Below him Durban knelt, holding the light only inches from the boards. The marks of a crowbar were clear.
“Go back up,” Durban ordered as Monk reached the ledge above him. “It doesn’t need two of us.”
Monk found himself shaking, and he had trouble swallowing the nausea from the sickening smell in the air. He ignored the command.
“Do as you’re told,” Durban said between his teeth.
Monk stayed exactly where he was. “What’s under there?”
“The bilges, of course!” Durban snapped.
“Somebody’s taken them up,” Monk observed.
Durban’s eyes flashed. “I can see that! Get out!”
Monk was frozen, unable to move even if he had wanted to. His skin crawled with the horror he imagined.
“Get out,” Durban said, looking up at him, emotion naked on his face. “There’s no point in both of us being here. Pass me the crowbar from over there, then go back to the deck. I’ll not tell you again.”
Somewhere in the darkness a rat dropped onto the floor and scuttled away. At last Monk obeyed, climbing up hand over hand until he reached the air and gasped it, freezing and clean, into his lungs.
“What is it?” Orme said hoarsely. “What’s down there?” He put out his hand and half hauled Monk over the hatchway and onto the deck.
“I don’t know,” Monk replied, straightening up. “Nothing yet.”
“Then what are you doing back here? Why ’ave you left ’im down there? Smell o’ bilges got to yer, ’as it?” There was infinite contempt in Orme’s voice and in the curl of his lip, not for a queasy stomach but for a man who deserted another in the face of trouble.
“I came back up because he ordered me to!” Monk said wretchedly. “He wouldn’t move until I did.”
Orme stared at him coldly.
“What’s ’e doin’?” the other officer asked.
“You’ll find out when he wants to tell you,” Monk retorted.
They looked at each other but remained silent. Newbolt and Atkinson were standing near the rail, sullen and anxious. Neither moved because the policemen’s pistols were at the ready, and there was enough firepower to stop both of them.
The wind was whining more shrilly in the rigging. A large schooner passed going upriver, tacking back and forth. Its wake rocked the ship slightly.
Finally, Durban’s head appeared above the hatch opening. Monk was the first to move, striding over towards him, clasping his hand and hauling him out. He looked paper-white, his eyes red-rimmed and shocked, as if he had seen hell.
“Was it . . .” Monk said.
“Yes.” Durban was shuddering uncontrollably. “With their throats cut, all eight of them, even the cabin boy.”
“Not . . .”
“No. I told you—throats cut.”
Monk wanted to say something, but what words could possibly carry the horror that was in him?
Durban stood on the deck breathing slowly, trying to gain control of his limbs, his racing heart, the trembling of his body. Finally he looked at Orme. “Arrest these men for murder,” he commanded, pointing at Newbolt and Atkinson. “Mass murder. If they try to escape, shoot them—not to kill, just to cripple. Shoot them in the stomach.
“The third one is down below, possibly dead. Leave him. Just batten down the hatch. That’s an order. No one is to go below. Do you understand me?”
Orme stared at him in disbelief, then slowly understanding came, at least partially. “They’re river pirates!”
“Yes.”
Orme was white. “They killed the whole crew?”
“Except Hodge. I suppose they left him because he was married to Newbolt’s sister.”
Orme rubbed his hands over his face, staring at Durban. Then suddenly he came to attention and did as he was commanded.
Durban walked over to the rail and leaned against it. Monk followed him.
“Are you going to arrest Louvain?” he asked.
Durban stared ahead of him at the churning water and the shoreline where the tide was rising against the pier stakes and washing ever higher over the steps. “For what?” he asked.
“Murder!”
“The men will no doubt say he ordered them, even paid them,” Durban replied. “But he’ll say he didn’t, and there’s no proof.”
“For God’s sake!” Monk exploded. “He knows these aren’t his crew! He has to know they murdered everyone, except Hodge! It doesn’t matter whether he knows it was because they had plague, or because they simply wanted
