The Chelsea Strangler by Gregory Susanna

Author:Gregory, Susanna [Gregory, Susanna]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2016-01-14T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

It was far too hot to sleep properly that night, and Chaloner did not like to imagine what conditions would be like in London, particularly for those shut inside their houses with the plague. Eventually he rose, uncomfortably assailed by the sense that some plot was rushing towards its conclusion, and that unless he found answers soon, more people would die. The note he had found in the Colliers’ house had mentioned elephants arriving the day after tomorrow, so was that what everything was spiralling towards? Was it something he should try to prevent? But how, when he did not know what it entailed?

He left the Swan and padded stealthily through the village, hoping the spectre would make another appearance, when he might have better luck catching him – or her – but the streets were empty, and not so much as a mouse disturbed their stillness.

As he passed Parker’s home, he pondered Cocke’s allegations. Kipps and Wiseman had dismissed them as nonsense, but could the accompter actually be right? The house was dark, and he considered waking the physician up and demanding answers at once, but then thought better of it. It would be daybreak soon, so he might as well wait and do it with Kipps and Wiseman – the physician might be more willing to cooperate if a fellow medicus was present.

After a while, he went to the prison, and assessed the walls that surrounded the Garden Court. He could not climb them without a rope and grappling hook, and even then, he suspected that the overjetting coping with its array of vicious spikes would defeat him. So what was really inside? Food supplies or dangerous dissidents?

He retraced his steps to see that lights still burned in the rectory, and two brown-coats were visible at an attic window. Then he saw someone else out and about: a boy delivering the latest government newsbook to subscribers. Copies were taken to Gorges, Wilkinson and Parker, but Reymes and his guests evidently had no interest in current affairs, because the lad bypassed Buckingham House, and the last copy went to the Strangeways’ fledgling coffee house.

Shortly after, a whole host of folk emerged to sidle through the pre-dawn gloom. First, Cocke slunk along in a very suspicious manner, and Chaloner would have followed him, had he not spotted Eleanore. He pursued her instead, all the way to the College. She knocked on the gate and was admitted, presumably to prepare the prisoners’ breakfast. Then he spied Akers, who shot into some bushes all of a sudden, although not because he had seen Chaloner – moments later, Reymes scuttled in from the east, a direction that meant he had been out by the bell-foundry. Perhaps he had friends that way, thought Chaloner, although four in the morning was an odd time for visiting.

It was market day, so carts were beginning to arrive from the surrounding countryside, too, converging on the open space at the end of Church Lane. Most vendors arranged

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