Touched by Angels (25 page)

Robert couldn’t take his eyes from the elderly man behind the counter, as his mother talked with him. He saw that half the man’s nose was missing because a Confederate musket ball had struck him during the Battle of Gettysburg, before creasing his face and taking a chunk of his ear away.

He regarded them through tired eyes, before saying, “Two dollars for each night.”

“
That’s fine,” Lil said.

As he opened the door to their room, Billy Tweed was making his way back to the hovel he called home, certain she was going to stay there at least one more night.

***

As the door closed behind them, Robert Smith was looking at a massive cockroach. The room,
smelling of ancient sweat, was infested with them. This specimen was a good two inches long and looked as though it had bubbly faeces beneath its brown, shiny shell.

He’d never seen one before, though he’d seen plenty of bed bugs in friends’ homes. There were plenty of them here too.

He spent some time tormenting the cockroach, as it ran this way and that, being thwarted each time by his hand. He eventually got bored and walloped it with a dusty Bible he had found on the table by the bed. It crunched and its guts squirted everywhere.

Lil scolded him for cruelty and feeling repulsed by the mess, insisted he wash himself down in the cracked sink, before lying down to sleep.

There were fleas too, and the stained bed sheets smelt.

They would have run from the hotel there and then, were they not so crushed and so scared that Quint would be waiting for them.

***

Half a mile away, Billy Tweed, who was well used to cockroaches, nervously gazed up at the soot stained fron
t of what was loosely known as Porky’s Boarding House. To the side of the fixed iron ladder leading up to it, stood a Catholic altar, one of the many shrines for the feasts held annually to honour the patron saint of each Italian community.

A sole candle glowed from within. It was a world away from the laughing and cheering coming from above, probably where one of the weaker kids, most likely ‘Idiot Boy’ was being harassed yet again.

Billy
had spent the last three years of his life here, since his mother had died of typhoid fever, living purely by his wits and sometimes his fists.

They were all so absorbed, that Billy, though repulsed by it, seized his chance, and made his way directly to where his money was hidden, behind a short length of skirting board. He pulled the small clasp knife he carried from his trouser pocket to prize the timber back. He put it to one side, just as he heard a howl of pain and knew that Idiot Boy had got stung again with the hornet Tony Rosini, one of the bullies, was keeping in a jar.

The extra distraction was a welcome bonus though, as he stuck his hand in the hole. Just as his fingertips brushed the notes though, all went deathly quiet, apart from Idiot Boy’s sobbing.

He felt the honed steel of a blade against his throat.

“
Now get up, slowly,” hissed a voice, “and pass it over, or I’ll kill you.”

It wasn’t Rosini’s voice, but another’s, though it all amounted to the same thing.

He stood, slowly, with the boy keeping the blade pressed to his throat the whole time. “Now we know where you’ve been stashing it. No… don’t move, ’cept to hand it over… no sudden movements.”

Billy passed the wad carefully backwards and felt it vanish from his hand, feeling tearful as it did. His humiliation and anger were made all the worse by the triumphant cheer that went up.

“
Thank you,” the boy told him, in mock gratitude. He was about to say something else, as he took the blade from Billy’s neck, when Billy’s own knife flashed in the candlelight.

The thug
doubled up as though a branding iron had been laid against his stomach. He staggered back in shock, looking down as he dropped the money.

A six-inch slit ran upwards from about three inches below his navel, to about the same distance above. Blood gushed out, spilling down his bare legs, and outwards, in spurts, to where it splattered over the floor.

He threw his own knife, but missed. It hit the door and stood quivering in the wood.

Billy snatched up his money
and backed off.

His eyes were on the boy as he collapsed onto his knees, as he tried to push the two halves of the cut together.

Billy held the knife out, daring anybody else to come near, before whipping the door open.

Porky Warren stood there, in a bright chequered suit, with a lit candelabra. They stared at each other for a couple of seconds, before Billy thumped him in the face.

He leapt over him as he went down and tore off, down the three flights of stairs, to the ground floor.

The door was locked. He kicked it several times, before it gave. Then he was gone, through the crowds, and off into the night.

Billy
stopped running after several hundred yards and ducked behind some barrels outside a saloon. Dull light spilled from the windows.

As his breathing steadied, he started to shake, not knowing whether he’d killed the boy or not. He looked at the money and wiped spots of blood from the top one with his sleeve, smearing it in dark streaks.

Gritting his teeth against the waste, he pulled the note clear, knowing there would be a hue and cry very soon. Blood-covered money would bring them down upon him quicker than ever. He crunched it up, threw it in the barrel and listened as he waited.

He could hear the sound of voices and laughter from within. These were typically big tough men, more often of the older generation, who could remember far wilder times, where justice was meted out at the end of a bullet or the hangman’s rope. They would come after him mercilessly if there was a reward in the offing.

An hour passed. By this time, although he’d not heard any commotion, he didn’t trust the quietness either. Anybody could be out there in the shadows, biding their time. The men came out the saloon in dribs and drabs.

He smelt cigar smoke so strongly as one of them passed, his breath was locked in his throat, convinced a big hand would grab the scruff of his neck, or he would feel the business end of a revolver in his ribs.

It didn’t happen, though he heard a sigh of relief as one of them urinated against the other side of the barrel. After this he was alone once more. He peered out, but could see nobody about, apart from one or two tramps, dead to the world.

Soon there was a lot of activity. Two-horse drawn wagons of the fire brigade charged past, with their bells clanging madly. The firemen in their black uniforms and brass enamelled helmets hung on for grim life.

Billy was glad of the diversion
and soon got his bearings. He quickly made his way to the hotel the woman and child were staying in. Terrified he could be spotted at any moment, and with dawn breaking, he studied the building from the other side of the road. It was terraced, with no alley either side.

He hunted for a way in from the front, even though his instincts were telling him to lay low, and come back the following evening, when he would have many more hours to play with.

If he did that
though, it was possible they could check out at first light and go elsewhere. He didn’t relish the thought of following them, if the police were on the lookout.

He made his way across
and saw two halves of a trap door in front, where he assumed goods were delivered in bulk. Each half had a flush metal grab handle. Although immensely heavy, he managed to lift one and swing it over onto the ground.

Feeling conspicuous, he laid on his belly and looked inside to see if there was a ladder to stand on while he pulled the trap door closed. He saw one and lowered himself onto it.

He reached over as far as he could, to grab the trap door at its furthest point and pulled as hard as he could. It was not designed to be closed from the inside and needed much more effort. By the time it was edge on to the ground, he felt as though his shoulder would explode with the strain.

As it passed the point of no return though, gravity took over. It swung shut so suddenly that after braining him he was thrust to the bottom of the cellar where he crashed among several crates containing tea leaves and another full of flour, which exploded like a big white bomb. Then, in the darkness, both of the room and his concussion, he saw nothing for nearly ten minutes.

When he blinked his eyes open, he had the headache from hell.

Mellow light from a candle filled the brick-lined cellar where he was lying on his back. A hessian sack was folded under his head. Everything, himself included, was covered with flour.

It took a minute more for rational thought to come back, instead of the bizarre dreams that had been assailing him. Then he knew he couldn’t be alone. He craned his throbbing head up and looked to the far end of the room.

A man sat astride a small barrel, vaguely white, where he had beaten as much flour from himself as possible, with an unlit cigar stuck in his grinning mouth. His hat lay, upside down, on a stool by his side.

It was Jack Quint
and Billy was so relieved to see him, he sank back on the sack and closed his eyes, until he heard the click of his gun being cocked.

There was a loud scratch as he struck a match on the wood between his legs, before lighting his cigar. It glowed brightly as it took.

“
Been tailin’ you the whole time,” he said. “Now you’ve brought me to her, I don’t need you any more.” He grinned as he flicked the match at him.

Billy swallowed hard, as it landed with a click beside him. It was a while before he spoke.

“
I was gonna share it, you…” He tailed off, groaning, the pain in his head feeling like an iron spike being banged in with a sledge hammer. “Anyway, it’s not your money.”

“
Nor yours neither,” Quint reminded him. “Nor, I’ll wager, that woman’s. If she’s Lady Emma DeVere, I’m Abe Lincoln.”

Billy reached up weakly
and felt the protuberance poking like a blunt horn from the centre of his skull. He closed his eyes and lay back groaning, not caring less who she was.

“
I’ll bet there’s a dent in that trap,” Quint told him. “But nowhere near as big as the one you’ll have in your neck, when they get you for murder.”

Billy’s eyes widened as he propped himself up on his elbows. He remembered the Fire Brigade and that Warren had been holding a lit candelabrum when he’d punched him.

Most of all, he recalled the blood spilling from the bully’s belly.

“
You burned the whole place down. Lots of people dead. There are wanted posters being printed as we speak, dead or alive, nobody cares, so long as they get you. You won’t stand a chance. Course, nobody wants to see a kid having his neck snapped, so I’m going to offer you what
I
think is a generous deal.”

Fuming, but scared too, Billy asked sullenly, “What’s that?”

“
You forget what’s in the bag above us, climb the ladder and do a quick disappearing act, while it’s still dark. Do that and I’ll keep my mouth forever shut.”

Billy swallowed hard. He hadn’t come this far to quit just like that. That money was his, and if he did as Quint told him, he would be in the streets once more, with no home at all and could easily be caught anyway.

“
And if I refuse?”

Quint shrugged. “Well, you’re a bright kid. You know there’s no option. In any case, I could shoot you dead here and now, and claim the reward for myself,
after
I’ve collected what’s due to me here. A thousand bucks, that’s what’s on offer for your head, and for a single, five cent bullet, and very little effort, it’s certainly tempting.” He took a final leisurely pull on his cigar, before dropping it to the ground and grinding it under his boot.

He pulled a fob watch from his waistcoat, flicked it open, and said, “A minute shy of half past four. Sun’ll be up soon.”

Billy glared at him as he snapped the time piece shut. He looked around the cellar for something, anything, he could throw at him, but knew he was clutching at straws.

His mind was finally made up, when Quint said, “I’ll count backwards from ten, and by then, you’d better have started climbing.”

Billy got himself up, seething, as he steadied himself. Excess flour wafted about, making him cough. Another thought struck him. Almost knowing what he was going to find, he thrust his hand into his trouser pocket. It met nothing but the lining. He tried the other with the same result.

He shook with fury as he saw Quint reach into his hat and pull from it the money he had taken so long to save and for which he committed murder.

“
Looking for this?”

For a split second, Billy was tempted to rush him. He considered begging for his money, but knew that was the humiliation Quint wanted to see and laugh at.