Harry stood next to her and pulled on her sleeve. ‘Mam, guess who we saw?’
Maura, distracted, looked about Peggy’s kitchen and her heart sank. Peggy’s pride and joy, her mother’s clock, had gone from the mantelshelf and the side of the fire, where Maura knew Peggy lined up the shoes each night, as Maura had taught her, was bare. Little Paddy knew what she was looking at and felt a sense of shame.
‘She took the blankets as well,’ he said.
Maura looked shocked. ‘The blankets? What have the boys got covering them upstairs?’
‘Da’s coat,’ said Paddy. ‘And I left their clothes on.’
Maura looked around the bleak and empty kitchen. Her own next door, which hadn’t been lived in for months, was warmer and more homely. She looked down at little Paddy and her heart bled.
*
‘It has to be unloaded tonight,’ said Conor. ‘The Morry’s in a bad way and the owner has said he’s going to come to the dock tomorrow to see her. I’m supposed to have ditched half of the load into the Indian Ocean, and we staggered home, didn’t we, Blinks? This one thought we were going to sink.’
Blinks looked shamefaced. ‘Ah, I never doubted you, skipper; I knew we would reach Liverpool.’
Jerry whistled. ‘We’ll have to work through the night if it has to be unloaded by tomorrow,’ he said.
‘We can get that organised,’ said Tommy, ‘we’ve done it before.’
‘Can you get it organised in half an hour?’ said Conor as he lifted his pint of Guinness to his lips.
‘Why half an hour?’
Conor wiped the foam of his beard with the sleeve of his jumper. ‘The harbour master told me – he has no idea why or how – there’s only one policeman on tonight but he’s the one to watch, a guy called Frank the Skank.’
Jerry whistled. ‘He’s the one to watch, all right.’ He turned to Tommy. ‘He’s supposed to be moving into your house.’
Tommy shook his head. ‘Not unless the dock board have changed the rules. We have paid the rent every week we have been away, they can’t move us.’
‘So, if he’s down there, why are we moving it tonight?’ asked Jerry.
‘Ah, well, there’s a method in me madness; a crate of rum is making its way back to the harbour master’s house right now – and in return, he has set up a problem ship due to come in on the bore down on the Clarence and asked Heartfelt to send your man to intercept stolen goods. Blinks took a second crate down to the Clarence and the gaffer down there is going to keep Frank the Skank busy until the early hours, when he is going to be informed the ship has moored up out at the bar.’
‘What ship is it?’ asked Tommy and Conor grinned.
‘Tommy, it’s a ghost ship, it doesn’t exist. I set it up to give you time to get everything off and up the steps.’
Tommy looked over at Jerry, who said, ‘Right, we need to get to work. Tommy, you and Seamus can get the word round that it’s all hands on deck, but this deck up at the top. I’ll ask Seamus to start knocking on with you and get the fellas out. If we can get a strong line going from the dock up the steps to the top, and then have some of the older lads on Nelson Street ready to act as runners to get it into your wash house, then in the morning the women can start to dish it out around the streets.’
At that moment there was a timid knock on the door and they all turned to see big Paddy pop his head around the door.
‘Jerry, your mam is here; she says our Peggy is missing.’
‘Tell her I’m coming,’ said Jerry, ‘and you go home to your kids, Paddy.’
Paddy did not look pleased. ‘Behave, Jerry, I can’t go now; Reg has just bought me a pint,’ and without waiting for a reply, he closed the door.
‘The useless lump of shite,’ said Tommy. ‘He’s gone backwards since I left.’
‘They all have; Mam says Peggy’s in a right mess,’ said Jerry. ‘I’ll go and see what Mam wants and Tommy, you go and tell Seamus to start knocking on – Eugene can help him. We’ll need at least fifteen strong men to form the chain up the steps and as many lads at the top. We’d better act fast.’
Jerry placed his pint on the table and, as he turned, Conor looked embarrassed as he said, ‘Jerry, I don’t think Peggy is missing, I saw her not an hour since.’ Even with his tanned and weather-beaten skin, Jerry could see Conor was blushing. ‘She was, er, down on the docks, with the whores. I was going to ask her was she all right, like, but then I thought that if she saw me it might shame her and so I left it.’
A look of utter disbelief crossed the faces of Tommy and Jerry. ‘No, Conor, you’ve got that wrong,’ said Tommy. ‘Peggy? Never.’
‘Well, she’s not the usual sort, I’ll give you that, but the thing about sailors is, they go that long without and, well, it’s any port in a storm so to speak…’
*
Maura began to check like Kathleen had before her, looking for a clue as to where Peggy could be. She found the money and the pawnbroker’s ticket in the bread bin and, taking it out, checked the date. It had been that very afternoon and she had been all the way down the Dock Road. Despite her tiredness, itching to roll up her sleeves and clean the kitchen, Maura slowly climbed the stairs towards the bedrooms.
She turned into Peggy’s room and flicked on the light switch, but no light bulbs were working. Something felt wrong, it smelt wrong. Her eyes adjusted to the light coming through the window
