This command was followed by the crash andtinkle of spilled coins and the immediate retreat of the felontowards the oaken door he had left slightly ajar. But Cobb, neverhobbled by his pot-belly, ran him down and felled him with a tacklethat a rugby forward might have envied. He heard the air wheeze outof the villain’s body, and plunked himself down between thefellow’s shoulder blades.
“Got ya at last, you thievin’ bastard!Robbin’ money meant fer widows an’ orphans. I oughta beat yasenseless right here in the site of the Lord!”
“I ain’t done nothin’, Cobb! I swear taGod!”
Cobb froze. “Jesus Murphy, it can’t be!”
He got up, grasped the villain by the collar,and dragged him across the flagstones towards the nearest window,where a revived moon cast a pale lozenge of light. Cobb dropped hisbundle onto the floor and rolled it over with the toe of his rightboot.
“What the fuck are you doin’ robbin’churches?” he cried, beside himself with anger and chagrin.
Nestor Peck, master snitch, blinked andstared up at Cobb. His entire body was quaking, but he managed tosay, in a pitiable whine, “I ain’t taken a penny, Cobb. Not afarthin’. This ain’t what it looks like – honest to God!”
“Don’t you go blast-feemin’ the Lord,”Cobb said. “You wouldn’t know honesty if ya stepped in it!”
Nester looked even worse than usual. His eyeswere like a pair of badly poached, bloodshot eggs, and hisnear-toothless mouth had begun to shrivel inward like a scarecrow’sknitted lips. It was obvious that he was terrified.
“Ya gotta believe me, Mr. Cobb. I ain’t norobber. I wouldn’t take food outta the mouths of orphans. I was onemyself!”
“I know. Yer ma an’ pa took one gander atyou an’ poisoned each other.” Cobb was disappointed athimself for letting his anger get the better of him, but of all thepossibilities he had imagined regarding these thefts, this was notamong them. And with Nester in prison, his steadiest source ofinformation from the underworld would be cut off.
“She asked me to do it!” Nester wassnivelling at Cobb’s feet. “What could I do? I had to sayyes.”
Cobb reached down, grabbed an elbow, andslowly raised Nestor to his feet. Nestor immediately threw bothhands in front of his face to ward off the blows he expected.
“Who asked you to do this?” Cobb saidso quietly that Nestor almost missed the change in tone – andpurpose.
“The lady up at the vicarage. It was all heridea, I just – ”
“Mrs. Hungerford? The vicar’swife?”
“That’s the one. I’ll swear to it on a hunertBibles – ”
“Stop yer whinin’, man, an’ tell me whathappened. All of it – now!”
Nestor took a coughing fit, which oddlyseemed to settle his nerves, for he looked Cobb square in the eyeand said, “A couple weeks ago I was over here helpin’ Reuben fix upthe broken boards on the front porch. The missus corners meafterwards an’ tells me she’s got an important job fer me. She saysit’s gonna seem strange, but I’m to ask no questions about it, an’the bishop – that’s what she calls him – is the one that wants itdone. Well, right off, I’m gettin’ nervous, an’ when she tells meshe wants me to take the money outta the Poor Box an’ give it toher, I start to panic. But she says it’s all about catchin’ areal thief, an’ the bishop is anxious to do that, an’ shepromises me five dollars if I do things right. But I ain’t norobber, I say, an’ she says she’ll give me the key to the frontdoor and another one fer the little box, so it ain’t reallyrobbery. All I gotta do is slip past the watchman, come in here inthe middle of the night, take out the money an’ bring it around toher first thing in the mornin’ – when nobody’s lookin’ – out behindthe stables.”
Cobb absorbed all this before saying, “So youcome in here a week ago Sunday, the day before Mr. Dougherty gotstabbed?”
“I was supposed to. But I get cold feet. Sothe old girl sends a lad to fetch me, an’ she’s furious. She tellsme the box ain’t been emptied yet because of all the fuss over themurder, and I’m to do the job that night. She promises me I c’n bethe new verger – soon as the bishop is made inta a bishop an’ herhusband becomes the rector. So I say I’ll do it.”
“So you come in here that Monday night?”
“No. I didn’t get up enough nerve till theWednesday. But I was so scared I knocked the box off its pole. Themissus was very upset with me ‘cause I was supposed to sneak themoney out real careful.”
“What about last Sunday?”
“That was me, too. But nothin’ seemed tosatisfy the woman. She said if I wanted the verger’s job I had tokeep on with it.”
“An’ this was to be the last time, Itake it?”
“She promised. She said the real scoundrelwas gonna be ‘exposed’ an’ the bishop would be awful happy aboutit.”
At this point, Cobb’s eye caught somethingshiny on the floor beside Nestor’s foot. He bent down. “What’sthis?”
Nestor gave Cobb a sheepish grin. He wasstill not sure what sort of ground he was standing on, as Cobb’sexpression had given nothing away. “She told me I had to leave thatthing beside the box.”
“That thing” was a silver locket. Cobb knewthat if he opened it, he would see David Chalmers’ sister staringup at him. He shuddered. Fantastic as it seemed, Nestor Peck wastelling him something very close to the truth, and it was as uglyas it could be. He slipped the locket into his coat pocket.
“What’re ya gonna do?” Nestor said, startingto quake just a little.
Before Cobb could reply, they wereinterrupted by a loud and imperious voice at the other end of thenave.
“What in Heaven’s name is going on here?”
Constance Hungerford came storming up theaisle and into the pool of moonlight like a force of Nature. Shehad a florid dressing-robe wrapped ineffectually around her body’saggressive angles, and metal curlers shook in the thickets of herhair like Medusa’s locks. She strode right up to Cobb, stopped withthe precision of a drill sergeant, and skewered him with a keen,appraising, unblinking stare. Cobb stood his ground, thinking itbest to let surprise have its way with her.
Slowly, some sort of understandingregistered, and Constance said, “It’s you, is it, Cobb? Sneakingabout like a thief in order to catch one?”
“I believe, madam, that it was you thatwanted the thief caught.”
“Don’t be impertinent, sir.” She swivelledand glanced once at Nestor. “However unsavoury your methods – andthe racket in here might have wakened the dead! – it’s evident youhave the felon in hand. My God, he looks as if he’s just crawledout of a sewer!”
Nestor was trembling again, all over, andlooking at Cobb with a desperate pleading in his bruised eyes. Itwas clear that he was incapable of accusing Constance Hungerford toher face.
“I did catch this fella with his paw on thecheese, ma’am. An’ he’s confessed to bein’ in here twicebefore.”
“Then do your duty. He’s stinking up myhusband’s church!”
“Well, ma’am, I intend to do just that but,you see, he’s been tellin’ me a strange tale of how he waspurr-suaded inta robbin’ the Poor Box by a lady that livesright here in the vicar – ”
Constance gave Nestor a cuff on the side ofthe head, and he yelped at the shock of it. “I had to tell thetruth,” he wailed. “Cobb made me!”
“Shut up, Nestor,” Cobb said.
Constance stared at Cobb with a look thatcombined hauteur, malice and animal cunning. “I trust, sir,that you gave no credence to such a self-serving and implausiblestory out of the mouth of this – this cutworm!”
It was not a question.
“I take it you’re denyin’ you had anythin’ todo with – ”
“What I’m doing, Cobb, is ordering youto haul this thief and prevaricator off to jail. Thisinstant! I have seen the wretch only once before in my life -when Epp dragged him over to help repair the porch – and I do notintend to lay eyes on him again. Now go, at once!”