nine-volume mystery series involving Hobart Lindsey and Marvia Plum was reissued by Wildside Press in 2013.
Michael Mallory is a writer on animation and post-war pop culture, Mallory also writes murder mysteries, often featuring “Amelia Watson,” the second (and previously unheralded) wife of Dr Watson of Sherlock Holmes fame. Four volumes of Amelia Watson stories have appeared to date: The Adventures of the Second Mrs. Watson, Murder in the Bath, The Exploits of the Second Mrs. Watson, and The Stratford Conspiracy.
Adam Beau McFarlane is currently a Twin Cities resident and an M.P.A. graduate student at the University of Minnesota. His most recent publication was “The Bottom of My Heart” in Thuglit issue nine. He is an active member of the Mystery Writers of America and the Private Eye Writers of America.
Thos. Kent Miller is the author of Allan Quatermain at the Crucible of Life and Sherlock Holmes on the Roof of the World. He’s been published in Faunus: The Journal of The Friends of Arthur Machen; Ghosts & Scholars: M.R. James Newsletter; and The Weird Tales Collector. He names his cats after Victorian authors.
Mike Resnick is, according to Locus, the all-time leading award winner, living or dead, for short fiction. He has five Hugos, plus other major awards from the USA, France, Poland, Spain, Croatia, Catalonia, and Japan. Mike is the author of 84 novels, over 260 stories, and 3 screenplays, and has edited 41 anthologies.
Linda Robertson practices criminal law with a San Francisco-based nonprofit law firm. In addition to her Sherlock Holmes short stories and nonfiction writing, she co-authored The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Unsolved Mysteries.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch is an American writer and editor. Under various pseudonyms, she has written science fiction, fantasy, mystery, romance, and mainstream novels. Rusch won the 2001 Hugo Award for Best Novelette for “Millennium Babies;” the 2003 Endeavour Award for The Disappeared 2002; and the 2008 Sidewise Award for Alternate History for “Recovering Apollo 8.” She edited The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction for six years, from mid-1991 through mid-1997, winning one Hugo Award as Best Professional Editor.
Robert James Sawyer is a Canadian science fiction writer. He has had 21 novels published, and his short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Amazing Stories, On Spec, Nature, and many anthologies. Sawyer has won the Nebula Award (1995), the Hugo Award (2003), the John W. Campbell Memorial Award (2006), and received a Lifetime Achievement Aurora Award from the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association in 2013.
Stan Trybulski is the author or the popular Doherty series and was a felony trial prosecutor for the district attorney’s office in Brooklyn and later a civil trial attorney for the New York City Department of Education. Prior to becoming an attorney, Trybulski was a newspaper reporter, college administrator, bartender, and a long-time frequenter of McSorley’s Old Ale House in New York City. During his legal career, he made McSorley’s his office away from the office, and has continued that tradition through his writing career, using the front table as his desk, its cats as his editorial assistants, and the tavern as a locale in his novels and short stories.
Mark Wardecker is a librarian and academic technologist who is interested in how digital technology impacts and is influenced by research and instruction practices. Just as important are his avocational pursuits: Sherlock Holmes, Victorian and Edwardian periodical literature, pulp fiction, classical literature, Doctor Who, and many others.
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