The Amorous Nightingale

    'The coach got damaged during the ambush when it was forced against the wall of a house. I want it as good as new by the time Mrs Gow comes back.' He hesitated. 'She is coming back, isn't she?'

    'We've every reason to believe so. Now, Mr Trigg,' said Jonathan, taking a step closer. 'I'd like you to tell me exactly what happened.'

    'But I've already been through it twice.'

    'So Mr Redmayne said, but he also remarked on the differences between the two versions. When you spoke to him at the Palace, it seems you were still suffering from the effects of the beating.'

    Trigg glowered. 'My pride was hurt the most.'

    'Understandably.'

    'Mrs Gow counted on me.'

    'Did she?'

    'I was her bodyguard.'

    'Let's go back to the ambush,' said Jonathan.

    'Again?'

    'I appreciate how painful it must be for you to recount the facts once more. It can't be avoided, however. Mr Redmayne is a clever young man but he's not as used to gathering evidence from people as I am. I listen to witnesses all day long. I know what to ask, when to press for details, how to spot when someone is holding information back.'

    'I held nothing back!' said the other belligerently.

    'Nobody's accusing you of doing so.'

    'They'd better not.'

    'Mr Redmayne made a point of saying how helpful you've been.'

    Trigg was appeased. 'I want them caught, Mr Bale,' he said. 'More to the point, I want to be there when it happens. I've got a stake in this, remember.' He pointed to his face. 'I didn't get these bruises by walking into some cobwebs.'

    'How did you get them, Mr Trigg?'

    'Now you're asking!'

    'Tell me in your own words.'

    The coachman perched on the anvil and spat into the sawdust. After looking his visitor up and down, he launched into a long account of the ambush, interspersing it with speculation about who his attackers might be and adding a description of his later return to the house.

    'I knew it,' he emphasised. 'I knew they took Mary Hibbert as well.'

    'That's not what you said to her brother.'

    Trigg was checked. 'Who?'

    'Peter Hibbert. He called here twice yesterday. Seeing the door wide open the first time, he became alarmed and ran to relatives in Carter Lane, hoping that he might find his sister there. But Mary was nowhere to be found. Peter hurried all the way back here and bumped into you. Or so he says.'

    'It's true.'

    'The boy had no reason to lie.'

    'How did you find out about it?'

    'The Hibbert family once lived in my ward, sir. I knew them well. That's why Peter turned to me when he felt his sister was in trouble.'

    'He was very upset when he came back here.'

    'Yet you did nothing to reassure him.'

    'What could I do? Tell him that Mary had been took along with Mrs Gow? How would that have helped?' Trigg hunched his shoulders. 'I thought the best thing was to say as little as possible. So I pretended they'd both gone out of London for a few days.'

    'Peter wasn't sure if he should believe you.'

    'I wanted to get the lad off my back!'

    'You might have done it more gently.'

    'He was pestering me.'

    'Returning to the ambush,' said Jonathan patiently, 'you've told me the exact point in the lane where you were set upon but you haven't explained what you were doing there in the first place.'

    'Making my way to the Strand.'

    'Down such a narrow thoroughfare? Surely there are easier ways to travel. And why go to the Strand? Mr Redmayne is firmly under the impression that you were heading for the Palace of Westminster.'

    'Then he's quite wrong.'

    'You had another destination?'

    'We weren't going to the Palace that day.'

    'Yet you ended up there.'

    'Only because I was sent for, Mr Bale. The ransom note had arrived by then. They knew there'd been an ambush. I was hauled down there to explain what had happened.'

    'So Mrs Gow was actually visiting someone in the Strand?'

    'I didn't say that.'

    'Do you dispute the fact?'

    'I've no need.'

    'What do you mean?'

    'My job is to take Mrs Gow wherever she wishes me to take her. She has a lot of friends so I drive all over London. Well beyond it at times. I never know who she's going to see and I don't care. I simply do what I'm paid for, Mr Bale. That's all I'm saying.'

    'Even though you could be hiding evidence?'

    'Of what?'

    'The motive behind the kidnap.'

    'I've told you everything.'

    'Except your destination yesterday. Don't you see how important it is for us to know it, Mr Trigg? The person she was on her way to see might be able to help us. Perhaps someone had a grudge against him and used Mrs Gow as a means of revenge. One thing is certain, sir.'

    'What's that?'

    'You were expected. That ambush was laid in the ideal place.'

    'So?'

    'You mightn't have known exactly where you were going but someone else did. They knew the time of day you'd be driving down that lane and they knew just how many men it would take to overpower a strapping coachman and abduct a lady. Now,' he said, squaring up to Trigg, 'where were you taking Mrs Gow?'

    'To see a friend.'

    'Does he have a name?'

    'She didn't say.'

    'What about an address?'

    'I've forgotten it.'

    'So you were told?'

    'I can't remember.'

    Jonathan could not make out if he was dealing with sheer bloody-mindedness or with fierce loyalty to an employer. Either way, the result was the same. Willing to furnish any other information, the coachman was strangely reluctant to disclose the destination of his coach. It was time to try another tack with him.

    'You mentioned the name of a suspect, I hear.'

    'I mentioned several.'

    'This one came as an afterthought. Mr Redmayne paid particular attention to it. He said I was to ask you about Mr Bartholomew Gow.'

    Trigg nodded. 'He's tied up in this somewhere.'

    'Why do you say that?'