Random Back Issues #23 - Beware the Creeper #5

I feel like this is what most mysteries I read are thinking of me. The part about being a poor detective, I mean. Hopefully not about being a lousy excuse for a man. That's going a little too far.

The final issue of the Vertigo mini-series finds the citizens of Paris turning against the Creeper, as she's accused of the death of both a small child and a lady of the evening. I would think being excommunicated by the Surrealists would make you their King. Or maybe that's the Dadaists. Madeline is cracking under the pressure as everyone believes her sister Judith is responsible, including Inspector Allain. She's drinking a lot, fending off the lecherous advances of Ernest Hemingway, although he thought she was Judith. Story of Madeline's life, everyone wishing she was her wacky sister.

Allain isn't sure what to do, trying to find the killer who might be a woman he loves, while trying to deal with whatever he feels for her much quieter, more sensible twin sister. Emotions are difficult, so he focuses on work.

The Creeper appears in the home of the crazy rich boy and frustrated painter Mathieu Abrogast, who is the actual killer but protected by his mother's wealth and influence. Not protected from an angry lady in a costume with a sword, though. The Creeper forces a confession from him and hauls him away.

While all that's happening, the cops are nosing through the sisters' home, only to learn one of them is dead, and has been for some time. The Creeper tosses Allain a note, telling him to come to the Eiffel Tower alone. Once there, he gets ambushed and loses his gun to one of two people dressed as the Creeper. One's tied up, the other's extremely pissed.

Allain only finally figures out which sister he's actually dealing with at the end. Too late to keep Madeline from leaping off the Tower with Mathieu in tow. Allain finds Mathieu's body on the ground, the note pinned to it, right before the lights on the Tower overload and go dark. Allain goes ahead and fudges his report to pin all the Creeper's actions on Mathieu, and leaves out the part where there was a harness hanging from the Tower, suggesting Madeline is still alive somewhere. Assuming she didn't burn up when the wooden scaffolding did.

Allain's left to mourn how much of a dumbass he was, and undoubtedly become one of those detectives who drinks too much while listening to jazz to cope with how emotionally closed off he is.

{2nd longbox, 182nd comic. Beware the Creeper (vol. 2) #5, Jason Hall (writer), Cliff Chiang (artist), Dave Stewart (colorist), John Workman (letterer)}