by Clive Mullis
‘Youse could ‘ave ‘ad ‘im there,’ observed Fluffy. ‘Good points fer a feeler.’
Rose pouted. ‘I’m not after points.’ She paused. ‘Well, not today anyway.’
They careered around the next bend, undertook a four-seater and briefly put a wheel on the pavement, the bump making the coach lurch over onto two wheels. Rose leant over, Fluffy jumped, and the coach regained all four wheels. Rose let out a breath of relief as she snapped the reins again.
They came to a busy part of town and the traffic and people forced Rose to slow down, which worked out well for the little old lady making her way towards the pedestrian crossing. Without looking, she stepped out, and the screech of brakes must have been heard across the whole of Gornstock. The wheels locked and the coach slewed across the road, the horse wondering what the hell had happened as suddenly its purchase on the road and its momentum was abruptly curtailed.
The old lady didn’t even notice. She just ambled across slowly without a care in the world.
Rose and Fluffy looked at each other and then at the old lady.
‘Not worth it?’ asked Fluffy.
‘No,’ replied Rose. ‘Only two points for one of those.’
Rose pulled up outside Hexies and clamped the horse and coach before heading inside. The owner took one look at Fluffy and opened his mouth to say that cats aren’t allowed when he took a glance at Rose. She smiled at him, and for some strange reason, namely her sensory assault with a beaming smile, two big blue eyes and a figure only possible in the imagination of an artist of extraordinary talent, he shut his mouth and decided he quite liked cats anyway.
‘Can I have a Chocca Mokka please, and you had better make it a skinny,’ she said, gazing into his eyes. ‘I don’t want to get fat.’
‘Of course, at once, right away.’ He scampered back behind the counter and the hissing of the contraption began straight away.
Olive and Winnie’s mouths dropped open. Twice they had to buy more coffee as he didn’t want them sitting there.
Fluffy jumped to the floor from her arms and sat there waiting, hinting.
‘Can I have some cream for my cat, please,’ asked Rose, as she noticed the look.
‘Right away, Miss.’
‘About bloody time,’ said Fluffy.
Olive and Winnie exchanged looks.
‘Did I just hear a cat talk?’ asked Winnie.
‘Yes,’ said Rose. ‘But don’t tell anyone.’
Winnie’s mouth opened and then closed. She looked down at the cat and then back up to Rose. She looked at Olive and then back to the cat, who grinned at her and then winked.
‘Okay, then,’ she agreed.
Cornwallis burst in through the door. ‘Good, you’re here.’ He swooped down and grabbed hold of Fluffy.
‘Oi, I’m waiting fer me cream.’
‘Later. We’ve got work to do. What’s Frankie up to?’ he asked Rose.
‘He’s with Loovis and Sprat.’
‘Loovis and Sprat? I’ve just seen them go into the shed I’m watching.’
‘Oh.’
‘No matter. Frankie shouldn’t be far behind.’ Cornwallis thought for a moment. ‘What about Tiffany and Felicity?’
‘They’re still watching the pub, but don’t worry, they know what they’re doing and they’ve got a little help now. I’ll go and see them soon.’
Cornwallis nodded, trusting Rose’s judgement. ‘Look, come with me, all of you. There’s somewhere you can be a bit more help.’
They all piled out of the coffee shop and the hissing thing at the back seemed to groan with disappointment, the owner certainly did. Someone like Rose didn’t come into his shop every day and he felt as if his heart had been ripped out. ‘Come back soon,’ he yelled forlornly, still holding the saucer of cream.
Frankie and the girls, Mindy and Hope, were a bit further up the lane and trying to blend into the background. Cornwallis waved them over and everyone ran into the drug dealers’ house.
‘Jack, slow down a bit, we have something to tell you,’ said Rose.
‘What?’
‘Lenny and Fred were knocked out and all Fred’s gonepowder got stolen.’
‘What?’ he exclaimed.
‘Yes, all of it. That’s why we’ve been looking for you.’
‘Oh bloody hell.’
‘About ten barrels of the stuff,’ added Frankie, wandering down the corridor. ‘Oi, Jack. Who’re these two scummy looking characters? They seem to be a bit tied up at the moment.’
‘Dealers, Frankie. If they’re waking up then be so good as to send them to sleep again.’
There were a couple of thumps. ‘Done,’ and he turned back, grinning.
‘Hang on,’ said Rose, counting on her fingers. ‘We’re four girls short. Where are they, Frankie?’
‘MacGillicudy, my darling. I left them with Jethro.’
‘So what’s he doing with them?’ asked Cornwallis.
‘I don’t know, but he has four girls to do it with— Ow, that hurt.’
‘So it should, Frankie,’ said Rose, having dispensed instant justice.
Frankie rubbed his shin. ‘I was only trying to be funny, relieve the tension as it were.’
‘Trying is the operative word, Frankie. Sexist and crude are the words I would use.’
‘All right, I’m sorry.’
‘You’d better be.’
‘I am.’
‘That’s okay, then.’
‘Thanks.’
‘Just don’t do it again.’
‘I won’t.
‘Good.’ Rose sighed. ‘Did it hurt?’
‘Yes, it bloody well did.’
‘Then it serves you right.’
‘Oh, for gods sake, shut up,’ Cornwallis stamped his foot down while the girls were trying to suppress their laughter. ‘Rose, you stay here with the girls and watch the lane. Frankie, take the coach and go and check on Tiffany and Felicity; might be an idea to liaise with Jethro too. Take one of the girls and see if you can rustle up some more wheels. Coggs might be an idea if you can find him quickly; you have to pass the rank anyway.’
‘And where does I come into all this?’ asked Fluffy.
‘You’re with me. You’re going to have a look around.’
‘I always gets the dangerous bit,’ he sighed.
MacGillicudy wasn’t sure what to do. Hettie had been charming Wiggins and the Yard all day but now he had another girl in his office, Regina, who told him she’d seen four other girls waiting outside. He listened to what Regina had to say with a feeling of impending doom.
‘Magot and Foley? Foley is only a sprog, but this explains his reluctance to hand over the button.’ MacGillicudy steamed.
Regina thought it best not to reply.
MacGillicudy ran his hand down over his head and face and then stood up. He wore a defiant look on his features now, a determination, a resolve. ‘Let’s go and see what the mood is like downstairs.’
The mood downstairs hadn’t changed at all during the long day. MacGillicudy could sense when things weren’t right; he had developed the skill through years of pounding the beat, a sixth sense that he always listened to, and his sense told him that everything was normal.
They found Hettie in the canteen, fending off a couple of feelers who were taking advantage of the situation and trying their luck. She seemed to have everything under control as she appeared relaxed, batting back their suggestion on how new feelers should look to their more experienced colleagues for advice and assistance, and that it would be beneficial to meet up while off duty for extended tuition on the more diverse parts of being a feeler. A few drinks in a quiet place would help to ease them into their new role.
MacGillicudy and Regina walked over and stood behind the two feelers as they were trying to persuade Hettie that, perhaps, she and one of the other girls would like to join them at a little place they knew, for a little get together to discuss things further, when Hettie’s flick of the eyes alerted them
to a presence.
‘Ah, Commander. We didn’t see you there.’
‘Evidently,’ replied MacGillicudy.
‘We were just explaining…’
‘MacGillicudy raised a quizzical eyebrow that forced the speaker to grind to a halt.
‘Perhaps another time, then,’ he added lamely, shooting a hopeful glance at Hettie.
The two feelers suddenly found that they had things to do and hurriedly made their escape. As they left, three other feelers made an entrance, one of them being Diffin, followed closely by Constables Briggs and Spooner.
Diffin spied the commander and marched across the room. ‘A word if I may, sir.’
‘Certainly, Toby. What do you want?’
Diffin looked at the two girls. ‘Well, sir, perhaps it would be best if we …’ he left the sentence hanging in the air.
‘You mean just you and me? Of course, Toby.’
MacGillicudy followed Diffin away from the girls and over to the other side. He turned around and watched as Briggs and Spooner began to talk to Hettie and Regina — he could just imagine what the questions were about.
‘Jethro,’ began Diffin. ‘We’ve been scratching our arses down at Pendon waiting for the recruits to come back. I’m not sure what you’re doing with them, but you could have given me some indication. I am, after all, the Sergeant in charge of training.’
‘I’m sorry, Toby,’ replied MacGillicudy. ‘Things seem to have become… er… interesting. One thing has led to another and I decided to go with the flow. You’ll have the girls back soon, and, I assure you, they’ll be all the better for their experiences.’
‘But what are their experiences?’
‘I’m sorry, Toby, but all will become clear in time.’
‘But what am I supposed to do in the meantime?’
‘You’re a feeler, Toby. If you can’t figure out a way to take advantage, then perhaps you should call it a day.’
Diffin’s eyes narrowed and MacGillicudy regretted his last sentence, but he couldn’t take it back now. He had a lot on his mind and placating a sergeant didn’t come high on his list right now.
‘Toby, just move some paper around your desk. Things will be back to normal soon.’
The commander left Diffin standing there and walked off. He beckoned the girls to follow him as he walked out of the canteen and the girls obliged.
Once outside Scooters Yard, MacGillicudy turned to Regina. ‘Well, where are they, then?’
‘Over there, sir.’ She pointed out a bench a little distance down the road. ‘They’ve been waiting a while now.’
MacGillicudy sighed. Six girls and he didn’t have a clue what to do with them all. The day shift had all but gone home and he had pressing matters on his mind. Hettie hadn’t heard anything from Wiggins to make her suspicious, nor had anyone said anything within the Yard. Everything seemed normal. But something was going to happen, ten barrels of gonepowder would indicate that, and he thought that it would happen soon.
As he walked with the two girls in tow, he tried to think it through. One watch-house had been set on fire, a second, Pendon, had been targeted. Ten barrels would mean a big bang, so that meant a big target. He stopped and looked back at the Yard, the cogs in his mind whirling around — suddenly, his blood ran cold.
CHAPTER 26
With Fluffy stuffed under one arm, Cornwallis retraced his steps from earlier. He edged around the corner of the big shed to where he had dug a bit of a hole in the rotten planks. Inside, the banging still went on, but his look through earlier had yielded no clues, as someone had parked a sodding great crate just in front of it.
He put the cat down and pointed. Fluffy turned his head and looked up, then turned his head to look at the hole and then looked up again, this time shaking his head. Cornwallis pulled a face; the hole was definitely cat-sized. Cornwallis pointed again with a little more urgency and then took his life in his hands and booted the cat up the bum. Fluffy reacted by darting forward straight into the hole, which may have been cat-sized, but certainly wasn’t Fluffy sized; a few months of Frankie’s and Isabella’s feeding had seen to that. He got stuck, fast.
Cornwallis rolled his eyes and gave a heavy sigh. He wanted a nice smooth operation, in and out, with the cat giving him a bit more information on the out. Instead, he had a real fat cat on his hands now.
Fluffy’s rear paws scrabbled in the dirt as he tried to push forward, tail end gyrating as he tried to force his way through, then came a bit of a hiatus before he tried to reverse. The result didn’t change; he couldn’t move.
Cornwallis bent down with an element of trepidation, holding his knife in his hand. He had two options, one of which could result in a cat being unable to sit down for quite a while, but he decided instead to chisel around the edges to widen the hole.
Fluffy had definitely been happier; Cornwallis could tell that from the way the muscles twitched, but eventually, he managed to prise enough of the wood away for the cat to ease in. Cornwallis tapped him again with his foot to let him know he had gained freedom. A startled Fluffy shot through the hole, and then turned, poked his head back out, and eyed Cornwallis malevolently, before disappearing back into the shed.
Frankie eased the coach to a walk and looked around for a parking spot, eventually finding one down a side street. When he’d fitted the clamp, he jogged back up and dived into the boot-maker’s. Taking the stairs two at a time, he hurried up and knocked on the door. Tiffany’s head poked out and she grinned.
‘Thought you had forgotten about us here.’
‘Hardly,’ replied Frankie. ‘Too much to do and not enough people to do it with. What’s been happening?’
Tiffany flung open the door and let him in. Felicity crouched over by the window with a pencil and a bit of paper while Maisie sat next to her with the eye-spy.
‘We’ve got some names for you,’ said Felicity. ‘That room over there has been busy.’
‘Names?’
‘Yes, Maisie has been telling us about some of them.’
‘Really? I'd better have a look, then.’
Frankie scanned down the list of names. All of them were either feelers or ex-feelers. One name in particular grabbed his attention. He pointed at it with a stubby finger. ‘You sure about this one?’
Maisie dropped the eye-spy from her eye and turned her head to see. ‘Oh yes, I’m absolutely sure about ‘im. He’s still there. ‘E used to cause no end of grief around ‘ere. It were a bit before me time, so I never ‘ad the pleasure, but I ‘eard ‘e were a right bastard to the Toms.’
Frankie scowled as he looked at the name.
‘He seems to be the leader,’ said Felicity. ‘He kept speaking and all the others looked to be agreeing with him.’
‘That doesn't surprise me,’ replied Frankie. ‘Let me have a look.’
He took the eye-spy and held it up to his eye. It looked like the meeting had finished as they all began to file out of the door. One man stayed put until everyone else had gone. He walked over to the window and looked out, straight towards the boot-maker’s. He filled Frankie’s eye-spy with his features, features that Frankie knew so well. Not that long ago he wore a sergeant’s stripes, a senior sergeant’s stripes, but now he was nothing. Ex-Sergeant Grinde may look like a favourite uncle, with his big bearded face and rosy red cheeks, but looks can be deceiving.
‘I’ve seen enough, time we vacated the premises.’
He rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a few dollars for Maisie. ‘I’ll let Miss Morant know again, my girl. Keep this up and it won't be long before you’re in uniform.’
‘Thanks, Mr Kandalwick. I hope you’re right.’
Tiffany and Felicity watched the girl go.
‘She helped a lot,’ said Tiffany when the door had closed. ‘She told us a lot of things, especially a few things about Sergeant Diffin.’
‘Diffin?’ replied Frankie incredulously.
Felicity nodded. ‘Apparently he likes to visit a certain g
irl in the Brews. Quite regularly too, according to Maisie.’
‘Well, that’s a surprise. Wouldn’t have thought he’d be one to dip his wick into the trough of plenty. He hates paying for anything and he’s married.’
Frankie watched as Maisie crossed the street and darted down the alley. He looked up again at the room across the way and scanned it for the last time with the eye-spy. Grinde had gone, leaving the place empty. He would have given anything to have heard what went on in the place.
They tidied up the room and then walked out. Frankie popped his nose into the workshop and picked up his two new pairs of boots. He studied them critically and nodded his approval. They were good boots at a good price, though Cornwallis would say they were too cheap.
Once outside, the three of them walked down the street and then down the side-street to where the transport had been parked. Frankie’s pace slowed as he saw a piece of paper stuck onto the horse’s arse. When he got closer, he could see that he’d been given a parking ticket. Some smart-arsed little feeler had walked down slapping tickets on everything with wheels. He whipped it off and began to read.
“Permit holders only” it said. “Ten dollars to be paid within seven days.”
‘Bugger ‘em,’ said Frankie, screwing up the ticket and throwing it on the ground. ‘Come on girls, jump on.’
Tiffany sat next to Frankie whilst Felicity stood balancing on the strut at the back of the coach. Just as Frankie picked up the reins, Maisie came running up.
‘Wait,’ she yelled.
Frankie put the brake back on. ‘What is it, Maisie?’
She puffed to a stop and took a deep breath. ‘I know what they’re planning.’
‘What?’
‘I do, honest.’
‘How?’
She hesitated for a second. ‘There were someone in the loft, they ‘eard everything.’
Frankie slapped his forehead. ‘Why didn’t we think of that? Carry on, Maisie.’
‘They’re planning to blow up Scooters Yard — tonight!’
Frankie felt shivers run down his spine. He stared at the girl and a cold sweat broke out on his brow. ‘Run that through me again, and this time, take it slowly.’