“Speaking hypothetically, how many men could you lay hands on for such an action?” Barker asked.
“The Chinks ain’t exactly made themselves welcome here. I could get upwards of two hundred in a day, three if I’m willing to extend myself. Got friends in Liverpool and Manchester, I do.”
“But no plans.”
“None yet,” the gang leader said, dumping an inch of ash in the ashtray on Barker’s desk. “Not until I talked to you.”
“So what is the proposition?”
“I want to broker a deal. I’ll go to K’ing and say you’re willing to hand over the book, if the Chinese government chokes up enough of the ready to suit us. Who knows? K’ing might even put forth the money himself and hope for compensation from the empress later. Then he can go back to Peking and live like a lord the rest of his life.”
“Leaving Limehouse to be looked after by you and your associates.”
Hooligan grinned. One of his teeth was gold. “The people there’ll need protection, of course, and they’re already used to payin’ for it. It would be a pity to just waste it. It’s the law of supply and demand.”
“You’ve thought this out well,” Barker stated, his fingers tented in front of him.
“Well, I ain’t had me much book learnin’, but I got smarts. Got to survive in the streets.”
“So, Mr. Hooligan, what is to keep me from merely going and brokering the deal with K’ing myself and cutting you out entirely?”
“Glad you asked, and, by the way, this is information I am givin’ you for free, which you may not live to hear again, so pay attention. Word is that old K’ing is layin’ for you. Don’t know what it is you done to set him off, but set off he is. He’s been spendin’ money like water preparing for the New Year’s festival next week, but some of my informants tell me it ain’t goin’ to be the usual entertainment.”
“Talent?” Barker asked, with one of his cold smiles.
“Circus freak show, if you ask me.”
“I see. Thank you for the tip.”
“Now what about my proposition?”
“I’m sorry. I shall have to decline.”
Hooligan knocked off his cigar ash again. “Shoulda expected it. You know you won’t get penny on the pound if you give it to the government, nor none of the credit, neither.”
“I realize that.”
Hooligan turned his head toward his subordinate who stood by the window acting as lookout. “Hey, Benny, what’s that word that means you do things for the public good and not for money?”
“Altruistic.”
“That’s the word. You are altruistic, Push, and as a citizen of metropolitan London, I’m glad you’re looking out for my welfare. But you got no head for business. When you’ve failed and gone, I’ll have to buy these offices and turn them into something useful like a public house or a gin shop.”
“I’ve no doubt you shall turn a profit,” the Guv stated. “I thank you for the tip and hope you are not offended at my declining your offer.”
“You know old Patrick Hooligan. Always has another card up his sleeve. I owe you a bit o’ thanks anyway.”
“How so?”
“For involving old Bainy. Now that he’s dead, the Reach is wide open. All the boundaries is gone, and that Scotland Yard prig-what’s his name?”
“Do you mean Inspector Poole?”
“That’s the man. Poole is too busy trying to find the killer to mind the store. There’s enough smash and grab goin’ on to make K’ing and me both rich men. But with Bainy gone, it’s a cinch one of us is eventually going to get greedy, and devil take the hindmost, if you get my meaning.”
“I see.”
“Look, if you change yer mind, just stop by the Elephant and Castle of an evening. One o’ my boys’ll be there. C’mon, lads, I’m parched. Let’s go over to the Sun for a whiskey.”
“Thank you again for the warning,” Barker said as the man rose from his chair.
“Anything for a white man,” Hooligan said. “It’s us or them, or to put it more plainly, it’s us, period.”
They clicked and scraped their way out. Jenkins came in from the outer room while Barker dumped the contents of his ashtray into the dustbin under his desk for the second time in an hour.
“Look at the state of this floor,” Jenkins complained.
“Interesting fellow,” I remarked, as I slid the pistol back into my drawer.
“Indeed.”
“What was that he meant about the Elephant and Castle?”
“It is his base of operations.”
“It’s practically on our doorstep,” I pointed out.
“Aye, it is.”
“You know the thought occurs to me that he might have shot Bainbridge himself, and we’re blaming someone for his death who left London months ago. It’s awfully convenient. He could also have come from the Elephant and Castle and tried to burgle our house.”
Barker nodded. “Very devious, lad,” he said, leaning over and holstering the gun under his chair. “Let us leave before we are interrupted again. Have you got that address in Millwall?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then you are free to go. It is your half day, after all. I shall pay a visit to Chambers’s widow.”
Barker always knows how to twist the knife. “I’ve got nothing going on, sir. May I join you?”
“As you wish.”
The widow Chambers lived in a row of brick houses on Mellish Street where every house was identical to the next. If we hadn’t had the exact address, we would never have found her.
“Mrs. Chambers?”
The door had opened and Mrs. Chambers was holding a wiggling infant in a blanket, while behind her, several dirty-faced children were sticking their heads around for a peek at the visitors and talking to each other.
“Mrs. Chambers as was,” she said. “It’s Mrs. Lynn now. Who wants to know?” The woman turned around abruptly and bawled behind her. “Will you shut up back there? Can’t you see I’m a-talkin’ ter gentlemen?”
“We are private enquiry agents, madam,” Barker said, “investigating several murders that may have been related. One of them was your late husband.”
“But he weren’t kilt,” she insisted, wiping a strand of hair out of her eye and hefting the child higher with her knee. “His kidneys gave out.”
“True, madam, but another crewman from the Ajax died the night before, also apparently from natural causes. It is suspicious.”
“’Ere now. You two ain’t from the assurance companies, trying to put the screw on my husband’s money, are you?”
“Not at all, madam, I assure you. We’re investigating another case entirely. I only have a few questions.”
She thought, as well as she could while holding the baby, which had begun to whimper. “I dunno. I got on with me life.”
“It is good that you have, madam. But, just a few questions, in his memory?”
I admit, it was an imposition. Who knew what pandemonium was going on behind that door? I fancy she might have been a beauty once, years ago, before the bloom had gone off her, when she’d gone from being Chambers’s best girl to Mother. The years, the poverty, the grind, and, of course, her first husband’s death had all taken their toll.
“Very well,” she told Barker, in the same way she must give in to a child’s request. “But make it quick, please. This un’s ’ungry.”
“When your husband returned from his last trip to China, did he seem at all secretive?”
“Yes, he did. Said some Chinaman on board had died from the ship. I thought he was carrying on a bit, I mean, he worked around ’em alla time, but he never chummed up with one afore. Said he ’ad some business to attend to, oh so important like. ‘Susan, I ’as business to attend to.’ I gave him an earful, out drinking our money away with his mates at night, and now he ’as business in the day, leaving me with a household o’ brats. ‘Maybe I ’as business to attend to myself,’ I says. ‘Y’ever think o’ that?’ But ’e wouldn’t back down this time. That weren’t like my Alf. ’E generally backed down.”
“So, did he transact his business?”
“He did. Then he came back with flowers for me. Musta sold something to have enough for a bit o’ flowers. I’d cleaned ’im out afore ’e left. Never trust a sailor with money, they go through it like water. Anyway-hush, child-I wasn’t gonna let ’im get off with buying me hothouse flowers ’stead o’ tellin’ me where ’e went. It might be dangerous.”