Andrew Pepper - The Detective Branch

Pyke waited and said nothing. Mayne continued, ‘It is imperative we find the brute who perpetrated this act as quickly and, may I say, as efficiently as possible. As such, I have decided to make Superintendent Wells and his men available to you for the investigation.’

This was a humiliation that Pyke had hoped to avoid, but ever since Wells’s meddling on the night of the murder he’d known it was a distinct possibility. ‘Superintendent Wells is to take charge of the investigation?’

Mayne gave him a hard, dispassionate stare. ‘I am hoping that the two of you will work together.’

‘May I ask why you’ve taken this decision?’ Pyke waited for an answer but Mayne had already turned to the papers in front of him.

‘You do know that by constantly drawing upon the assistance of the Executive Branch you run the risk of undermining the autonomy of the Detective Branch?’

This time Mayne looked up at him, his brow furrowed. ‘That will be all, Detective Inspector.’

At the door of the Detective Branch’s main office, Pyke listened as Lockhart and Gerrett teased Frederick Shaw about a woman he had apparently met at a dinner hosted by one of his father’s friends. ‘I hope her mind was as ample as her figure, Frederick,’ Lockhart was saying. Gerrett just guffawed. Hearing footsteps in the corridor, and not wanting to be exposed as an eavesdropper, Pyke opened the door. The office suddenly fell silent and Pyke was surprised to see not just Shaw, Gerrett and Lockhart but also Whicher and Walter Wells. Wells was grinning, enjoying the good-natured banter in the room. The idea that his detectives were more comfortable talking to one another in front of Wells than him baffled and disappointed Pyke in equal measure. ‘Find out anything new at the rectory?’ Whicher asked.

‘Nothing I didn’t already know.’ Pyke turned to Wells. ‘Superintendent. I believe we’ll have the pleasure of your company on this investigation.’

The others nodded in agreement. Billy Gerrett made a point of telling Wells how much he was looking forward to working with him. ‘I’m presuming you will be in change of the investigation as superintendent,’ he added.

If anything, Gerrett had put on even more weight during the autumn. It was the fat under his neck which most repulsed Pyke; the fact that his chin had all but disappeared into a mound of stubbly flesh.

Wells glanced over at Pyke and smiled. ‘I’m merely here to assist Detective Inspector Pyke. That is all.’

It was a gracious concession and it made Pyke wonder whether he’d judged Wells too harshly. But almost immediately, Wells said, ‘I’m presuming our first task will be to determine how to conduct the search for Hiley?’

‘It’s certainly one avenue we need to pursue,’ Pyke said, wondering whether Wells had briefed the men in his absence.

‘There are others?’ Wells asked.

‘I talked to the curate of a neighbouring church. He’s known Hiley for much of his life and told me he didn’t believe the man was capable of such a cold-blooded murder.’

‘And yet, according to the superintendent here, all of the evidence would seem to point to the contrary.’ There was a note of confrontation in Gerrett’s tone and Pyke wondered what had emboldened him.

Wells must have seen Pyke’s expression because he smiled apologetically. ‘I should have waited, I know, but I talked to the police constable who saw the man in the churchyard. The description he gave exactly matches one provided by those who know Hiley.’

‘But did he actually see this man attacking Guppy?’

Wells shook his head. Pyke exhaled loudly. This wasn’t new information and yet Wells had presented it to the men as exactly that.

‘The question surely is,’ Lockhart said, to Wells rather than to Pyke, ‘if Hiley is innocent of all wrongdoing, then where is he? His flight is surely indicative of his guilt?’

It was a good point and almost impossible to refute. Gerrett and Shaw nodded briskly. Feeling cornered, Pyke said, ‘It’s true we need to find Francis Hiley as quickly as possible, but we also need to establish or disprove his culpability. In that sense, we need to know as much as possible about him.’ He turned to Lockhart. ‘I want you to visit Coldbath Fields, see what you can find out about him there; what kind of a prisoner he was, whether he received any visitors.’

Lockhart nodded. Pyke then shifted his attention to Gerrett and Shaw. ‘I want you two to consult the court records. Hiley was found guilty of manslaughter but he was only sentenced to two years in prison. Maybe there were others, in addition to Jakes, who spoke up for him.’

Wells nodded approvingly at Pyke’s proposed course of action. ‘I will lead the operation on the ground. Even as we speak, twenty of my finest men are scouring the streets of the East End for witnesses who might have seen Hiley on the night of the murder.’ He paused and added, ‘If he’s out there, if he’s hiding, I predict he’ll be in our custody by nightfall.’

Later, after the others had departed, Whicher handed Pyke an envelope that had been left for him earlier that morning. Pyke inspected it. There was no indication of who had sent it.

‘I take it you have your doubts that Hiley is the killer?’ Whicher said.

Pyke shrugged. ‘I just don’t like the way everyone is already measuring him up for the noose.’

Almost as an afterthought, he added, ‘Do you know if Gerrett and Lockhart are still on friendly terms with Pierce?’

‘I don’t know.’ Whicher took out his handkerchief and wiped his forehead. ‘They both seemed to like him when he was head of the Detective Branch.’

Pyke nodded, trying to assess where their loyalties now lay. ‘And Shaw?’

‘Frederick would never turn against you. He’s too beholden to hierarchy and you’re his superior.’

‘But?’

‘It’s probably nothing. It’s just I’ve noticed he’s spending more time with Gerrett and Lockhart after hours.’

‘Is that such a surprise? Given they all billet in the same quarters?’

Whicher shrugged. ‘I think maybe you should keep an eye on him. Lockhart, too. That’s all.’

Pyke looked down at the envelope in his hand. The words ‘ Detective Inspector Pyke ’ had been written in careful, looping letters. Retrieving a letter opener from his desk, he slit it open and pulled out a piece of writing paper. It looked like a poem; indeed, the words were vaguely familiar. He read and reread the lyrics: Now the sneaking serpent walks / In mild humility, / And the just man rages in the wilds / Where lions roam. Still puzzling over the poem, he almost didn’t see the address penned at the bottom of the page.

28 Broad Street.

‘Broad Street.’ Pyke handed Whicher the note and added, ‘How good’s your knowledge of London?’

Whicher took the note and studied it. ‘Better than my knowledge of poetry.’

B road Street was typical of the district; a ramshackle place with two irregular rows of terraces facing one another. It had once been a respectable, even fashionable, address, but its wealthy residents had long since crossed Regent’s Street to Mayfair and the once grand buildings had now been carved up into apartments and rooms that were let, sublet and sublet again until upwards of fifty people might be crammed into the same space. No. 28 stood at the junction with Marshall Street. To get there, Pyke had to walk past a row of shops and businesses: a grocer, apothecary, machinist, tailor, bonnet-maker, beer shop and an ironmonger. The building itself was a stucco-clad terrace house from the time of Queen Anne and, as with the other buildings on the street, there were numerous plates and bells next to the front door. Pyke picked one of the bells at random and pulled it, waiting on the front step while the chimes echoed somewhere in the belly of the building.