“Perhaps, but I’m not at all happy,” said Bryant firmly. “And I won’t let Raymond close this case until I am. I want to see the psychiatric evaluations that got Pellew released from the Broadhampton, I need to know how those women came to be in that photograph, and why their employment records were falsified over the same periods. We have to go back and take another look at the pubs. Why did I see a Victorian public house that didn’t even exist under that name? Most of all, we need to find out how on earth an outpatient under observation was able to lay his hands on such highly toxic drugs.”
“That’s going to take time,” said May, “and Land wants this wrapped up fast.”
“Then he’ll have to wait.”
“But if no-one else is attacked – ”
“I don’t care,” said Bryant stubbornly. “We’ve missed something essential.”
“Not to the outcome of the case, Arthur, only to your personal satisfaction. You know we don’t always get every last detail correct. It would be like suggesting we’ve solved the mysteries of human nature. It’s not simply a matter of genomes, there are social variables and – ”
“I know it’s not an exact science, John, but there’s something here that Simply. Does. Not. Make. Sense.” He thumped his walking stick on the pavement for emphasis.
“Then tell me, what do you think that is?”
Bryant punched him in the chest with a mittened hand. “What have I always told you? The kind of crimes that reach our little unit can best be appreciated and resolved through a consideration of the laws of paradox. Pellew himself led us to him, then fled when we arrived. Why? Although he wanted – needed – us to catch him, why did he run to his death on a busy motorway?”
“He was trying to get away and made a mistake.”
“No. You saw him hesitate and look back. He knew that we couldn’t be allowed to take him alive. If we did, he would find himself charged and interrogated, and he couldn’t afford to let that happen.”
“Why in God’s name not?” asked May, mystified.
“Because under interrogation he would incriminate someone else,” said Bryant, looking out into the incoming mist.
“But Arthur, there
“So it would seem. And we are presented with the textbook apparatus to understand his motivation. In fact, there’s little left for us to do beyond conducting a few scientific matches and placing the case in archive. The Broadhampton’s medical faculty will be at great pains to justify their decision to release Pellew into the community. Everyone walks away with their hands clean.”
A police launch passed beneath them, a white arrow cleaving sepia waters.
“And there’s something else. I thought about the drawing Bimsley found on the floor of Pellew’s makeshift hiding place at the Angerstein Hotel. That scrappy rendering of a black-and-white bird with a long tail, sitting on a tree stump. Bimsley gave it to me when I visited him at the hospital.”
“What of it?”
“It only took me a few moments to come up with the pub name, the Magpie and Stump, opposite the Old Bailey, but I was a little slower in making the connection. Pellew left us a more deliberate clue than any of his clumsy earlier attempts. What does the name Thomas Spence mean to you?”
“The Cato Street Conspiracy,” said May. “Spence was a former schoolteacher who believed that if all the land of Britain was shared out equally, every man, woman and child would get seven acres each.”
“Very good; you know your history. Did you also know that Spence founded the Society of Spencean Philanthropists? They believed that instead of a centralised governing body, Britain should be run by small groups based in London public houses. I made a list, hang on.” Bryant rooted out another of his scraps of paper and squinted at the huge lettering on it. “The Spenceans met at the Nag’s Head in Carnaby Market, the Carlisle in Shoreditch, the Mulberry Tree in Moorfields, the Cock in Soho, the White Lion in Camden and a host of other pubs. In rented rooms in Cato Street, they hatched plans to assassinate a group of government ministers attending a dinner party in Grosvenor Square. The conspirators were caught by police and tried at the Old Bailey, while their supporters watched from the windows of the Magpie and Stump public house. Some of the accused were executed, some transported. So, we get a second ‘seven’ after the Seven Stars pub, a third with the Seven Bells, the former name of the Old Bell pub, and on top of the other keywords Pellew has given us, we must now add ‘conspiracy.’ ”
Bryant balled the paper and tossed it down into the fastflowing river. “Look at the view we take so much for granted. Politicians are fond of telling us how much cleaner the Thames is now, how you can catch dace and sole in its reaches once again. Everyone wants to believe in appearances. What was the Thames ever but a gigantic sewer, somewhere to empty the waste of a wealthy nation? The steamships churned up so much shit that the fine people crossing this bridge died of cholera. You can burnish a city’s image, but you never really change its nature. There’s something hidden and corrupt running beneath it, there always is, and this time it’s not just the acted-out fantasies of a lost soul.”
“Oh, really,” May complained. “You’re saying you see some kind of citywide conspiracy at work?”
“Most definitely.” Bryant nodded with vigour. “And I intend to discover exactly what it is.”
“If you’re wrong, our reputations will be ruined once and for all.”
“Given the nature of my suspicions, I pray I’m wrong,” said Bryant gloomily.
? The Victoria Vanishes ?
34
Gazumped
Raymond Land was uncomfortably perched on the cracked red leather seat of a nineteenth-century tapestry-backed chair in Leslie Faraday’s office, nervously waiting for the minister to return.
As he toyed with a loose thread, he wondered whether he would be able to curry favour from the case’s fast conclusion. His superiors would see that the PCU could compete with the Met in terms of efficiency, and as he was acting head of the division he would surely be commended for resolving a situation that might well have caused a national panic. The monotonous regularity with which the HO attempted to shut down the unit would be ended, and its officers would finally be allowed to continue in an atmosphere of mutual respect.
He looked down and realised that the tapestry thread was wrapped around his fingers. Peering over at the back of the chair, he saw to his horror that he had unravelled a substantial portion of the ancient design. The shepherdess now had no head, and two of her sheep had partially evaporated.
Faraday waddled into the room rubbing his hands. “Ah, there you are, Land,” he boomed cheerfully. “I’m having Deirdre rustle us up some tea. You’re white with two sugars if memory serves.” Faraday’s memory always served. Indeed, it was his singular talent, and all that kept him from being booted from his fine Whitehall office into the gutter. Faraday was as slow as treacle but remembered where all the financial corpses were buried, and therefore it was expedient to keep him where ministers with more competence and cunning could keep an eye on him. “I must say you’ve done jolly well to put this frightful business to bed. I thought it would be a good idea to tell – ”
A chill breeze trembled through Land’s heart. He suddenly knew who Faraday had told.
“ – Mr Kasavian,” said Faraday, holding open the door. “He wanted a word with you himself.”
This could not be good. Whenever the cadaverous Home Office security supervisor became involved in their affairs, babies cried, women cowered, innocence was punished and blame was wrongly apportioned. As he entered the room, Land fancied he heard the distant sound of noosed bodies falling through trap doors. Certainly the sun went in and drained all warmth from the room.
Oskar Kasavian did not smile so much as bare his lower teeth. As Land rose and held out his hand, he realised that his palm was still filled with material from the damaged chair. Like a shamed schoolboy, he let it drop onto the floor behind him.
“I understand our public houses are once more safe enough for the populace to become drunk in,” said Kasavian, waving Land back into his seat, “although it would have been preferable to bring the malefactor to justice
