Andrew Pepper - The Detective Branch

‘And you do know that Palmer contributed ten thousand to Peel’s election campaign; that he belongs to the same lodge as Mayne and that Rowan is a non-executive director of City Holdings Consolidated?’

He left Pyke with that thought.

As he walked up the rest of the stairs, Pyke wondered whether Rowan — one of the men about to decide on his future — was really implicated in the Churches Fund fraud. He considered what Culpepper and others had said to him and realised he had no idea how far or how deep the corruption in the New Police went.

With these thoughts in his mind, it struck him, not for the first time, that he still didn’t know what he planned to say. Did he want his old position back? Whicher and Shaw had made it clear they wanted him to return, but was it what he wanted? Wells was gone but some of the men he’d commanded, and who had perhaps killed on his orders, remained in their jobs. Still, he was reminded of Martin Jakes and what he’d been able to achieve, despite the lack of support from his seniors. The clerks in the commissioners’ office looked at Pyke but wouldn’t meet his eyes. Gathering himself, Pyke clutched the leather-bound ledger under his arm and made his way towards Mayne’s office.

At the door, he paused and took a breath, then he knocked hard and waited for an answer.