Jack the Ripper Doesn't Exist

Scene 4

ABBERLINE: I knew I was embarking on another wild goose chase.

KELLY: It must have been quite a trip. You came down here from Bournemouth, right?

ABBERLINE: Did you learn that here? At the asylum?

KELLY: Hell, took me two days to get down here from London. Course, I was walkin’. I’m sure you came much faster.

ABBERLINE: It still took me most of the morning.

KELLY: Why would you do that to yourself? I bet there’s a whole mess’a clocks that need fixin’.

ABBERLINE: A colleague of mine happened to be visiting the day your letter arrived. He was quite enamored with you back then.

KELLY: What got him so excited?

ABBERLINE: He seems to think you stuck around London after you escaped.

KELLY: But you wouldn’t even consider it.

ABBERLINE: If I were you, I’d be on a tramp ship for America the next day.

KELLY: I didn’t want to leave London, Inspector. I didn’t know anything else. I only went to America when I was finished here.

ABBERLINE: How could I forget? You had important work to do.

KELLY: If you don’t believe me, why’d you come down here?

ABBERLINE: Two hours of pleading and a bottle of expensive Scotch. Nothing more.

KELLY: And you know I ain’t tellin’ the truth?

ABBERLINE: I suppose I can tell an honest face.

KELLY: You didn’t know I was lying when you caught me.

ABBERLINE: I never caught Jack the Ripper.

Continued Thursday