The Anatomy of Death (10 page)

“Nightingale?” Dody said, raising her eyes to the lamplight.

“Sorry, it was the first name that sprang to mind.”

“It was the last that sprang to mine.”

“Did you manage to find out everything you needed?” Plumes of Florence’s breath mingled with the fog.

“About as much as I could under the circumstances; the conditions were far from ideal. I won’t be able to form any conclusions until I’ve completed my tests. Unfortunately I have a full day at the women’s hospital tomorrow, so I doubt there will be time then.”

“I hope it was worth it. I don’t think I’ve ever vomited so much. All I had to do was think of that ghastly tube rammed down my nose and out it all came. Alfred was endeavouring to walk me to the hospital when you appeared—not a moment too soon, I might add.”

“Good evening, ladies.”

Dody froze.

Florence gasped as if she’d just caught sight of Jack the Ripper.

Chief Inspector Pike materialised through the mist as if from nowhere. “My apologies for startling you,” he said, lifting his hat to them.

Dody was first to regain her composure. “I hope you are not following us, Chief Inspector?”

“On the contrary, I am making my way home from an engagement in Southwark. I caught the omnibus to the corner of Blackfriars Road and decided to walk home from there.” He paused, using his cane to indicate their gloomy surroundings. “Seeing as the night is so pleasant and ideal for such a stroll.”

“A stroll is good for the health regardless of the weather,” Dody replied with affected haughtiness. “We called on Alfred at the mortuary to deliver him a carbolic ball.”

“Yes, I saw you leave.”

“Fletcher must be worried for us. I think we should be going now,” Florence said, grabbing at Dody’s arm. “Good evening, Mr. Pike.” They turned towards the carriage without waiting for his reply.

He called after them, “Oh, ladies? Sergeant Fisher would very much appreciate the return of his truncheon—at your earliest convenience, of course. Thank you.”

I
t had been quite by chance that Pike had come across the women leaving the mortuary. There were easier ways to find out what they were up to without following them himself. His was a desk job; he was a gatherer of intelligence. He had an army of detectives and informers at his disposal, but he was glad, nevertheless, for the opportunity to see them in action with his own eyes. He was not surprised that Dr. McCleland was not content to let the matter of the slipshod autopsy rest. Nor was he perturbed that his orders had been disobeyed. He had hoped they would be.

He pondered just what she intended to do with any new findings. She would surely not make them public; that would be to betray herself. Would she trust him enough to confide in him? If the decision were left to Dr. McCleland’s sister, Florence, the answer would surely be a definitive “No.” The hatred of her kind for the police was no different from that of any common criminal, perhaps even more bitter. He sensed the older sister to be more flexible, however. There was a depth of understanding and maturity in those soft brown eyes that had drawn him to them. He could see that the doctor and he both worked for the same ends—the discovery of the truth,
no matter how unsavoury it might be. He hoped he was not imagining this. He had no stomach for setting his spies upon Dr. Dorothy McCleland.

He continued to brood upon the problem as he crossed the Lambeth Bridge towards his lodgings off Millbank Road. No need to worry about being mown down by speeding motorcars here. The bridge had recently been deemed unsafe and vehicular traffic was barred, though there was still danger about. He banished thoughts about Dr. McCleland and the case to the back of his mind. He had seen too many bloated bodies pulled from the river to drop his guard even for a moment.

A group of men lounged in the shadows of one of the bridge’s towers, and Pike tightened his grip upon his cane. He strained to hear the talk of the men above the slapping of water, and detected Cockney accents; not Irish, thank God. There was laughter, and he saw one snatch a bottle from another with an angry curse. So intent were they in draining every last drop from the bottle, they weren’t even aware of his passing. He expelled a breath and commenced the steep descent from the bridge.

Though never quite as bustling as the docklands further downriver, it was hard to believe not long ago the Millbank district had been a crazy quilt of timber, cement, wine and coal wharves, crowded tenements, and dingy back alleys reminiscent of Dickens’s London. The passing of the Thames Embankment Extension Scheme had brought the closure of most of the wharves and warehouses. Now only a few rusty cranes were left, elbowing their way across the river, waiting to unload the barges and lighters that would never come.

Pike picked his way through the bleak wasteland, still showing more sign of destruction than construction. Six thousand
people had been moved out of the surrounding slums and placed in the blocks of red brick flats springing up all around the City of Westminster. Like cats, many returned to the area they still considered home, though there were few of the original landmarks left for them—some boarded-up shops, a public house, a crumbling warehouse or two. But it was cheap and meant that on the rare occasion his daughter visited, he had money left over for a few nights in a modest hotel on a safer side of town.

The streetlamps were spread further apart here. He stepped in a pile of horse manure as he passed a group of ragamuffins taking shelter against a stack of yet-to-be-laid sewerage pipes. Out of habit he examined the thin faces flickering in the light from the brazier, seeking a match to the wanted posters that lined the passages of Scotland Yard. But the hollow look of hunger was the only resemblance.

He was skirting a pile of rags blocking his way when the rags moved. A skinny arm appeared and a woman’s voice begged him to buy a flower. He crossed to the other side of the road, blocking his ears to her pleas. In years gone by he might have succumbed, but the job had hardened him, his compassion now tempered by practicality. He couldn’t do right by everyone, and he had more than enough charity cases for the salary he drew.

The police pay was terrible and his decision to join the force had been the last straw for his wife. The daughter of a major, she’d felt betrayed when he resigned his commission in South Africa. His joining the metropolitan police had driven her into the arms of a guardsman, the same man who had been killed with her when the hotel was bombed. Pike hadn’t needed the Irishman to remind him—a strange mixture of grief, regret, and hurt pride still dogged him.

The wind was bitter. He rammed his free hand deep into his pocket and hunkered into his scarf. He made his way along Millbank Road. The putrid smell of the river mist dissipated, giving way to that of effluent and soot. There were few working streetlights in the vicinity of his boardinghouse. Like a blind man, he tapped the path with his cane, avoiding piles of refuse and potholes, until at last he caught the winking front lights of his clapboard lodgings.

Fated for eventual demolition, the boardinghouse had received little maintenance over the last few years, though it was quite comfortable. His rooms consisted of a small bedroom and sitting room and a bathroom on the landing, which he shared with two other gentleman boarders. When the time came for him to move, he would be hard-pressed to find similarly cheap lodgings so close to his work.

He prayed that his landlady, the widowed Mrs. Keating, had not waited up for him. He tried to ensure that he arrived home at the busiest time of her day, when she was serving the evening meal to her five gentlemen boarders—or so late that even she would not be awake.

His timing was wrong tonight. The flaking wooden door opened before he could put his key into the lock. Mrs. Keating stood there, swaying slightly, dressed in feathers and jewels as if she had just returned from an evening out.

“Mr. Pike, I was getting worried about you,” she said. “You never told me nothing about missing supper tonight. But I’ve kept a lovely pig’s trotter warm for you if you’re hungry—my other gentlemen was most complimentary of the dish.”

“I’m sure your supper was of your usual high standard, Mrs. Keating, but I’m afraid I’ve already eaten.” Pike undid
the buttons of his overcoat and removed his scarf, putting his hat and gloves on the hall table.

His landlady smiled and sidled towards him. “No collar tonight, Mr. Pike? And you who usually looks such the gentleman. Your blue cravat is back from the laundry, the one that brings out your eyes so well. I put it on your bed.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Keating, you are most kind.” The banister was pressing into his back as he attempted to increase the distance between himself and the invitation of the low-cut cleavage thrust towards his chest. This aging trollop was as lonely as he was, but she would have to look elsewhere for her comfort. He had his standards, and the womanising ways of his early youth were well and truly over. After the miserable years of his marriage to a woman he could never, apparently, satisfy, he had little taste for embarking on the whole catastrophe again.

“I’m very tired and will retire to my rooms,” he muttered, turning his cowardly heel upon the foot of the stair. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Keating,” he added softly.

Behind him he heard her huff of breath. “Well, you’ve got no letters. Not one from your daughter nor your sister, neither,” she said with relish.

He turned and gave her a tight smile. “Then perhaps I shall hear from them tomorrow. Good night, Mrs. Keating.”

B
y lunchtime the next day Pike had finished interviewing several more officers and detectives involved in the riot—without thankfully having to sack any of them. He picked up the photograph of his daughter from his desk. Despite his regrets about his catastrophic marriage, he could never look back and think of those years as wasted. His daughter’s sunny smile cheered him up as it always did and encouraged him to keep going.

He asked Fisher to chase up the last batch of photographs to be developed and then set off along the endless corridors to the section of the building devoted to the offices of Special Branch.

Superintendent Thomas Callan listened intently as Pike reported his confrontation with the O’Neill brothers in the public house. Callan had been with the elite division of the Met since its formation when it was called the Special Irish Branch. Recently the “Irish” part of its title had been dropped and its responsibilities increased. Now it concerned itself with
the gathering, collating, and exploiting of intelligence relating to any security threat, irrespective of origins. Britannia might still rule the waves, but at the dawn of the new century, her grip on the established order had become tenuous and she faced more threats than ever from both within and without.

Callan reassured Pike that the brothers’ arrival in the country had been noted and their movements closely monitored. “So you can rest easy, Matthew,” he said with a smile. “I’m sure they were just trying to provoke you. I think Shepherd is trying to divert you from the main issue—his own incompetence at handling the women’s march. Ignore his suggestions, and proceed as you think best.”

Not wishing to involve Callan in any breach of procedure he might be forced to make, Pike did not mention the inadequate autopsy or reveal his suspicions that there might be more than incompetency behind Shepherd’s behaviour. It was gratifying to hear that his mentor was still counselling him to follow his own instincts. Pike relaxed into his seat. Superintendent Callan was one of the few senior police officers for whom Pike had a genuine regard.

“On the day of the riot, the brothers were with family in Kent,” Callan continued. “Besides, they haven’t been in the country long enough to organise trouble from behind the scenes.”

“Have you any idea who issued the instructions for the police to act with such force?”

Callan shrugged. “What does Shepherd say?”

“He denies any such instructions were issued. He says the Whitechapel divisional sergeant briefed the men and suggests that orders had been misinterpreted.”

“And the Whitechapel sergeant—has he been questioned?”

“Yes. According to Sergeant Fisher, he is saying the same thing: the men misinterpreted his instructions. Shepherd has forbidden us to interview him further. Apparently he is too valuable an officer to lose.”

Callan paused and regarded Pike with concern. “I heard Shepherd at the club the other day talking to some of his cronies, complaining about you. Not your work,” Callan responded promptly to Pike’s look of indignation. “Even he couldn’t find fault with that. He was implying you weren’t physically fit enough for the job, that maybe it was time you were pensioned off. Do you think you might have been asking a few too many questions?”

Pike said nothing and turned his gaze to the window.

“How
is
the knee these days, Matthew?”

“It always plays up in winter, but come spring it’ll loosen up again.” He focused his attention on the snarled traffic in the street outside Callan’s office, the muted sounds of jingling harnesses, clopping hooves, and motorcar engines.

“Then you’ve not taken up that offer at the Royal Victoria? Didn’t the surgeon there say he could do something for you?”

Pike turned back from the window. “I don’t want surgery.” He would rather lose his job than find himself in the hands of army surgeons again. He ran his hand along the inside of his collar and found he was perspiring despite the chill of Callan’s office. “I’m sorry, sir; I appreciate your concern, but the subject is closed.” His mouth was dry. Reaching for his cane, he climbed to his feet.

“That’s quite all right, old man, one can hardly blame you—I can only imagine what that South African field hospital must have been like. But if Shepherd does start on your case, don’t forget there’s a position waiting for you in my department.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Where are you off to now?”

“Belgravia, to speak to a possible witness to Lady Catherine’s death.”

“I can organise a dispatch motor wagon for you if you like.”