Alex Grecian - Devil's Workshop

“I stand by Nevil. We need him on the Murder Squad.”

“Well,” Sir Edward said, “I need him to live. And I firmly believe he will die if he continues at this pace. I am dismissing him from his duties. And you as well, Mr Day, if that is what you choose. In fact, that makes things a bit easier for me. It has crossed my mind that you might be mad.” He looked away from them toward the small window in the far wall. “I mean no ill will toward either of you, but I have given this a great deal of thought and I believe it’s the only responsible decision I can make.”

He went to the door and stopped there, but did not turn back around, didn’t look at them. “I wish you both a speedy recovery and a very long life,” he said.

And he left them there.

Claire pushed the pram away from the hospital. The sun was warm on her face, but she stopped on the path and tucked the coverlet in around her daughters. She ran her fingers along its seams, where her ancestors’ names were embroidered. There was a faint pink stain left there in the shape of a hand. She tried not to think about what it was. One of the babies, the quiet one who always seemed to be deep in thought, opened her eyes and smiled. Claire didn’t know whether it was a genuine smile or the effect of gas, but she smiled back.

“Would you like to hear a rhyme, Baby Day?”

She wiped a bit of moisture from the baby’s cheek and smoothed its fine dark hair and stood back up. A stranger tipped his hat to her and she nodded back at him, went around to the other side of the pram, and pushed it across the path to a bench. She sat where she could see her children’s faces and she leaned forward and very softly recited the poem she had written that morning:

“I have two hands to clap and pray, two feet to skip and run.

I have two ears to hear you with, I have two eyes to see.

But of the most important things, the Lord just gave me one:

One head, one heart, and one thing more: One sister just like me.”

The thoughtful baby rocked and cooed and woke up her sleeping sister. Both girls stared up at her expectantly, and so she began to tell them another verse, something she had read in a book once. She had only written two or three rhymes of her own so far, but she liked thinking them up and she liked telling them to the babies. Perhaps one day she might even write them all down somewhere in one place so that the girls could keep them and tell them to their own children when they grew up.

She sat on the bench and talked to her babies and was in no hurry to return home, where she felt certain that blood had soaked between the cracks in the floor and deep into the wood. She did not think she would ever feel safe in that house again, but the sun was warm on her face and her babies were smiling and her husband was healing.

Well,” Day said, “at least my wife wasn’t in the room. Now I have some time to figure out what to tell her.”

“There’s nothing to tell,” Hammersmith said. “You’ll go back to work.”

“I said I’d stand by you and I meant it.”

“I know. And I thank you. But the commissioner will accept you back without a word about it if you simply appear at your desk in the morning. I’d wager he never brings the subject up again.”

“Nevil. .”

“No, Mr Day, you have two new babies to provide for. I have nothing.”

Day opened his mouth to respond, but didn’t know how. He had no intention of returning to the Murder Squad without his friend, but he didn’t want to argue about it. When Nevil Hammersmith said he had nothing, he was literally correct. His work was his life, and vice versa. He was a policeman through and through, and Day couldn’t imagine him doing anything else. He turned his head and looked at Hammersmith on the other bed. His throat, from just above his collarbone down to the loose collar of his hospital blouse, was bright pink, inflamed and irritated after all that had been done to him.

“I will go back,” Day said, “but only to talk to Sir Edward again. He’s a reasonable man.”

Hammersmith waved a weak dismissive hand in his direction. “I’d rather not talk about this anymore, if it’s all right with you,” he said. “I’m quite tired.”

“Yes, of course. Sorry.”

“After all, I’ve been awake for most of half an hour now.”

“You are insufferably lazy.”

“It comes naturally.”

Day smiled and did his best to relax. He stared up at the ceiling, at a water stain that had spread from one corner and had advanced in stages, darker at its origin and increasingly fainter as it worked out toward the center of the room. He rehearsed in his mind the sorts of arguments he might make with Sir Edward, looking for the one logical thing he could say to change the commissioner’s mind. Of course, Sir Edward wasn’t incorrect: Hammersmith was often careless, he jumped forward into every battle, he pushed himself seemingly beyond the limits of human endurance. . None of that helped his case. Perhaps, Day thought, if he promised to look after Hammersmith, keep him out of future danger. .

“I don’t need permission,” Hammersmith said. His voice startled Day, who had thought the sergeant was asleep. “There’s a murderer walking around out there, more than one, and I don’t need to ask anyone what I can and can’t do. I’m going to find that missing prisoner. And I’m going to find Jack for you, even if nobody else wants to do it.”

“I believe this is exactly what Sir Edward is talking about. You almost died, Nevil.”

“But I didn’t die. Here I am and there they are, and I am going to catch them.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes, I am. I really am, you know.”

Day sighed. “Yes, I know. But would you please rest first? Would you wait until you’re able to breathe properly and move without pain?”

“I tell you, I’m fine.”

“You won’t wait? Won’t rest and let me try to talk to Sir Edward for you?”

“How many people will they kill while I lie in bed?”

“You can’t wait even a week?”

“Tomorrow. I’m going to find them tomorrow.”

“Then I’m going to help you.”

“You can’t walk.”

“With you around, I hardly need to,” Day said. “I could never keep up with you anyway.”

“Then tomorrow.”

“Perhaps. But today, will you please just lie there and think about pleasant things and let your body mend?”

“What kind of pleasant things?”

“I have no idea,” Day said.

“Your babies are healthy. That’s profoundly pleasant.”

“It is.” Day shook his head at the water stain on the ceiling. “That’s really the only thing that matters, isn’t it? And you’re right.”

“Of course I am,” Hammersmith said. “Which part am I right about?”

“I have new responsibilities. I should go back to work.”

“Yes, of course you should.”

“I will.”

“Good.”

“After tomorrow.”

“Yes. We’ve got one hell of a busy day ahead of us.”

Once upon a time, he knew, there had been other children. There had been friends and playmates for him, and they had probably called him by name. They had probably known who he was and maybe they had shouted at him across a public square or chased him round and round in the lane outside his home. But he couldn’t remember those children, couldn’t bring their faces to mind when he tried to think about them. He didn’t know what words they had shouted, what name they had used to get his attention. For as long as he could remember, he had simply been called the Harvest Man.