‘How can you prove that?’
‘I’ll compare his handwriting with that on the card, sir.’
Resting his cigar in the astray, Tallis sat back pensively in his chair. Ever since he had entered the room, Colbeck had been waiting for him to explode and to unleash the kind of vituperation for which he was so well-known. Instead, he was unusually subdued. He had been sobered by the personal attack in the newspaper and was desperate for reassurance that the crime could indeed be solved before too long.
‘The first thing you must do,’ he said at length, ‘is to establish a connection between Shanklin and this other fellow, Chiffney.’
‘Victor is trying to do that at this moment, sir.’
‘Why – where is he?’
‘Somewhere in Chalk Farm,’ said Colbeck. ‘He’s keeping watch on the home of Josie Murlow.’
Victor Leeming had retreated to the end of the street, feeling that he was too conspicuous if he stayed too long in the same place. He was still chiding himself for confusing one of Josie Murlow’s clients with Dick Chiffney. The confrontation with Luke Watts had made him feel stupid but he had at least learnt something about Chiffney. The man was ugly and cross-eyed. He wished he had known that before he accosted the wrong person. Leeming had lost all track of time. It seemed as if he had been there for hours and all he had seen of Josie was a fleeting glimpse. He began to despair of catching sight of her again and wondered if he should accept defeat and leave.
He decided to stroll down the street for the last time, taking a final look at the house from close quarters before quitting his vigil. Hands thrust into his pockets and head down, he walked slowly along and hoped that his next assignment would not be so boring and so fruitless. His feet were hurting, his shoulders were aching and the smell from his coat was increasingly offensive. He longed to get back into clean clothing once more.
Leeming was only twenty yards from the hovel when a small boy ran past him to slip an envelope through the letterbox before dashing away. Within a matter of minutes, the door opened and out stepped Josie Murlow. He did not recognise her at first. She had been transformed. Wearing a dark dress that verged on respectability, she had somehow tamed her hair, swept it up and hidden it completely beneath her hat. She moved along with a measure of dignity. If he had not known her true calling, he would have taken her for a servant from a large establishment.
He felt a stab of fear, thinking that she would recognise him but Josie did not even glance in his direction. Wherever she was going, she was eager to get there, ignoring everything else on the way. It made it much easier for Leeming to follow her. Turning at the corner, she went on down the main road, never once looking over her shoulder. Leeming was tingling with excitement. He believed she had received word from Chiffney and was going to meet him. All of his recriminations vanished. His visit to Chalk Farm had, after all, been supremely worthwhile.
Given her size, Josie could not walk fast but she kept up a reasonable speed as she picked her way through pedestrians coming towards her. After going for a couple of hundred yards, she turned into a side-road and continued on her way. Leeming came around the corner, checked that she was not looking back then kept up his pursuit. Confident that she was leading him to a main suspect in the investigation, he squeezed the handcuffs in his pocket, certain that they would be needed on Chiffney. A man ruthless enough to bring an express train off the rails was unlikely to surrender meekly. Even the presence of Josie did not deter Leeming now. If necessary, he would take them both on.
She eventually stopped outside the Shepherd and Shepherdess, an incongruous name for a public house in an urban district. Then, for the first time, she turned round. Leeming took evasive action, diving sideways into an alleyway. When he peeped around the corner, he saw that Josie was walking further on. He tried to follow her but it was in vain. Before he even stepped back out into the road, he was hit on the back of head and plunged helplessly into unconsciousness.
Dick Chiffney unlocked the door and hustled her into the bedroom. Josie Murlow was so pleased at their reunion that she threw her arms around him and held him tight. Taking off her hat, he let her hair cascade down then kissed her full on the lips. It was minutes before they finally broke apart.
‘I was beginning to think you’d run out on me again,’ she said.
‘I gave you my promise I’d send for you.’
‘Where did you spend last night?’
‘Right here,’ he said, indicating the room. ‘This house belongs to an old friend. He let me in as a favour.’
‘Why didn’t you send for me earlier?’
‘I had someone to see, Josie – the gentleman I’m working for.’
‘Has he paid you yet?’
‘I have to do the job first.’
‘Well, be quick about it, Dick,’ she urged. ‘The police are sniffing about. I had another one banging on my door today. They want you.’
‘That’s why I took precautions.’
‘Them instructions you give me, you mean?’
‘Yes, Josie. I had a feeling you might be followed. My note told you to stop at the Shepherd and Shepherdess to look round.’
‘I saw nobody,’ she said. ‘Not a bleeding soul.’
‘Well, I did,’ he said with a chuckle, taking out his pistol, ‘and I give him a sore head with this.’ He mimed the action of striking with the butt of the weapon. ‘That will teach him not to mess with Dick Chiffney.’
Josie was anxious. ‘Where did you get that gun?’
‘The gentleman give it to me.’
‘What for – you’re not going to shoot someone, are you?’
‘I told you before, Josie – you don’t need to know what’s going on. I’ve got a job to do, that’s all. When it’s done, I get the rest of the money and I can hand back both of the guns.’
‘Both of them?’ she echoed.
‘I’ve got this as well,’ he boasted, lifting the overhanging coverlet to reveal the rifle under the bed. She gasped in alarm. ‘Don’t get so upset, my old darling,’ he said, letting the coverlet go and putting an arm around her. ‘Everything will be all right.’
‘What have you got yourself into, Dick?’
‘Nothing I can’t handle.’
‘I don’t like it,’ she said. ‘You told me that there was no danger at all then I get two detectives coming to my house. When I try to leave it, I’m followed by someone.’
‘He was a police spy, Josie.’
‘That’s dreadful! I don’t want policemen camped outside my house, watching everything I do. What will happen now that you attacked the man following me?’ A worrying thought struck her. ‘You didn’t kill him, did you?’
‘No,’ he said, airily, ‘I didn’t hit him hard enough. I should’ve done really. The more coppers we can get rid of, the better.’ He took her by the shoulders. ‘Try to stay calm, my love,’ he urged. ‘I’m doing this for us.’
‘All you’ve done so far is to bring the law down on me and I’m scared. What’s happening, Dick? I don’t like being kept in the dark. Most of all,’ she went on, ‘I don’t like having my house watched.
‘Then you’ve no need to go back there, Josie.’
‘Where else can I go?’
‘You can stay here, my darling,’ he said, nodding at the flagon on the table, ‘for the time being, anyway. We’ve got plenty of gin and a nice big bed – what more do we need?’
When he regained consciousness, Victor Leeming found himself lying on the ground in an alleyway close to some animal excrement. His face and body had been bruised in the fall and his head felt as if it were about to explode. It took him a little while to work out what had happened. His thick cap had prevented a bad scalp wound, leaving him with a large bump that throbbed insistently. Most people who had passed by took him for a drunk who had passed out. Nobody came to his aid. It was only when he dragged himself painfully to his feet that an old man stopped to help him.