Touched by Angels (11 page)

“
I assume you are in possession of a certain… fob watch?”

“
Might be.”

“
I am offering you a two-
way split for the information it holds.”

She looked at him warily, fully aware this could be a trap, but knowing too that if it was true, he would not dare try to cheat her, nor her, him. It would be the perfect crime.

“
All right,” she said, “but what about him?” She nodded at the battered corpse.

“
Leave him to me.”

He allowed one eyelid to drop
and she guessed he had more practised ways of getting rid of inconvenient dead bodies than she did.

They made their way back once more, this time across the crumbling fence separating the two back yards, to dampen further suspicion from the street.

***

They had only been indoors a minute or so when the door burst open and Robert came tearing in, heaving for breath, his face strained and anxious. It was nowhere near the end of the school day.

He stopped abruptly, seeing Bride, who had been on the brink of running to the kitchen
’til he saw their visitor was a boy.

“
What’s the matter?” asked Lil
, kneeling to his level, her fear coming back in less than a second.

T
he boys had been jostling him in the playground, after he had been branded both a ‘creep’ and a ‘traitor’ for what he had said in class about German domination of the seas. And he was forced by Mr Myers to write on the blackboard a hundred times,
“Britain rules the waves, not Germany!”

“
I’ll never read your newspapers again!” he shouted in her face
, wiping away his tears before running upstairs.

“
I am expected back at the workhouse tomorrow at noon for an update, so we’ve got to act fast. The first thing we’ve got to do is change your appearances for the better, because people of your type do not use safety deposit boxes
.”

“
How?”

“
I will buy several sets of clothing, in different sizes to ensure the correct fit. I am staying at The Juniper Inn, not far from here, where you must meet me. When you leave, do so casually, as if going for a stroll. Do not change your clothes or alter your appearance substantially. People tend to notice and remember things like that. Make your way directly to the hotel. I am going to give you a map, you must not dispose of it under any circumstances, as it could lead the wrong people back to your address. You must give it to me. Understood?”

“
Al
l right. Then what?”

“
Then, when you are suitably attired, we will collect the contents of the box, split it down the middle and go our separate ways.”

It sounded so simple. At the door, he fished in his pocket for a pen and drew a rough map on the corner of Lil’s newspaper. Tearing the corner off, he handed it over to her and said, “Wait an hour before you leave, so nobody watching will connect us.”

Lil
nodded and placed the piece of paper carefully on top of her knitting on the mantelpiece.

***

Later, w
hile they were eating a final meal, Lil realised that Bride would have a long wait in his hotel, as Robert held aloft the key to the safety deposit box.

It had been lying amongst some dried out old flowers by the door, in the rubbish she had swept there after clearing up.

“
Bride must have dropped it when he had been fishing through his pocket,” she said giving him a tight hug. “Still, it’s no great problem. We only need the map he had drawn to find our way to his hotel and all will be well.”

Except it wasn’t where she had left it. She glanced around the room, and when she saw what had become of it, she shut her eyes, wondering if this nightmare would ever end.

Its remains were by the wall below the mantelpiece, amongst her knitting, with a cluster of mice chewing it up and spitting it out into little grey lumps. She remembered a few strands of wool had been trailing down to the floor. They must have pulled it and the whole lot had come down.

As she went to pick up what was left, the mice scattered, squeaking in fright. The remains were a tatty oblong, about one inch by three, with the single word,
Street
, still legible upon it to confirm her worst fears.

Considering she had the key too, Bride could jump to the conclusion she had goaded Robert into picking his pocket.

With no way of knowing what he might do if he returned, there was only one option left.

Tom Bride stood in his hotel room, frustrated beyond belief, having searched ev
ery pocket, crease and fold in his clothes for what must have been the tenth time.

He had also explored every inch of the room, including under the bed, and it was only as he finally sat on the edge of it that despair gave way to something else.

Before this, he had been sitting in the lobby for the past two and a half hours, taking tea, secure in the knowledge that Lil had nothing to gain and everything to lose by not keeping to her side of the bargain. When she had still not showed up by the time it was getting dark, he was sure he had been made a monkey of.

Seething, he left the hotel
and started making his way back to the house. He was determined that when he got there, he would not only have the key and fob for himself, but also that the bent firm of undertakers he had used for getting rid of Adam King were going to have yet more business to attend to in the morning.

Bride knew London like the back of his hand, and if he didn’t find them at home, he knew that he would be able to anticipate with a good deal of certainty what their next move would be.

By now, he had suppressed his anger and embarrassment at having been so easily duped and was determined to be even with them.

***

“
Keep you
r eyes peeled for him,” Lil said, knowing they would have to find a haven for the night.

They passed the Dog and Duck
and could hear a bunch of drinkers singing as they passed. As they turned into the main road, her mind was racing, knowing the first hotel they came to would have to do.

Bride had taught her the value of concealment and tomorrow, clean and scrubbed, they would visit two of those shops she had only ever dreamed about, a good tailor and a milliner too, for the further disguise a hat would offer. They would also have to change the Gladstone bag for another, as it would look singularly out of place carried by a lady of refinement.

Only then would they visit the bank, since it was possible Bride could be waiting for them, as he might have prior knowledge from Sir Rupert which bank his brother had used.

“
Where are we
, Mum?” asked Robert in a small, rather scared voice.

“
I don’t know,” Lil admitted.

She was now so confused after having panicked that she would never find her way home, even if she wanted to. She also knew that perhaps they would have been able to reassure Bride that foul play was not their intention after all.

She also tried
to silence the unworthy little voice that kept telling her they were on the plus side of this faux pas, with both the fob
and
the key in their possession. Another, more laudable, voice told her that as Bride had been out solely to cheat the people who were trusting him anyway, he deserved no better and may have been intending to double cross her too.

They heard the rumble of a train nearby and could smell its chimneystack. Its whistle piped stridently. When the tables were turned, it happened so suddenly she barely noticed, until she heard a muffled “Mmmmmppphhh!” sound and saw that Robert had disappeared.

The noise was coming from a dark alley between two buildings.

Trembling, she walked slowly into it, stepping over a mouldering dead cat, not daring to make any sudden moves.

As her eyes grew accustomed to the dim light, she made out a hand clamped over Robert’s mouth and a penknife held to his neck. The face was hidden in the shadows. Her heart pounded, as a voice, cracking with rage, hissed, “Do as I say and no harm will befall him.”

Feeling oddly relieved that it was Bride’s voice, she said, “There’s been a misunderstanding.”

“
Yes. Me being such an idiot to think I could trust you. This little bastard took the key from my pocket at your bidding, didn’t he?”

“
No!”

“
Didn’t he
?” he shouted. He held the boy even tighter and pressed the blade harder into his neck.

Robert started to whimper. His eyes were wide with terror, as the honed steel incised his skin.

Lil knew that Bride had labelled them as incorrigible thieves without question, so she changed tactic.

“
He
was
disciplined. On that score, you have my word. I can assure you he will never do anything as stupid again. If you only knew the sort of life the poor little…”

“
No good pluckin’ the violin, lady. You should’ve taken a belt to him before. Now give me the key and the fob and clear off. I’ll take the bag too.”

He pulled the boy tighter still
and the knife drew a bead of blood.

She saw there was nothing to be gained by prolonging the issue, so she reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled the items out. She felt sick as she held them out at arm’s length.

“
Put them in the bag. Then close it and put it on the ground. Don’t try anything or he’ll end up down this alley with all the other shit.”

She opened the bag
and was about to do as he had told her when she heard a howl of pain and glanced up in time to see Bride doubling up from the impact of Robert’s elbow, which had scored a bull’s eye in his testicles.

As he went down, dropping the knife, Robert ran forward, grabbing the fob as it fell and tore up the road with his mother clutching the bag to her chest in full pursuit. He darted in and out of the crowd, many of whom assumed he was a pickpocket, his lean legs pumping like pistons. Lil called out to him, ignoring the curious stares as she ran, her petticoats held in handfuls at the level of her knees.

There was a
copper taste of blood in the back of her throat when she finally caught up with him. It took her a few minutes to get her breath back and for her heart to stop galloping.

They were in Piccadilly Circus. Robert had ducked into the dark doorway of a greengrocer, and although panting, he looked triumphant too, as he held up the fob.

He was grinning.

“
Are…
are you hurt?” she gasped, as she bent with her hands on her knees, wincing against the pain of a stitch. She wiped sweat from her forehead with her sleeve.

He shook his head slowly from side to side. She could see the nick on his skin made by Bride’s knife, although it didn’t look serious.

Then she remembered he must be on their tail somewhere. She gingerly poked her head out from the doorway and peered in both directions through the mill of people, but for now could see no sign of him.

“
Shall we go back and get it?”
Robert asked, after they had turned their pockets out for the umpteenth time in search for the key.

“
No, he might be waiting for us.”

“
So what should we do?”

She closed her eyes briefly
as she admitted, “I don’t know. Yet.”

She knew that if they went to the bank and claimed they had lost it, they would probably demand some form of identification and might even summon the police when she failed to show any.

She knew it was possible that Bride had picked it up, but if so, how were they to take it from him, without him knowing?

At that moment,
Bride didn’t care about anything. He was still stuck in that squalid alley, curled up in a sweat-drenched ball, with veins popping out on his forehead. Tears squirted from his eyes as he clutched his crushed testicles, knowing it was touch and go whether or not he threw up.

To compound his misery
, he had rolled in the dead cat and much of it was splattered up his legs and midriff like grey-brown jelly, with clumps of dirty, matted fur smeared upon it here and there. He felt sick as he saw the tail dangling from his knee and plucked it off, throwing it away.

The stench was terrible.

As the agony slowly ebbed, a firm resolution began to take hold in his head. He was not going to rest ever again until he got hold of that little weasel and broke his neck with his bare hands.

Groaning, he saw something glint a yard from his watering eyes. As the pain had now diminished enough for him to relinquish at least one hand from his injured manhood, he was able to reach out and pick it up. He shook off some foul looking muck and grinned.