Blood on the Line

more help they might need.

‘You’ll have time on your hands,’ he argued. ‘How would you like to spend it?’

‘I promised to show Victor the sights of New York,’ said Colbeck.

‘Come on patrol with my men and you’ll see some real sights. When he sees what policing is like on this side of the Atlantic, the sergeant might think twice about going back home.’

‘I don’t know about that, Captain Riley,’ said Leeming.

‘We’ve always got room for an experienced detective.’

‘So have we,’ said Colbeck, firmly.

Riley laughed and massaged Colbeck’s shoulder. He took them out into the courtyard and beckoned to a cab driver. As their luggage was loaded onto the vehicle, the visitors thanked Riley for his help and told him that they would need his assistance when the Arethusa docked. Having no jurisdiction there, they had no right to arrest and hold the fugitives on American soil. They would have to wait until the extradition had been authorised before Oxley and Irene became solely their prisoners. Riley was happy to oblige.

‘I can guarantee our full cooperation,’ he said, chirpily. ‘It’s not often we have two killers trying to sneak into this country in order to evade justice in England. If it was left to me now, I’d execute the pair of them right here and save you the cost of their passages home.’

‘There are legal reasons why that can’t happen,’ said Colbeck.

‘That’s a great pity, so it is.’

‘We’ll just get them extradited and slip quietly away.’

Riley guffawed. ‘Oh, you will, will you?’

‘What’s so funny?’ asked Leeming.

‘You’ll soon find out, my friend.’

‘I don’t understand, Captain.’

Riley slapped him on the back. ‘Welcome to America!’

* * *

The first thing that Edward Tallis did when he arrived for work early that morning was to cross another day off the calendar on his wall. He estimated that his detectives would have arrived in New York by now but that it would take much longer for the Arethusa to complete its voyage. Counting the days to their arrest helped Tallis to bring retribution ever closer in his mind. He still regretted that he’d been unable to accompany Colbeck and Leeming but accepted that his place was directing operations at Scotland Yard.

In fact, he had deserted his desk for two days when he took a train to Edinburgh for the funeral of Ian Peebles. There’d been a dignified sadness about the whole event. While suffering pangs of remorse during the actual ceremony, Tallis had found that the most trying moment was when he had to face the constable’s parents and explain to them the exact circumstances of their son’s death. On the journey back to London, he’d sat in a hurt silence and relived the horror of the shooting. It had been his blunder. Peebles’ parents had been too well mannered to say so but they knew the truth.

Back in his office, the first thing he did was to open his cigar box. Before he could take one out, however, his guilt stirred. He snapped the lid back down and vowed that he would never smoke again until the killers were caught and brought back to England. Denial of his favourite pleasure would be a form of expiation. As he counted the days he’d ticked off, he saw how long it had been since he’d last enjoyed the solace of a cigar. Temptation flickered. With an effort, Tallis resisted it. Until the appropriate time, he pledged, he would no more lift the lid of the cigar box than he would open the drawer that contained his bottle of brandy. Both were a means of escape and he was entitled to neither. He had to wait for Colbeck and Leeming to release him from his vow.

They timed it to perfection. On the last evening before their arrival in New York, they robbed the people they had carefully selected as their victims. Working independently, Oxley and Irene slipped into vacant cabins, picked unguarded pockets, stole unwitting reticules and generally helped themselves to items that were too much to resist. They returned to their own cabin to compare notes and to count their spoils. It had been a most satisfying haul.

‘The beauty of it is,’ said Oxley, holding up a gold watch, ‘that most of the people won’t realise things have gone until it’s too late.’

‘I’m glad that we spared Herschel and Libby.’

‘They’re our friends.’

‘Yes,’ said Irene, ‘but they’re also very wealthy.’

‘I never even considered them. They’ve been too helpful to us. Who knows? We might accept that invitation to visit them one day.’

‘Will we still be calling ourselves Mr and Mrs Colbeck?’

‘I’ve grown to like the name. It has a pleasing resonance.’

Having sorted out the money and the items they’d stolen, they hid them cleverly in their respective valises. It was all part of the capital that would set them up in their new country.

‘Well,’ he said, ‘it’s been a long voyage but an interesting one.’

‘Yes – apart from the storm that lasted two days.’

‘Even that had its benefits, Irene. It gave us the chance to get to know Herschel and Libby much better.’ He smirked. ‘I don’t set as high a value on Herschel’s powers of observation as his wife does. According to Libby, he was sure that we’d just got married.’

‘That just proves how good a performance we gave.’

‘It doesn’t have to be a performance.’

Her face lit up. ‘You mean that we will get married?’

‘Anything can happen in America.’

‘Oh, Jerry, what a wonderful idea!’ she exclaimed.

‘I had a feeling you might like it.’

‘Nothing could make me happier.’

‘Let’s get ourselves settled in first,’ he said, looking at the gold watch. ‘It’s time to dress for dinner.’

‘Herschel and Libby insisted that we sit with them.’

‘Then let’s not disappoint them, Irene.’

After stowing the valises away, he crossed to the cupboard, pausing in thought when he’d opened the door. She looked up.

‘What’s the matter?’

‘I’m wondering if I should do it before or after the meal.’

‘Do what, Jerry?’

‘Complain to the captain that we’ve been robbed,’ he said. ‘There’s no better way to shift suspicion than to portray ourselves as victims.’ He made a decision. ‘Let’s leave it until afterwards,’ he went on. ‘Why spoil dinner by whingeing over a lost wallet? It would only upset Herschel and Libby. Yes, my mind is made up. I’ll tackle the captain later on.’

It had not taken them long to realise why Matt Riley had burst out laughing at their expense. Colbeck’s wish to catch the fugitives and take them quietly back home was an impossible one. On the day when they booked into their hotel, the first of many reporters came to hassle them. Word had travelled fast, leaked to the press by a policeman in return for a bribe. The arrival of two killers on a British vessel was an unusual event and it aroused an immense amount of interest. The detectives were soon weary of repeating the details to a succession of reporters. When the Arethusa finally docked, it would do so in the glare of publicity. Colbeck and Leeming had been disturbed at the thought but there was nothing that they could do about the situation. Their presence in the city was helping to sell newspapers. Unsought celebrity had been foisted onto them.

They had not wasted their time in New York. There was much to see and they had toured Manhattan in a cab. Leeming was amazed at the colourful prettiness of the houses and the comparative cleanliness of the streets. Areas of London that he’d patrolled in uniform had been filthy and noxious. There were doubtless run-down neighbourhoods in New York but they never visited any of them. What they saw were the wide avenues and bright, paved streets. Broadway had been a glorious sight, a winding thoroughfare down which coaches, cabs, carts, gigs, traps, phaetons and private carriages rumbled in abundance. Leeming had never seen so many liveried black