The Lazarus Prophecy by F. G. Cottam

investigation was getting nowhere. The newspapers, spread across his considerable desk, bore testimony to the fact.
    He rubbed his face with both hands and lowered them and blinked at her and said, ‘Please tell me we’ve something we can tell them.’
    â€˜We can’t tell them anything, Sir.’
    â€™41 hours have elapsed since Julie Longmuir was butchered. Slightly more than seven weeks have passed since this killer first struck. Four women are dead.’
    â€˜I’m aware of the salient facts, Sir.’
    â€˜The only salient fact, Detective Chief Inspector, is that you have no leads.’
    â€˜We have a fresh line of inquiry, Sir.’
    â€˜Elucidate.’
    â€˜You’ll remember Professor Carter, from Oxford, has been assisting with the translation of the tracts left at the murder scenes?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜He recommended a theologian named Jacob Prior he said could analyze the content of those messages, specifically the most recent. Last night I asked Mr. Prior to construct a profile of the killer based on the Scholar’s areas of academic expertise. He came back to me late this morning. He’s concluded our perpetrator is possibly a renegade priest. He thinks a defrocked Jesuit most likely to fit the profile. I’ve spoken to the Archbishop of the Diocese of London. We’ve been promised full cooperation. They’re going through their records as we speak.’
    â€˜But we can’t share this development with the press because to do so, if Prior is right, would be to warn the Scholar that we’re closing in.’
    The politician in him had elevated a longshot into a development. To Jane the latter term suggested some sort of breakthrough. She didn’t think it wise, though, to contradict her boss just at that moment.
    â€˜My problem with this investigation is that I’m constantly dealing in negatives, Jane. We have a non-secretor who is invisible to CCTV and leaves no fingerprints. He’s an intruder, but he never breaks a window or damages a lock. He doesn’t trigger alarms. No witnesses in the general area at the times he strikes seem capable of noticing him and subsequently providing a description.’
    â€˜He’s been clever and lucky, Sir.’
    Her chief gestured at the black spread of banner headlines fanned out in front of him. ‘I want to be able to take the steam out of this. They’re within their rights to make their Ripper comparisons and demonize the killer. They’re trying to sell papers in the internet age. It’s a tough call. This is a gift to them but it makes us look incompetent.’
    â€˜He doesn’t wear a topper and a cloak and spats. He doesn’t carry a swordstick and travel in a hansom cab. Neither, for that matter, does he travel through time. He wears surgical gloves is all and he’s methodical and cautious.’
    â€˜He carries a scalpel-sharp carving knife and he uses it to butcher women at night, so far with impunity.’
    â€˜He’s flesh and blood and we’ll catch him.’
    â€˜Tell me about this business with Charlotte Reynard. It sounds curious, at the least. You think it was him?’
    â€˜I do.’
    â€˜If he’d succeeded, Jane, I’d be thinking very seriously now about taking you off the case.’
    Jane told him about the Reynard ordeal. She told him about the interview she’d conducted with the dancer in its aftermath. He listened without making eye contact, concentrating intently on what was being said to him as he focused on some neutral spot on the wall behind where she sat.
    â€˜Try to coax her into visiting Julie Longmuir’s apartment. I take it that’s still sealed off?’
    â€˜I didn’t know you believed in that sort of thing, Sir.’
    â€˜We’re desperate, Jane. You’re desperate. I believe in exploring every possible avenue available to us. It’s unconventional but it’s