A tap on the door. The summons to the torture chamber, he thought. But that treat was still to come.
“Lady to see you,” announced Johnny Johnson.
He hoped and prayed it wasn’t Sadie. Not this morning. He couldn’t face her.
The lady was Mrs. Cornish, straight-backed, dressed in mourning black, and clutching an ugly brown handbag. Frost sprung to his feet to shake the rubbish off a chair so she could sit down.
“What brings you here then, Ma?”
In answer, she undid the clasp of the handbag and took out a small paper bag. She tipped its contents on to his desk.
Sovereigns, all minted in the reign of Queen Victoria. Frost counted them. There were forty-one.
He looked at her incredulously. “Where did you get these?”
“I stole them from a tin box in Lil Carey’s piano,” she said. “There were seventy-nine in all.”
“And what happened to the rest of them?” Frost asked.
“Ben took them.”
“Ben?”
She nodded. “Tuesday evening he pushed his way into the house begging me for money for drugs. He was in a terrible state. He couldn’t stop himself shaking and looked as if he hadn’t eaten for days. I said I’d give him food but not money. I left him alone while I went down to the corner shop for some eggs. When I came back the house had been turned upside-down and Ben had gone. He’d taken one of the bags of sovereigns. The other bag was too well hidden, otherwise he’d have taken that as well.”
“What time was this?”
She snapped her handbag shut. “A little after nine.”
A little after nine! The pieces were all slotting together. He could visualize it. Ben hurrying from the house, desperately anxious he shouldn’t be late for his meet with the two drug pushers, the sovereigns heavy in the pockets of that ragged filthy overcoat, enough to buy many little packets. But he didn’t buy any. By nine thirty he was dead.
And yesterday two drug pushers were arrested with the sovereigns in their possession.
It now made sense. Better for them to confess falsely to a burglary than risk being linked by the coins to the murder.
“Those bastards killed my son,” said Mrs. Cornish.
Frost scooped the coins back into the bag. “Let’s get our basic facts straight. You never stole the se coins from old Mother Carey. Danny, perhaps, or even your daughter-in-law — I spotted her family allowance book in Lil’s piano but not you, Ma.”
She met his gaze and stuck out her chin defiantly. “It was me. I’ll swear to it in court.”
The internal phone buzzed. Miss Smith informing him that the Divisipnal Commander would see him now.
“Tell him to wait,” said Frost.