He was too late. They had been there, scrubbing floors, carrying water from the standpipes four streets away, emptying slops in the midden and bringing back the buckets. They had gone the day before.
Gone…! Where? Why?
One answer to that leaped out at him; because he had been pursuing them. He had asked questions, threatened. He had made his intense interest only too apparent. Someone was frightened, with or without reason. Before he began to look for them they were simply two unwanted girls shunted from one place to another, tolerated as long as some use could be made of them. His persistence and ruthlessness had made them important. He had driven someone to try to get rid of them.
Where do you get rid of people you don't want to be found? Kill them-if you dare. If you are sure you can dispose of the bodies. The thought almost suffocated him. His heart seemed to rise in his throat and drive the breath out of him. He grasped the man by the front of his clothes and jerked him off his feet.
'If you've killed them, I shall personally deliver you to the hangman! Do you understand me? If you don't believe me, then I had better see to it myself. You will have a hideous accident! A fatal one-precisely as fatal as whatever you did to those girls.'
'That in't fair!' the man squawked, his eyes rolling.
'Of course it isn't!' Monk agreed, not loosening his grip in spite of the man's gasping and struggling. 'There are two of them-and there's only one of you!' He grinned at the man savagely, as if a suddenly brilliant idea had occurred to him. 'I've got it! I'll string you up, and then when you're nearly gone-when your lungs are bursting and your face is blue and you're almost on fire-I'll cut you down, throw a bucket of water over you, give you a glass of brandy, wait till you're all right… then do it again! Once for each girl. Is that fairer?'
'I din't do nuffink!' The man saw death in Monk's face and was nearly sick with fright. 'They're fine! They're alive and well, I swear ter Gawd!'
'Don't swear. Show me!'
'They in't 'ere! I sold 'em… passed 'em on like. I give 'em a chance ter better theirselves. Get out o' Lunnon and go somewhere better for their 'ealth.'
'Where, precisely?' Monk snarled.
'East! Across the water. Honest ter Gawd!'
Monk jerked him up again harshly, hearing his teeth clatter. 'Where?'
'France! They're gorn ter France!'
Monk knew what that would be for. From there they would be snipped to God knows where: the white slave trade.
'When?' He slammed the man back against the wall. He regretted it instantly. He could have knocked him senseless, even broken his neck; but then he would be able to tell him nothing. 'When did they leave?'
'Yest'y! They went down to the docks… Surrey Docks… yest'y night.' He thought he was staring death in the face. 'They'll go out on the afternoon tide terday.'
'Ship?' Monk demanded. 'What ship? Tell me you don't know and I'll send your teeth out through the back of your neck!'
'The
Monk dropped him and he slid to the floor, lying there sobbing for breath. Monk turned and ran from the room, out across the dripping yard and along the alley overhung with creaking boards and sagging half roofs onto the wider, crooked street He had about an hour and a half before the tide. He would like to have gone home and changed into respectable clothes and collected some more money, but there was no time.
He stopped on the narrow pavement. It was beginning to rain. Should he go right or left? Where was the nearest thoroughfare where he might find a hansom? Would he even get one in the rain? He had very little money left. Not enough to bribe anyone. It was a good three miles to the docks, even as the crow flies, farther on foot with all the twists and bends of streets. He had not time to go on foot, even if he ran, not and still search the docks for one ship, and that ship for two frightened girls, possibly kept below decks and bound.
He turned towards the river and ran down the next alley and into another broader street. There were drays and carts in it, and one closed carriage. No hansoms.
He started to swear, then saved his breath for running.
Perhaps along Upper Thames Street, the closest one to the water, there would be cabs. It was too far! He needed to hurry. They would have to make a detour around the Tower of London.
He stood on the curb waving and shouting. No one stopped. They all splashed by in the harder and harder rain, going complacently on their way. He started to run eastwards. Queenhithe Dock was a little ahead of him. Stew Lane Stairs were to the right.
A long string of barges was pushing downriver, making slow way. The tide had not turned yet, but it would be slack water soon.
Barges! On the river!
He charged across the street, colliding with a costermonger's cart, extricating himself with difficulty amid an array of curses from several passersby. He yelled an apology over his shoulder and sprinted down Dowgate Hill and along the narrow cut down to the stairs just as the last barge drew level. He yelled, waving both his arms, signaling the barge to slow down.
The bargee must have thought it was some kind of warning. He eased a little, dropping back all the weight that his ships would allow. It was enough for Monk to run and leap. He barely made it. Without the bargee's frantic help he would have fallen back into the icy water. As it was, he was soaked from the waist down and had to be hauled sodden and shaking onto the deck.
'Wot the 'ell's the matter?' the bargee demanded.
'Got to get to the S-Surrey D-Dock!' Monk stuttered, shaking with cold. 'Before the tide…'
'Missed yer ship, 'ave yer?' the bargee said with a laugh. 'Yer'll be lucky if they 'ave yer. Were yer bin? Some 'ore'ouse up Devil's Acre? Gaw' lummy, yer look like 'ell! Wot ship d'yer want, mate?'
'That ol' bucket! Yer'd be better missin' it, believe me.' The bargee bent his back and pushed harder on his heavy pole, steering with almost absentminded skill.
Monk debated for a few moments whether to tell the man the truth or not. He might help… he might not give a damn. He might even make his own extra money in the trade.
They were passing under London Bridge.
He was weary of lying. He hated being tired and cold and filthy, and pretending he was something he was not.
'They've taken two girls to sell in France, or wherever they send them after that.'
The bargee looked at him curiously, trying to read his face.
'Oh, yeah? What are they ter you, those two girls, then?'
'Their father died and their mother discarded them. They are disfigured, and deaf. Their father's sister is a friend of mine. She's been looking for them for years.' It was a slight bending of the truth-in fact, but not in essence.
'Left it a bit late, 'aven't yer?' The bargee looked sympathetic, almost believing.
'They're shipping them out because they know I'm after them,' Monk explained. 'It's my fault!' he added bitterly.
The bargee regarded the comment critically. 'Yer'd be better on something a bit faster'n me,' he said with feeling.
'I know that!' Monk retorted. 'But you're all I've got.'
The bargee grinned and turned to look upstream. He stayed balanced for several moments while they drifted gradually past the bridge and towards the looming mass of the Tower of London, gray turreted against the sky.
Monk was so tense with the passion of frustration he could have screamed, punched something with all his strength as they seemed to move even more and more slowly.
A small, light fishing boat was coming up behind them, skimming rapidly almost over the surface of the water.
The bargee put his fingers to his lips and let out a piercing whistle.
A figure on the fishing boat cocked his head.
