Banker's Draft Page 5

  ‘Come on,’ said Frankie, ‘I’m hungry.’

  Rose and Frankie continued on their way down Grantby Street until they came to a little alley, they turned into it and Frankie indicated that they should keep to the overhang. Shortly Rose saw why as a splash of something relating to night-time relief hit the ground and formed into a gooey puddle. At the end, they entered into a wide thoroughfare called The Trand, where opposite stood the House of Assembly, a gigantic imposing edifice built from the red granite quarries of Scleep far to the north. It backed onto a bend in the river, by which the stones came down some two hundred years ago by hundreds of barges.

  ‘Aren’t we going the wrong way?’ asked Rose, a little confused. ‘Isn’t the accountant’s on the edge of town?’

  ‘It is,’ replied Frankie. ‘But first things first, breakfast and then work. We’ll grab a lift when we’re done.’

  They walked along The Trand a short way to a street stall nestling in the corner, a banner held up on two poles above it proclaimed “Sal’s Sizzler”. Nobody with a sense of smell could pass by; the aroma grabbed the nostrils in a headlock and refused to let go. There was already a throng of customers crowded around, but Frankie elbowed his way through and Rose followed in his wake. They were now in effect at the back of the house, where a team of servers were struggling to cope with the demand. Frankie grabbed a couple of crates and sat down, indicating that Rose should too. A small thin reed of a woman with wild grey hair marched over and clipped Frankie around the ear.

  ‘That’s for not visiting your mother yesterday like you promised,’ she berated angrily. ‘How can a mother’s son treat her so badly? A poor weak woman in the autumn of her life and you don’t go and see her regular like. You should be ashamed of yourself, young Francis.’ Her eyes opened wide as she saw Rose sitting next to him. She clipped him again. ‘And you haven’t even introduced me to your young lady.’

  ‘Aw, mum, don’t do that. What’s people going to think?’

  ‘They’ll think that my son is a lazy good for nothing who can’t be bothered to go and see his old mother, that’s what they’ll think.’ She folded her arms across her chest and tapped her foot waiting for a reply. Frankie looked up into a sea of faces all agreeing with his mother.

  ‘That’s not fair, mum. We got a job and were tied up all last night.’ He shuffled his backside around on the crate trying to regain some dignity. ‘You know I can’t make it sometimes, but I promise I’ll make it up to you; and anyway, this is Rose and she’s just started working with us.’ He flicked his eyes to Rose and grinned inanely. ‘This is my mum, if you haven’t already guessed.’

  Rose stood up and offered her hand. ‘Nice to meet you, Mrs Kandalwick, Frankie was just telling me what a wonderful mother he had.’ She shot Frankie a reassuring smile.

  ‘The name’s Sal dear, nobody calls me missus nowadays, not since the son of a bitch that was Frankie’s father ran off with that tart of a tailor’s pattern cutter.’ She spat the last in contempt, but then regained her composure. ‘You’re not his young lady then?’ she asked, still hopeful. Rose shook her head. ‘Shame, a mother is never fulfilled until she gets her grandkids. About time he got his finger out, you listening, Frankie? Grandkids, I want grandkids. You must know what yer little dangler’s for.’

  ‘Yes, mum,’ answered Frankie, resolved now that his mother was determined to embarrass him, whatever the circumstances. ‘Anyway, you already got grandkids, loads of ‘em.’

  ‘Not from you, I ain’t, I expect all of you to do your bit. Look at Justine, she got four of ‘em, and another on the way. Barney has got two, admittedly not from the same mother, but he’s doing his bit, and Jason’s got one’

  ‘All right, mum.’ Frankie held up his hand in defeat. ‘I get yer point. I’ll see what I can do.’

  ‘Good, you get right on to it. Now, what are you going to have?’

  Frankie felt that the tirade had now come to an end and he could relax at long last. ‘Special please, mum; we got a long day ahead of us.’

  ‘Right you are son; and you, young lady?’

  ‘I’ll have the same please, Sal.’

  Both Frankie and his mum stared at Rose for a moment, but then they broke into a grin.

  ‘Two specials over here,’ shouted Sal, to no one in particular. ‘And hurry, my boy’s got work to do.’

  As if by magic, two enormous great rolls appeared, both the size of dinner plates, and each had a napkin that just about covered a small corner. Sal gave one to Frankie and the other to Rose, and then stood back to watch them eat. Rose stared for a moment as she held hers in both hands. She lifted up the lid to see what was inside and saw what amounted to half a pig and an array of eggs, all covered with a brown sauce.

  ‘Are you sure you’re going to manage all that?’ asked Frankie, already tucking into his.

  ‘You watch me, tiger,’ replied Rose, attacking the roll with gusto.

  CHAPTER 3

  Rose’s stomach, stretched to the limit and complaining severely, threatened to explode as they sat on the back of the blacksmith’s cart as it rocked down the road. She had never eaten so much in her life, but pride had got hold of her and she had no intention of giving in until she’d forced every last morsel down her throat. Sal had scrutinised every mouthful, and had nodded with pleasure as the special finally disappeared. She now felt like one of those toys which wobbled but couldn’t be knocked down, and the motion of the cart and the smell of the fish compounded the issue. She desperately tried to listen to Frankie as he told her about how he came to work with Cornwallis.

  ‘We came from The Warren, one of the worst places in the city. We were poor and mum struggled to bring us all up. Like all kids around there, we started nicking a few bits to sell. Mum didn’t exactly encourage us, but she were grateful to ‘ave a few luxuries every now and again. She used to work at Cornwallis’ house but got in the family way again and had to leave. When she started the stall, we were all so used to the thievery that we couldn’t stop, two of me brothers got caught and got banged up inside, and it weren’t long after that that Cornwallis came across me again, skipping away from a house with a pocketful of silver. We used to play together as kids when me mum took me to work, so he knew what mum would think if another of the family went inside. He then offered me this job, and with a knife pressed up against me throat, I could hardly say no, could I?’

  Rose nodded her agreement; just then, she couldn’t trust herself to speak in case the special made a comeback.

  ‘We make a good team, me and Cornwallis. As he comes from the nobs, we just about cover all bases. If I’d known being honest could be this much fun, I would never have started nicking stuff in the first place.’

  The cart trundled its way through the city centre and out into the suburbs. Frankie’s voice droned on and on, and Rose began to feel a little better. By the time they came to decamp from the cart, she only felt full, and not full to bursting.

  ‘Morning, Constable Popham,’ cried Frankie, as the toe of his boot nudged into the reposing policeman’s wedding tackle. ‘Sleeping on the job again, eh? The bloody front door isn’t even locked and here’s you away with the fairies.’ His hobnails began to grind down on something soft and squelchy.

  Constable Popham awoke suddenly with a feeling of dread and discomfort, the pressure on his nether regions being of a different type to that which he had been dreaming; a pressure that teetered on the edge of being intense pain. ‘What the f…?’ His hands pushed out and connected with the rock solidity of Frankie’s boot. He scrambled back and managed to sit up, rubbing the offended area with an intensity that was sure to make him go blind. Popham then saw Rose standing next to Frankie and his world collapsed into a crimson void as his arm movements slowed to a halt.

  ‘Now, that’s not a nice thing to do, Popham, in the presence of a lady,’ said Frankie, with a smirk. ‘If I happened to be a policeman I’d have you arrested. Sergeant MacGillicudy will be so impressed that you were doin
g the one arm shuffle and sleeping on the job.’

  ‘I wasn’t,’ spluttered Popham. ‘I might have had a few minutes doze, but I wasn’t having a wa…’ He stopped himself just in time.

  Rose tried her best not to laugh.

  ‘We been on double shifts, Frankie, honest. Everybody else gets to go home, but we has to stay here. I only shut me eyes for a few minutes, honest.’ Popham clambered to his feet and went to adjust himself, but then thought better of it. ‘You won’t tell the sergeant, will you?’ he added pleadingly.

  Rose stepped forward and placed a gentle hand on his arm. ‘I’m sure I can persuade Frankie to keep quiet, Mr Popham, a double shift must be very tiring, even for a young fit man like you.’

  Popham’s eight stone six pound seemed to swell to nearly nine stone as he stood up straight, trying desperately to look like the man who would have a girl like this on his arm. He gave what he thought was a winning smile, but it came out more of a leer.

  Frankie gave him a cuff around the head. ‘And you can stop that as well or I will be telling MacGillicudy what you’ve been up to while his back is turned. Now, who’s upstairs?’

  ‘Spekes, Frankie,’ replied Popham, now shrinking back to his normal size. ‘There’s just me, Spekes and Dewdrop. Nothing’s happened all night, been as quiet as a flea’s fart.’

  ‘Just as well then, ‘cause you lot couldn’t catch a cold. So Dewdrop is out back then? Well let’s hope he’s more alert than you were.’

  Frankie and Rose turned to go through, and she gave Popham a wink that would keep him occupied for weeks to come.

  Dewdrop had been dozing too, but the sound of Frankie waking Popham up, stirred him from his slumbers. So when Frankie and Rose got to the back of the building, he stood ramrod straight with eyes as bright as they could be.

  ‘Oh my,’ exclaimed Rose, ‘If it isn’t Lord Cecil Toopins.’ She put her hand to her mouth in astonishment. ‘And here you are working as a policeman.’

  ‘Ohmegodohmegod.’ Dewdrop’s face drained of colour as Frankie fixed him with a beady stare, he tried a grin but it didn’t work; Frankie’s eyes just bored into him and squeezed his brain in a vice-like grip.

  ‘A Lord working as a feeler,’ continued Rose aghast, her hand against her mouth. ‘I think that is wonderful. Your family must be very proud of you giving something back to society like this.’

  Dewdrop’s attempted grin turned to a grimace. ‘I… I… I think I just heard Popham calling for me, I… I’ll just see what he wants.’ He wrenched open the backdoor and took a couple of steps before he stopped, stood back, slammed it shut, and then rushed off the other way, past Rose and Frankie and down the connecting corridor. ‘Wrong way,’ he croaked as he disappeared.

  Frankie stood looking at Rose for a few seconds. ‘Lord Cecil Toopins?’ he asked, incredulously.

  Rose smiled sweetly and began to chuckle. ‘He’s been down the Stoat the last few nights trying to impress the girls. Don’t worry, he didn’t convince anyone, but we all let him think he did.’

  ‘I’ll Lord Cecil him when I get my hands ‘round his scrawny little neck.’

  ‘Leave him be, Frankie, a boy’s got to dream sometimes, and I think that in these circumstances the less said the better.’

  ‘Yes, but a Lord?’ Frankie shook his head, as if Dewdrop could pass himself off as part of the nobility; it defied description. ‘Oh well, if that’s the way you want it. But you won’t stop me having a little bit of fun at his expense though, will yer?’

  ‘Only if he doesn’t get hurt.’

  ‘He, he, he,’ he chuckled. ‘Don’t worry, he won’t. But just you wait ‘til Jack hears about this, it’ll make his day.’

  Frankie flung open the back door and, still laughing, wandered into the yard. Under his arm, he had the box of fish and he laid it down on top of the stack of rubbish at the back. ‘Here puss, puss, puss. Here kitty, kitty,’ he called lightly. ‘Lots of luverley fish for yer. Come and get it. Come on, pussy.’

  Rose began to look amongst all the junk while Frankie called. The oil soaked rags were still there, but pushed into a corner. She got a stick and started poking around, turning it over to see if she could dislodge anything wrapped up within the folds. She sighed disappointedly as if she hoped there would be a card or something with a name and address that would save them all this trouble; but she did notice that the rags weren’t exactly rags. They were good cloth, not cheap and nasty like most of the people wore. She poked the pile some more and then noticed a little tag on what was once a shirt. Leaning closer she could just about read the label. “Biggins and Shute, Cavel Row.” ‘Frankie, come and look at this,’ she called. ‘I think I’ve found a clue.’

  ‘What’s that then, my darling?’ asked Frankie, sauntering over. He squatted down beside her and took a look.

  ‘There’s posh for you. Biggins and Shute, eh? Cavel Row. Same place Cornwallis gets his from; if these are someone’s rags then I can’t imagine what the good stuff looks like. Well done, your first morning on the job and you score a point. You just learnt the second rule of investigating; notice everything.’

  ‘Is that what you do?’

  ‘Oh yes, eyes always peeled and ready.’ They were too, as he had noticed that Rose had the top two buttons of her blouse undone and the third, at that moment, strained at the leash, but he managed to drag his eyes away and stood up. ‘Better find a sack to put all this stuff in,’ he said, becoming business like again. ‘Jack will want to see all this.’

  ‘Wants to see what?’ asked the cat.

  Frankie’s head span around. The cat sat next to the box of fish, and despite all the junk, had managed to get up there silently. The tongue licked the paw with a kind of relish, as if there was a delicate morsel still attached. ‘These rags,’ replied Frankie. ‘The ones that were going to be set alight. I hear you stopped it all happening.’

  ‘Youse hear right. Used to be a nice quiet area it did until youse lot came stomping along. I suppose youse going to want to know what happened.’

  ‘We do.’

  The cat held out its paw and pinged the claws out one by one. ‘That’s what happened,’ it said, swiping the air. ‘Got the man good and proper; he won’t be bothering any feline in a hurry again, I can tells youse.’

  ‘Yeah, well done. But what actually happened?’

  The cat jumped down and came to sit in front of Frankie and Rose. ‘It were all quiet like, when one o’those feelers sneaked out the back gate. Being a bit curious, I took a peek, and I’s wished that I hadn’t. He went right down the end and he must’ve had a blockage by the sounds of it. It were then that my attention got diverted by the man sneaking in; the same one that were ‘ere earlier.’

  ‘You mean the one that helped the accountant get out?’

  ‘That’s the kitten. He went right up to the door and dumped that lot inside. I wondered what he were doing, but when I saws him get those matches out, well, I fought, that’s enough for me, so I’s sort of ‘ad a word wiv him. “Oi, what you doing wiv that lot?” I spits. And do you know what, he near shat himself there and then. I reckon he didn’t know some cats could talk.’

  ‘Most people don’t,’ answered Frankie. ‘I just chanced me arm when I spoke to you. What happened then?’

  ‘Well, I spits some more and then I jumps right at him, unsheathing me claws in mid-air. Youse should have seen it, would have made my daddy proud it would. Before he could move I swipes him wiv the right, and before I hit the floor, I swipes him wiv the left. Beautiful move; got him both sides of the face. He couldn’t take no more so ‘e just turned and ran.’

  Rose squatted down again and began to fuss the cat. Frankie watched with a certain degree of jealousy as her hand began to stroke and fondle it. It didn’t take long before the purring started, and Frankie could have sworn he felt the ground tremble with the vibrations.

  ‘What else?’

  The cat waited for a couple of minutes until Rose stopped. ‘Youse can keep d
oing that as much as you like sweetheart, I may be a cat but I knows a good looking ‘uman when I sees one.’

  ‘I think that’s enough, Fluffy. What else happened?’

  ‘Aw, just under the chin, sweetheart, go on, just a little longer.’ The cat waited for just a few more seconds and then sighed. ‘Nothing else happened. The feeler who took a dump came rushing back in just as that sergeant came storming out. However, when I’s went to look where the man went… ere, follow me.’ The cat tore itself away from Rose and walked out into the alley, he turned towards the street where the hired coach had waited the night before and sat down next to a bloody handkerchief. ‘Here, ‘e dropped this. Just shows what a good job I done on him.’

  Frankie leant down and picked it up. Blood covered the once white silk handkerchief, but in the corner, he could see a little embroidered “K”. ‘We’re picking up clues left, right and centre today,’ he said, pocketing the article. ‘Carries on like this and we’ll have the murderer bang to rights before dinners on the table.’

  ‘And talking about dinner,’ said Fluffy. ‘Can youse take the lid off me box of fish?’

  ‘I reckon that’s the least you deserve,’ answered Rose, patting his head. ‘Just show us where you want it.’

  The cat’s grin spread from ear to ear. ‘Down here, I’ll shows youse.’ Fluffy sauntered back down the alley with his tail high in the air. He passed the gate to the accountants and went a couple of houses further down; he turned into an even smaller alley and then into a small fenced off yard. ‘This ‘ere’s where I have’s me resting place, just bung it in the corner.’