Edward Marston - The Railway Detective

‘No, no,’ she said with a laugh.

‘Mr Pike has given me his version of events, of course, but I would like to hear what your father has to say. Is there any chance that I might question him tomorrow?’

‘Yes, Inspector — if he continues to improve.’

‘I’ll delay my arrival until late morning.’

‘We will expect you,’ said Madeleine, glad that she would be seeing him again. Their eyes locked for a moment. Both of them felt a mild frisson . It was she who eventually turned away. ‘I’ve taken up too much of your time, Inspector. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.’

‘One moment,’ he said, putting a hand on her arm to stop her. ‘I may be a detective but I find it much easier to visit a house when I know exactly where it is.’ He took out his notebook. ‘Could I trouble you for an address, Miss Andrews?’

She gave another laugh. ‘Yes — how silly of me!’

He wrote down the address that she dictated then closed the notebook. When he looked up, she met his gaze once more and there was a blend of interest and regret in her eyes. Colbeck was intrigued.

‘I hope that you catch these men soon, Inspector,’ she said.

‘We will make every effort to do so.’

‘What they did to my father was unforgivable.’

‘They will be justly punished, Miss Andrews.’

‘He was heart-broken when he heard what happened to his locomotive. Father dotes on it. Why did they force it off the track? It seems so unnecessary.’

‘It was. Unnecessary and gratuitous.’

‘Do you have any idea who the train robbers might be?’

‘We have identified two of their accomplices,’ he told her, ‘and we are searching for both men. One of them — a former employee of the Post Office — should be in custody before too long.’

William Ings was astounded by his good fortune. He never thought that he would meet any woman whose company he preferred to a game of cards but that is what had happened in the case of Kate Piercey. He had shared a night of madness with her and spent most of the next day in her arms. Kate was younger, livelier and more sensual than Polly Roach. Her breath was far sweeter, her body firmer. More to the point, she was not as calculating as the woman he had discarded on the previous night. Ings had bumped into her in the street as he fled from the clutches of Polly Roach. He knew that the collision was no accident — she had deliberately stepped out of the shadows into his path — but that did not matter. He felt that the encounter was fateful.

There was something about Kate that excited him from the start, an amalgam of boldness and vulnerability that he found irresistible. She was half-woman and half-child, mature yet nubile, experienced yet seemingly innocent. William Ings was a realist. He knew that he was not the first man to enjoy her favours and he had no qualms about paying for them, but he was soon overcome by the desire to be the last of her clients, to covet her, to protect her, to rescue her from the hazards of her profession and shape her into something better. Impossible as the dream might appear, he wanted to be both father and lover to Kate Piercey.

As he watched her dress that evening by the light of the lamp, he was enchanted. Polly Roach might have brought him to the Devil’s Acre but she had been displaced from his mind completely.

‘Where shall we go, Billy?’ she asked.

‘Wherever you wish,’ he replied.

‘We can eat well but cheaply at Flanagan’s.’

‘Then we’ll go elsewhere. That place is not good enough for you.’

She giggled. ‘You say the nicest things.’

‘You deserve the best, Kate. Let me take you somewhere special.’

‘You’re so kind to me.’

‘No, my love,’ he said, slipping his arms around her, ‘it’s you who are kind to me.’ He kissed her once more. ‘I adore you.’

‘But you’ve known me less than twenty-four hours, Billy.’

‘That’s long enough. Now, where can we dine together?’

‘There’s a new place in Victoria Street,’ she told him, ‘but they say that it’s very expensive.’

He thrust his hand deep into his leather bag and brought out a fistful of bank notes. Ings held them proudly beneath her nose, as if offering them in tribute.

‘Do you think that this would buy us a good meal?’

‘Billy!’ she cried with delight. ‘Where did you get all that money?’

‘I’ve been saving it up until I met you,’ he said.

Madeleine Andrews was touched when Colbeck insisted on escorting her to the front door of the building. Light was beginning to fade and there was a gentle breeze. She turned to look up at him.

‘Thank you, Inspector. You are very kind.’

‘It must have taken an effort for you to come here.’

‘It did,’ she said. ‘The worst of it was that I felt like a criminal.’

‘You’ve done nothing wrong, Miss Andrews.’

‘I shared my father’s guilt.’

‘All that he was guilty of was thoughtless indiscretion,’ he said, ‘and I’m sure that nobody could ever accuse you of that.’ Her gaze was quizzical. ‘What’s the matter?’

‘Oh, I’m sorry. I did not mean to stare like that.’

‘You seem to be puzzled by something.’

‘I suppose that I am.’

‘Let me see if I can guess what it is, Miss Andrews,’ he said with a warm smile. ‘The question in your eyes is the one that I’ve asked myself from time to time. What is a man like me doing in this job?’

‘You are so different to any policemen that I have ever met.’

‘In what way?’

‘They are much more like the man who showed me to your office.’

‘That was Sergeant Leeming,’ he explained. ‘I’m afraid that Victor is not blessed with the most handsome face in London, though his wife loves him dearly nevertheless.’

‘It was his manner, Inspector.’

‘Polite but rough-edged. I know what you mean. Victor spent years, pounding his beat in uniform. It leaves its mark on a man. My time in uniform was considerably shorter. However,’ he went on, looking up Whitehall, ‘you did not come here to be bored by my life story. Let me help you find a cab.’

‘I had planned to walk some of the way, Inspector.’

‘I’d advise against it, Miss Andrews. It is not always safe for an attractive woman to stroll unaccompanied at this time of day.’

‘I am well able to look after myself.’

‘It will be dark before long.’

‘I am not afraid of the dark.’

‘Why take any risks?’

Seeing a cab approach in the distance, he raised a hand.

‘There is no risk involved,’ she said with a show of spirit. ‘Please do not stop the cab on my account. If I wished to take it, I am quite capable of hailing it myself.’

He lowered his hand. ‘I beg your pardon.’

‘You must not worry about me. I am much stronger than I may appear. After all, I did come here on foot.’

He was taken aback. ‘You walked from Camden Town?’

‘It was good exercise,’ she replied. ‘Goodbye, Inspector Colbeck.’

‘Goodbye, Miss Andrews. It was a pleasure to meet you.’

‘Thank you.’

‘I will see you again tomorrow,’ he said, relishing the thought. ‘I hope that you’ll forgive me if I arrive by Hansom cab.’

She gave him a faint smile before walking off up Whitehall. Colbeck stood for a moment to watch her then he went back into the building. As soon as the detective had disappeared, a figure stepped out from the doorway in which he had been hiding. He was a dark-eyed young man of medium height in an ill-fitting brown suit. Pulling his cap down, he set off in pursuit of Madeleine Andrews.

By the time he got back to The Black Dog, the fight had already started. Several people were involved and they had reached the stage of hurling chairs at each other or defending themselves with a broken bottle. Brendan Mulryne did not hesitate. Hurling himself into the middle of the fray, he banged heads together, kicked one man in the groin and felled a second with an uppercut. But even he could not stop the brawl. When it spilt out into the street, he was carried along with it, flailing away with both fists and inflicting indiscriminate punishment.