“It sounds like it,” Quinn acknowledged with a sigh. “Who found her? And where?”
“Her sister found her,” Pond informed him. “Daisy had been staying at a boarding house since Polly’s murder. Her sister went to visit her and found her dead in her bed.”
Quinn opened his door wider and gestured for Pond to come in. “Can you make some coffee while I go up and get ready?” There was no way he could face all this on only three hours of sleep unless he got a little coffee in him.
“Of course, sir,” Pond agreed. “I’d be happy to.”
* * *
AN HOUR LATER, QUINN stood in a rundown boarding house, staring down at Daisy Upton’s savaged body. He swallowed thickly, shaking his head as he took in all the damage that had been done to her. She’d been cut open just as Polly had, and between her feet lay a naked photo of her with the word whore scrawled across it in red ink. The handwriting appeared the same. Within a matter of minutes, he came to the same conclusion Ness had.
“Bloody hell,” he said explosively. “This is the last thing we need.”
Ness nodded, his blue eyes haunted. He’d been here nearly two hours already, so he’d had a chance to take it all in. “I talked to the woman who runs the boarding house. She says nobody heard anything last night.”
“Just like with Polly,” Quinn said with a sigh, having a feeling he’d be saying that a lot as they investigated Daisy’s death.
“She also said Daisy had kept to herself since she moved in, seemed scared. She thought she was hiding out from someone.” Ness frowned sadly. “Why didn’t she come to us? I’m certain she knew who killed Polly, and she was scared he’d do the same to her.”
“Well, she was right,” Quinn said, drifting around the room, trying to find something that the killer might have left behind like last time. “Whoever it is, they must be powerful. She was probably afraid we couldn’t protect her from him.”
“The bastard!” Ness muttered. “He knows it too. Whoever he is, he thinks his wealth and power make him invincible. And the worst thing is, it does.”
“Now that he’s killed twice, do you think he’ll keep on killing? Or do you think he had some reason why he wanted these two women in particular dead? Did they know something they shouldn’t?” Quinn mused.
“I hope that it stops here,” Ness replied, shaking his head. “But I’m afraid there will be more.”
“We’re just going to have to catch him then,” Quinn said matter-of-factly, though they still had hardly anything to go on. “Have you already questioned everyone who lives here?”
“Some of them. A few aren’t home. I have Ivers and Skinner working on that. Solomon’s on his way down to take the pictures.”
Quinn managed a smile for his sergeant. “Excellent. You’ve handled everything exactly as I would have.”
“You look like shite, Inspector. You haven’t been sleeping, and I’m sorry I had to wake you. But I figured you’d want to see it before we cleaned it all up,” Ness told him.
“I’m fine,” Quinn assured him. “You did right to wake me. I can sleep when I’m dead, right?”
Ness laughed. “I suppose so.”
Quinn turned back to Daisy, frowning as he looked at the messy, jagged cuts on her abdomen. “Everyone always thought the Ripper had some medical training or at least was a butcher with some knowledge of anatomy. This killer doesn’t seem to have any knowledge of such things. He just slashes indiscriminately.”
“He wants everyone who sees it to be shocked and horrified,” Ness agreed. “The bloodier, the better.”
“It’s so violent that he must hate them.” Quinn pointed to Daisy’s throat. “But once again, it seems that he slit her throat first, then committed the rest of this brutality later, after she was dead.”
“Does he kill them this way so that he can do the rest without getting caught, or does he not have the stomach to take a knife to them while they’re still alive?” Ness shook his head. “The girls are already dead when he starts cutting, so it’s not the murder itself that thrills him.”
Quinn pointed to the naked picture of Daisy. “I know this is important. He’s obviously trying to tell us something.”
“What? That a known prostitute is a whore?” Ness’s voice was heavy with frustration.
“No,” Quinn replied. “I think it’s more than that. He feels personally betrayed by these girls in some way.”
Raking his hand through his hair, Ness sighed. “I don’t know if I even want to try to figure out what’s going on in this monster’s head.”
“Neither do I,” Quinn said. “But we have to if we’re ever going to stop him.”
Eben Solomon arrived, interrupting their conversation. The older man dragged his heavy equipment into the room, then stopped at the sight of Daisy’s body. “I don’t think you coppers are paying me enough to do this,” he said with a shudder. “I had nightmares for days after the last one.”