The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow (24 page)

The lady flinched and gave a little scream as the cold liquid rushed down her neck. It gave Sophie the split second she needed. Faster than she had ever moved in her life, she snatched the envelope from between the lady’s fingers, barely having time to register the Baron’s outraged face. The she was already running as fast as she could back through the crowd, dimly aware that Billy was running frantically behind her.

‘Good to see you again, Joey Boy.’

Jem was circling him, toying with him like a cat with a mouse. Instinctively Joe stepped backwards, but somehow, Tommy was already behind him. ‘Watch yourself,’ he said, grinning.

They were ranged round him now, like three points on a triangle: Jem, Tommy and Isaac, a big fellow with hands like hams, who Joe remembered was a former wrestling champion. Joe looked desperately out to where, just a few yards away, he could see the safety of Piccadilly, with lit-up motor cars going by and the sound of voices. But here on the narrow side-street that led to the staff entrance it was dark and empty, but for the shapes of Jem, Tommy and Isaac, looming closer around him.

‘What are you doing here?’ he managed to bluster, turning to Jem.

‘What are we doing here?’ Jem repeated with his familiar old jagged smile, and he looked at Tommy and then at Isaac. ‘What are we doing, fellers?’

‘Lending a hand,’ said Tommy glibly.

‘That’s right,’ said Jem. He eyed Joe speculatively. ‘Helpful, that’s what we are. I tell you what, though, what I’d like to know, and that’s what
you’re
doing here, Joey Boy. I thought you’d think twice before you’d cross our paths again. Not so smart of you, I’d say.’

‘I’m just off – I’m on my way –’ Joe began, taking a few steps back, but somehow there was always one of them behind him.

‘There’s no need to be in such a rush,’ said Jem, so close now that Joe could see his broken teeth. ‘We got a lot of catching up to do.’

‘Yoo-hoo! Joe!’

The voice came out of nowhere, making them all jump. It was a girl’s voice, and when he looked up, Joe saw that Lil was hustling down the street towards them. Her cheeks were flushed with excitement: it had been her first night in her show at the theatre, he realised, and now she was on her way to the party. She was wearing a hat wreathed in poppies and had a crimson scarf at her neck that deepened the red of her lips and cheeks, and made her dark hair look glossier than ever.

‘I didn’t expect to see you out here!’ she said as she bounced up to him. Then she took in the three men. ‘Good evening,’ she said to them, brightly.

Joe’s whole body clenched in fear as Tommy’s smile grew even broader. ‘Well, well, Joey Boy,’ he said, his voice ringing with sly satisfaction. ‘Who’s this?’

Sophie had never known she could run so fast. Her slippers slid on the shiny parquet floor; her breath was heaving in her chest, but she kept on running, pushing past bemused and startled party guests.

‘You there! Stop!’ called out a voice behind her, but she did not pause, not even for an instant. She tore on, skidding past the counters that sold rouge and powder and scent, dodging a porter with a stack of boxes. Through the Flower Department, where a crowd of people had gathered to watch a ballerina clad in petal-pink perform a solo. Up and out, up the stairs, she kept on running, holding the envelope to her chest, Billy running beside her. There were heavy footsteps behind them, coming closer. Her mind was racing as she tried to work out which way they could go. Along the gallery, through the Reading Room, up the back stairs. Perhaps they could lose them on the third floor.

They burst into the Millinery Department. It looked exactly as it always did, though Sophie was dimly conscious of Minnie and Violet shrieking as they rushed through, sending a display of hats cascading to the ground. ‘What are you
doing
here?’ Edith demanded incredulously, her hands on her hips, blocking her path; but Sophie pushed her aside and kept on running. This was no time to let Edith, or anyone, slow her down.

They were back on the stairs now: she strained her ears for footsteps coming after them, but she could only hear the sound of her own breath, her feet hitting the ground, and Billy’s, following behind her. Spots danced before her eyes and she could scarcely breathe inside her corset, but she kept on running, knowing that somewhere below them, the clock was counting down the minutes towards midnight.

‘Not this way!’ Billy was gasping behind her. ‘It goes to the roof!’

‘I know – there’s another way down – through the roof garden. A staircase on the other side,’ she panted out.

They crashed through the doors and out on to the roof terrace. After the fizzy exuberance of the party, it seemed oddly still, with no sound but the leaves of the young trees quivering in the breeze. Here and there they could see the distant figures of one or two couples taking a romantic stroll along the gravel paths. Taking a sharp right turn, Sophie dashed away from the main path and into the undergrowth, darting through the black shapes of the trees, like spiky paper cut-outs in the dark.

The door was ahead of her, just beyond the goldfish pond. From here they would be able to go all the way down and get out on to the street, where surely they could lose their pursuers amongst the people outside. Her fingers closed on the door handle in relief, but it wouldn’t open: her body slammed uselessly against it. She shook the handle impatiently. ‘Oh gosh – it’s locked,’ gasped Billy in her ear.

S
ophie stood on the rooftop, clutching the precious envelope close to her chest, her heart thumping, with no idea of where to go.

The wind buffeted her, blowing out her hair, her muddy skirts. From up here, she could see London spread out before her like a counterpane: a doll’s-house landscape, glittering with tiny lights. She could see all sorts of things that were usually hidden: the shapes of chimney pots and crooked rooftops; secret attic windows, as small as postage stamps; the scratchy lines of the scaffolding that supported the letters stretched across the tops of buildings around Piccadilly Circus, spelling out words like
CIGARS
or
BOVRIL
. She saw all this in a flash, and down below, the people – tiny figures, no more than wind-up toys moving along the streets.

The lights blurred and smeared, and she felt dizzy. The voices and the footsteps were coming nearer, faster, and there was no escape left for them now.

‘I’ve got an idea!’ came Billy’s voice suddenly, through the dark. ‘Quick – come on! This way!’

They were running again, her feet pounding and her breath catching in her chest as they raced across the roof. They dashed through the gardens, between the shadow shapes of the trees, towards the pond. There was a sort of summerhouse there – a place intended for elegant ladies to sit and drink iced tea on hot summer afternoons, out of the glare of the sun. Now, of course, it was dark and empty, but they pushed their way inside, pulling the door closed behind them. Then, silence. Billy took the envelope from Sophie’s hands, his eyes darting wildly around as if looking for somewhere to hide it, but she motioned to him to be still.

Together, they crouched low in the shadows, trying to hold in their gasping breaths.

Slow footsteps crunched across the gravel. Then they stopped.

A cool voice came from outside. ‘I commend you on your efforts. Really I do. You have surprised me, and that does not happen very often. But this is no time for a game of hide and seek. Come out at once, and bring my envelope. I have your friends here, and I’m afraid they are already looking rather unhappy. They will soon be much more so, unless you do exactly as I say.’

Sophie and Billy stood side-by-side at the edge of the pond. Sophie had taken the envelope back and was holding it close to her chest.

Opposite them stood the Baron, tapping his foot impatiently. Just behind him was Cooper, holding his revolver. Billy’s eyes widened at the sight of the store manager, but Sophie barely saw him: instead, she was gazing in horror at Lil, whom Cooper held tightly with his other arm. Her hair had come down, and her face was white with fear.

On the Baron’s other side, two big men in chauffeur’s uniforms were holding Joe, who had blood trickling down the side of his face and was struggling frantically in their grasp. A third stood just behind them, carrying a piece of lead pipe, weighing it heavily in his hands as if he was enjoying himself.

Seeing Billy staring at him, Cooper flashed him a sudden and unlikely grin. ‘In trouble again, Parker? Mind not on the job as usual, I see.’ His voice sounded exactly as it always did: crisp, precise and impossibly familiar.

‘It was you,’ Billy blurted out, his voice wavering. ‘You stole the jewels. You shot Bert Jones.’

Cooper looked indifferent. ‘Poor Bert,’ he said casually, tightening his grip around Lil’s shoulders. ‘He was so proud I’d placed my trust in him. But I picked the wrong fellow to rely on. He couldn’t resist the chance to brag about all the secrets he knew. Bad luck for him.’ He glanced over at Sophie for a moment. ‘Perhaps I should have chosen you to help me, Sophie,’ he said, teasingly. ‘You’ve certainly proved yourself very . . .
capable
.’

Billy threw him a disgusted look. ‘You were working for the Baron all along, weren’t you?’ he demanded, gesturing to Cooper’s companion, who was beginning to look impatient. But to Billy’s astonishment, Cooper began to laugh.

‘Oh dear, oh dear.’ he said. ‘I always knew you were a young fool, Parker. Do you really think the Baron himself would trouble with the likes of
you
?’

Sophie stood stock-still. She could see from the triumphant expression on Cooper’s face that it was true: the man facing them down on the rooftop with his white-streaked hair and silver-topped cane was not the Baron at all. How stupid they had been to think that they were the ones who had finally learned what the Baron looked like. For a moment she was back in the theatre box, looking down on the stage where the tiny figures moved like marionettes.
You talk too much, Fitz
. And then all at once, the shattered pieces seemed to fly together: the smart gentleman, his face cast half in shadow, half in light, his strange smile. The face in the crowd that had turned to look at her, their eyes meeting for a split second as she raced through the party. In one clear, sharp moment, she saw the truth.

‘That’s enough!’ The voice of Fitz – the man who until now she had believed was the Baron – snapped through the still air. ‘Hold your tongue, Freddie.’

He turned to Sophie and held out a hand. ‘The papers, if you please. There are important people waiting. Hand them over, Miss Taylor, and you and your friends here go free. The alternative will not be at all pleasant.’ He gave her a long, measured glance across the pool, and her body seemed to fill with ice. Her mind raced desperately: could she fling the papers off the roof into the street below, or dash them into the pond before her?

But his black eyes were boring into hers. ‘And please don’t try to be clever,’ he said. ‘You move a muscle, you make so much as a whimper to alert anyone to our presence here, and your friends will feel the consequences.’

Sophie stood motionless on the rooftop for a long moment, a small figure in a tattered evening dress. The wind streamed her hair across her face, and she pushed it back. She gazed at Joe, captured by the Baron’s Boys, the very people that he had been trying so hard to escape. She gazed at Lil, who was shaking visibly. Sophie had never seen her look afraid before, not even for a second. The thought made a sob begin to rise in her throat. There was only one thing she could do now.

‘No time to think about it, Miss Taylor. Help her make her mind up, please, Freddie.’

Cooper grinned and shoved the gun hard against Lil’s ribs. She screamed, and Sophie darted forward. ‘Take it,’ she cried, pushing the envelope into Fitz’s outstretched hand. One of the other men immediately grabbed her arm, jerking her roughly back and then pushing her to the ground.

Fitz tucked the envelope inside his jacket, before sneering at Sophie. ‘Come on. We mustn’t keep him waiting,’ he remarked to Cooper, turning and heading back towards the stairway. Over his shoulder he called: ‘Lock them up in that little place there, and then for God’s sake, get ready to activate the mechanism, Freddie. It’s not long now until midnight.’

‘But – you said you’d let us
go
!’ gasped Billy angrily.

He laughed. ‘I did, didn’t I? Unfortunately for you I’m not known for being a man of my word.’ He strode away, a black and white shape disappearing into the dark.

Cooper shoved Lil roughly towards the summerhouse. Joe struggled hopelessly in the arms of his captors, who just grinned at each other at the sight of his agitation. ‘Always knew you’d come to a sticky end, Joey Boy,’ said Jem in his ear.

Desperately, Billy made a dash forwards to try and get away, but one of the Baron’s Boys caught his shoulder in a savage grip, and shoved him hard to the ground. He opened his mouth to yell, but the man pushed him forward so his face was stifled in the dirt. Above him, he heard Sophie call out, but the sound was cut off abruptly. He scrabbled vainly, the only thought left in his mind that this couldn’t possibly be happening to them. This wasn’t right: this wasn’t how any of the stories ended.

Someone rolled him over. Cooper’s face loomed above him, large and pale in the darkness. ‘Time to follow orders for once, Parker,’ he said, and then the lights went out.

Uncle Sid stormed angrily up the back staircase, his temper rapidly gathering a head of steam. He had really thought that he’d finally got the message into his nephew’s thick head. For the first time it seemed like he was actually listening, instead of just looking away with that dreamy expression on his face. He had made a good start on the evening’s work too; he had seemed to be actually making an effort. But then he’d given the boy a five-minute break, and he’d scooted off for half an hour or more. Sid had gone down to the basement where he always seemed to be hanging around, but there was no sign of him there. Then Edith up in Millinery, of all people, had told him some yarn about him running off to the roof gardens with that girl that he’d been mooning after, the one that Cooper had given the boot. What she could be doing back here he didn’t know. Anyway, he’d taken that with a pinch of salt because everyone knew that Edith was a bit of a spiteful madam.