Andrew Pepper - The Revenge of Captain Paine

‘Who’s done this to me?’ he asked, not really expecting a response.

‘The list of people bearing a grudge against you could be a long one,’ Townsend replied. He looked pale and tired and each time he moved, he winced a little, as though trying to hide some kind of ailment.

Pyke thought about his own predicament. Given what had happened, he had to at least entertain the possibility that he, not Emily or Felix, had been the target of a failed assassination attempt, but this didn’t explain why the masked man, who’d fired two shots at him, had driven off with his wife and son. Or why he’d heard nothing in the subsequent twenty-four hours.

‘You think this could be someone trying to settle an old score?’

‘You’ve made plenty of enemies.’

Pyke rubbed his eyes and stared out of the window. ‘Then why hasn’t there been a ransom demand?’

‘Maybe there will be one waiting for you when you get home.’

Pyke nodded, slightly reassured by this hope. At least then, he would know that Emily and Felix were alive.

‘On his third birthday I took my son to Bartholomew’s Fair. I thought he’d like the noise and the colour. Maybe the animal exhibits, too. In the end, we spent most of our time by a stall where newborn babies were being sold. He didn’t ask me about it once, not at the time and not on the way home, but later he had the most terrible night-mares, woke up the entire house with his screams.’ Pyke paused, not sure why he’d remembered this or decided to tell Townsend about it.

Was it a happy memory of their time together or an example of his failings?

‘Maybe what happened had nothing to do with you,’ Townsend said, a while later. ‘What if your wife was kidnapped because of something she’d done? You said she’d been involved with the radicals…’

Pyke nodded. He had thought about this already, of course. He had considered Tilling’s warning of an imminent crackdown and Bellows’s suggestion that he keep a tighter rein on Emily. But would the chief magistrate really have targeted her in such an apparently random way?

‘I don’t know,’ Pyke said, shaking his head. ‘Perhaps you’re right. Perhaps I’m missing something. But would Emily really have been their main target? And if she was, why not just kill her? Why go to the bother of hijacking a carriage with our son inside too?’

Townsend didn’t have an answer. ‘When we get back to the city, what d’you want me to do?’

‘For a start, you can take up residence in my office at the bank. I want you there in case a ransom demand is delivered. I’m afraid if I go anywhere near the bank’s premises, I’ll be arrested.’ When Townsend looked up at him, intrigued, Pyke added, ‘I know. It’s a long story.’ It was Monday morning, and a warrant for his arrest might already have been issued. ‘I’d also like you to keep an eye on William Blackwood. Every evening this week, I’ll expect you at my new house, number forty-four Berkeley Square, at six o’clock sharp for a report. Of course, if there’s a ransom note, I’ll want to hear about it immediately. No one else knows about that address. I’d like it to remain that way.’

Townsend winced, as though in pain, and tried to get comfortable. ‘What will you do?’

‘I’m going to find Jake Bolter and Jimmy Trotter.’

‘And when you find them?’

‘I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.’ Pyke looked out of the smeared window at the orange sun that had just appeared over an allotment site.

As they neared the city, Pyke’s sense of foreboding grew. What if Emily and Felix were already dead?

Pyke found Harold Field attending to a young lamb in the pit of his underground slaughterhouse. He wore a clean, white apron and was surrounded by five or six younger meat cutters. Gripping the terrified creature with one arm, its feet scraping against the cobblestones, he held the knife with his other hand and slit the lamb’s throat with a single draw of the blade. With another seven or eight strokes, Field had flayed and dissected the limp creature, his white apron now stained with the lamb’s blood and entrails. In a nearby pen, the other lambs mewed and bleated, the ground beneath their feet thick with dried blood and fat. Field wiped his hands on his apron and said something to the gathered meat cutters. Then the circle around him broke up, and Field made his way up to the top of the stairs where Pyke was standing.

‘Would you believe it? They call themselves butchers but some of ’em don’t even know how to flay a lamb.’ His hands were still caked in blood. ‘I take it you want to talk to me?’

Pyke hadn’t seen Field before — he knew of his reputation, as most people did who lived or worked around Smithfield — and was surprised to find that he was such a neat and fussy dresser. Underneath the apron, he wore a fashionable black frock-coat and a blue silk cravat, tied in an immaculate bow. His hair had a reddish tinge but it had been neatly trimmed and his beard and whiskers glistened with pomade.

‘I was told that Jimmy Trotter does some work for you.’

‘Is that right?’ Field smiled easily, a mask for the violence that lurked within him. ‘And who told you that?’

‘Ned Villums.’

This time Field regarded him with renewed caution. ‘So you’re a friend of that old rogue.’

‘My name’s Pyke.’ He waited and saw Field’s pupils dilate slightly. ‘I’m a banker now but I used to be a Bow Street Runner. And I once owned a ginnery around the corner from here on Giltspur Street.’

‘Lizzie’s place. I remember you now.’ Field’s smile was confined to the corners of his mouth. ‘You had some trouble with the law, if I recall.’

‘A long time ago now.’

‘People around here have long memories.’ Field shrugged. ‘You once had quite a reputation.’

‘Coming from you, I’ll take that as a compliment.’

Field regarded him suspiciously. ‘So what’s your business with Jimmy?’

‘I’d prefer to keep that to myself.’

‘And you think I’m just going to hand him to you on a plate?’ He seemed amused by this notion.

‘From time to time, you may have need of a banker whose discretion you can rely on.’

Field’s eyes narrowed. ‘Is that how you know Ned?’

‘I’ve known Ned from even before his tenure at the Old Cock.’

‘I remember now. You were something of a villain even as a Bow Street Runner.’ Field wiped his hands on his apron. ‘But I’m afraid I can’t help you. Jimmy doesn’t work for me any more.’

‘What happened? Did someone make him a better offer?’

For the first time, Pyke saw real menace in Field’s eyes. ‘Don’t try and mock me. You’ve seen my handiwork with a knife.’

Pyke thought about responding but remembered Villums’s warning. ‘So you don’t know where I could find him?’

Field’s smile returned, perhaps because he sensed he had unsettled Pyke. ‘Jimmy always was a bit of a wanderer.’ He paused, then added, ‘But I do remember how he liked his cigars. He always bought them from a shop on Oxford Street. You could try asking for him there.’

Pyke realised this was all he was likely get from the man and thanked him for his help. As he turned to leave, Field stepped forward and laid a hand on his arm. ‘What did you say the name of your bank was?’

‘Blackwood’s. You can find us above Sweeting’s Alley in the City.’

‘I might just take you up on your offer one of these days.’ Field was smiling. ‘And if you do see Jimmy, remember to give him my best wishes. I’m guessing he’ll need them if that look on your face is anything to go by.’

Outside on the same street as Field’s slaughterhouse was a fat-boiler, tripe-scraper, glue-renderer and a small tannery. The air stank of offal, drying hides and mephitic fumes. Looking back into the slaughterhouse, Pyke wondered how many human beings had been murdered within its walls.