880
The advantage of being from the future is that it lets you cheat on crime investigation. Course, given this is an unsolved case, I can’t just Google the culprit, but at least I know what he’ll do next. The body I saw was Annie Chapman. Which means the next will be Elizabeth Stride and Catherin Eddowes, who both were found on September 30. So it was my goal to see what I could uncover before then.
Did a little groundwork. Went over the murder scene with some modern investigative techniques and tools, but the place had been too contaminated by the era’s clumsy attempts at detective work. Beat up a few of the local thugs to see if they had any info, and then beat up a few others to let out my anger at the lack of any clues the first set provided. Briefly considered just time traveling to the point where the murder happened and catching the killer red handed, but discarded that idea on account of it ruining all the fun of this vacation. Finally just decided to break into Scotland Yard and see if they’d found anything that might be helpful.
With only two murders so far, the case hasn’t reached the massive manhunt which the 21st century knows it for. Still, they’ve got some clues. The 19th century isn’t entirely incompetent, after all. Only mostly incompetent. The current investigator in the case is Edmund Reid, and he was kind enough to leave his notes in an easily accessible locked desk behind a bolted door in a guarded building. Wasn’t much in there that was news to me. I did not with amusement that my presence at the crime scene had been recorded, even if it was an unimportant detail. And then, my eyes fell on a name I hadn’t seen in a long time. “Dorian Gardner.”
Impossible. Dorian Gardner was in America at the time. Or… was he? The Dorian who Lisa had met was from a parallel universe which was destroyed by the Quiet. Perhaps in this one, he came to England?
Had to find out for myself. The name was in reference to a man who had been seen in the area during the estimated time of crime. Shifted my investigations onto him, and eventually tracked him down. Found a carriage which he was supposedly traveling on, and followed it. I could have gone right up to it, or just warped inside, but I wanted to give myself time to think. It was an expensive looking carriage. If this was the same Dorian, he was doing much better in this universe. What should I say to him? Should I try to say anything to him?
The carriage was slowing down. That… that was a very fancy looking building it was stopping in front of. This was a significantly higher class of living than the Dorian I knew. The carriage door opened….
As soon as I felt what was inside that carriage, I knew it wasn’t Dorian. Grendel stepped out, dressed in the era’s highest fashion. When he saw me, he smiled and tipped his hat, then walked inside.
I-330
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