Quill realized something which gave him some small satisfaction. ‘And being a former copy boy and subeditor, your version of the message just had to have proper spelling and grammar.’

Vincent looked astonished for a moment. Then he started to laugh. ‘Oh! Oh, I hadn’t realized. But you’re right. That’s tremendous. You have to give me credit for the intelligence of the wider scheme, though. As well as being of practical use, the Ripper icon became just what I needed to lead the Summer of Blood. I’d found the greatest outrage marketing brand of all time. The greatest aspirational cheerleader figure also, free and happy in his work, encouraging people to copy him. The Ripper gets people furious and interested and aroused all at the same time, and it can mean anything.’

Quill understood that Ross had been right when she’d said that the most important indicator was the Ripper’s new MO: killing rich powerful men, and that Costain had been right about the scrawled message being just a load of front. ‘And you being Jewish yourself, as you went out of your way to tell me when we first met—’

‘Led you off into a whole different briar patch of conspiracy theories.’

‘But so many of your people must have been hurt in the riots—’

‘My “people”?’ Vincent actually laughed. ‘I don’t have a people, Quill, I have shareholders. My mother just happened to be Jewish, it’s not like I regard myself as one. Oh, hey, and you also bought that bit about the anonymous death threats, about me being worried by “dark forces”! I do believe most people actually think those are out there, that there’s some sort of … controlling evil under everything. Or, hey, perhaps because of ostentation, now there actually is.’

Quill wondered if Vincent might have a point there, but he didn’t let his face give anything away. The invisible presence in the room shifted, as if reacting to the notion, whether in pleasure or apprehension. ‘You were there before us with ostentation – you must have been.’

‘Well, I had rather got the idea that something like that must happen. When I tried to use Twitter to get together a few Toffs in Staunce’s neighbourhood, to make it look as if they were connected to the Ripper, who was due to make his full debut that night, I thought it was a long shot. But they arrived much more quickly and in greater numbers than they should have. I started to see that they felt somewhat compelled to. Though, if you asked any individual Toff, I doubt they’d realize that.’

‘So you used Staunce to get our home addresses, then killed him when he started to think of turning you in—’