12
"What can you infer,” Barker asked me, “from the deaths of Luke Chow and Chambers?”
“Well, sir,” I said, “both men appeared to have arrived at the hang in good condition, so they must have been killed by whoever is after the book.”
“And yet-” Barker prompted.
“And yet the killer must have already had knowledge from the book, in order to kill them in that manner. So what did he need the book for?”
“Where did he get the knowledge in the first place?” Barker continued, ignoring my question.
“Perhaps he read it in the monastery. Perhaps he was a monk.”
“Not necessarily. I had the opportunity to examine the book the evening we first received it. There was a page missing, a very important page, I believe. If Luke Chow were going to attempt to sell the book to someone, he would have to give them a page from the text in order to prove its authenticity. Let us say Luke Chow came across the text in the archives and alerted someone willing to pay for it. It’s possible he let him in late one night and they decided to steal it. They had some sort of falling out, after the two monks were killed. Chow ran off with the book and hired himself aboard the Ajax bound for London. But the murderer discovered Chow’s destination, arrived on a faster ship, and was waiting for him.”
“That’s a long way to come just to get hold of a book. Why bother?”
“You have hit it squarely, Thomas. Why does he need the book? What is his purpose? Answer that and we’ll find our man.”
“Is it really true that he can kill someone just by touching him?”
“According to the text, it’s more than touching. It creates vibrations that disrupt energy in the body.”
“Are you going to keep the text?” I asked, then wished I hadn’t. Sometimes I speak without thinking, despite all the warnings the Reverend Spurgeon gives us about guarding one’s tongue.
“I’d sooner keep adders in our bathhouse.”
“But you do still have it,” I said after a pause.
“Now, lad, you heard me say that I do not have it.”
“I thought you were just putting off Scotland Yard. So I suppose Dr. Quong has it.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Then who has the book?”
“You’re starting to sound like Poole,” Barker said, leaning back in his chair. “Best not to ask, Thomas. If one doesn’t know, one cannot be forced to say under oath or torture. Get to work on those reports now. I am most anxious to read about the death of the mate from the Ajax. ”
I was just beginning my report, intent on getting every jot and tittle down just right, when in the outer office Jenkins gave a sudden cry.
“Sir!”
Before I even moved I heard the soft swipe of a pistol clearing leather. Barker raised his Colt revolver as if from out of nowhere and set it down on his desk. The Guv has a holster built in underneath his chair. What passed for remarkable in other people was a necessary commonplace in his little world. He knew someone dangerous might come in, and naturally he would require a pistol quickly. Things in drawers were clumsy to get in and out, but a holster under the seat was sensible. I didn’t have one and had to retrieve my Webley from one of the upper drawers of my rolltop desk. At least I had had the foresight not to lock it.
They came in then in a leisurely fashion, three of them: a big man in front and two smaller behind. Street toughs. They wore sailors’ bell-bottomed trousers and hobnailed boots that clicked so loudly on the wood floor I feared for it. The ones behind wore pea jackets with knit caps, while the leader was clad in a long black coat of waxed cotton. Under it he wore a fancy waistcoat and a silk neckerchief. The large expanse of shirt between tie and waistcoat was not especially clean. He wore a brown bowler with the lowest crown I’d ever seen, and when he removed it, I saw that the sides of his head had been shaved, leaving a bushy brown strip down the center and a pair of thick side-whiskers that seemed to hang like pothooks over his ears.
“Here,” he said in a raspy voice. “There’s no need for breaking out the ironware, Push. I’ve come to see if we can transact some business.”
“Patrick Hooligan,” Barker said in greeting. “And how is the Hooley Gang?”
“It hain’t been a good season, but things is looking up.” Hooligan eased his bulk into the leather chair in front of the desk and crossed a boot across his knee, revealing a brass toe cap polished to a high gloss. “Not that I’m complaining, mind. May I?”
Barker pushed the visitor’s cigar case toward him an inch. “Help yourself.”
“Always liked a good smoke,” the tough said, coming up with a large knife. I leaned forward, my hand on my pistol, while one of the boys eyed me threateningly and reached into his own pocket. I thought mayhem might occur. Instead, Hooligan sliced the end of his cigar off and put the knife back in his coat. I noted he didn’t offer his subordinates anything. Just then I realized who they were. These were the lads I’d seen the morning I had been chased out of Limehouse. This man must be their leader.
“Business, you say?” Barker asked, after the tough got his cigar going.
“Yer. Got anyfing to drink ’round here?”
“The Rising Sun is around the corner.”
“The street says you’re a bar of iron,” Hooligan said around the cigar. “Can’t be bent. Reg’lar churchgoer. That’s all right. Got no use for it meself, but I can work with it. I got what you might call a business proposition.”
“Have you now? I’m listening.”
“Word in the East End is that you came into a bit o’property afore some other blokes did. Blokes who’ve been huntin’ it for months. Now if you was to have it-and, mind, I ain’t saying you do, but if you did-what might yer be planning to do with it?”
“First of all, Mr. Hooligan, let me say that the property you speak of is not in my possession.”
“Naturally,” Hooligan said.
“But if it were mine to do with as I wish, I would return it to the monastery in China from which it was taken.”
“Having made no profit on it at all?” our guest demanded, clearly aghast at the thought. “You’ve been awastin’ too much time in church, m’lad. You’re a straight arrow and a scientific fighter, but you got no head for commerce. What’ll you get out of it, I ask yer? Not enough to pay your scrawny clerk in the front room or your scrawny ’sistant in this one. They’re undernourished, is what. Pathetic.”
I bristled at the remark, but the conversation continued without my opinions.
“And look here, unless you take it yourself, how many eyes’ll see it before it reaches China again? If it ever does, which I doubt. You may think you have Limehouse sewn up, but it’s still a big world out there.”
“I’ve got associates in China,” Barker said, “who will safely get it back to the place from whence it came.”
“That’s as may be, but you still have to get it there. I seriously doubt it’s gonna be easy even to get it outta London Town.”
“What have you heard?”
“Enough. There’s a book. Dunno what it’s about or what it looks like, but someone’s willin’ to kill people in order to lay hands on it. The Chinese government wants it, the Foreign Office wants it. Scotland Yard wants it, and Mr. K’ing wants it. I find that all rather interesting, as a businessman, you understand. Rumor says half a dozen people have been killed over it. Why, there’s only twenty or thirty people murdered in all of London in a year. That’s a powerful lot of killing to find one book.”
“And how are you involved?”
“I’m involved, Push, because it’s my territory. My new territory. You see, I’ve begun expanding on the north side of the river.”
“You’re a Surrey man from the south side,” Barker said. “Mr. K’ing will not like it.”
“K’ing doesn’t worry me. He’s all mirrors and smoke. Got himself a reputation among the Blue Funnel crowd and a good racket goin’, everyone tithin’ reg’lar to him like he was some kinda church, but it’s a good thing I’m a charitable man, else it would be a rough time for heathen foreigners dockside. All of them, if you get my meaning.”