Hands of the Ripper Page #5

Really? Mr Dysart, either you

or Anna killed Mrs Golding.

Oh, come now!

Surely you don't think a

respectable Member of Parliament

goes about murdering people.

If you even suspected I was guilty,

why did you lie to save me?

Because it suited my purpose.

My knowledge of certain

mental diseases

leads me to suspect one of you.

- I could be wrong.

- I saw it. She was possessed.

Her whole body was

contorted. Her hands...

- They weren't her hands.

- Really? Whose were they?

How should I know?

She was possessed.

If she wasn't, how could

she manage, a frail girl,

to drive the poker

through flesh and bone

plus an inch and a half oak door?

The hysteria accompanying

certain disorders

can produce extraordinary strength.

- That's one explanation.

- The other being that I did it?

A possibility.

I don't understand. If you thought

I committed a crime that brutal,

we'd hardly be discussing

it about your home.

- Anna is upstairs at this moment.

- She's what?!

I intend to study her. To do that,

she must remain in my care.

Damn it, she's a possessed

being, as savage as any beast.

Listen to me. Since time began, men

have been murdering one another.

When it happens, we

hunt the murderer down

and use the law to

murder him in return.

We've tortured him, burned him

alive, disembowelled him,

though nowadays we're more

humane... we simply hang him.

And all this time, we have never

once tried to understand him,

to find out why.

Why one human being murders

another human being.

So we go on having murders

and murdering in revenge.

Only the graveyard

worms are richer.

- But she was possessed...

- Nonsense!

I believe the girl is suffering

from a disorder of the mind,

possibly brought on by some

terrifying experience in childhood.

Maybe it was congenital,

but it has divided her mind.

There's an Austrian doctor

called Freud who studied this.

It's called schizophrenia.

He also used a new science

called psychoanalysis

to explore the mind and its

disorders, to find out why.

This is the technique I

would like to use with Anna

but I need your help.

Now perhaps you can understand

my behaviour at the police station.

I want you to use your position

to find out about her past...

her family, where she

lived, everything.

The slightest detail could be vital

to understanding her condition.

- What if she murders somebody else?

- She won't.

Even if she did, to understand

the psychology of murder

would be worth the risk.

And if I refuse?

I might just remember

who it was I saw

leaving the house after the murder.

With greater accuracy this time.

You'd better go the way you came.

One thing you've got

to learn around here

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