They had never seen Superintendent Tallis in such a euphoric mood. He normally smoked cigars in times of stress but this time he reached for one by way of celebration. Colbeck and Leeming stood in his office at Scotland Yard and basked in his approval for once. Cigar smoke curled around their heads like a pair of haloes.
'It was a triumph, gentlemen,' he said. 'You not only solved two murders that occurred on trains, you exonerated Nathan Hawkshaw from a crime that he didn't commit.'
'Too late in the day,' said Leeming. 'He'd already been hanged.'
'That fact has caused considerable embarrassment to the parties involved and I applaud that. Where a miscarriage of justice has taken place, it deserves to be exposed. It will be a different matter for that monster, Gregory Newman.'
'Yes, sir. He's as guilty as sin.'
'So is that she-devil who helped him,' said Tallis, thrusting the cigar back between his teeth. 'They may have disposed of one hangman but there'll be another to make them dance at the end of a rope. When I was a boy,' he went on, nostalgically, 'over two hundred offences bore the death penalty and it frightened people into a more law-abiding attitude. Only traitors and killers can be executed now. I maintain that the shadow of the noose should hang over more crimes.'
'I disagree, Superintendent,' said Colbeck. 'To hang someone for stealing a loaf of bread because his family is starving is barbaric in my view. It breeds hatred of the law instead of respect. Newman and his accomplice deserve to hang. Common thieves do not.'
Tallis was almost jovial. 'I'll not argue with you, Inspector,' he said, 'especially on a day like this. I know that you'll win any debate like the silver-tongued barrister you once were. But I hold to my point. To impose order and discipline, we must be ruthless.'
'I prefer a combination of firmness and discretion, sir.'
'That's the way we solved the railway murders,' said Leeming.
'Yes,' said Colbeck with amusement. 'Victor was firm and I was discreet. We made an effective team.'
Colbeck's discretion had been shown in abundance. He tried to protect those who would be hurt by certain revelations. Though he told the Sergeant about his long interview with Emily Hawkshaw, he had suppressed the facts that he knew would scandalise him. Edward Tallis had been told nothing about the relationship between the girl and her late stepfather. Colbeck had not deemed it necessary. The evidence to convict Gregory Newman and Kathleen Brennan was irresistible. There was no need to release intimate details that would be seized on by the press and turn an already unhappy home into an unendurable one.
'How did the widow receive the news?' asked Tallis.
'Mrs Hawkshaw was in a state of confusion, sir,' said Colbeck. 'She was delighted that her husband's name had been cleared but she was shocked that Gregory Newman was unmasked as the killer and the man who sent those death threats. She had trusted him so completely.'
'He must have hated her to let her husband die in his place.'
'I think that he loved her, sir, and felt that Hawkshaw was unworthy of her. In his own twisted way, he thought that he could please her by killing two of the people who had inflicted needless pain on her husband. Yes,' he said, anticipating an interruption, 'I know that there's a contradiction there. How can a man allow someone to go to the gallows in his stead and then avenge him? But it was not a contradiction that troubled Gregory Newman.'
'His life was full of contradictions,' said Leeming. 'He pretends to care for his wife and yet he goes off to see Kathleen Brennan whenever he can. What kind of marriage is that?'
'One that imposed immense strain on him, Victor.'
'You're surely not excusing him, are you?' asked Tallis. 'I'm no proponent of marriage, as you know, but I do place great emphasis on sexual propriety. In my opinion, Newman's relationship with his scarlet women is in itself worthy of hanging.'
'Then there'd be daily executions held in every town,' said Colbeck, bluntly, 'for there must be thousands of men who enjoy such liaisons. If you make adultery a capital offence, sir, you'd reduce the population of London quite markedly.' Tallis bridled. 'No, the problem with Gregory Newman was that he had too much love inside him.'
'Love! Is that what you call it, Inspector?'
'Yes. He was a man of deep passion. When his young wife was taken so tragically ill, that passion was stifled until it began to turn sour. We saw it again in his strange devotion to Win Hawkshaw. We did, Superintendent,' he went on as Tallis scowled. 'He cared for her enough to want to rescue her from an undeserving husband even if it meant sending that husband to the scaffold. Love turned sour is like a disease.'
'It infected him and his doxy,' said Tallis. 'If I had my way, she'd be paraded through the streets so that all could see her shame. The woman deserves to be tarred and feathered.'
Colbeck was glad that he had not confided details of the more serious irregularity that he had uncovered. The Superintendent would have been outraged, insisting on the arrest of Emily Hawkshaw on a charge of withholding vital evidence at the trial of her stepfather. Colbeck saw no gain in such an action. The girl had already punished herself far more than the law would be able to do. Before he left Ashford, she had confided one piece of reassuring news to Colbeck. She was not pregnant. No child would come forth from her illicit union to make her shame public. Colbeck had left the girl to work out her own salvation. Thoroughly chastened by all that had happened, she seemed ready to take a more positive attitude to past misdemeanours.
'The rest,' declared Tallis, 'we can safely leave to the court.'
'That's what everyone felt at Hawkshaw's trial,' said Leeming.
'Don't be impertinent, Sergeant.'
'No, sir.'
'Our work is done and – thanks to you, gentlemen – it was done extremely well. I congratulate you both and will commend you in my report to the Commissioners. You have cleansed Ashford of its fiends.'
'We did get some assistance from Constable Butterkiss,' remarked Leeming, ready to give the man his due. 'He found Amos Lockyer for us.'
'That reflects well on him.'
'Yes,' said Colbeck, smiling inwardly as he thought of Madeleine Andrews, 'our success is not solely due to our own efforts, sir. We had invaluable help from other sources.'
The last bit of paint was still drying on the paper when she heard the sound of the hansom cab in the street outside. Madeleine Andrews was flustered. Certain that Robert Colbeck had come to see her, she was upset to be caught in her old clothes and with paint all over her fingers. She grabbed the painting and hid it quickly in the kitchen, swilling her hands in a bucket of water and wiping them in an old cloth. There was a knock on the front door. After adjusting her hair in the mirror, Madeleine opened the door to her visitor. He was holding a posy of flowers.
'Robert!' she said, pretending surprise.
'Hello, Madeleine,' he said, 'I just wanted to thank you for the help that you gave us and to offer this small token of my gratitude.'
'They're beautiful!' she said, taking the posy and sniffing the petals. 'Thank you so much.'
'You deserve a whole garden of flowers for what you did.'
'I'm so glad that I could help. But you are the only true Railway Detective. You are on the front page of the newspaper once again.'
'Yes, Superintendent Tallis was pleased with that. He feels that our success should be given wide publicity to deter other criminals.'
'He's right.'
'I have my doubts, Madeleine. It only serves to warn them to be more careful in future. If we reveal too much about our methods of detection in newspaper articles, we are actually helping the underworld.'
'Be that as it may,' she said, 'won't you come in?'
'Only for a moment.' He stepped into the house and she closed the door behind them. 'I'm on my way to Bethnal Green to honour a promise I made to Victor Leeming.'
'Oh, yes. You told me that he was set upon at the Seven Stars.'
'That's why I'm letting him lead the raid. I'll only be there in a nominal capacity. We're going to close the place down for a time by revoking the landlord's licence.'
