As Sean reached the station, he began to feel something different. For a few moments, he wasn’t quite sure what it was. Then it hit him; it was relief. Billy was dead and now a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He was finally free from the blackmail.
Nobody liked Billy anyway, Sean thought to himself. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer person; though Sean feared that innocents may also have gotten caught up in what had happened.
The station felt alive: there was a frantic hustle and bustle everywhere. Sean asked a new recruit what was going on and after getting a somewhat quizzical look in return, the young officer explained that Billy’s killing had set off a night of retaliatory attacks even though it might not have been gang-related. The young officer hadn’t heard anything about the killing itself, only that it was gruesome.
Sean pushed himself down to his office and turned on his computer; he knew that information about the killing would likely cross his desk later that day. In the meantime, he could try to clear some of his emails, after all, he now had a future to worry about.
But then he stopped in his tracks and shuddered, scarcely believing his eyes. For a few seconds, all he could do was stare. It was written in bold on the subject line of an email sent from the dark web –
A PRESENT FROM YOUR FRIEND – THE IRISH RIPPER
Eventually, Sean plucked up the courage to open it.
My dear Cripple,
It appears you were having some trouble from a local thug. Fear not, that has now been dealt with. This is our story and you are my nemesis. Others have no part to play and I am the only person allowed inflict misery on you.
For a few minutes, his heart racing, Sean contemplated what to do next. He could report the communications to his superiors but that would bring the spotlight onto himself too.
But if he didn’t, it would not only mean a possible lead could be missed but also that he might become the next victim. Sean tried to take some solace from the fact there was no overt death threat but the fact he mentioned inflicting misery didn’t sound like something to be too positive about either.
Sean quickly resolved that he would say nothing; he was a survivor and believed that he would somehow find a third way. But what that way would be, he had no idea whatsoever.
Laura then popped her head in the door and asked if he wanted to go for a quick cuppa, which he replied in the affirmative. At times though it felt more like an interrogation than a friendly chat, with questions such as
Why are you in late?
How did your medical appointment go?
But perhaps it was mere paranoia after the strange turn of events. If he couldn’t trust her, there was nobody.
A few hours later the report and photos of the latest killing came onto Sean’s desk. It made for somber analysis. Sean had heard earlier in the day that there were two victims; this came somewhat as a relief to Sean as he understood Billy had three children and would much prefer not having to look at their mutilated bodies. He was with a mistress rather than his wife at the time of the killing.
This killing was very different from those that came before; it was hurried and rushed. It was only the mutilation and savagery that led you to suspect it was the work of the Irish Ripper. Perhaps this is what happens when one psychopath meets another; Sean knew that Billy would have put up a fight and cared little for his companion, no matter what he had previously told her.
The Ripper would almost certainly try to use the woman as leverage to control the man but Billy would not have let that happen. Sure enough, the photos of the scene paint a picture of a violent struggle; the woman’s throat was merely slashed as if he needed to kill her quickly and she had not been raped.
Billy had died from multiple slash wounds, but most significantly there were traces of blood on his fists, the results of which would be available later that day. At last, The Ripper would be brought to justice, albeit not from an expected sequence of events.
A meeting was scheduled for four o’clock leaving Sean impatient as he repeatedly looked over the photos. He came up with his own narrative of what had occurred. The Ripper must have followed him to his meeting to Billy and realized that Sean was in trouble for some reason. Being a narcissist, he decided in his twisted mind that it should only all be about him. So, he followed Billy with the aim of removing him from the picture.
The motivation for this murder was different from the others, leading to him being less meticulous and sloppy. It may also be down to him getting over-confident after getting away with so much. In any event, he decided to proceed hastily.
The woman would likely have been targeted first; perhaps as she lay asleep in her bed. But he killed her quickly when it became apparent how little Billy cared about her; to him, she would have been little more than a favorite sex doll.
Then a physical confrontation would have ensued. It would have been a clash of titans; The Ripper’s blades versus Billy’s fists. It must have been an epic; either way it was decisive with a bloodied heap left in the room which led to retaliatory attacks against the wrong enemy across the city.
Sean was well prepared for this meeting and made sure he had a position near the front. But there were troubling signals from the very beginning that things were not going to end well. The murmurings were more about gang warfare rather than the work of a serial killer.
Those murmurings reflected the general tone of the meeting that followed. There was no real evidence that The Ripper was involved whatsoever; it didn’t have his signature and was far more likely just made to look like it to cover his tracks. The rest of the meeting was spent erroneously trying draw up a list of suspects from gangland.
Sean wanted to scream that he had the definitive link, that The Ripper had contacted him directly; that what seemed strange from their perspective actually made perfect sense. But he couldn’t, he would implicate himself. So, with increasing sorrow, he watched and listened as the investigation went down the completely wrong track.
Then things went from bad to worse. They stated that there was no match in the database from the blood analysis; this was a sickening blow. Up to that point, Sean had taken solace from the fact that The Ripper would be caught for at least one murder.
The rest of the meeting went in a blur as Sean watched helplessly from the sidelines; it seemed like a sick joke and Sean pondered how much The Ripper would enjoy viewing it if only he could. Sean left abruptly as the meeting ended, too sickened to look another Garda in the eye.
It wasn’t only Sean though that was having a miserable day. Garda Mulhern had been told earlier that day that following Billy’s death, Special Branch would no longer be requiring her services.
She was gutted; this had been her big opportunity to make a breakthrough in her career but it had resulted in failure. Worse still, she was being transferred in her general duties to the Traffic Corps. Special Branch had been blocking the reassignment until now but there was no longer a reason to do so.
Although every Garda was expected to spend at least some time in Traffic, it was something she was hoping to skip; lots of long boring days lay ahead.
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