Chapter 24
The scream came from close by, and James and Edwards looked at one another.
“Circle the block!” the alderman cried, and he ran one way around the building and Edwards the other. As James rounded a second corner, he saw something hunched over in the street, and as he ran towards it he shouted, “You, stop!”
Whatever it was, it didn’t look at him but instead set off in the opposite direction. James bounded after it, glancing at the stricken woman on the ground as he passed. She was alive but badly mauled, but he couldn’t stop to aid her if he wanted to catch the monster and stop this from happening to anyone else.
“Woman attacked in the lane by coffee house, Edwards,” he shouted. “I’m chasing the attacker!”
Up ahead, he saw the black shape moving between shadows, keeping close to the wall as it ran. Its movements were strange, but with the constant changing of the light he didn’t get to study them. It passed by a lantern, and for an instant, the large back was lit up; it was covered in dark hair or fur. It was an animal!
It rounded a corner, and only then did the alderman get a sense that it might have looked at him; he saw a quick side profile and saw the massive jaws and teeth for a moment. As he rounded the corner, James couldn’t see it anymore, but he kept on running, knowing now that if he stopped, he wouldn’t be able to start again. His own clattering footsteps echoed in his ears, and then he heard something else from above. He looked up and saw something try to evade his glance on top of the building next to him.
James, without stopping, reeled towards the building, jumped up, and used the frame of a door to bound himself up towards a window and ledge, and then he slipped and held on with his fingers. He got a better grip and pulled himself up before adjusting on the sill and dragging himself up onto the roof.
When he finally dragged his body up and over the edge, he kneeled up and looked around. A building or two away, saw the creature drop back down to street level and out of sight. James was panting heavily, and he couldn’t get up from his knees, which were bleeding now from the climb up here.
“The Dolocher is on Meath Street!” he called out, desperately hoping that someone on that same street would hear his cry and apprehend the monster. No reply came back, and it was quiet save for the alderman’s laboured breaths.
When he got back to where the attack had happened, he saw that the woman was on the ground and Edwards had covered her with his coat, all the way up over her face. James looked at him in surprise.
“Literally this minute,” Edwards said sadly. “I sent a boy for the doctor, but he hasn’t arrived yet.”
James bent down and lifted the coat to look at the woman. Her throat was gashed severely several times, but there were not, at first glance, many more marks on her body. The thought crossed his mind that perhaps all the other victims were actually already dead when the worst of their wounds was inflicted—that was, if it always went for the throat first. The idea that somehow all the suffering might have been lessened a little was of small comfort to him.
“You saw it, then?” Edwards asked. James nodded. “Man?”
“I couldn’t be sure what it was. It was so dark, and it kept to the shadows. It seemed to know how to use the light at every turn.”
“Did you call out about Meath Street?”
“Yes, that was me. He went up on a roof, and I couldn’t follow fast enough. When I got up there, I saw it drop into Meath Street, but there was no way I was going to catch up by then.”
“Your hands are bleeding, Alderman,” Edwards said. “And your legs. Did it injure you?”
“No, I never got near it.”
He looked down at his knees and saw the blood coming through the coarse brown wool of his britches and running into his cream stockings. His left knee was still bleeding, but the right had stopped and a dark splotch sat around a hole at his knee. He looked at his hands; they were cut badly. He was pumping blood like a bare-fist brawler, and he could feel his heartbeat in his knuckles as he closed his hand. As he looked at his hands, he noticed he was trembling.
Edwards held out a small bottle for him. “Just the effect of the chase and the excitement on the system, Alderman.”
He took the bottle and took a swig, and he felt the brandy burn as he did. It was strong stuff. The doctor arrived then, and the two men looked at him and shook their heads. He bent to the woman and looked under the cloak.
“Terrible, terrible,” was all he said, and he stood back up. Both James and Edwards could see that he wanted to ask what had happened, and that the answer would not be the Dolocher, but he was sensible enough not to ask and have himself disappointed.
The soldiers arrived on the scene. James ordered them to search the streets in increasing circles from Meath Street, but he was not hopeful that they would find anything. The chance to catch the killer had come and gone in moments, and James felt that he would never see that dark, shadow-shifting creature ever again. He would feel the regret of letting Dublin down forever more, especially when the next killing took place.
“I need to get fitter if I’m ever going to be able to catch that thing,” he said finally to Edwards when they were alone again.
“Keep this up every night, and you will get fitter, Alderman.” He smiled.
“I’m growing tired of this cycle, Edwards. I walk the street. I have soldiers walk the streets. Every time, we miss the attack.”
“But not tonight.”
“The woman is still dead, and we don’t have him in custody.”
“It was close, though, and next time we will get him.”
“I don’t want there to be a next time,” James said with a terrible, sad tiredness.
Edwards didn’t say anything for a few moments, but then he looked at the alderman seriously.
“If there is no next time, we will never catch him.”