Autumn of Terror || h.s. au

Chapter 8: A Dull Day

     ^^^Artie

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     "Well, we've got nothing for breakfast," Harry says to Niall as I join them in the kitchen. He's flipping through a newspaper, reading each page intently. "Mary, look at this."

     I walk over to him and sit in the chair nearest to him. "What is it?"

     He points to an article. "Looks like Artie's staying in Whitechapel for a while, working on a story."

     "We should pay him a visit!" I excitedly suggest. Artie is one of our closest friends, and we haven't seen him in a while. He's twenty-nine years old, a few years older than Harry, who's twenty-six. He was born in Scotland and came to Westminster at a young age, like me. Artie used to help us solve mysteries when we were all children, he always had a love for solving mysteries. I remember we impatiently waited every day for the end of the week, when a new penny dreadful would be published. Harry would buy the story for a penny, and then the three of us would read it together. When we grew up, Harry and I decided to continue solving mysteries, while Artie turned to writing. His works are pretty well known, nearly all of his short stories have been published in the papers.

     "Who's Artie?" Niall asks, leaning in to look at the paper.

     "Oh! You've never met him, have you?" I ask, and he shakes his head. "He's a very good friend of ours, and a brilliant man as well. We'll go visit him today, since we have nothing else to do. Does it say where he's staying?"

     Harry looks through the article. "Yes, it says right here that he's staying in an abandoned home by Dutfield's Yard, where Ms. Stride was murdered. He must have heard about the murder and wanted to do some investigating of his own."

     "Well then, let's get going!" I say.

     "Wait, I need to change out of my clothes," Harry says, running up the stairs. Niall and I are already changed, so all I do is put on my coat and boots. Soon after, Harry comes back downstairs and puts his coat and shoes on, as well. We catch a carriage and Harry tells the driver where to go. I excitedly get into the carriage with a huge smile on my face. It really has been too long since I've last seen Artie. Harry and Niall climb into the carriage after me, and it leaves. I don't wish to waste this day by meeting my old friend rather than finding the Ripper, but there isn't much we can do until we speak to Mr. Cutbush tomorrow.

     "So what's he like?" Niall asks us. "Your friend, Artie."

     Harry speaks up. "He's intelligent and won't let you forget it. He used to love running around and solving mysteries with us, but now he's more into writing fictional mysteries than solving real ones. We've got one of the first printed copies of his first mystery novel, he wanted us to have it before anyone else did. The rest of his stories were published in the papers, but I heard he's got a new novel in the works."

     "Well, I can't wait to meet him," Niall responds.

     "And I can't wait to see him again after such a long time," I smile.

     Harry grins. "Yeah, it has been a while. I've missed him."

     I stop thinking about Artie for a moment and my mind goes back to the problem at hand. I can't stop thinking about this case for more than a few minutes, and I hate that I can't do anything about it until tomorrow. I can rule out the possibility of Mr. Cutbush being the Ripper, since he was seen somewhere else at the time of the murders. I knew it couldn't be that easy, but I was wrong in assuming it was him. How could I be so stupid? I had a feeling that something was off about my assumptions, but I didn't realize how off they were. Maybe I'm not as clever as I thought I was.