‘What’s the matter?’ Miss Parkes leaned over Lizard Elsie and put a cool hand on her forehead.
The old woman moaned. I ain’t had much to eat for a fucking week. Then I wash all me bloody grime off and eat a good lunch—for a fucking prison it was a good lunch—and me bloody insides just ain’t used to food. I been on the red biddy for a fortnight.’
‘What’s red biddy?’
Miss Parkes had never met anyone like Lizard Elsie before. Not even in prison.
‘Metho and port.’ Elsie writhed. ‘I gotta guts-ache.’
‘Do you want me to call a doctor?’
‘Nah. I’ve had it before. I’ll be all right. I’ve lasted fifty years on the street and you couldn’t kill me with a bloody axe.’
Miss Parkes was clean, clothed in her own garments from her suitcase, which Constable Harris had personally packed. She was full of steak-and-kidney pie, peas, mashed potatoes and about a spoonful of jam roly-poly. Her despair had left her as though it had never been. She wasn’t sure what would take its place. But for now there was this poor tattered creature. Elsie was in pain. Something should be done. It was the first time Miss Parkes had thought about anything but her own inner horror since she had been arrested.
‘Constable,’ she called timidly, ‘I think Elsie’s ill.’
The duty officer made a brief inspection of Elsie and commented sagely, ‘She’s been starving and she’s been hitting the metho. She’ll be raving fairly soon. Poor old Else. Not that she can’t put up a fight. Took three of us to arrest her once. I’ll get some brandy off the sergeant when it gets too bad. I’m sorry to leave you in with her but there ain’t no other cell I could put ladies in.’
‘I don’t mind.’
‘You yell if she gets obstreperous,’ said the young man, ‘and I’ll get you out.’
‘All right.’
For seven hours, until she was relieved by an unsympathetic policewoman, Miss Parkes watched Elsie through delirium tremens. The old woman swore, screamed and twisted in pain. She winced away from snakes and little men who were staring at her. She clung to Miss Parkes so hard that her fingers left bruises and the latter required all her half-forgotten gymnast’s skills to hold Elsie down and stop her from tearing herself to bits.
‘Oh, Elsie, how could you do this to yourself?’ she asked aloud as she was led out. One black eye nailed her to her place. Elsie had returned for a moment.
‘Fear,’ croaked Lizard Elsie and dropped out of consciousness.
Miss Parkes was given police-issue tea in the sergeant’s office, which was entirely against the rules. In the room over her head an argument was going on about her.
‘But we can’t let her go,’ objected Constable Harris. ‘She’s got nowhere to go.’
‘Plenty of places,’ said Grossmith. ‘The men are complaining about her. Won’t wash, won’t eat. She’s a loony and ought to be in a loony-bin.’
‘She isn’t loony,’ said Robinson. ‘We just frightened her out of her wits. You know how it is with ex-prisoners. But I agree with Harris. We can’t let her go until we find out who did it, or she might be next. There are things which connect that boarding house with Albert Ellis and with Exit. These are ruthless people. Well, let’s go down and talk to her. See what state the poor woman is in.’
He led his companions down the stairs and into the custody sergeant’s office. There was a well-dressed woman there, obviously a visitor, drinking tea from a thick white cup. Robinson had to look at her twice to believe his eyes.
‘Miss Parkes. You feeling better, then?’
‘Yes, thank you.’ Miss Parkes rose collectedly to her feet. I did knock on the door of Mr Christopher’s room. I lied to you because I was frightened. But I did not kill Mr Christopher, Detective Inspector.’
‘No,’ said Tommy Harris. ‘You didn’t.’
‘Do you know who did?’ asked Grossmith.
‘I’m afraid not, Sergeant.’
‘Until we do,’ said Robinson, ‘I propose to retain you in custody. We’ve had some shootings. I think you’d be better off in here.’
‘Of course,’ said Miss Parkes. ‘I can’t leave. Not until Elsie is through her DTs.’
‘She’s yelling for you,’ said the duty officer, returning. ‘I got some brandy. Only a spoonful at a time. Oh, Detective Inspector Robinson, Elsie’s creating—’
‘Where’s ’Melia?’ shrieked Elsie. ‘Them snakes is afraid of ‘Melia. Where is she? Bloody find me ’Melia!’
‘Coming, Elsie,’ called Miss Parkes and went back unescorted to her cell.
Robinson scratched his head. Tommy Harris beamed. Sergeant Grossmith grunted.
‘It’s not right. This is a bloody police station, not a recovery ward for aged female inebriates!’
‘Language,’ chided Detective Inspector Robinson.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
They assumed to be mighty rakish and
knowing, they were not very tidy in their
private dresses, they were not at all orderly
in their domestic arrangements . . . yet . . .
there was a remarkable gentleness . . . an
untiring readiness to help and pity one another
deserving of as much respect . . . as the everyday
virtues of any class of people in the world.
Charles Dickens
Hard Times
Once Phryne had demonstrated that she could stand on Missy’s back steadily, despite complaining flyers, tumbling Catalans, roaring lions, two clowns playing a violin in a choice of keys, and a wire walker bashing two saucepans together, she was dismissed for the afternoon and told to get some sleep.
This was not an easy matter, although she was so tired that she could have lain down on a barbed-wire fence. The affair with Matthias the clown was known, so she could not sleep in his bed. Someone had found and removed her gun, so they knew where she slept in the girls’ tent, which meant that she couldn’t sleep there either. By an association of ideas she crossed the circus grounds and curled up under Bernie’s awning, next to Bruno. He was affected by the weather, which was hot and somnolent. He lay down beside her, laying his formidable head on her hip, and whickered softly through his nose.
It was the first time that Phryne had ever been lulled to sleep by a snoring bear.
She was woken by Bernie. Bruno scrambled onto all fours, hoping for biscuits. Phryne sat up and rubbed her eyes.
‘You look like something out of a fairy tale,’ commented Bernie. ‘Dinner’s on. Mr Thompson must have bought his wife flowers or something. She’s had a rush of blood to the head and dished up a quite decent Irish stew. For a change. Don’t waste this opportunity, Fern. It may never come again.’
Phryne splashed her face in Bruno’s drinking water and felt refreshed.
Mrs Thompson’s Irish stew, though it would not pass at the Ritz, was pleasant and filling. She perched on a bucket near the heat of the cook tent, and various people greeted her as they passed.
‘Ah, Fern,’ carolled a voice like buttered toffee. ‘Fern, Fern, makes my head turn. “For beautiful Fern I groan and . . . er . . . girn.”’ Matthias looked at her severely. ‘Don’t laugh. It’s Scotch. Probably Burns. “Fern will teach and I will learn. I gave my heart to beautiful Fern.” There. Can I have some stew, Mrs T?’
‘If you promise not to make any more poems,’ said the older woman. Matthias laid his hand on his heart and promised solemnly. Phryne saw that he had his other fingers crossed behind his back. She grinned up at him.
‘Help me carry this?’ he asked. ‘I have to take some back for Toby.’
Phryne slung her tin plate into the washing-up water and accepted the dish. ‘What’s wrong with Toby?’
‘He’s gone off again,’ said Matthias sadly. ‘Poor Toby. Gone funny, you could say. He doesn’t see or hear. Come in,’ he invited as they reached the caravan. ‘Tell me what’s wrong, Fern. I have to feed him.’
Toby sat where he had been placed in a co
mfortable chair in his own caravan. His eyes were open. He seemed to be breathing. That was his only sign of life.
‘How do you know something’s wrong?’ asked Phryne, cutting up the solid bits of the Irish stew. The ugly face with the beautiful grey eyes turned to her.
‘You were seen fighting off Jones behind the lions. You were molested by Miss Younger. You flattened a roustabout who said something nasty to you. Then you were found by Dulcie who took you to Mama Rosa. After that you vanished into the carnival, possibly with a diddikoi called Lee, or the strongman, Samson. Then you rode Missy in practice, took her back to the lines and groomed and fed her, then fell asleep with Bruno. Open your mouth, Tobias. It’s din-dins time.’
‘Do you know everything?’ asked Phryne, astonished.
‘No. But I want to know about you. I’m worried, Fern. Something is brewing.’
‘You bet,’ said Phryne. She wanted to say more but Toby’s open mouth and expressionless eyes worried her. ‘I’ll tell you later,’ she said uneasily. ‘You finish feeding him and then we can go into your caravan.’
‘Don’t go out,’ he said quietly. ‘Toby won’t tell, will you, eh Tobias? Swallow, now, there’s a good fellow. It’s kosher. It’s mutton and onion and potato. Eat up, Toby.’
He spooned stew into Toby’s mouth until he finished his ration. Matthias gobbled his own dinner and turned Toby to face the wall.
‘Now,’ said the clown, ‘if you trust me, tell me.’
Phryne, in a low voice, began to tell him about the murder of Mr Christopher, the accidents on the road, which could all have been done for a central purpose and were attributable to the three roustabouts, the half-share of the circus owned by Sweet Dreams Pty Ltd, the names of the company’s officers, and the strange hint in Jack Robinson’s letter.
‘Exit,’ mused the clown. ‘I seem to have heard it before. Then again, it’s a word you see a lot. On every theatre wall, for example. But death is an exit too. Could that relate to funeral parlours? Tell me your real name,’ he said and Phryne leaned towards him and slid her hand behind his head to catch a handful of the ragged silvery-brown hair. She breathed her name into his ear.
‘A name that tickles,’ observed Matthias. ‘It’s clear that those three are responsible and that Jones is their paymaster. He wants to ruin Farrell, for some criminal reason. Why shouldn’t we just . . . er . . . lose them? Your Samson could tie them into Turk’s heads and leave them out in the bush somewhere. No?’
‘No,’ said Phryne. She was firm on the ethics of assassination as a tool of practical problem solving.
‘We could at least tell someone,’ said Matthias. ‘That Jones has got it in for you, Fern. I don’t like the way he looks at you.’
‘I don’t like the way he looks at me, either. I’ve got some help and more coming, I suspect.’ She looked into the grey eyes. ‘And there’s time.’
‘Time for what?’
‘For things to develop,’ said Phryne.
The clown’s mouth curved up into a smile. He kissed her gently on the shoulder that showed through the boat neck of the lime-green shift.
The bell announced showtime. Phryne accompanied the clowns to the girls’ tent, where Dulcie gave her the scarlet tunic, a feather headdress and a pair of tights, which had been mended. Jo Jo, carrying two violins, a bow, and a heavy bag which clanked, walked his brother into the canvas antechamber and stood him against the wall.
‘First act: the Thompson-and-Dog Turn to warm up the crowd,’ he commented. ‘You can see through here, Fern.’
The ring was brightly lit. Thompson, in baggy trousers and huge shoes, was encouraging his fox terrier to leap through a hoop. It wouldn’t. He lowered the hoop. It refused. He laid the hoop on the ground. The dog was impassive. Finally he picked up the hoop and tried to leap through it himself. He stuck. The dog began to dance on its hind legs. It seemed to be amused. Thompson with the ring around his knees and elbows, frog-jumped out of the ring. The audience laughed and applauded.
‘Liberty horses,’ said Jo Jo. ‘Hold still, Toby.’ He was applying white paint to his brother’s immobile face.
Into the ring ran ten horses, all perfectly white. Phryne was close enough to see where whitewash concealed the occasional unmatching sock or ear. In response to Farrell’s whip, they walked, cantered and ran. Then they all stopped and bowed. A boy ran along the line, attaching a cloth with a number to each back. Farrell selected one horse out of the throng and blindfolded it with a black bandanna. He turned it around tail to nose three times and then let it go.
‘Ladies and gentlemen! These horses are so highly trained that number three will find her own way back into order blindfolded.’
He set the horses to cantering again. The blindfolded mare, listening with her ears pricked, hesitated for perhaps ten seconds, then joined in the canter around the ring, slotting herself in neatly between number two and number four. The crowd applauded and the horses left.
‘The Catalans,’ muttered Jo Jo. ‘Third billing, and they 188 are worth it.’
Phryne applied her eye to the peephole again. In ran nine men and a boy, turning somersaults. They rolled and tumbled, encouraging each other with shouts in what was presumably Catalan. One man stood on another’s shoulders, who took another on his own. The pile walked calmly across the ring, fell apart and the three rolled safely in the sawdust.
Two boys brought in balancing poles. The Catalans play-fought with them, their voices harsh and mocking. Then four of them lined up, arms linked, and three more leapt to their shoulders and balanced there. The structure wobbled a little, then was still. Two men climbed up, shoulder to foot to shoulder and linked their arms, poles held out. The structure firmed again. Phryne reflected on the weight which the men at the bottom must be carrying. She wondered what else would happen.
With a cry, the boy ran at the pile of men. No hands reached for him. He swarmed up three stories of humans and planted his feet on the two top men’s shoulders. Slowly, he stood up.
For a moment he was perfectly still, arms outstretched. He looked like a bronze image of some heroic child from a Greek legend. The electric lights made a halo around his sleek black head. Applause rocked the tent. Then the pyramid fell quietly apart, the boy was lowered from the top, and all ten of the Catalan Human Pyramid were on solid sawdust again.
‘High wire,’ said Jo Jo the clown. ‘Hold this mirror for me, Fern.’ Phryne held the mirror over her shoulder, her eyes glued to the peephole. ‘One moment,’ said the clown. He kissed her on the ear. ‘Last chance before I paint my mouth,’ he added hopefully. Phryne did not move.
A line had been rigged twelve feet off the ground. A man was walking out along it, sliding his feet, until he was in the middle. He yawned, stretched and sat down. Then he lay down and closed his eyes. Unable to get comfortable, he rolled over onto his stomach, twisted around and then rolled onto his back again. Giving this up, he sat on the rope. A roustabout with a long pole fetched him a chair. He took it, set it on the rope and sat down, fumbling for a cigar, which he lit. Then he leaned back, blowing smoke rings. The chair tipped. The audience held their breath. The chair tipped further and fell.
Just as it seemed that a broken back was inevitable, the high-wire artist twisted, regained his feet and stood on the rope, the chair in one hand and the cigar still in his mouth. The audience sighed with relief. There was something odd about them, Phryne thought. Their eyes were bright, their mouths wet. They licked their lips.
‘They want him to fall,’ said Jo Jo’s voice next to her ear. ‘They always do, the crowds. That’s why he does that pratfall. Keeps them on the edge of their seats. Now, Toby, are we ready?’
He gave his brother a brisk brush down and produced the violin and bow. Toby took them.
‘Ready?’ asked Matthias. ‘We’re on, brother. Time to give them a chance to bring in the lions.’
Tobias’s eyes seemed to fill with personality, as though it was being poured into him from a jug. He gulped an
d said, ‘Yes, Matt.’
‘Break a leg,’ said Phryne, and the brothers Shakespeare entered the ring on the receding wave of the tightrope walker’s applause. Dulcie wandered in and looked over Phryne’s shoulder.
‘Jo Jo and Toby!’ announced the ringmaster and cracked his whip. Jo Jo looked hurt. Toby took exception to the ringmaster. He walked up to him and gestured at the whip. The ringmaster cracked it again. Toby bared one thin arm and shook his fist at him. Farrell menaced him with the whip and he went back into the middle of the ring. He produced his violin and put it to his shoulder.
Jo Jo was interested. He tried to take the violin away from Toby and Toby knocked him down. He got up and Toby knocked him down again. He sat in the sawdust and cried. Then he was visited by an idea. He rummaged in the battered bag and found a violin of his own. Toby drew the bow across his instrument and a sweet long note sounded. Jo Jo copied the movement, without a bow. He rummaged in the bag again. In succession, he attempted to play the violin with a cricket bat, a stretched out stocking, a pencil, a sponge and a saw. Toby began to play a Bach air so sweetly that Phryne wondered why he was a clown, not a concert performer. A sawing noise ruined the sound. Jo Jo was finding out that you couldn’t play a violin which was cut in half.
He sat down and howled, holding one half of a violin in each hand in a pose that seemed to contain tragedy. The audience screamed with mirth. His brother ignored him and continued to play. Ravishing music poured from the violin. After a while, Jo Jo put the two halves of his instrument together again and plucked the strings with his fingers. The music was sweet beyond belief.
Jo Jo was led sobbing out of the ring, overcome by the music. The crowd laughed and clapped.
While the clowns were performing, the cages of lions had been brought in. Now the iron walls had been built and Amazing Hans summoned his beasts to appear.
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