Duke took a deep breath. "I should have known. Are you from St.
Giles?”
Monk laughed outright. It was the first time he had felt like it for days.
"No. I come from Northumberland.”
"I suppose I should thank you for the warning," Duke said casually, but his eyes still held the shock, and there was a reluctant sincerity in his voice.
Monk shrugged and smiled.
He left the house even further confused.
Time was desperately short.
He took Leighton Duffs picture to Seven Dials and showed it to cabbies, street pedlars, a running patterer, sellers of flowers, bootlaces, matches, glassware, and to a rat catcher and several prostitutes. It was recognised by at least a dozen people, and some without any hesitation at all. Not one of them was prepared to identify Rhys.
By the second night Monk had only one more question in his mind. He returned to St. Giles to pursue the answer, and walked the alleys and courtyards, the dripping passages and up and down the rotting stairs until dawn came grey and bleak at about seven o'clock, and he was exhausted, and so cold his feet were numb and he could not control the shaking of his body. But he knew two things. Rhys Duff and his father had come to St. Giles on the night of the murder from different directions, and there was no proof they had met until the fatal encounter in Water Lane.
The other thing he learned by chance. He was talking to a woman who had been a prostitute in her youth, and had saved sufficient money to purchase a boarding house, but still knew a remarkable amount of gossip. He went to her partly to confirm certain dates and places, but mainly from his compulsion to probe the darkness in his own mind, the fear that gathered every time Runcorn's face came to his thoughts, which it did so often in these dark, slippery paths. It was not Runcorn as he was now, greying at the temples, a little broader at the waist, but a younger, keener Runcorn, shoulders straight, eyes clearer and braver.
"Do you remember the raid in the brothel when the magistrate, Gutteridge, was caught with his trousers down?" He was not sure why he asked, or what he expected the answer to be, only that it lay at the back of his mind, and would not leave.
She gurgled with delight. "Course I do. Why?”
"Runcorn led it?”
"You know that! Can't tell me you've forgot!" She looked at him narrowly, her head on one side.
"Did he set it up?" he asked.
"Wot's this, a game or sum mink You set it up, an' Runcorn took it from yer. Yer let 'im, cos yer know'd poor of Gutt'ridge was gonna be there. Runcorn walked right inter it, daft sod.”
"Why? It was Gutteridge's own fault. Did he expect the police to hold off, just because he was indulging himself?”
Her eyes widened. "Yeah! Course 'e did! Or at least warn 'im! Upset a lot o' people, that did… important people, like. None o' us, mind! Laughed till we creased ourselves, we did!”
"What people?" Monk paused, knowing something eluded him, something that mattered.
"Ere, wot's this abaht?" she said with a frown. "It's all dead an' buried nah! "Oo cares any more? It don't 'ave nuffink ter do wi' them rapes 'ere.”
"I know it doesn't. I just want to know. Tell me," he pressed.
"Well, there was a few gents wot felt their selves a bit exposed like, arter that." She laughed hugely at her own joke. "They'd always trusted you rozzers to keep yer distance from certain 'ouses o' pleasure." She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Arter that they din't trust no one. Couldn't! It kind o' soured relations at ween the rozzers and certain people o' influence. On'y time I ever thought as I could like Mr. Runcorn. Bleedin' pain 'e is, most o' the time. Worse'n you! Yer a mean bastard, but yer was straight, and yer weren't full o' cant. I never knowed yer preach one thing an' do another. Not like 'em." She looked at him more closely. "Wot is it, Monk? W'y dyer give a toss abaht a twenty-year-old raid in a bawdy 'ouse?”
"I'm not sure," he said honestly.
"After yer, is 'e?" she asked with a note of something which could even have been sympathy. He was not sure whether it was for him, or for Runcorn.
"Afterme?" he repeated. "Why?" It sounded foolish, but she knew something about it, or she would not have leaped to such a conclusion.
He had to know. He was too close now not to grasp it, whatever it was.
"Well, yer droppedim right in it, din't yer?" she said incredulously. "Yer knew all them folk was there, an' yer never toP 'im. Let 'im charge in an' make a right fool of is self Don't suppose nuffink was said, but they don' never fergive that kind o' thing. Lorst 'is promotion then, an' lorst 'is girl too, cos 'er father were one of 'em, weren't 'e?" She shrugged. "I'd watch me back, if I was you, even arterall this time. "E don' fergive, yer know? Carries a grudge 'and, does Runcorn.”
Monk was barely listening. He could not remember doing it, even after her description. But he could remember the feeling of victory, the deep, hot satisfaction of knowing he had beaten Runcorn. Now it was only shame. It was a shabby trick and too deep a revenge for anything Runcorn could have done to him. Not that he knew of anything.
He thanked her quietly and walked out, leaving her puzzled, muttering to herself about how times had changed.
Why? He walked with his head down into the rain, hands deep in his pockets, ignoring the gutters and his wet feet. It was fully light now. Why had he done such a thing? Had it been as deliberate and as calculatedly cruel as everyone else thought? If it had, then no wonder Runcorn still hated him. To lose the promotion was fair enough. That was the fortune of war. But to lose the woman he loved was a bitter blow, and one Monk would not now have dealt to any man.
The trial of Rhys Duff had already begun. The information he had was highly pertinent, even if it offered little real help. He should go and tell Rathbone. Hester would be hurt. How Sylvestra Duff would take the news that her husband was also a rapist, he could not even imagine.
He crossed Regent Street, barely noticing he was out of St. Giles, and stopped to buy a hot cup of tea. Perhaps he should not tell Rathbone?
It did not clear Rhys of the murder of his father, only of one rape, with which he was not charged anyway!
But it was part of the truth, and the truth mattered. They had too little of it to make sense as it was. Rathbone had paid him to learn all he could. He had promised Hester. He needed to cling on to his sense of honour, the integrity, and the trust of the friends he had now. What he had been was acutely painful. He had no memory of it, no understanding.
Did Rhys Duff understand himself?
That was irrelevant. Monk was a grown man, and whether he remembered it or not, he was responsible. He was certainly in possession of all his faculties and answerable now. His only reason for not facing himself was fear of what he would find, and the gall to his pride effacing Runcorn, and admitting his remorse.
Had he what it took courage?
He had been cruel, arbitrary, too hasty to judge, but he had never been a liar, and he had never ever been a coward.
He finished the last of his tea, took a bun and paid for it, then eating it as he went, he started towards the police station.
He was obliged to wait until quarter past nine before Runcorn arrived.
He looked warm and dry in his smart overcoat, his face pink and freshly barbered, his shoes shining.
He regarded Monk soberly, his gaze going from his dripping hair and his exhausted face, hollow eyes, down his wet coat to his sodden and filthy boots. His expression was smug, glowing with rich satisfaction.
"You look on hard times, Monk," he said cheerfully. "You want to come in and warm your feet? Perhaps you'd like a cup of tea?”
"I've had one, thank you," Monk said. Only sharp reminder inside himself of his contempt for cowardice kept him there, and the thought of what Hester would think of him if he were to fail the final confrontation now. "But I'll come in. I want to talk to you.”
"I'm busy," Runcorn replied. "But I suppose I can spare you fifteen minutes. You look terrible!" He opened his office door and Monk followed him in. Someone had already lit the fire and it was extremely pleasant. There was a faint smell of beeswax and lavender polish.