Pyke brought the lantern closer and saw that maggots had already started to consume the dead flesh. Still, there were traces of frothing around the mouth, and when Sarah handed him an empty bottle which she said she’d found next to him, Pyke brought it up to his nostrils and sniffed. He knew how Malloy had died. Prussian acid would do that to you, if you imbibed enough of it.
Later, after Pyke had made arrangements for the corpse to be transported to a nearby public house for the coroner’s attention, the two of them walked back to the river, now in darkness, and stood in silence at the top of the stairs.
‘You still haven’t told me how you found him,’ Pyke said, staring into the watery blackness.
‘We lived together in this city for nearly two years. I know where he liked to go, where he liked to drink. One thing led to another.’ She looked at him, her eyes unfathomable. ‘You, of all people, should know how that works.’
‘Do you still love him?’
She turned to face him. She had an effortless, natural beauty, he decided in that moment, the kind that didn’t need to be preened or fussed over. ‘Brendan never saw the world as others have conditioned us to. At one point in my life, I was deeply attracted to that view.’
Pyke rested his arm on the metal rail in front of him. ‘I just saw him as mentally disturbed.’
‘I’m not going to argue there’s a certain truth in madness . . .’
‘But?’
‘The Church, whether Catholic or Protestant, would have us believe that religious faith is somehow compatible with the advancement of society. Brendan refused to succumb to such a view. He believed that the problem of evil has never been resolved, in spite of what we might tell ourselves.’
Pyke pondered this for a moment or two. ‘And you?’
‘I’m not an arch-rationalist like you, Pyke. I think there are things we can’t see, things we don’t know.’
‘Don’t mistake me, Sarah. I think the rationality we all cling to is paper-thin. Scratch a little and you’ll find an ugly world where goodness and morality have no place.’
Sarah seemed to agree with his point. ‘That’s what I feel when I paint.’
Pyke thought about the image he’d seen in her cottage. ‘What I saw in your canvas was either the punishment of a sinful woman by a vengeful God, or a world in which God doesn’t exist.’
‘That’s what I liked about Brendan. Even as a priest, he was able to countenance the notion that perhaps God wasn’t, isn’t, who we’re told he is.’ She drew closer to Pyke. ‘God is never simply vengeful on the one hand, and omnipotent and forgiving on the other.’
Pyke looked into her eyes, wanting to bridge the gap that existed and had always existed between them. He thought briefly about Ebenezer Druitt’s claim that she had killed her own child but dismissed it at once. Druitt, he decided, had been trying to play games with him.
‘But you do believe in the existence of a spirit world?’
‘Just because we can’t see something doesn’t mean it isn’t there.’ She paused, seemingly afraid to say more.
Pyke thought fleetingly about what Godfrey had said just before his death: once you’re gone, you’re gone. It was just starting to sink in that the old man wasn’t coming back. ‘In the end, life is arbitrary. Things happen for no ostensible reason, good and bad. To acknowledge that, to truly acknowledge it, is terrifying.’
‘But patterns do exist, even if we call them coincidences. Or premonitions.’ Sarah let her hand settle on top of his. ‘I know you don’t give any credence to what I might see . . .’
Pyke wanted to dismiss this idea out of hand but even in the darkness he was aware of the anxiety in her face. ‘What is it, Sarah?’ he said gently.
‘I’m worried about you.’ She withdrew her hand and turned away from him. ‘The other night I had a dream. I found you in a room. Your nose had been cut off, your teeth pulled out, your fingers had been removed. And your eyeballs were being gouged out by a flock of birds.’
‘Some people would call that a nightmare.’
‘The last time I had a dream that vivid, my son died the following night.’
They stood for a moment or two in silence. Pyke dismissed her premonition, but there were other less charitable thoughts he couldn’t let go of. Since his last exchange with Druitt, he had been racking his brains to think how the felon could have known about his choice of reading. The only answer was that someone had broken into his house and passed the information back to Druitt. And for some reason, he had thought about Sarah. In one sense it was ridiculous, absurd even, to imagine that she would do anything to help Druitt. Druitt had murdered her child; she despised him; the two of them despised each other. But what if they didn’t? What if their mutual loathing was just a front? Sarah knew where he lived. She could have slipped in unnoticed, just as she could have sent Pyke the letter directing him to No. 28 Broad Street. Pyke didn’t like to believe she might be capable of such deception, but how well did he really know her?
‘I’m telling you this because I care for you; not because I’m trying to frighten you.’
‘I don’t know what I’m supposed to say. If you’re right, what can I do? If you’re wrong, and I hope you are wrong, well, life continues as before.’
Sarah bit her lip and looked away. Then she threaded her arms around him and pulled him close, her head resting just under his chin. He could feel her shivering. When she next looked at him, her eyes were distraught. She was grieving, Pyke told himself, for her child, and perhaps also for Brendan Malloy. That was it. She needed him and he could help her. That thought reassured him, until he felt the tightness in his stomach, the familiar stirring in his groin.
When they finally embraced, it was a coy, almost chaste kiss, their lips barely touching. Her eyes were closed as she whispered, ‘I’ve taken a room that’s not far from here.’
TWENTY-ONE
The following morning was bitterly cold, and despite the fire burning in the grate of the main office of the Detective Branch, they’d all decided against shedding their outdoor clothes. Still, the collective mood was not one that reflected the icy temperature. Shaw and Lockhart had some information they wanted to impart.
‘It’s about the men who tore up Mrs Keate’s room, just after she’d moved out,’ Shaw said, beaming.
‘We went back to the building and talked to the neighbours,’ Lockhart chipped in. ‘This time, one of them was willing to talk to us. He said he recognised a couple of the men. Told us they worked for George Culpepper.’
Wells had just walked into the room and Pyke repeated what Lockhart had just said. ‘For those of you who don’t know him,’ Pyke added, ‘Culpepper runs what we think is the largest swell mob in St Giles. He’s a suspect, perhaps the main suspect, in the matter of Sean Rafferty’s murder.’
Given Wells’s reaction the last time he’d mentioned this, Pyke half-expected a similar outburst, but the acting superintendent merely nodded.
‘The two boys who were murdered, Gregg and Clough, were part of Flint’s mob,’ Pyke said. ‘We think Culpepper killed Flint and took over.’
And now Culpepper’s men had gone after Keate’s mother. Pyke tried to work out what this meant but for the moment the connection was beyond him.
‘What it does mean,’ he said, a few moments later, ‘is we should make Culpepper’s life as uncomfortable as possible.’ Looking at Wells, he added, ‘Can we rely on reinforcements from the executive department to make that happen?’
Wells sucked in some air through gritted teeth. ‘I’ll do what I can but I’m short on men as it is.’
Briefly Pyke’s thoughts turned back to Sarah Scott, the warmth of her body next to his, the softness of her creamy white skin. He had left her unwillingly at dawn and could still taste her parting kiss.
‘Culpepper runs gin palaces, brothels, gambling clubs, teams of pickpockets and numerous slop-shops, a whole empire. At the moment, he’s secure and in control. We need to change that.’
&
nbsp; ‘Like I said, I’ll round up all the men I can spare. But I’ll do it in my own way and in my own time.’
Jack Whicher found Pyke in his office; he was carrying a file and placed it carefully on the desk. ‘I got that from one of the clerks in the commissioners’ office. It’s information about Sergeant Mark Russell’s career as a metropolitan policeman.’ Pyke had asked Whicher to dig up information about the man only the day before, and was surprised at how quickly he’d been able to do so.
Pyke took the file and scrutinised its contents. ‘Beat constable for three years, K Division, Stepney, followed by two years in A Division here at the Yard and then a promotion to sergeant and a transfer to Kensington Division.’ It didn’t tell him much. There was nothing else in the file to indicate that Russell was either good or bad at his job. Given that the man had been promoted, Pyke had to assume the former.
‘A Division,’ Whicher said, a few moments later. ‘You’d think Wells might remember him.’
Pyke had already arrived at the same conclusion. ‘Perhaps. But it’s the largest division and there must be, what, two or three hundred constables.’
Later, Pyke ran into Wells at the bottom of the staircase. ‘Walter, I need your help with something. I’m looking into the way the London Churches Fund has been administered.’
Pyke had thought long and hard about whether to tell him about Sir St John Palmer and his association with the Fund. In the end, he’d decided that Wells would find out soon enough and, anyway, he needed as much support within the New Police as he could get.
Briefly he explained what the Fund was and who sat on its executive board. Wells’s face darkened as he did so. ‘Has it occurred to you that they won’t allow your investigation to taint the Fund’s good name?’
‘And by “they” you mean?’
‘The prime minister sits on the board. So does the Bishop of London. Doesn’t that tell you something?’
‘And I’m meant to turn a blind eye to any malpractice that has occurred?’
‘I sympathise with your predicament, Pyke, but I’ve heard of this man, Palmer. He’s well connected.’
‘His company is overseeing the renovations of the station-house. I met him briefly a few days ago. He was talking to Sir Richard.’
Wells digested this new piece of information. ‘That doesn’t make your task any easier, does it?’
Pyke waited for someone to pass by and said, ‘You remember that sergeant I was asking you about, Russell? He used to be a constable under you in A Division.’
‘Russell, you say?’ Wells looked thoughtful. ‘No, I can’t remember the man. Why do you ask?’
‘No reason.’
Wells seemed exhausted. ‘Look, have you got any evidence to back up these suspicions regarding Palmer and the Churches Fund?’
When Pyke didn’t answer, Wells shook his head. ‘In that case, they’ll flay you alive and throw the morsels to the birds.’
It made Pyke think of Sarah’s dream; a flock of birds pecking out his eyes.
The brothel that Clare Lewis ran was situated above a gin and beer shop at the corner of Great White Lion Street and Queen Street, just along from the Seven Dials. There were ten other brothels that Pyke knew of in the vicinity, and probably more that he didn’t know of. None of them was especially salubrious, at least in comparison with the gentlemen’s clubs of St James’s and Haymarket, where you could smoke a cigar and drink a brandy before availing yourself of the services. Still, most of the men who visited these places didn’t expect or even demand refinement. They wanted a private room, a solid mattress and a woman who would do as she was told and pretend to enjoy it. Clare’s place was as good as any other, was better even, because she treated her women well and paid them a decent wage. But Pyke hadn’t known it belonged to George Culpepper. If he had known, perhaps he wouldn’t have gone there. It was Clare who kept drawing him back. Her slim, wiry figure, her straw-blonde hair cut unfashionably short in the style of a pageboy and her dirty laugh, which never failed to make him smile. And it was the information she sometimes fed him. As Pyke always told his men, a detective was only as good as his sources.
He found Clare in her room. She had been writing a letter and the quill was still in her hand when he knocked on the door and pushed it open. Clare glanced at his reflection in her looking glass. ‘I didn’t think I’d seen the last of you,’ she said, once he had closed the door behind him.
Pyke took a few steps into the room and stopped. The bed was unmade, and for a brief moment he wondered who else had been there that morning. ‘I didn’t exactly cover myself in glory the last time we met.’
This time Clare turned around. ‘Is that as good an apology as I’m likely to get?’
‘I shouldn’t have said what I said.’ He hesitated. ‘I shouldn’t have said it in the way I did.’
Clare spun around on her stool, so that she was facing him, and ran her fingers through her short, fluffy hair. ‘That’ll have to do, I suppose.’
‘But I stand by the general sentiment. And I was still hoping you might ask a few well-placed but discreet questions.’
‘I’ve done so already. What master wants, master gets.’ She folded her arms and waited.
‘Are you going to make me beg?’
‘A nice idea but I haven’t got anything to tell you.’
Pyke waited for her to continue.
‘I mentioned it to someone. They’ll remain anonymous. I was told if I valued my life, I wouldn’t bring it up again. The last person who did, the mother of one of the boys, ended up dead. Strangled and dumped in the river. I’m told the body was never recovered.’ The strain on her face was visible.
‘I was under the impression both boys were orphans.’
‘They are now.’
‘If I didn’t know better, I’d think Georgie had done something to those boys himself. Or at least he knows what happened to them.’
Clare fiddled with the brooch attached to her blouse. She may not have remembered but Pyke was the one who’d bought it for her. ‘You should have seen him after you left the other day. He beat the lad who was guarding the door, the one you walked past, within an inch of his life. All that was left was a quivering mass. He made us all watch, too.’
‘At least now you know who you’re dealing with.’
Clare looked at him and shook her head slightly. ‘You think I don’t know Georgie is an animal?’
‘Then why are you still working for him?’
‘I don’t have a choice. Morals are a luxury of the wealthy. Maybe you’ve forgotten that.’
‘I don’t want you to do anything that puts you or anyone you know in danger,’ he said.
‘Don’t worry, I won’t.’
‘But if you were to hear something about those boys . . . or why Georgie is interested in the family of a dead man called Morris Keate . . . I’d like to think you’d come and find me.’
‘Keate?’
‘He was the one who was executed for killing the boys.’ Pyke looked searchingly into her face. ‘Have you heard the name?’
‘No, I don’t think so.’ Clare turned around and glanced at her reflection in the looking glass.
‘But you’re not sure?’ He had seen the look on her face and heard the hesitation in her voice.
Clare picked up her quill and dipped it in the pot of ink. ‘Goodbye, Pyke. I’d like to say it’s been a pleasure.’
Pyke had to wait for over half an hour in the marble-floored entrance hall of Sir St John Palmer’s enormous neoclassical house before the butler returned and said that Palmer would see him in the drawing room. During this time he’d noted the three men guarding the gates at the front of the property, all armed with pistols, and, after a brief excursion to the back of the house, a similar presence in the rear garden.
As he followed the butler to the drawing room, their footsteps echoed through the building. Palmer was standing in the bay window overlooking the front lawn. Even after he’d been introduced, Palm
er’s attention remained fixed on something outside, and it was only after the butler had retreated, closing the door behind him, that Palmer finally turned around.
The Detective Branch Page 29