‘Oh, right.’ Silas sat straight. ‘Everything?’
‘Facts you know to be true,’ Archer clarified. ‘But also anything you might think important. Start with why you went to Cleaver Street. If you hadn’t happened to have been there, we wouldn’t know about this letter.’
‘Luck of the Irish,’ Silas joked, but it fell flat. He had been extremely lucky, but only because he didn’t trust Roxton. ‘I went, because I’ve seen him at that house before.’
‘You think you have,’ Archer corrected.
‘You wanted known facts and suspicions,’ James said, coming to Silas’ aid. ‘Shouldn’t we write down everything?’
‘Quite right, Jimmy.’ Archer nodded. He smiled at Silas to make him feel better, and it helped. ‘So, you had a suspicion that Cadwell uses, or used, Cleaver Street, and you went to ask them?’
‘Yeah, kind of.’
‘Why were you so sure?’
‘It was the overcoat he wore to dinner.’ As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he knew someone would shoot them down, and continued quickly. ‘I saw the same kind of coat on a man at that house in August.’
‘There are plenty of them about,’ Archer said, as expected. He took a sip of coffee and made an appreciative noise before continuing. ‘Friends,’ he said. ‘On the face of it, there is a simple question. Why would anyone want to blackmail Cadwell Roxton?’
‘Because he’s got a nasty secret.’
Archer smiled to show he was not offended by Silas’ mistrust of his friend. ‘Maybe he does,’ he said. ‘Equally, maybe he told you the truth last night when he said he had no idea why he was drugged and taken to Cleaver Street.’
‘If he was drugged.’
‘Indeed, Jimmy. But whether we believe him or not, the fact remains that he was there. Either of his own volition — which I doubt — or because he was kidnapped. We can only work with known facts, and the details, Silas, are?’
Silas repeated his story for Thomas’ benefit. He explained how he had learned the address of the brothel, visited in disguise, and was even more convinced that Roxton used the place to meet a boy called Stella. ‘He likes to meet and beat,’ he said, but no-one found it amusing.
Thomas wrote, grimacing, and it was only when he learned that James had also gone to the house that he looked up sharply.
‘James was following my orders,’ Silas said, before the footman suffered any trouble. ‘It wasn’t his fault, Tommy, and he was excellent in the back of the trap. If Jimmy hadn’t been there, I’d probably have murdered Roxton.’
‘No, it’s not that,’ Thomas said. ‘It’s the fact that the place is now tied to here.’
Archer asked him to explain.
‘It’s obvious to me,’ Thomas began. ‘That whether Silas is right or not, this still has a bearing on you. I don’t mean the blackmail, as that’s what it clearly is, I mean Mr Roxton’s involvement. If it’s a general hatred of men like us, then we must ask why? These people make a living out of men paying for… whatever goes on, but why draw attention to their own illegal brothel? It only makes sense to me if either they want to bring bad publicity to you and the Foundation via Mr Roxton, or he has used the place before, Silas is right, and it’s personal revenge.’
‘Yes, I see all that,’ Archer said. ‘And if it is to do with me, then it’s been made worse by three of my men visiting the place.’ His boyish enthusiasm turned briefly to annoyance, but he was able to smooth it over. ‘And by being there, may have saved my friend’s life, so you don’t need to look so worried, Jimmy. Whether Cadwell has used the whorehouse before, he was there last night and that’s bad enough. Worse, is that he was there so close to our highly publicised gala, and even worse, is this threat against him.’
‘Maybe now is the time to consider the details?’ Thomas suggested. ‘Mr Roxton was found at Cleaver Street, naked and tied to the bed.’
‘Silas rescued him.’
‘We both did, Jimmy.’
‘He denied knowing why he was taken?’ Thomas asked.
Silas nodded. ‘And how he got there.’
‘But he was definitely at the house,’ Archer underlined. ‘As to how? I take his word for it. Yes…’ He interrupted Silas before he had a chance to speak. ‘I know you don’t, but that’s fine too, and I don’t mind. We need to consider all angles, and anything you say about my old friend will have no bearing on what I think of you. Any of you.’
‘You want my opinion?’ Silas said, leaving no room for an answer. ‘His past caught up with him. He has used the place before, done some nasty things to some of the boys, they’ve turned against him and are getting their own back.’
‘Perhaps they were looking for a man in a public position who would respond better to blackmail.’ Thomas thought aloud. ‘He’s not a politician, and I dare say many of them use such places, but he is a man in the news and has a reputation he would, presumably, pay to keep.’
‘Or it could have been random bullying,’ James said, gazing into the middle distance, his face clouded.
‘Too many theories.’ Archer drummed his fingers. ‘Let’s turn to what you overheard.’
Everyone looked at Silas.
‘I didn’t hear much,’ he admitted. ‘Only that they were beating him…’
‘Sounds like a warning to me,’ James put in. ‘I mean, a way of reinforcing their threat.’
‘Which was to do what?’
‘To expose him,’ Silas said. ‘I can’t remember all the words, but the meaning was clear.’
‘What do you recall?’ Thomas asked, checking his notes. ‘Bit by bit.’
‘That someone arrived after I was there, and Danvers said “He” was in the Arabian room.’
‘So, Danvers was expecting Stella?’
‘Yeah, Tom, looks that way,’ Silas nodded. ‘It was the boy they call Stella ’cos I heard him talking about himself. He was a bloke one minute and a woman the next. Pretty good act, I suppose. But then he said something about “You’re not getting away until we get what we want”, or similar.’
‘Did you recognise his voice, Silas?’ Archer asked.
Silas thought carefully. It had been dark. He’d not seen the man’s features, but had been able to concentrate on the voice. There had been something familiar about it, but probably only the accent.
‘It was East End,’ he said. ‘English not immigrant. Least it was when he spoke as a man. After that, it was a girl’s voice with something country about it. Can’t imitate it accurately enough, but I did think I’d heard the voice before.’
‘When you went to the house in August with… Who was it?’
‘Eddie Lovemount,’ James said, and Silas agreed.
‘Ridiculous name,’ Thomas mumbled as he wrote.
‘Yes, well, never mind what this Stella sounds like,’ Archer said. ‘It wouldn’t help much anyway. So, we have Roxton on the bed, and Stella beating him, threatening him to do as they say or…?’
What came next? Silas wished he had written things down as soon as he returned home. A night with Archer, which didn’t stop at sex on the couch, had left him full of erotic thoughts rather than ugly facts.
‘Next,’ he said, closing his eyes to remember. ‘He said that Roxton had his instructions and he was to follow them down to the letter. Only one chance… They don’t want money… “I want your fucking reputation, mate”, were the exact words.’ He said it in Stella’s accent.
‘Could still be a random victim,’ Thomas offered, but Archer countered.
‘Not if he already had instructions.’
‘Yeah, but there was other stuff,’ Silas was sticking up for his theory. ‘Stella said things about how being lashed made you feel worthless like it had been done to him and this was revenge for it. And he said something about takin
g Roxton down the same way as “them others” like others had taken him to a room all posh and sexy, but then turned violent. Sorry, not totally accurate, but that was the gist. You see? Revenge for ill-treatment. He said again that Roxton had to do what he was instructed, or Stella wasn’t going to be happy, as if he was talking about someone else, his other character.’
‘But both voices, both characters, were definitely the same man?’
‘Yes, Archie. To be sure.’
‘Right,’ Archer clapped his hands. ‘If that’s all you can recall, Silas, what else do we have?’
‘In the trap after,’ James said. ‘Silas was a bit miffed, so Fecker sat him upfront…’
‘Yeah, well no need to show me up,’ Silas muttered.
‘Sorry, Mr Hawkins, but you were very angry.’
‘Still am,’ Silas huffed. ‘And there’s no need for Mr Hawkins.’ He winked at James, his usual signal that he was not offended.
‘What about the trap?’ Archer asked.
‘We were bringing him back when he gave us the story about being drugged,’ James continued. ‘Seemed genuine to me. He also denied knowing what they meant about instructions.’
‘They’d only left him his coat, is that right?’ Thomas pointed his pen at Silas, ready to add details to his list.
‘It was all I could find in the rush. I wasn’t hanging about, but ’cos he was naked, couldn’t let him leave with nothing on. He took ages trying to find his clothes, but they weren’t there. I had to drag him away in the end.’
Thomas made another note, and Archer’s face twisted in thought.
‘One thing’s clear,’ he said and waited while the others tried to work out what he meant. ‘He spoke of “us” and “we”, as if he wasn’t acting alone.’
‘He wasn’t,’ Silas agreed. ‘Danvers was expecting Stella, and by the sound of it, Stella hadn’t been the one to drug Roxton, if that’s what happened.’
‘Then it’s a conspiracy,’ Archer said. ‘I told him as much.’
Silas was surprised. ‘You’ve spoken to him?’
‘That’s why I was a little late,’ Archer explained. ‘I caught him at breakfast, alone luckily, and told him I knew everything you had seen.’
‘Bet he was angry we were there.’
‘He denied it at first, Jimmy. I came up with a cover story as to why Silas was hiding in the room, but he wasn’t interested. Just told me he didn’t know what happened but assumed it was mistaken identity.’
‘You offered to help him?’ Thomas asked.
‘Yes, but he doesn’t want our help. I tried for an eternity to extract information, but he would only talk about his performance and how that was the only thing on his mind. He was insistent that I never speak of last night again. Now that I think of it, he didn’t even apologise for missing our dinner.’
‘Well, then we let him stew in his own juice.’
‘No, Silas.’ Archer was firm on that, even a little annoyed. ‘He is her Ladyship’s nephew and an old friend who may have landed himself in hot water. I offered to help, but he told me it was nothing and that I had more important things to concern myself with today. He was not concerned, and, to be frank, I tend to agree with him. However, I side with Tom on this one. We should at least consider the situation. Perhaps it is something we can worry about after the gala.’
Typically, Archer had no thought for himself, only for his friends. It was admirable, but what Archer couldn’t see, or what he didn’t want to consider, was the knock-on effect Roxton’s exposure would have on himself.
‘There is more at stake than friendship,’ Thomas said, seemingly picking up on Silas’ thoughts. ‘But the friendship is important.’
‘Explain?’ Archer sat back and folded his arms.
Thomas referred to his notes. ‘They intend to bring down more than Mr Roxton,’ he said. ‘They have an agenda, though we don’t know what it is, but the timing is important. The gala is this evening. It’s your night, Archer, yours, Lady Marshall’s and the Foundation’s, of course. If this was simply personal, Silas, why wait until now?’
‘I don’t know, maybe Stella’s taken this long to plot his revenge on his torturer.’
Archer, his eyes still on Thomas, pushed the newspaper to Silas and pointed out a column of print while he spoke to Thomas. ‘I have to ask you why? What is their purpose?’
‘Shut up.’ Silas was so suddenly angry it surprised even himself. He held up his hand, and the others waited, open-mouthed as he read aloud sections from the newspaper.
‘”Cadwell Roxton…”’ he began. ‘”Successful season at the Paris opera… Blah, blah. Returned to our shores last week until when he had been touring France, Germany and Italy since April last.” Fuck.’
‘You see?’ Archer’s good humour was back. ‘He was out of the country in August. He can’t have been the man you saw.’
‘Well, his laugh’s the same.’ Knowing he had been wrong, Silas slumped in a sulk.
Archer reached over and squeezed his hand. ‘Sorry.’
‘We’re still left with why,’ James said. ‘Do you have anything else, Tom?’
‘Yes, quite a bit, but one thing at a time. First, I would ask, what are these instructions?’
Archer let Silas go, and they exchanged a glance. He would never understand how Archer did it, but in one brief exchange, he knew that there was no bitterness, only love.
‘He didn’t appear to know of these instructions,’ James said, and Silas returned to the conversation.
‘Which is a thought that occurred to me at about five this morning,’ Archer said. ‘Sorry to drag you out of bed so early, Tom. How did you get on?’
Silas remembered the creaking floorboards.
‘I found this,’ Thomas answered, and drew an envelope from his pocket.
Archer explained. ‘I woke Thomas and asked him to go next door,’ he said. ‘I remembered that Roxton had nothing but an overcoat, and wondered if perhaps they had put instructions there without him knowing. As in, “You have your instructions” meaning, “I’ve just given them to you.”’ He nodded to Thomas.
‘I called on her Ladyship’s butler.’ He continued the story, speaking to James and Silas as if Archer already knew what he was going to say. ‘I told him His Lordship was keen to launder Mr Roxton’s overcoat, because it had been soiled on the way back from the club. Mr Saunders was under the impression that the evening had gone according to plan and they’d dined together, so there was no suspicion. It doesn’t need cleaning, it’s in my pantry, but I found this in the pocket.’
He put the envelope in the centre of the table for everyone to see.
‘May I?’
‘You’re the postal expert, Jimmy,’ Archer grinned.
James examined it.
‘You going to tell us it was made from pulped oak trees and pressed by the feet of Scottish nuns?’ Silas joked, remembering the last time they examined an envelope. Another thought struck. ‘Hey, Archie, you don’t think this is Quill do you?’
Archer shook his head. ‘Not his style, I’d say, but we can’t rule out anything. Go on, Jimmy.’
‘Sorry, Silas,’ James said. ‘It’s just a standard post office issue envelope, unremarkable and not stamped. It wasn’t posted, there’s no address. In fact, it says nothing but the man’s name.’
‘No clues there,’ Thomas noted.
‘Inside…?’ James extracted a folded letter. Before opening it, he held it to the light. ‘Watermarked… W H Smith, nothing fancy, no pattern.’ He unfolded it on the table. ‘What the fu…? Sorry, My Lord.’
‘Not at all,’ Archer said. ‘I had a similar reaction. Gentlemen, being honest, I am inclined to take this as an amateurish attempt to blacken someone’s good name, but not a threat that has any great w
eight. However, Silas is concerned, and so you are welcome to give it the attention which today, I can ill afford.’
‘That’s up to you, Archie,’ Silas said, hiding his disappointment. ‘But I reckon we should take it seriously.’
‘I’d agree with you,’ James said, passing him the letter. ‘Read it, but remember we have less than nine hours before the curtain goes up.’
Eighteen
The letter
Cadwell Roxton,
Go on stage before the opera and say this:
Clearwater is opening a house for sodomites. It is not a hostel, it will be a brothel for homosexuals like yourselves. Tell them what you do behind closed doors, and tell them the truth.
And, if you do not make this speech before your performance, we will kill you.
Death will come da capo, suddenly silent, and you will not hear your final applause.
Fail us and you die.
‘That’s it,’ Silas said and passed the letter to Thomas.
‘Er, police?’ James asked.
‘Cadwell was adamant it was a sick joke and did not want me to inform the authorities,’ Archer said.
‘It’s sick alright.’
‘It is, Jimmy,’ the viscount nodded. ‘But it’s all we have, and because of what Silas witnessed, we can assume it’s not a joke. I am meeting with trustees and others this afternoon at the opera house, and I will ask Bursnall about security arrangements. He’s a very open-minded man, but I shan’t tell him the reason for my enquiry. If I am not satisfied, I shall consider reporting the matter vaguely but urgently to the police. I think that is all we can do.’
‘The bastards behind this will be counting on Roxton to be too scared to go to the rozzers,’ was Silas’ thought on the subject.
‘The first part of this is very clear,’ Thomas said, passing him the letter. ‘As is the last line. But the one before last?’
Silas read the note, written in ink and block capitals. ‘“Death will come da capo, suddenly silent, and you will not hear your final applause”.’ He passed it on to James. ‘Is that the part you mean, Tommy?’
Unspeakable Acts Page 17