31 Plays in 31 Days, #30 - "The Lair"

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An outdated and very abbreviated scene with some spoilery details omitted just to have something to post. It leads roughly into 2018's Day #6 - "Planning the Approach."



Day #30 - "The Lair"
From Mrs. Hawking VI
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~

London, England, 1888

VICTORIA HAWKING, lady's society avenger, late forties
ELIZABETH FROST, former criminal mastermind, now institutionalized, early fifties
~~~

(The asylum. MRS. HAWKING prepares herself as MRS. FROST draws on a map.)

MRS. FROST:

She knew all the while, didn't she?

MRS. HAWKING:

He was too useful to cut loose, except now that he's completely beyond control.

(Pause.)

MRS. HAWKING:

I ought to cut him down on the carpet in his office on Harley Street.

MRS. FROST:

How quiet is it when such a man is found murdered in his bed? It’ll have to be in whatever lair he keeps in Whitechapel.

MRS. HAWKING:

I sent Clara to look into Harley Street physicians doing charity work there. But there’s no time to waste waiting.

MRS. FROST:

Ah, yes, your charming niece-in-law. In that case, we’ll do it the old-fashioned way. Eliminating the very public establishments, the ones explored by the police… and all the partitioned residential flats. Even in Whitechapel, it’s not the sort of work that can bear the scrutiny of the neighbors.

MRS. HAWKING:

I imagine there were quite a few bodies to spirit out of the place, when he first started indulging his impulses.

MRS. FROST:

Which narrows his prospects considerably, to our advantage. Therefore… given the spread of proximity, and the path from the Eddowes scene to the bloody scrap of her apron found on Goulston Street… there.

MRS. HAWKING:

How can you be sure?

MRS. FROST:

Close enough. You may have to do a little reconnaissance. But you’re good at that, dear boss. And you’ll be in uniform again.

(Pause.)

MRS. FROST:

It’s been some time, hasn’t it? Since you could solve a problem the straightforward way. Not since the children came into things, I imagine.