"O'right!" Willie said grudgingly. "G'right! Chinese Paddy was up there last night. 'E din't do nothin'-din't 'ave the chance, so yer can't bust 'im. Clean as a w'istle, 'e is. But ask ‘im. If 'e can't 'elp yer, then no one can. Now let me be- yer'll gimme a bad name, 'anging 'round 'ere wi' the likes o' you."
"Where do I find Chinese Paddy?" Evan caught hold of the man's arm, fingers hard till Willie squeaked.
"Leggo o' me! Wanna break me arm?"
Evan tightened his grip.
"Dark 'Ouse Lane, Billingsgate-termorrermornin', w'en the market opens. Yer'll know 'im easy, 'e's got black 'air like a chimney brush, an' eyes like a Chinaman. Now le' go o' me!"
Evan obliged, and in a minute Willie disappeared down Mincing Lane towards the river and the ferry steps.
Evan went straight home to his rooms, washed off the worst surface dirt in a bowl of tepid water, and slipped into bed.
At five in the morning he rose again, put on the same clothes and crept out of the house and took a series of public omnibuses to Billingsgate, and by quarter past six in the dawn light he was in the crush of costers' barrows, fishmongers' high carts and dray wagons at the entrance to Dark House Lane itself. It was so narrow that the houses reared up like cliff walls on either side, the advertisement boards for fresh ice actually stretching across from one side to the other. Along both sides were stacked mountains of fresh, wet, slithering fish of every description, piled on benches, and behind them stood the salesmen crying their wares, white aprons gleaming like the fish bellies, and white hats pale against the dark stones behind them.
A fish porter with a basket full of haddock on his head could barely squeeze past the double row of shoppers crowding the thin passageway down the middle. At the far end Evan could just see the tangled rigging of oyster boats on the water and the occasional red worsted cap of a sailor.
The smell was overpowering; red herrings, every kind of white fish from sprats to turbot, lobsters, whelks, and over all a salty, seaweedy odor as if one were actually on a beach. It brought back a sudden jolt of childhood excursions to the sea, the coldness of the water and the sight of a crab running sideways across the sand.
But this was utterly different. All around him was not the soft slurp of the waves but the cacophony of a hundred voices: "Ye-o-o! Ye-o-o! 'Ere's yer fine Yarmouth bloaters! Whiting! Turbot-all alive! Beautiful lobsters! Fine cock crabs-alive O! Splendid skate-alive-all cheap! Best in the market! Fresh 'addock! Nice glass o' peppermint this cold morning! Ha'penny a glass! 'Ere yer are, sir! Currant and meat puddings, a ha'penny each! 'Ere ma'am! Smelt! Finny 'addock! Plaice-all alive O. Whelks-mussels-now or never! Shrimps! Eels! Flounder! Winkles! Waterproof capes-a shilling apiece! Keep out the wet!''
And a news vendor cried out: "I sell food for the mind! Come an' read all abaht it! Terrible murder in Queen Anne Street! Lord's daughter stabbed ter death in 'er bed!''
Evan pushed his way slowly through the crowd of costers, fishmongers and housewives till he saw a brawny fish seller with a distinctly Oriental appearance.
"Are you Chinese Paddy?" he asked as discreetly as he could above the babble and still be heard.
"Sure I am. Will you be wantin' some nice fresh cod, now? Best in the market!"
"I want some information. It'll cost you nothing, and I'm prepared to pay for it-if it's right," Evan replied, standing very upright and looking at the fish as if he were considering buying it.
"And why would I be selling information at a fish market, mister? What is it you want to know-times o' the tides, is it?" Chinese Paddy raised his straight black eyebrows sarcastically. "I don't know you-"
“Metropolitan police,'' Evan said quietly. "Your name was given me by a very reliable fellow I know-down in Pudding Lane. Now do I have to do this in an unpleasant fashion, or can we trade like gentlemen, and you can stay here selling your fish when I leave and go about my business?" He said it courteously, but just once he looked up and met Chinese Paddy's eyes in a hard, straight stare.
Paddy hesitated.
"The alternative is I arrest you and take you to Mr. Monk
and he can ask you again." Evan knew Monk's reputation, even though Monk himself was still learning it.
Paddy made his decision.
"What is it you're wanting to know?"
"The murder in Queen Anne Street. You were up there last night-"
" 'Ere-fresh fish-fine cod!" Paddy called out. "So I was," he went on in a quiet, hard tone. "But I never stole nuffin', an' I sure as death and the bailiffs never killed that woman!'' Ignoring Evan for a moment, he sold three large cod to a woman and took a shilling and sixpence.
"I know that," Evan agreed. "But I want to know what you saw!"
"A bleedin' rozzer goin' up 'Arley Street an' down Wim-pole Street every twenty minutes reg'lar," Paddy replied, looking one moment at his fish, and the next at the crowd as it passed. "You're ruinin' me trade, mister! People is won-derin' why you don't buy!"
"What else?" Evan pressed. "The sooner you tell me, the sooner I'll buy a fish and be gone."
"A quack coming to the third 'ouse up on 'Arley Street, an' a maid out on the tiles with 'er follower. The place was like bleedin' Piccadilly! I never got a chance to do anything."
"Which house did you come for?" Evan asked, picking up a fish and examining it.
"Corner o' Queen Anne Street and Wimpole Street, southwest corner."
"And where were you waiting, exactly?" Evan felt a curious prickle of apprehension, a kind of excitement and horror at once. "And what time?"
" 'Alf the ruddy night! "Paddy said indignantly. "Fromten o'clock till near four. Welbeck Street end o' Queen Anne Street. That way I could see the 'ole length o' Queen Anne Street right down to Chandos Street. Bit of a party goin' on t'other end-footmen all over the place.''
"Why didn't you pack up and go somewhere else? Why stick around there all night if it was so busy?"
" 'Ere, fresh cod-all alive-best in the market!" Paddy called over Evan's head. 'Ere missus! Right it is-that'll be one and eight pence-there y'are." His voice dropped again.
"Because I 'ad the layout of a good place, o' course-an' I don't go in unprepared. I in't a bleedin' amacher. I kept thinkin' they'd go. But that perishin' maid was 'alf the night in the areaway like a damn cat. No morals at all."
"So who came and went up Queen Anne Street?" Evan could hardly keep the anticipation out of his voice. Whoever killed Octavia Haslett had not passed the footmen and coachmen at the other end, nor climbed over from the mews-he must have come this way, and if Chinese Paddy was telling the truth, he must have seen him. A thin shiver of excitement rippled through Evan.
"No one passed me, 'cept the quack an' the maid," Paddy repeated with irritation. "I 'ad me eyes peeled all bleedin' night-just waitin' me chance-an' it never came. The 'ouse where the quack went 'ad all its lights on an' the door open and closed, open and closed-I didn't dare go past. Then the ruddy girl with 'er man. No one went past me-I'd swear to that on me life, I would. An' Mr. Monk can do any damn thing 'e can think of-it won't change it. 'Oever scragged that poor woman, 'e was already in the 'ouse, that's for certain positive. An' good luck to you findin”im, 'cos I can't 'elp yer. Now take one o' them fish and pay me twice wot it's worth, and get out of 'ere. You're holdin' up trade terrible, you are."
Evan took the fish and handed over three shillings. Chinese Paddy was a contact worth keeping favor with.
"Already in the house." The words rang in his head. Of course he,would have to check with the courting maid as well, but if she could be persuaded, on pain of his telling her mistress if she was reluctant, then Chinese Paddy was right- whoever killed Octavia Haslett was someone who already lived there, no stranger caught in the act of burglary but a premeditated murderer who disguised his act afterwards.