At least that cleared things up. I almost appreciated how unambiguous it was.

Stephen was in the study room with us about a minute later. He took the phone out of my hand and quickly scanned through the text messages.

“All different numbers,” he said. “Do you recognize any of them?”

I shook my head. He already had his own phone out and was making a call.

“I need a trace on some text messages . . .”

He rattled off the numbers from the messages and hung up without saying good-bye. Boo was already on her computer.

“King William Street station,” Boo said. “I looked it up. It’s a disused Tube station just north of London Bridge.”

Stephen looked over her shoulder at the entry on the station.

“What’s this down here?” he said, pointing. “Also the scene of a failed drugs bust in 1993 that resulted in the death of six undercover police officers.”

“Bit of a strange coincidence that he wants to meet Rory at an abandoned station where six police officers died, isn’t it?” Boo asked.

“Very,” Stephen said. “There’s a link to an article. Click on that.”

They were still scanning this when Stephen’s phone started to ring. He answered it and listened, mumbling a few yeses, then hung up.

“They traced the texts,” he said. “All different phones, all triangulated to a pub two streets over. There’s a party in there tonight. We can trace all the owners, but that’s irrelevant. He’s just picking up phones. What matters is that he’s close by.”

“Which is fine,” Boo said. “We’re ready for him. This thing about the station . . . he can’t mean it.”

I pulled Boo’s laptop over. They were reading from a “this day in history” news site. Down the left side of the page, there was a column of photographs, the faces of the victims.

At first I thought I was imagining things. I definitely wasn’t feeling right in the head.

“I don’t like it,” Stephen said, taking off his helmet and setting it on the table. He rubbed his hands through his hair until it stuck up. “We know he’s close to this building right now. Why tell her to go across town to some old station?”

“Maybe he wants her to come out, and he kills her when she does?”

“Possibly,” Stephen said.

I ignored the casual way they were talking about my impending murder. My attention was still drilled on the screen. No. It wasn’t my imagination at all.

“He wants me to go to where he died,” I said.

Boo and Stephen both looked at me. I pointed to the fifth picture down the side of the screen.

“That’s him,” I said, pointing to the bald man smiling back at us. “That’s the Ripper.”

Chapter 31

31

A LONG SILENCE GREETED THIS ANNOUNCEMENT.