Sewer Mayhem

by Annie Appleton

  ‘Cute waiter?’

  ‘You know, the Italian one with the beautiful eyelashes.’

  It was Jacob’s turn to roll his eyes.

  ‘He told me that Lorenzo was away from the restaurant for twenty minutes on Friday night. No one knew where he was and it was a nuisance as it was their busiest time. Apparently he gave no explanation when he returned.’ Emily’s eyes gleamed. ‘And the most interesting thing is that it was around eight, right at the time that Nate was supposed to have been murdered. Could it have been Lorenzo that killed him?’

  ‘Hmm… that is interesting indeed.’ Jacob plucked at the sleeve of his coat. ‘I just wonder what his motive could be. And don’t forget that at 8 pm on Friday night it’s still pretty busy on Woolaston Road. Why haven’t any witnesses come forward to say that they saw someone go into the shop?’

  ‘Perhaps they have and McDermott is keeping it under his hat. In any case, those questions can be answered later,’ Emily said. ‘We first need to find out if Lorenzo actually could have made it from the restaurant and back unseen in twenty minutes, with time to kill Nate.’ She grabbed Jacob by the arm. ‘Let’s do a test!’

  ‘I was on my way to check my computer.’ Jacob stopped walking.

  Emily’s shoulders dropped. ‘Can’t that wait for a bit? It’s not going to take long. Please?’

  Jacob looked at her with half a smile. ‘Okay, let’s go.’

  They continued walking down Milbury Road.

  ‘How do you plan on doing this?’ Jacob said.

  ‘I’ll show you.’

  Emily took Jacob into the alleyway behind Sant’Ambrogio’s. They hovered near the back door. ‘We can assume that Lorenzo left the restaurant from here. They would have seen him go out, if he had used the front door.’ She fiddled with her phone. ‘Now let’s time how long it takes us to walk to Nate’s shop.’

  They set off at a brisk pace, turning into Woolaston Road, walking past the side of the restaurant, across the road and past the shopfronts, until they reached Field’s Watches & Clocks.

  ‘Four minutes,’ Emily said, looking at her phone.

  ‘That would give him ample time to kill Nate and return to Sant’Ambrogio’s,’ Jacob said. ‘But he wouldn’t be able to do that unseen. Far too many eyes on him along Woolaston Road.’

  ‘Let’s walk back, but try to remain unseen.’ Emily tapped the screen of her phone. ‘Go.’

  Staying close to the shops, they left Woolaston Road the first chance they got, by turning into Mortar Street. From there it was a short walk to the alleyway behind the shops.

  As they passed the back door to Posh Nosh, Peggy came out, her arms full of flattened cardboard boxes.

  ‘Emily,’ she said. ‘You forgot to take these to the bin. How often do I need to tell you?’

  Without stopping, Emily shrugged her shoulders. ‘No time for that now, we’re doing a test.’

  ‘A test?’

  ‘Keep walking,’ Emily said to Jacob, and they left Peggy behind.

  It didn’t take long until they exited the alleyway, next to Dave’s office on Upper Tile Street. Emily wanted to walk on, but Jacob stopped her.

  ‘Wait a minute. How long did that take us?’

  Emily stopped the counter. ‘Five minutes.’

  ‘It might be an idea to do two tests from here,’ Jacob said. He pointed towards Woolaston Road. ‘One that way, which will take us past the windows of the restaurant, and one the other way, via the alleyway that leads to River Street, which would make Lorenzo invisible to anyone in the restaurant.’

  ‘Good thinking.’

  It took them only one minute to walk from Dave’s office to the back door of Sant’Ambrogio’s via Woolaston Road, making it a total of six minutes from Nate’s shop.

  Walking back to Dave’s office for the other test, Jacob eyed the large windows of the restaurant. ‘Someone would certainly have seen Lorenzo pass these windows if he had taken this way. My money is on the River Street route.’

  From Dave’s office they ducked into the alleyway behind the houses on Woolaston Road. It was a curved one that ended up on River Street, which was past the restaurant. From here it was only a short walk back to Woolaston Road and into the alleyway to the back door of Sant’Ambrogio’s.

  Emily looked at her phone. ‘Eight minutes for the River Street route to get to Field’s.’

  ‘That means it would have taken Lorenzo sixteen minutes to get from the restaurant to the shop and back, virtually unseen, with time to stab Nate.’

  ‘So it’s physically possible that he killed him.’

  ‘Yes.’ Jacob nodded. ‘But why would he? What were he and Nate talking about when you saw them on Wednesday? Is it possible that he went back to the shop two days later to talk to Nate again, and that things got out of hand?’

  From behind the wall came the sound of the back door to the restaurant opening. Two men started talking. Jacob held up his hand and they strained their ears to hear what was said.

  ‘Are you telling me you never noticed anything at all?’ the first man said.

  The second man spoke. ‘No, I didn’t. Do you realise that this only makes you a suspect? Better keep your head down.’ Footsteps came closer.

  Jacob and Emily jumped as the back door suddenly opened and Lorenzo Jr and his brother Gianni walked out. Lorenzo stared at them, his eyebrows in a frown. ‘What are you doing standing here?’

  ‘Oh, er… We’ve been wanting to ask you some questions,’ Jacob said. ‘Would now be a convenient time?’

  ‘Actually, no,’ Gianni said, looking down his nose from Jacob to Emily. He gave his brother a push. ‘We need to do some last minute shopping for tonight’s evening service, don’t we?’

  ‘Yeah, right.’ Together the two men disappeared down the alleyway. Gianni gave them a glance over his shoulder.

  ‘They’re lying,’ Emily said, watching them go around the corner. ‘The restaurant is closed on Monday nights.’

  ‘Interesting.’ Jacob put his notebook back in the pocket of his lab coat. ‘When I saw them together before in the crowd of the crime scene it didn’t seem there was much love lost between the two brothers. So why does Gianni see the need to defend his brother now?’

  Emily shrugged. ‘We don’t actually know what they were talking about, do we? Could be any number of things.’

  ‘It’s too much of a coincidence if you ask me,’ Jacob said. ‘Seems like Lorenzo is avoiding us.’

  ‘Well, seeing as we hardly know him, it’s not that strange that he does.’

  ‘Still, he would have realised by now that we’re looking into Nate’s death. Him running off like that wouldn’t help his case if he had nothing to do with it.’

  ‘True,’ Emily said. Jacob was right and this gave her even more of a bad feeling about Lorenzo.

  * * *

  Paddy

  ‘Wake up, wake up!’

  I opened one eye and saw Leo jumping up and down in front of me. Apparently I didn’t wake up fast enough, as he bit me in the ear and shrieked, ‘They’re here, wake up!’

  I swatted at him.

  ‘Who’s here?’ Vinnie said from the other side of our digs. He yawned and looked at Leo, who was now pulling at my tail.

  ‘Stop that. I’m awake!’ I said. ‘Just tell us what’s going on.’

  Leo threw a glance over his shoulder to the opening of our digs. ‘The Three Bambini! They’re here!’ His eyes were wide with fear. ‘Victor, Dino and Sal. They just walked into the sewers!’

  ‘But how can they just have walked in?’ I said. The fur on my scalp pricked a bit. ‘Who was on patrol?’

  Leo’s whiskers drooped and he looked down at the ground. ‘I was, but I fell asleep.’

  ‘No matter now,’ Vinnie said and touched him on the shoulder. ‘It’s been a tiring few days for all of us.’

  ‘Where are they?’ I said, my breathing fast. After all the stories I’d heard about the Rat Mafia in the past few days, I’d come to realis
e that my earlier relaxed attitude about them was perhaps a mistake.

  ‘Gus has gone to meet them near our digs, while I came to warn you guys,’ Leo said. ‘We’re so lucky that Gus hid his treasure somewhere else.’

  Leo looked from Vinnie to me, his eyes huge. ‘Please come!’ His legs were trembling. ‘Maybe Victor will back out if he sees more rats.’

  ‘Of course we’ll come,’ I said and scrambled up. I was now fully awake and despite being nervous, I was curious to see the rats who could strike fear into everyone’s heart from miles away.

  Single file, we went down into the sewer. Near Gus and Leo’s digs, we found three rats swaggering about as if they owned the place. Two of them were considerably larger than the third one, muscles rippling under their dark fur. The smaller rat had lighter fur and was missing a large chunk out of his right ear. All three of them had adorned themselves with necklaces made out of paper clips.

  Gus was watching them from a little distance, his ears and whiskers drooped and fur lying flat.

  ‘Leo!’ The rat with the missing piece of ear pushed roughly past Gus and strutted towards us. ‘My little cousin! I haven’t seen you in ages. How are you?’

  Leo stood rooted to the ground, rigid with fear.

  ‘Victor,’ he said, his voice a whisper.

  Victor grinned and looked around. ‘So nice to have a family reunion! We should’ve done this ages ago.’ He clapped Leo on the shoulder.

  I watched as Leo shrunk into a ball. My ears tingled and a shiver went down my tail. This rat pretended to be nice, but his eyes were cold and calculating. His brothers, Dino and Sal, stood a few steps behind him, fake grins on their faces. One of them continually scanned the sewers as if anticipating trouble.

  ‘This is a great place you’ve got here, cousins.’ Victor looked up and down the sewer tunnel. ‘Nice and central. Ideal for expanding my territory. I bet it’s close to the turn-off to Fulford?’

  Gus gave a tiny nod.

  ‘And the centre of York isn’t that far away either, is it?’ Victor walked past us and looked down the side-pipe where the digs were that Vinnie and I shared.

  ‘You’re lucky to live on such a crossroads of tunnels,’ Victor continued. ‘This would suit my purposes very well.’

  He looked over his shoulder. ‘Won’t it, brothers?’ Dino and Sal nodded, baring their yellow teeth in an ugly grin.

  Victor stepped up to Gus. He came so close that their noses almost touched. His fake smile disappeared.

  ‘Of course there is no way we would let anyone live here who isn’t a full-blood Italian.’ He waved a paw at Vinnie and me. ‘You and your little friends better find another place to live.’

  Gus’ whole body trembled from his nose to the tip of his tail. His fur matted. Fear and despair paralysed him.

  I looked at Victor, who stared back at me with a sneer on his face. I noticed that his necklace had the ring-pull of a tin can as an extra piece of adornment his brothers didn’t have. Obsession with jewellery obviously ran in the family.

  ‘You’re not a real Italian either, Victor,’ Gus said in a whisper, finding his voice. ‘Your mother’s only half-Italian.’

  ‘Wanna talk about mothers, cousin?’ Victor’s eyes bore into Gus’, who cringed and tried not to step backwards. ‘At least my mother was smart enough to find a full-blood Italian mate and one of The Family as well. Your mother made the stupid decision to fall for a pale little Englishman.’

  Victor looked over his shoulder to his brothers and grinned. ‘On top of that, she’s a crazy hoarder who dreams of getting rich. Had she chosen her mate smartly like my Mammina, your mother would be rich now as well.’

  With a shriek, Leo jumped forward to attack Victor, but Vinnie managed to grab him by the tail and stop him. In a flash, Dino and Sal had pushed Victor behind them, safe from Leo’s outstretched paws. They looked down on Leo, muscles flexing, daring him to attack again.

  Anger welled up inside me. My nostrils flared and baring my teeth, I took a step towards Victor. ‘How dare you come here and threaten us? This is our territory! Go back to Hull and leave us in peace!’

  I stood trembling on my legs. I didn’t care if these were the most dangerous rats in Yorkshire. This was no way to treat each other.

  Victor studied me.

  ‘If I’m not mistaken you’re Paddy, my cousin Vinnie’s little friend. I know all about you.’ Victor walked a little circle around me, checking me out.

  ‘For example,’ he continued. ‘I know where your family lives… Irish, aren’t they? How sad your dear mama chose the wrong family as well.’

  My blood had run cold. How did Victor know about my family?

  Victor looked around, seemingly bored with it all. ‘I’m tired now and want to take a nap. Are there any nice digs around here?’ His eyes fell on Gus and Leo’s digs. ‘Those will do fine.’

  He strode past us. Dino and Sal followed. ‘Thanks for letting me move in. Now leave my sewer at once. Pronto!’

  Gus looked from Victor’s retreating back to us. He sighed, then said in a loud voice, ‘If you want us to leave we’ll leave, but don’t imagine that you’ve seen the last of us.’

  Victor snorted. ‘Empty threats from a runty little Inglese.’

  As I followed Gus and Leo out of the sewer, my dread made way for anger.

  ‘I can’t believe we are giving in to them so easily!’ I said, hitting the wall of the side-pipe with my clenched paw. ‘How can you let them do that to you?’

  ‘You don’t know them like we do,’ Gus said, looking over his shoulder at me. ‘It’s better to let them think we gave in and go back later to confront them.’

  ‘That’s indeed the best plan,’ Vinnie said, giving me a nudge to keep me moving. ‘Regroup first, then make a plan to beat them.’

  ‘It’ll better be a good plan, as I don’t want those idiots anywhere near my family,’ I muttered.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  No! This couldn’t be! Jacob stared at the test results his computer had printed out in the night. Results was actually the wrong word, as there were none. None at all! The printout was virtually an empty piece of paper.

  His computer had been gathering, filtering and calculating all the possible sequences for the word ‘tricycle’ for days and come up with no results at all. He crumpled up the piece of paper and threw it across the shed. It couldn’t be true that the forty-plus years since Robbie had disappeared had left no digital imprint at all. No events to cross reference, no documents to crawl, no sequences to build up. Why not? Angry tears welled up in his eyes and he stumbled to his chair. It creaked as he sagged down.

  There was no way he could accept that there was nothing to find. Clearly something had gone wrong, but what?

  He slammed his fist on the desk. He had worked for years on this project. He had built the computer with his bare hands, scouring old mainframes for parts to make sure it would be able to handle bulk data processing the way he wanted it to. He wrote and implemented all the code and now it looked like it had been all for nothing.

  The first proper test he did and things had gone belly up immediately. How was that possible? He had been so sure that all his calculations were correct. The computer should have worked.

  He looked at the piles of paper on his desk. All the hard work he had done to get to this point. All for nothing. With a sweep of his arm he shoved the papers to the ground, where they carpeted the ground white. What was the point of all his work if it never resulted in a solution? All the time and the money he had spent over the years wasted.

  He was not one step closer to solving Robbie’s disappearance. He had been a fool to think he could solve it by building a computer and designing all the software himself. No wonder everyone called him the crazy professor. He might as well give up.

  With slumped shoulders he made his way across the floor strewn with his life’s work. He never wanted to set foot in this infernal shed again.

  Walking down Milbury Hill, Jacob w
as glad not to meet anyone. It was still early in the morning after all. He needed to teach a class a little later on, but he couldn’t think what the subject would be. How could he teach these young kids, if everything he had done in the forty-two years since Robbie disappeared, had amounted to exactly nothing?

  There were footsteps behind him, but he tried to ignore them.

  ‘Hey, Jacob. Wait up!’ came the voice of a woman. He turned around to see Colleen Frost walking towards him.

  ‘Isn’t it lovely here on this hill in the quiet of the morning?’ Colleen fell into step with him. ‘Are you on your way to the school? I have the first period off, but I thought I’d go anyway and familiarise myself a bit more. Always a bit of a challenge starting somewhere new.’

  Jacob stared at the ground and kept walking in silence.

  ‘I’ve found a lovely little apartment on the other side of the hill. It looks out over the racecourse, so it has a great view. They were letting up hot air balloons this morning. Quite a fascinating sight.’

  They had reached the bottom of Milbury Hill and turned into Milbury Road. Was there a way he could get rid of this woman?

  ‘Did you hear another shop was burgled last night?’ Colleen seemed determined to keep talking, whether Jacob replied or not. ‘Apparently it was the arts and crafts shop this time. I went in there yesterday. A lovely little shop. I had a nice chat with the owner. Spencer, isn’t it? I guess it will be all a big mess now. Who would want to burgle an arts and crafts shop? Nothing but ribbons and pencils to find there.’ She poked Jacob in the ribs with her elbow and he grimaced back at her, taking a step aside at the same time.

  ‘But seriously,’ Colleen continued. ‘It must be stressful to live in a neighbourhood where crime is rife.’

  Jacob stared at her. ‘Crime is rife?’ An anger welled up inside him. It seemed to come all the way from his toes and made him hot in the face. How could a stranger, who’d only been in Milbury for a week, say such things? What did she know about it?

  Colleen still seemed oblivious that Jacob wasn’t really listening to her. ‘There was a murder last week,’ she said, ‘and I heard that there were some more earlier in the year. And now there’s been some burglaries. Sounds like a crime spree to me. Perhaps I should pack up and live somewhere safer?’