The Adventure of the Copper Beeches: The Piper (R)

[vaysh]

Canon Story: The Adventure of the Copper Beeches
Title: The Piper
Author: vaysh
Words: 60
Rating: R (for violence)
Author's Notes: Darkly inspired by the line 'a child who may some day play a considerable part in the history of the country.'


Twenty years after the Whitechapel murders, another killer haunts the East End. Witnesses describe him of small build, dressed in a frock of electric blue. He kills with a hammer, a blow smack on the head of his victims, three so far, all with chestnut hair. The Piper, the press calls him, as vermin is said to follow his path.

Comments

[debriswoman]

Grimly possible...

[vaysh]

Holmes pretty much gave me the clue. :)

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Very interesting development.

[vaysh]

I've read so many serial killer novels; it seemed like an exemplary childhood for one.

[tripleransom.livejournal.com]

Eeek!

Well, Rucastle said he was a child who "may some day play a considerable part in the history of the country".

[vaysh]

He did so say, and I couldn't help make it even more ironic than the story itself suggests.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Given the ghastly child's propensities? How very likely that would be. (And how ironic if Holmes collared him.)

[vaysh]

Modern profiling would totally make a case for the child turning into a serial killer. It would be doubly and triply ironic of Holmes then got him.

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Jonathan Kellerman would have needed 500 pages to write that.

An excellent and original 60. The chestnut hair is a brilliant touch.

[vaysh]

Aw, thank you so much. It may be a tad more suspenseful to read a Jonathan Kellerman novel. :)
In my mind, the boy was both jealous of his sister (what with all the attention she was getting, thus killing people with chestnut-coloured hair), and he wanted to be her (thus the electric blue frock).

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Brilliant. This is such an inventive interpretation of Rucastle's pompously boastful line. Reading the story with a modern eye, you do think: torturing animals - psychopath. Must admit I hadn't given great thought to Edward's future but this is horribly plausible. And that detail that "vermin is said to follow" him just subtly adds to the horror.

Before reading your answers to the comments, I had wondered if Edward's choice of outfit and victims indicated that he despised women because he'd had the example of how his father maltreated his sister. Or maybe it indicated his hatred and obsession for Miss Hunter because she'd been the first woman not to let him have all his own way, and she was the one who indirectly led to his father's downfall.

[vaysh]

Thank you. ♥ I was rather impressed by Holmes (aka ACD) for focusing on the child's "disposition" to extreme cruelty being a reflection of his parents' behaviour.