Death of an Avid Reader (31 page)

Something tugged at my skirt.

It was Percy. The monkey had been hiding behind the piano. He looked up, and with a forlorn gaze shook his head.

‘So you don't trust him, Percy. You are probably right.'

*   *   *

We were sitting in a corner of the snug at the Palace. Peter Donohue held tight to a pint of bitter. ‘I picked this pub cos I'm not a reg'lar. If we keep us heads down, no one'll bother us.'

I sipped at a brandy to thaw my blood. Sykes would be nearby, in the tap room or the lounge bar, keeping his eye on the door of the snug. The snug was soporifically warm from a blazing fire. In the corner to our left, three old women in turbans leaned forward in the comfortably upholstered seats and chatted companionably, laughing every few minutes. Opposite them, a couple of old men played dominoes at a table, contemplating the game with the seriousness of generals forming a battle plan. I understood now why people left their cold, damp rooms for a spot like this.

I had slipped Peter five bob to pay for drinks and cigarettes. The Donohues and Marian would probably talk about me. Thinks she can buy us, Mrs Moneybags.

He seemed reluctant to talk, glancing about, nervously failing to light his cigarette and then trying again.

I told him tales of the Australian outback, mainly drawn from my reading of magazine articles. Although it was true that I had a brother in Australia, we had never met. He was already there when my birth sister sought me out to help in an investigation. But I had helped, and she would tell him to do the same for me, of that I felt sure.

He blew a smoke ring. ‘You think emigrating to Australia is a good plan then?'

‘I do. That or Canada, which isn't so far away. My twin brothers from my adoptive family are in Canada, Eric and Dennis. I know they'd help you to a good start if I gave you a letter for them.' I thought it best not to mention that Eric works with the Canadian mounted police.

‘I've a bit of brass tucked away. Things have never been as right in some ways, but it could all go wrong.'

‘I understand how you and Marian became friends, but what I don't grasp is why she is so anxious, and in hiding.' Her tale of Lennox wanting here dead seemed preposterous.

‘Something bad happened.'

‘Peter, you have to tell me everything. If you don't, what happened to Marian could happen to someone else.'

‘I could get done for what I didn't do. Who would believe me?'

‘I believe you. That's enough for now.'

‘You could tell just one other person and that'd be that.'

‘Trust me. I know it's connected with a letter sent to her by Sam Lennox, the librarian.'

‘I know nothing about him. He's just a miserable streak of whitewash who took advantage of Marian. It's his black shadow that scares me.'

Something in his words made me think back to the evening we found Dr Potter's body. Lennox's first thought was that he must contact Mr Castle. The image came back to me of the two of them. I had watched through the window as they left the library together on Friday night, leaning towards each other, disappearing into the fog.

I touched my sling, and my iodine-daubed cheek which had come out in a bruise. ‘Shall I tell you who did this?'

‘Somebody knocked you about?'

‘Not in a way I could prove. He said it was an accident, that I tripped in the library, in the basement.'

His face, which until then had been mobile and expressive, turned to stone. He nodded slowly. ‘I know who it was.'

‘Peter, talk to me.'

‘I'll get us another drink.'

‘All right.'

I was reluctant to let him go, in case he disappeared, but he gave a nod to the waiter who had brought drinks to the domino players. The waiter came over and took the order.

Still he did not speak. Taking a single cigarette from a packet, he put it behind his ear and then slit the packet open and began to draw with a stubby pencil. The lines came swiftly, the shape of the face, the dark hair, the moustache. It was Edwin Castle to the life, but with an evil cast that must have been in his face all along. I had never observed it until now.

He pushed the picture towards me. ‘Is that him?'

‘That's him, but how do you come to know him?'

He put the picture back in his pocket, as if it might prove dangerous. ‘He was a school visitor when I was in infants' class at ragged school, and all the way through to top form. Every now and then he come in to tell us how we could do well in life. In the yard at playtime, he'd throw spice up in air for us to catch, toffees, pear drops, liquorice. Other times he chucked money. One day I caught two halfpennies at once. He ruffled my hair. “When you grow up, you can be my rent collector.” That's what he said.'

Peter moved his fingers nervously on the table top before taking another drink. ‘I'd see him about the town. He'd give me summat for running an errand to the cigar shop on Boar Lane. When I started boxing, he come to see me fight. When I did big bouts he bet on me and give me a share of winnings.'

Until he paused, I kept my eyes on Peter, and then glanced beyond him in the direction of the old women in the corner, in case my gaze made him uncomfortable.

‘There was nowt doing, no jobs, so I nearly signed on for army. Castle said, “Don't do that, you won't like it.” He sent me to see a man in Thrift warehouse who give me a job. One day he called in to see how I was doing, asked did I want to earn a bit extra cash. Well who would say no to that?'

‘What did he want you to do?'

‘Someone owed him money. I had to scare that person, make an example.'

The waiter brought our drinks. Peter paid him, and must have given a bit extra because he received a hearty, ‘Thanks, pal.'

‘And did you,' I asked. ‘Did you scare someone for him?'

‘I wished I hadn't. I didn't like doing it but he made me know that I could wave goodbye to my job at Thrift if I didn't do it. Counting all together I did that kind of job for him a few times, five I think. Next time he asked me to do summat, I refused.' He stared into the beer, picked up the glass and took a drink, leaving a froth of foam on his top lip. He wiped his lips with the back of his hand. ‘I was laid off early this year. Mr Castle said there would be summat for me and when he saw me allus give me a few bob, sometimes ten bob, for doing nowt. Funny thing is, I think he forgot about me unless he saw me. So I'd want to be in his way, so he'd give me a few bob, but I wouldn't want to be in his way because … Well, you see why.'

‘Yes.'

‘One day when he saw me, things was right bad. We owed rent, couldn't get owt on tick. We'd have to flit but where to, how? Mam had slipped and hurt her ankle. It swelled and she was slow and let go from her cleaning job, told to come back when she was better. When she went back, job was filled. Mr Castle spotted me picking tab ends from gutter. Funny thing is that time, I think he'd come looking for me. He said come and see him and told me where to meet him, in back alley behind Mitre that night.'

He was taking a long time to reach the point of his story. The Mitre was the closest pub to the library. The alley must be Change Alley.

‘I met him. He told me he had one last job for me and then would fix up for me and Mam to go to London where he knew someone would provide live-in accommodation and work. I felt right glad, asked what was the to do.'

Peter's leg was moving now, up and down quickly, as though he had no control over it.

‘He said there was a bad lot, a whore, trying to destroy a good man. All I had to do was put an end to trouble she caused. I knew what he wanted but played daft, saying how was I to do that. He said, put an end to her. I knew I wouldn't do it. Whore or not, I wasn't gonna do nothing to a woman, never mind murder. But we needed money, so I egged him on, said I would. I asked for summat now, to be going on with, meaning to get clear. He give fifty quid. I knew then that I'd have to go careful, because he might have someone onto me if I let him down. He reckoned no one would miss her, no one would know, that I'd see her in that back alley on Saturday morning at six o'clock. The door below the steps would be unlocked. He took me down there, showed me where I was to bury the body and where the pick and shovel was. Promised another fifty quid when job was done.'

I had meant to stay quiet but I couldn't help the words of shock. Now I understood why Marian was so scared, and Peter too.

‘He told me to cut off her hair, as proof that I'd done her in, and to take the locket and ring from her throat. When I'd given him her lovely hair, the locket and the ring and the letter she would have “about her person” then he would pay me. I asked how would I know who she was? He said how many whores did I think would be in the alley on Saturday morning and she would be there and that would be the one. But once I duffed up the wrong man for him so I insisted I wanted to know, kidding on that I was right serious about it. I told him, I said, there's whores in every alley. Who's to say there won't be one at each end?

‘He said, “She looks respectable, and pretty but don't let that fool you. She has reddish hair and is on the tall side. If you walk along Commercial Street tonight at six o'clock, you will likely see her standing in the library doorway, making a nuisance of herself, wearing a bottle-green coat.”'

I stared at him. ‘Marian? He wanted you to kill Marian?'

He nodded. ‘I knew then that he was talking about Marian. He didn't know that her and me was kind of friends on account of the drawing. That I liked her, that she'd been decent to me. At just before six, I walked along that street. I saw her in library doorway. When I got to top of street, I turned round and watched her walk across to shops and look up. I suppose she saw there was no lights on, and then she went home, walked back to her digs. I followed her. I telled her.'

‘She must have been horrified.'

‘Not at first. She didn't believe me at first, said it was impossible. “Look at this then.” I showed her the money, and I described him. She still didn't believe me, and went inside and slammed door. I hung about on her street. She came out a bit later, with a letter in her hand, saying, “Sam Lennox has asked me to meet him in the alley at six o'clock on Saturday morning,” and she was crying. I said I would come for her at four o'clock that morning and I did and took her to be with my mam where she would be safe. And it was my mam who helped cut her hair, and cried as she did it, because her hair was beautiful. We told Mam that somebody would pay for it, and I would deliver. That's all Mam knows, and now you know the truth.'

His story seemed impossible to believe. All the more reason it would not have been invented.

‘How did you know Castle wouldn't be watching you?'

‘Are you kidding? He keeps his distance. But I took summat to bury, just in case.'

‘What?'

‘A Guy Fawkes in a sack. I was right worried that some copper would see me carrying a sack through town. But I know the coppers' beat times, and so did he. That cellar door back of library was unlocked, just like he told me.'

‘He lives in Meanwood, that's miles away.'

‘He sometimes stays in that club on the street behind.'

‘The Leeds Club, on Albion Place?'

‘That's it.' He lit another cigarette. ‘Next time I seen the evil one, I give him Marian's hair, that he'd wanted as proof I'd done the dirty deed, and her locket, and her ring, and the letter that she had in her pocket. He asked about her suitcase. I told him that I put bricks in it and slung it in river. And he said, “Good man,” and give me fifty quid.'

‘We should go to the police.'

‘No! That hundred quid'll take us far from here. I wanted to go straight away but Marian was sick and me Mam wasn't well.'

‘You haven't done anything wrong. I think we might get a fair hearing from the police.'

‘They wouldn't collar him, it'd be me. I told you cos Marian trusts you.'

‘How can we stop Castle, if you won't speak out?'

‘Let someone else speak out. I told you cos you said you'd help us.'

‘If I type up what you've told me, will you sign it?'

‘No.'

‘Are you safe where you are?'

‘Oh I'm safe. Nobody comes in Danby Court that doesn't belong there.'

‘I did.'

‘And everyone knew it.'

‘The money Castle gave you, was it in coins or notes?'

‘Some of each.'

‘Were they new notes?'

‘Some.'

‘They could be traced.'

‘Don't get me in bother. Don't do nowt till we've left country.'

‘If I could get us into the library, would you show me exactly where you buried the Guy Fawkes?'

‘I'm not off in there again.' He took the cigarette packet from his pocket and began to sketch. ‘There's alley door. Them's steps. At bottom of steps, three paces along, a big bookshelf, behind that flagstones, in shadow. The evil one put a cross on the flag with chalk, so I'd know.'

How close had I been to that flagstone today, I wondered. There were brush marks, where someone had swept; perhaps to erase the tell-tale chalk mark.

We said nothing else. He downed his pint. I finished my brandy.

When we left the pub, fog had begun to roll in from south of the river.

‘I'll walk you up home, Mrs Shackleton. I know where it is now.'

‘No. Just see me onto the tram.'

‘You sure?'

‘Yes, and thank you. You were brave to tell me. I won't let you down.'

As we waited in the cold for the tram to rumble into view, a Jowett pulled in across the road. Good old Sykes. He would follow the tram.

I rode for just one stop, and then rose from my seat.

The conductor rang the bell. ‘You been in the wars, love.'

‘Just a skirmish.' Gingerly, holding onto the rail like an old lady, I stepped carefully from the tram.