Alex Grecian - The Yard

They looked at each other and both burst out laughing at once. Then they lapsed into easy silence. The two women sat side by side under the willow tree on the same low wall that Constables Hammersmith and Pringle had occupied two nights before. The sun had moved behind a blanket of fog and did nothing to warm them. Liza leaned her head against Esme’s shoulder.

“He doesn’t have hair on his face,” she said. “There’s no beard to shave.”

“They all have beards,” Esme said. “This one keeps it down, is all.”

“Less work for us, I suppose.”

“He done the work for us. Partly.”

“Partly. Not all.”

“You really think he’ll come here?”

“If he doesn’t, we know where to find him.”

“Not done it to a police afore.”

“You done it to plenty a police, girl.”

Esme laughed. “Ain’t done the other thing, though. Ain’t killed one.”

“Don’t matter he’s police. What they done fer us, huh? They dint catch him.”

“They let the Ripper do what he done to Annie.”

“And the others.”

“Aye.”

“And you.”

“Aye.”

They were silent then, and the fog rolled over the wall and up the trunk of the willow behind them and swirled down. It was cool and damp, and Liza closed her eyes and felt it on her face.

“He’ll come,” she said. “Patience, love. He’ll come.”

Should I be worried about this woman poisoning me?” Blacker said.

“You’re not her type,” Hammersmith said.

“Excuse me?”

“A joke. I thought you liked those. Penelope Shaw was a victim of her husband’s cruelty and manipulation. She won’t cause any trouble for you.”

“Michael and I seem to have hit a dead end with Little’s murder,” Day said. “Now that we have your notes, Nevil, I’d like to follow Constable Pringle’s movements in the last few hours of his life.”

Hammersmith nodded.

“You know,” Blacker said, “that I have the utmost respect for Sir Edward.”

“Of course.”

“The jokes … about his arm? They weren’t meant to hurt.”

“Perhaps joking makes the job easier for you.”

“Sir Edward knows you meant no real disrespect,” Hammersmith said. “If he didn’t, I believe you’d be back to walking a beat today.”

The creak of the opening gate caused the three men to turn toward the rail where Sergeant Kett was entering.

“Some news for you gentlemen,” he said. “Mr Day, I’m afraid we needed the room in lock-up and I was forced to send your prisoner to the workhouse.”

“The dancing man?”

“He wasn’t dancin’ when I saw ’im last.”

“Which workhouse did you send him to?”

“Hobgate.”

“Damn.”

“I had little choice.”

“No, I understand, but I don’t think he’s well equipped to survive long there.”

“Well, who is?”

“Granted.”

“And Mr Hammersmith, there’s been another dispatch from hospital. It’s your father.”

“My father can wait.”

“No, son, it don’t sound like he can.”

“I’ll get round to see him when I have the time.”

“If you want to do that today, I can handle the investigation on my own for a bit,” Day said.

“No, you’ll need me to point out Colin’s habits.”

“Your notes will steer me in the right direction, I’m sure I can-”

“I don’t care to see my father.”

“Ah.”

“He doesn’t know me. He’s half the size he once was and he coughs blood onto himself, and I have no desire to watch him die. If it’s quite all right with you lot, I will do my job and I will remember my father the way that I wish to remember him.”

The other policemen looked at one another, but remained quiet. Finally Kett reached out and clapped Hammersmith on the shoulder.

“Well,” he said, “you lads have a busy afternoon ahead of you. I’ll let you get to it.”

Kett stepped through the gate and disappeared down the back hallway.

“Well, then,” Day said. “Let’s get started, shall we? Where would Pringle have been yesterday morning?”

Hammersmith was grateful to Day for giving him something constructive to think about, a goal, no matter how wretched the circumstances surrounding that goal might be. His head throbbed and the room spun slowly round him, the poison still working its way through his system. He closed his eyes, thinking, waiting for the walls to stop moving.

“He was headed to the tailor’s shop,” he said. “I forget the name. It’s the one used by the department for uniforms and the like.”

“Cinderhouse,” Blacker said.

“That’s it. Colin had new trousers being made and he was anxious to have them fitted.”

“He was anxious for a pair of trousers?”

“He was quite … well, he was immaculate in his ways and in his appearance. He liked to impress the ladies.”

Hammersmith allowed himself a wistful smile at the thought of all the disappointed women who would never again receive a compliment from Colin Pringle. Some of them, Maggie especially, deserved an explanation. Hammersmith could see that the days ahead would be busy. He would need to track down and inform Pringle’s friends-the friends that Hammersmith knew about-that their social circle had been diminished.

“Then Cinderhouse should be your first stop,” Blacker said. “You were going to pay a visit there anyway. We can share a wagon, at least that far, before I have to head for the Shaw home.”

“The scarcity of police wagons is alarming. How can we hope to track anyone down when we have no transportation?”

“The tailor’s shop won’t be open yet,” Hammersmith said.

“What say we roll past it and take a look? I don’t want to wait another day before questioning him. If he’s not in there, we’ll try again after we see this Shaw woman. Meanwhile, Mr Hammersmith looks particularly rough this morning. Perhaps we could all do with a spot of tea and a fresh change of clothing.”

“I’m fine,” Hammersmith said. “Perhaps not as rested as I might be, I’ll admit, but I won’t be able to sleep again until this monster is in our dungeon.”

“Of course.”

“Then what say, after the tailor’s shop, we pay a visit to Shaw’s widow together?” Blacker said. “We’re supposed to stick together anyway and I’ll feel a bit less likely to be knocked off by her.”

Day looked at Hammersmith.

“I’ll wait outside her home,” Hammersmith said, “in the wagon.”

Day chuckled and clapped Blacker on the back. “Very well. Perhaps the presence of three of the Yard’s finest will convince Mrs Shaw to keep her poisons locked up.”

The gate creaked again.

“Your pardon,” Kett said, “but there’s a gentleman out here who says he’s got to talk to Mr Day.”

“To me?”

“Well, not by name, but he said it was regarding the dancin’ man, and that’s your special interest.”

Day looked at Hammersmith and Blacker. Blacker shrugged.

“I can spare a minute,” Day said, “but no more.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Wait. Who is it?”

“Never seen ’im round before, but he says he’s the dancin’ man’s brother.”

Dr Bernard Kingsley looked past the body of Dr Charles Shaw. Most of the tables in the large spotless room were full, and two nurses were busy bringing in more bodies. Next to Shaw was the body of a girl who couldn’t have been much older than Fiona Kingsley. Most of the girl’s jaw was missing, her tongue lolling down the length of her neck. A belated victim of the white phosphorus used to make matches, and a clear holdover from London’s match girls’ strike of the previous year. Kingsley had seen scores of similar bodies, but fewer of them since the strike. The young women who had worked in the Bryant and May matchstick factory had breathed the phosphorus fumes. They had touched their faces when they lit their cigarettes, scratched their noses, and wiped the sweat from their brows, transferring white phosphorus from their fingers. Their skulls had turned to jelly.