Friends in High Places by Caro Peacock

Author:Caro Peacock
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780106601
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2015-03-12T16:00:00+00:00

TWELVE

I took over the night watch from Mrs Martley at midnight. She was tired and I’d managed to sleep for some of the evening, a relief from thinking. I sat in the chair by the bed with a shaded candle on the table giving a steady half-light. Now and then Cobblers stirred and snuffled, but mostly he slept. Sometime after four he woke up and tried to get out of bed. I told him he was safe and to go back to sleep.

‘Need a piss.’ He hauled himself to a sitting position on the side of the bed, groaning at the pain from his ribs. There was a bed pan, but he wouldn’t use it with me there so I had to go out on the landing. When I got back he was standing, looking round.

‘Had a jacket.’

‘It’s downstairs. Mrs Martley’s washed the blood off. Why do you want it? Are you cold?’

‘Going. Can’t stay here.’ I wasn’t sure if this was his normal way of speaking or because of his knocked-out teeth. I told him that he was staying until he got well and managed to get him back into bed, propped up on pillows. ‘So, did they get them?’ His certainty that the gang would be out for revenge was total. Since he didn’t seem ready to go back to sleep I asked him if he could remember anything about the attack.

‘Two of them, might of been three, one watching.’

‘Did they say anything?’

‘Not a word.’

‘Did they come out of one of the houses?’

‘Don’t know. Just there.’

‘Would you recognize them again?’

‘No chance. Collars pulled up, scarves or mufflers over their faces.’

‘Did they know you were following the man Slater?’

‘Likely.’

‘How far behind him were you?’

‘Half the street. Harder following at night with nobody round.’

‘Do you know what sort of time this was?’

‘Clocks struck two before it.’

‘And the man Slater came out of his lodgings?’

‘Somebody went in first, then they came out together.’

‘So there were two of them?’ It sounded as if somebody might have brought a message to Slater urgent enough to take him out at that hour of the morning. ‘You’re sure one of them was Slater? It was dark.’

‘Sure. Funny way of walking, like he’s been wound up with a key.’

He was sounding tired. I rearranged the pillows and watched as he slid back into sleep. Had Slater realized he was being followed and deliberately led Cobblers into an ambush? Everything hinged on this man, and we knew so little about him. Was it simply coincidence that connected him both with the death of Lesparre and whatever Robert had got himself involved with? His interest – even his obsession, from the way he patrolled the streets – was with foreigners in London, particularly those plotting revolutions in their home countries. If not part of the police force he must at least be closely connected with it, or why was he in Sergeant Bevan’s company? And, of course, from there my mind went back to the nagging question of what Robert was doing.

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