Alex Grecian - The Yard

He drew the flat black pouch from his pocket and opened it. The brass key was still there, atop the ugly, more utilitarian skeleton keys. He took it out, closed the pouch, and put it back in his pocket.

“Henry,” he said.

Mayhew turned his attention to Day.

“This key I’m holding?” Day showed it to the dancing man, who nodded. “It fits this door. I’ll wager you didn’t even notice that there was a door here.”

“I did notice it, Mr Day.”

“Well, I never did. At any rate, this is the key to it.”

He put the key in the lock and turned it, opened the door, and stepped to the side so that Henry could enter ahead of him. With both men standing inside, the kiosk seemed much smaller than it had the last time Day had been there. Henry’s head nearly brushed the ceiling.

“Dr Kingsley mentioned that you might be going to work for him.”

Henry smiled.

“You’ll need a place to live,” Day said. “Until you save some money.”

Henry looked suspiciously around the tiny room.

“I know it’s not much,” Day said. “It’s awfully small, and it’s not warm, and it’s not all that comfortable, I’m sure, but it’s dry and it’s safe and you won’t have to spend the night in a heap on the sidewalk. And, if you decide you want to dance, there’s a much larger audience for it out there on the gallery. This is a park. You should dance in a park, Henry.”

“You want me to stay in here?”

“You can come and go here as you please. I’m sort of giving you this place. As a home.”

“A home?”

“Yes. So far as I know, this is the only key to this place. And I’m giving that to you. When you eventually get something larger, a flat of your own, I’d appreciate it if you returned the key to me, but-”

Henry picked him up and squeezed him in a massive bear hug. Day put his hand atop his head in case he should bump against the low ceiling.

“I say. That’s not necessary.”

Henry set him back down on his feet and gave him a shy smile. “Nobody’s been as nice to me as you and the doctor’s been since Frank went away.”

Day cleared his throat. “Yes, well, here’s the key.”

He put it in Henry’s outstretched hand.

“Thank you, Mr Day. I was wrong before. The city’s messenger is you. It’s been you all along.”

“I don’t know about that, but you’re welcome,” Day said. “I think … I think the city would want you to have this. That seems right to me.”

Henry looked around the space as if deciding where to put the furniture. Day thought that the milk crate would look the same no matter where he positioned it.

“I’ll leave you to it, then,” he said. “I imagine I’ll see you the next time I’m by Dr Kingsley’s lab.”

“I’ll be there,” Henry said. “Thank you again.”

“You take care of yourself, Henry.”

Day stepped out and pulled the door closed behind him. He would sleep much better at night knowing that the dancing man was safe. He pulled his watch out and checked it. He needed to hurry back to work. There was much to be done if London was going to be made safe enough for the new Day to come.

Hammersmith had treated himself to a small bag of chocolates from the confectionary shop downstairs. He had never been in the place, but his new promotion to sergeant was an occasion that called for something more than coppery tea to mark it.

On his way down the hall, he heard the creak of Mrs Flanders’s door behind him and turned to see her standing at the landing.

“Oh, Mr Hammersmith, it’s you. I thought you might be someone else.”

“Someone else on the way up to my flat?”

“Well, I thought you might be the other policeman. Your friend. I never caught his name, but he was most gracious. A very nice man.”

“My friend?”

“Yes. The man who came round yesterday. Well, I should say there were two men who came yesterday, but I didn’t spend time talking to the second one. It was the first policeman to arrive at your meeting that I mean.”

She waved her hand in the air and shook her head. “Oh, why am I talking about either of them?” She leaned toward him and whispered, “If anyone heard me, it might ruin their disguises.” She put a finger to her lips, winked, and backed into her flat. The door closed.

Hammersmith stood for a moment, wondering whether she would come back out and explain herself. When she didn’t reappear, he let himself into his flat and set the bag of chocolates on the table in the small sitting room. He looked around to see if anything had been disturbed. He had been so tired the night before that he had fallen into bed and been asleep nearly the instant he came through the door. There might have been a marching band in his flat and he wouldn’t have noticed. Now he checked the place carefully.

His own bedroom was as spartan as it had always been, but Pringle’s room was cluttered. Fresh laundry was draped over a clotheshorse in the corner, uncounted pairs of shoes were lined up next to the bed, ready to be shined, a lightly worn shirt was draped in front of the open window to air out. There was something dull and lifeless about that collection of things, as if the room had shut down in Pringle’s absence. It smelled dusty. Hammersmith averted his eyes and shut the door.

He found three things in the parlor that he did not think had been there yesterday morning. There was a small reddish brown spot on the rug under the table. It might have been jelly, but it looked to Hammersmith like blood. There was also a piece of paper folded on the mantel, held in place by a new tin of tea.

He opened the tea first and smelled it. There was no scent of copper.

He unfolded the paper and read what was written on it.

Dear Mr Hammersmith, our mutual friend has retired from business. You won’t be hearing about him again. Your tea was undrinkable. I took the liberty of replacing it. Perhaps we’ll meet again. Your friend.

The note was unsigned, but Hammersmith understood who had left it and what it meant.

He started a fire and put the kettle on. When the tea had brewed, he took his cup to the window and silently toasted Colin Pringle’s memory.

He took a sip. It was the best tea he had ever tasted.

Dr Kingsley put down his scalpel and put on his overcoat. He left his lab and locked the door behind him. Fiona was in the hall, hurrying toward him with her pad and charcoal.

“I’m sorry I’m late, Father,” she said.

“Not at all. I was thinking I might take today off and spend it with you.”

“But there’s so much work to do.”

“There will always be more work. But you will be grown and gone away before I know it.”

Fiona grinned and set her tablet of paper on the low table in the hall. “What shall we do, then?” she said.

The rain had turned to a light mist and they strolled aimlessly away from the hospital until the sky opened up again. They jumped aboard an omnibus and by the time the rain let up again they found themselves at Hyde Park. The park was nearly deserted and it glimmered with raindrops. The landscape smelled of fresh greens and flowers, and they drifted along in companionable silence, content for the moment to be alone together.

Finally Kingsley broke the stillness between them. “Fiona,” he said, “I’ve decided something.”

“Is it bad?” she said.

“Whatever would make you ask that?”

“You never leave your lab. And now suddenly … I’m afraid you have something awful to say, some news that has to be broken to me outdoors where I won’t scream and make a spectacle.”

“Not at all.”

“You’re not sending me away to school, then?”

Kingsley chuckled. “No, I’m not sending you away.”