Marie O'Regan - The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women (Mammoth Books)

The workers, taken all together, were a pallid, weary collection, like nothing so much as dolls that had been left out in the rain by a careless child. There were a hundred and fifty of them; Gairden did what he could to narrow it down. Most, simply enough, had come in, gone to their machines and had not looked up except when they took their meal break; most ate in the refectory, where they now huddled. Several seemed upset; four or five women were sniffing and lending handkerchiefs, some of the men had their heads together, muttering. A few glanced longingly at the windows or gazed sullenly at the floor, showing nothing but a dull resentment at being kept past their time. The new shift were already at the benches; the machines thudded relentlessly on.

Gairden stood in front of them and coughed. “Ladies and gentlemen, I won’t keep you a moment. I’m sure you’ve all heard that Mr Wishart was killed this evening. We hope to find whoever did it as soon as possible. If any of you have seen anything, or noticed anything at all out of the way, however small, please come and tell me. I’ll be in the wages office for as long as I’m needed.” He’d dealt with factory workers, and factory owners, before, so he added; “If you’d rather not do it here, you may find me at the Thrall Street station. Just ask for Inspector Gairden.”

A low murmur rippled through them; a few looked at each other. No one stood.

Gairden made his way to the wages office; a solemn box of a place, its mahogany cupboards sternly locked. It rather put him in mind of an expensive coffin. Though a coffin, he thought, would probably be quieter.

There was a knock on the door. “Come in,” Gairden said.

It was Lassiter. “You said you’d like to speak to me again, sir?”

“Ah, yes. Do sit down, Mr Lassiter.”

A machine stood on a table in the corner. Gairden could not make it out: it was gleaming black, painted with floral bouquets, and had a series of small white buttons attached to steel arms that disappeared inside the machine. Each of the buttons bore a letter or a number.

“That’s one of the new caligraphs, sir.”

“And what does that do?”

“It makes letters on paper; very even, just like printed type. You press the keys.”

Gairden looked at the machine with distaste. The lettering of a human hand, be it hasty scrawl or copperplate or the awkward, childlike printing of the barely literate, connected one to the writer. Handwriting had, on occasion, helped him solve a case. What could one tell from the printing of a machine, every letter identical, no matter who pressed the keys? He turned his back on it, and sat down.

The noise of the machines was slightly muffled here, but still reverberated through the very walls, calling soft answering clicks from somewhere inside the caligraph.

“Well, Mr Lassiter? Can you tell me about how you found Mr Wishart?”

“I was on the way up to discuss a plan he had, for a new safety device. He’d been promising it for a while . . .” Lassiter looked down, and tugged at a loose thread on his sleeve.

“There were difficulties?”

“He’d get distracted. He had a wonderful mind, sir, no doubt of it. But he did get distracted.”

“I see. So, on this particular evening?”

“I just went up to give him a bit of a nudge, as it were. And when I got there, there he was, poor fellow.”

“Did you hear or see anything? Did anyone pass you on the stairs?”

“I took the lift, sir. It was working fine then. The corridor was empty when I got out.”

“Did you hear anything?”

“There was some shouting, I took it to be outside in the street. And then I did hear something. But it wasn’t a sound a person would make, it was like a long note on a fiddle, drawn out; a sort of a wailing, but not anything from a mouth, or a throat.”

“And then?”

“And then . . . well, have you ever dropped a copper pot, Inspector? There was that sort of sound. Like lots of copper pots, falling. It struck me something was up, that there’d been an accident, so I hurried, but when I got around the corner . . .” he shrugged. “The door was open, and I went in, and there was poor Jamie.”

“And whatever you heard falling?”

“No idea about that, sir. There was nothing there when I got to the room.”

“Did you touch anything . . . move anything?”

“I went close, to see if there was anything to be done. Foolish, I suppose. I could see straight away that his poor head was quite stoved in. I hope I didn’t do wrong?”

“No, not at all.”

“There was something else, sir.”

“Yes?”

“It’ll sound odd, sir, but I could have sworn I heard music, just before. Only it could just be the machines.”

“I’m afraid I don’t follow you?”

“It’s the noise, see, sir. Sometimes when I leave I can still hear them, even in my sleep. They put odd noises in one’s head. But normally it’s ringing, or a sort of buzz; what I heard, it sounded like proper music, like you’d hear down at the concert halls, only . . . well, like all the instruments were made of silver.” Lassiter gave him a sidelong glance, looking a little flushed. “Sounds fanciful, I’m sure.”

To Gairden, it sounded as though the man had heard fey music, though the fey had a notorious dislike of the manufactories, and rarely ventured into the cities at all. And though they could be dangerous, they tended to be subtle; simply breaking a man’s head open like an egg was hardly their style. Or perhaps the machines had had an unfortunate effect on Lassiter, had driven him a little mad. It would hardly be surprising.

“Music, and then shouting. Well, thank you. I shall keep it in mind. Oh, Mr Lassiter?”

“Sir?”

“Have there been problems with the Children of Lud? Anything Mr Rheese might not know of?”

Lassiter stiffened a little; his face became wooden. “Not had any of that manner of thing, sir, no. I don’t believe there’s many of ’em still about. And of course if we had, I’d be obliged to report it to Mr Rheese.”

“Of course. Tell me, do you drink gin at all?

“Wouldn’t touch it, sir. We’ve lost some good workers to gin; I won’t have them in if they smell of it. It’s sneaky, wretched stuff and makes for accidents.”

“Hmm. Thank you, Mr Lassiter. I think that will be all.”

The next person to knock at the door was a young woman with strong dark curls escaping from beneath her headscarf. The glow of outdoor work had not quite faded from her skin, and she lacked the grey starveling look so many of the workers had; her arms were solid with muscle, her shoulders broad and strong. Her eyelids were swollen.

“Good evening, miss. Did you have something you wished to speak to me about?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Could I take your name?”

“Mattie Drewrey, sir.”

“Thank you. And what was it you wanted to tell me?”

“There was someone with him.” She was biting her lip, her eyes brimming. “Oh, if I could get my hands on her …”

Gairden took a clean handkerchief from his pocket; he always kept several about him. “Now, don’t fret yourself. Whoever did this was a dangerous person; it’s just as well you didn’t meet them, eh? Her, you say?” He handed Mattie the handkerchief.

She took it, and blew her nose. “Yes, sir.”

“And what did she look like?”

“I didn’t see much, sir. I’d gone out, for a breath, see. We don’t take our food at the machines, so we get a little time, a few minutes to eat, and I like to go outside.”

“Even when it’s raining?”

“I was brought up on a farm, sir; you don’t hide from a bit of rain when there’s stock to be tended. Anyway, I happened to look up at Jamie . . . at Mr Wishart’s window.”