Unobtainium 1: Kate on a Hot Tin Roof (12 page)

‘Begging your pardon, Doctor, but if I were to go to my superiors and say that only you could have freed Cooper, they would rightly take my badge and have me committed to the nearest asylum. I see no reason for it. I can only conclude that another has repeated your earlier endeavour.’

‘Thank you for your confidence, Inspector,’ Charles replied with a smile. ‘I believe that you are correct, for the remainder of this exploit requires an array of expertise even I cannot claim to possess.’

‘Indeed, Doctor Barstow-Hall,’ Antonia said, all formality observed in front of the policeman, ‘it occurred to me that your Vulcanium burns with a very bright and distinctive light. It is quiet, but not silent. Someone should have seen the breaking of the wall.’

Charles nodded. ‘And there is the matter of the lack of a method of escape over the outer wall.’

‘True. I found no evidence of any such attempt and Miss Felix was unable to sense anything near the outer wall. Beyond that, Cooper was not a spry man, as I understand it. It was some twelve feet to the ground outside his cell, and the outer wall is high.’

‘Which is why I returned to Pentonville yesterday with a ladder and examined the
outside
of his cell wall. There I discovered several recent abrasions around the hole. It is my conclusion then that the light and sound were masked by some form of metal shield which, pressed against the wall around the hoped-for aperture, obscured both. It was then used to spirit Cooper away over the wall.’

‘How, sir?’ Franklin asked. ‘You make it sound as though he flew away.’

‘My guess would be a blimp or dirigible. Painted black and using slow propellers to drive it, it would be almost impossible to detect. Most people in London look up only when startled. The… capsule was lowered from a gondola, pressed firmly to the wall, and the Vulcanium deployed. Once Cooper was removed from his cell, the capsule was winched back up and a getaway could be achieved merely by rising swiftly.’

‘That’s… beyond credibility, Doctor. I doubt my superiors will believe that either.’

‘Quite so, Inspector. I did say that the solution was unsatisfactory. However, any more rational explanation of the evidence eludes me. I assume you have discounted the possibility of an “inside job?”’

‘None of the warders are suspected. We questioned them to be sure, but all on duty that night were honourable men with no money troubles.’

‘Not an absolute certainty then, but it would have required almost all of them to be involved, which is not likely. So, we have a most complex and irrational solution. When one has exhausted all rational explanations for a problem and none fit the evidence, whatever remains must be the solution, even where that solution is beyond credibility. I believe Conan Doyle put that rather more succinctly in one of his works of detective fiction.’

‘
The Sign of Four
, sir. I admit to reading all of his works.’

‘Oh? I’d have thought the detective in it might have cast something of a poor light upon those at Scotland Yard.’

‘Indeed, sir, but it gives me comfort to know that even when something eludes me more than I feel it should, I can pick up a book and know that I shall never be quite as confounded as Lestrade.’

‘Well, I am no Holmes, but I believe between us all we have uncovered the only workable solution to this mystery, which leaves the greater mystery left to uncover.’

‘Indeed, sir. Who has the kind of wherewithal to enact such a plan?’

‘That, Inspector, is very much the question.’

Richmond, 2
^nd
August.

The front room of Antonia’s house was rarely used. She accepted few visitors she did not know well enough to take them through to the drawing room, which was more intimate and more comfortable. That did not mean that the front room was excused from cleaning and Little, being not a large woman, required some assistance with the furniture to do a proper job. Since Kate had arrived at the house, it had become her duty to help Little in this manner because, as Antonia had put it as delicately as she could, she could out-lift Mister Bridger without even breathing hard.

Kate had a unique method of handling the lifting. For example, the sofa was picked up at one end and lifted until Little had no trouble getting beneath it to ensure that the carpet was in good, and clean, condition. This generally amused Little as she marvelled at Kate’s physical prowess, but today the young maid seemed to have something on her mind.

‘Thank you, Miss Kate, that’s done.’ Little backed away and turned to put the contents of her dustpan into the bin she brought with her for the purpose.

‘All right,’ Kate said. ‘I’ve lifted and pushed and pulled, and by now you would usually be trying not to giggle, and there is something wrong and I will not have it, Margery. What has got you in the dumps?’

‘Oh, it’s nothing for you to worry over, Miss Kate. Really.’

Kate pointed at her chin. ‘This, Miss Margery, is my “determined to uncover the problem” face. Do you see it?’ Little looked at her and nodded, though in truth she was unsure how it differed from any other serious expression Kate had. ‘Then on seeing this face you will explain to me what the problem is, lest I put on my “angry with Margery for keeping her problem to herself” face.’

Little’s face broke into a weak smile. ‘Thank you, Miss Kate. I needed a little cheering. A friend of mine, from my life before, she has gone missing and I am worried for her safety.’

‘Have the police been informed?’

‘Oh, the blue will not be bothered with a missing whore. Pardon my choice of words, but that is what Chastity is and likely what I’d be had not Mister and Mrs Wooster taken me in.’

‘Very well. Then we go to Mrs Wooster with this and see what can be done. Come!’

‘But I’ve the cleaning to finish and–’

‘I have no doubt that the cleaning can wait, for this room has barely an ounce of dust anywhere in it as you know full well. Don’t dawdle.’

Antonia, of course, considered the cleaning of the front room to be of importance just above that of listening to inane dinner conversation. ‘Explain the details, Little,’ she said as soon as Kate had recounted the basics.

‘She’s called Chastity, ma’am, Chastity Ruth. She says it’s ironical that a girl called Chastity should end up a who– Should end up a street girl.’

‘A whore, Little. You can say the word. I am not some delicate wife of a lord.’

‘As you say, ma’am. You know I visit the old places once in a while. I have friends there and I like to see them well, and I don’t go all dressed in finery like those as make their money on their backs in posh houses. It’s all discreet like and if I leave a little something from my wages now and then, well, they ain’t as well looked after as me.’

Kate watched her, smiling slightly as the girl’s accent slipped, likely from emotion and a hint of embarrassment.

‘I went to see Chas, uh, Chastity, yesterday, it being my day off, and there was no sign of her. Her landlord is not the most caring man and his only concern was that she was gone and had not paid her rent, but I learned that no one had seen her since Thursday.’

‘And none will have informed the police,’ Antonia stated, ‘and it would do little good if they did. I assume this landlord is her procurer, her pimp?’

‘Ma’am! That you know such a word!’

‘I could give you a few other choice ones if you wish. He is?’ There was a nodded reply and Antonia sighed. ‘Well, we will have to go and have a word with Mister…?’

‘Dretch, ma’am.’

‘Dretch? Very well. Come, Kate, we will put on our outdoor dresses and go a-calling upon Mister Dretch.’

Soho.

The house was a terraced building, three storeys and a cellar, and every room in it had two or more occupants as far as Kate could tell. Most were in at this time of the day as their trade was plied after dark, or at least late in the evening. Many of the doors were open as the girls, and they were all girls in that establishment, shouted conversation between rooms. Kate saw several dresses which looked quite fine to her hanging up away from the windows to avoid fading.

‘Rented,’ Little told her when she commented upon them. ‘Mister Dretch will arrange it for the more comely, well-spoken girls. They earn more, and he takes the rent of the dress on top of the room so they are no better off.’

Kate gave a nod and said nothing. This was a side of London that Antonia had neglected to show her. She could well see why and yet she was sorry. There was no point in hiding from her the seedier side of the city, for she had been born into it. Her mother had been no better than the girls in this lodging, perhaps she had even
come
from this lodging.

Little took them up to the top floor and a room with two beds in it, one of those occupied by a girl of, perhaps, eighteen. Despite her youth, she looked weary and there were lines around her eyes already. She looked up with disinterested eyes as Antonia and Kate entered, but they brightened a little when she saw Little with them.

‘Madge! It’s nice t’ see you, but what brings you t’ this place on a weekday?’ The accent was fairly thick; Kate noted that there was no gown hung in this room.

‘Lookin’ for Chas, Mary,’ Little replied. ‘This is Mrs Wooster, my employer, and Miss Felix, her friend. This is Mary Cheetham, ma’am. She shares the room with Chastity.’

Mary struggled to her feet and straightened her worn, brown dress. ‘Ladies like yourself shouldn’t be showin’ their faces in a place like this. Someone’ll get the wrong idea.’

Antonia smiled. ‘I assure you, Miss Cheetham, that I have been in worse places. You have seen nothing of Chastity since Thursday gone, is that correct?’

‘No, mum. She wen’ out Thursday night, like always, an’ she never came ’ome.’

‘And which streets did she work?’

‘She goes down Alie an’ Buckle, up aroun’ White Church an’ Osborne, mum.’

Antonia grimaced. ‘Whitechapel. That is
not
a grand place to–’

‘I’ll ’ave none o’ this.’

Kate turned, Antonia rounding a fraction of a second later, to see a man in the doorway. He was big, but not quite as tall as Kate. He was
far
wider and only some of that came from the meaty muscle on his arms. His belly pushed the buttons out on his shirt and Kate made a note that, yes, Mister Thomas was not the only hairy man in the world. She would gladly have had them exchange places, however, for Mister Thomas took care of his hygiene and this man had breath like a sewer pipe.

‘Mister Dretch,’ Mary began, ‘it’s not what yu think. They–’

‘I know what they’re about an’ I’ll be havin’ none of it. I’ve had madams in before takin’ my girls away from me with stories of better places an’ clean sheets.’

‘He thinks we are brothel madams come to lure Miss Cheetham away,’ Antonia said, her tone amused.

Kate took in the anger in the man’s dark, watery eyes, the way his muscles bunched as he clenched his fists. ‘Oh,’ she said, and then she moved.

Or, to Little, it seemed that there was an instant when Kate was standing still, and another when she had moved. Her arm was now raised, hand bent at the wrist, and Dretch was falling back through the door. The only acceptable explanation was that she had hit him in the jaw with the heel of her hand.

‘We require any knowledge you might have on the whereabouts of Chastity Ruth,’ Antonia said, her tone calm but authoritative.

Dretch pulled himself to his feet and shook his head. He stepped forward, his fists rising, and Kate stepped into his attack, her own fist snapping up and out before he could even begin his attack. He jerked backwards as her knuckles struck the bridge of his nose with no apparent effort.

‘My companion is quite capable of beating you senseless with her bare hands, Mister Dretch,’ Antonia told him, ‘and I must say that I should rather enjoy watching her do it. What do you know?’

‘I know the little bitch owes me, that I know,’ Dretch replied. His fists were swinging again. Kate’s left arm swung up as she stepped into the blow, which swept past its target as she moved in. Her foot locked his leg in place as her elbow pressed firmly into his chest and he let out a yelp as he was deposited back onto the floorboards.

Stepping forward, Kate planted the heel of her boot into Dretch’s crotch. ‘Please stay where you are. I am unbalanced and the least thing could tip my weight onto my front foot.’

‘Right you are,’ Dretch wheezed.

‘Chastity Ruth,’ Antonia repeated, stepping up beside Kate.

‘I know not where she is! As God be my witness I don’t!’

‘No client you know of who might have done her harm? No rumours?’

‘None. I asked around an’ none’ve seen ’er nor ’eard from ’er in days. There’s rumours o’ slavers workin’ Whitechapel, but there’s always rumours’ o’ slavers workin’ Whitechapel. No one takes no heed.’

‘Very well. Should I hear that Mary has come to harm over this, I will see to it that you spend your remaining years in Pentonville. Once you have left the hospital, obviously. Are we clear, Mister Dretch?’

Dretch let out a cry as Kate applied more weight. ‘Clear as day, milady.’

‘Excellent. Let us be away.’

‘Did we learn anything?’ Kate asked once they were outside.

‘We learned that Dretch almost certainly does
not
know what happened to this unfortunate and that we are blessed indeed that
we
do not have to live like this.’

‘Well, I don’t thanks to you, ma’am,’ Little said, ‘which makes me doubly fortunate, I think.’

‘Thank you for saying so, Little. However, our sojourn in this part of the more disreputable side of London has not left us with much information. Tomorrow we will go to Inspector Franklin and request his aid. He will be able to do little, I fear, but he may have sources of information which could be useful.’

‘I learned one other thing,’ Kate said, ‘and that is that a dress such as this is not suitable clothing for a fistfight.’

Antonia glanced at her. ‘If you are willing to put some of your allowance towards something new, I know just the person to outfit you for more active pursuits.’