The Jubilee Plot

by David Field

  ‘He’s on indefinite sick leave,’ Bray replied without blinking.

  Percy smiled knowingly as he turned and took Jack’s elbow in a gesture that they should leave while they were winning. ‘All that loss of property clearly affected Padley’s digestion,’ was his parting shot at a red-faced Bray.

  ‘He seemed to know all about Padley without consulting any records,’ Jack observed as they settled into facing desks in their new office, which was noticeably better appointed than their previous one. ‘Don’t you think that looks suspicious?’

  ‘Of course it does,’ Percy replied as he checked inside his desk drawers for pen and ink, ‘but that only suggests that he’s totally embarrassed by those rifles going for a walk on his watch. He’s a pompous old fool, and he’s clearly anxious to maintain his rank, but that doesn’t make him a traitor.’

  ‘I’m not sure I share your faith in him,’ Jack replied, ‘but no doubt you’ll eventually be proved right, as usual. So how do we do this? I kept my previous manpower lists from the West End stations, so I can carry on where I left off. Are we to assume that the bobbies will be forming the usual thin blue line facing the crowds, and holding them back, while the first line of defence around Her Majesty will be platoons of cavalry and foot guards?’

  ‘May as well, until we get more detail,’ Percy agreed. ‘I’m not sure how many bobbies you get to the square yard, but presumably somewhere in Bow Street — or perhaps even here inside the Yard — you’ll find the detailed allocations for the bunfight ten years ago, and you can compare that with what’s likely to be available this time.’

  Jack was into his third frustrating day trying to work out how many blue uniforms he’d have available to line the Mall, Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross and down to The Embankment when a constable tapped on the half open door and stuck his head inside the office.

  ‘Which of you’s Jack Enright?’ he enquired, and Jack raised his head from the paperwork to acknowledge his identity. ‘There’s a tottie o’ some sort down in the front entrance, askin’ fer you. She looks a bit suspect, an’ kinda nervous, an’ she won’t let on what ’er business is to anybody but you, so the sergeant down on the front desk’d be mighty obliged if yer’d deal wiv ’er.’

  Jack sighed and rose from his chair, conscious of Percy’s cheesy grin. ‘I’ve no idea who she is,’ Jack insisted, ‘so take that leer off your face.’

  He descended to the tiled ground floor, where a vaguely familiar figure sat on one of the benches allocated to witnesses waiting to be interviewed. There was something about her that rang a bell in his recent memory, but he wasn’t kept guessing for long, since as soon as he appeared at the foot of the stairs she scuttled towards him with an apprehensive backward glance towards the front door, as if she feared that she was being followed.

  ‘Remember me?’ she pleaded. ‘I’m Lizzie Black — yer come up ter my place when I were livin’ in Lowder Street, down in Wappin’. Yer was lookin’ fer me ’usband Mickey, an’ yer said as ’ow, if I needed any protectin’, I could come ter you.’

  ‘Of course I remember,’ Jack confirmed as he noted that the woman was shivering, despite the excessive temperature at which the building was maintained. ‘Come with me, and we’ll find somewhere where we can talk.’

  In a side interview room on the ground floor he motioned her into a seat and decided to give nothing away to begin with. ‘Has Mickey returned?’ he asked.

  She shook her head, adding, ‘At least, not ’imself. But ’e sends money every week, so I know ’e’s still alive. But I think ’e’s in trouble, ’cos these blokes come ter me room, an’ told me to get out, else I were a gonner.’

  ‘Some men called at your lodging and ordered you out of there on threat of death?’

  Lizzie nodded. ‘Yeah, like I just said. I don’t know why, or what I’ve done, an’ what’s gonna be ’appenin’ ter me an’ the kids if the money ain’t comin’ in no more.’

  ‘Do you know who these men were?’ Jack asked hopefully.

  ‘Only that they was two o’ them what’d bin watchin’ the ’ouse from time ter time, like they was waitin’ fer Mickey ter show up. An’ one week one o’ them turned up wiv me regular money.’

  ‘From what you’ve told me, Mickey had been sending you the money each week, that right?’

  ‘Yeah, it musta bin ’im, ’cos who else’d take the trouble ter look after us?’

  ‘But Mickey never showed up himself, or tried to contact you?’

  ‘No, never.’

  ‘These men who ordered you out of your present accommodation, did they suggest anywhere else where you should move to?’

  ‘Yeah, they gimme this piece o’ paper wiv sumfin’ written on it, but I can’t read, so yer’ll ’ave ter tell me what it sez. I tried ter ignore that, an’ when I first moved out I went ter live wiv me sister in Stepney. But they come an’ found me, an’ said that if I didn’t move ter this place by the end o’ this week, I’d be ’orsemeat, but if I did what I were told, then they’d keep comin’ wiv the money.’

  Jack glanced down quickly at the crumpled and grease-stained piece of paper that Lizzie thrust into his hand. ‘It’s an address, right enough,’ he advised her. ‘Another lodging house in Wapping, by the look of it. “Fifteen, Carter’s Rooms, Pennington Street.” Do you know it?’

  ‘Yeah,’ she nodded with a smile. ‘It’s just at the back o’ London Dock, where me bruvver used ter work ’til ’e ’ad ’is accident. But I ain’t got no key fer the place.’

  ‘I suggest that you just turn up there and ask the Superintendent for the key,’ Jack told her. ‘Something tells me that he’ll be expecting you.’

  ‘Will yer come wiv me?’ she asked with a pleading look in her eyes, and a hand on his wrist. ‘I’ll make it worth yer while, if yer get me meanin’.’

  ‘No, best if I don’t,’ Jack replied gently as he moved his hand back from where hers had been lying on it. ‘But come in here and see me again whenever you need to.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Lizzie muttered as she leaned forward without warning and kissed him on the cheek. ‘An’ if yer find Mickey, yer’ll be sure an’ tell ’im where I’ve moved to?’

  ‘Of course,’ Jack reassured her. ‘And good luck.’

  Back upstairs, he recounted the strange conversation to Percy, who thought for a long moment, then voiced his opinion. ‘Sounds to me as if “they” don’t want Michael Black to talk to his wife about what he’s involved in. That certainly explains why she wasn’t there when I called just before Christmas. If they’ve been watching her place, they were probably planning on intercepting him if he managed to get too close to his old home, and of course there was always the risk that he’d guess that she’d moved in with her sister. “They” clearly don’t mean her any harm, and whatever Black’s got himself involved in, one of its terms is that his wife and children will be provided for financially, but that he can’t go near them. That sound plausible to you?’

  ‘Very plausible,’ Jack agreed. ‘And, as you no doubt recall, it shouldn’t take too much effort on my part to meet with Michael Black and assure him that his family’s fine. But to do that I’ll need to stick my head further into the lion’s mouth, so to speak.’

  ‘Just don’t get it bitten off in the process,’ Percy warned him. ‘I’m relying on another consignment of pastries from the Christmas leftovers.’

  ‘I sent your nephew packing when he stuck his nose where it didn’t belong, so now he sends his uncle?’ Inspector George Ingram demanded angrily as Percy was admitted to his office.

  ‘He sent nobody,’ Percy smiled back with a challenge in his eyes. ‘But the Home Secretary’s sent me, if you’d care to pick up that telephone on your desk and confirm that. I can give you his home number, since it’s still fairly early in the day, and when I last had dinner with him he had to cut it short in order to be in the House for its afternoon session.’

  ‘Is that supposed to impress me?’ Ingram snarled.

  ‘I d
on’t think anything would impress you that came from a desire to preserve the Queen and the nation from foreign threats.’

  ‘Your meaning?’

  ‘My meaning, Inspector, is that someone with no idea of what they’re doing has decided that Her Majesty will — on the Twenty-second of June, as I have no doubt you’re already aware — sit in her carriage at the foot of the steps of St. Paul’s while the Archbishop of Canterbury conducts an open-air service. Regardless of how long that service is intended to take, she’ll be a sitting duck, and I have every reason to believe that you don’t have enough men to protect her.’

  ‘It’s not the job of the police to protect the Queen on these occasions,’ Ingram countered. ‘That’s why she has all those tin soldiers in fancy uniforms.’

  ‘Carrying sabres and ceremonial pikes!’ Percy reminded him angrily. ‘Modern assassins carry guns, let me remind you.’

  ‘Not my problem,’ Ingram replied coolly. ‘All we’re required for is crowd control around the perimeter, and as I pointed out to your nephew we have enough men for that.’

  ‘Do you think so?’ Percy challenged him. ‘Well, Detective Sergeant Enright brought his findings back to me, and in my opinion you have only seventy per cent of the men you’ll need, so we’ll be drafting more in from Stepney, and possibly Holborn. Even the West End if necessary.’

  ‘And what do the West Enders know about policing the East End?’

  ‘More than you do, apparently,’ Percy fired back. ‘I’m not here with a request for co-operation, Inspector, but a demand in the name of the Home Secretary that you hand over the day to day administration of Leman Street to me by the end of May.’

  ‘Show me your authority for that,’ Ingram challenged him.

  ‘I’ll return with that authority within the week,’ Percy growled, ‘and when I do it may well be combined with your formal dismissal from office. Or do you consider yourself too well protected in certain quarters of the Yard?’

  ‘What are you getting at?’

  ‘I think we both know what I’m getting at, but my orders come direct from the Cabinet.’

  ‘Via Special Branch, no doubt?’ Ingram enquired with an amused smile. ‘Understand this, Enright — there are forces at play here that make Special Branch look like a vicar’s bible class. Get in the way and your widow will regret it.’

  Percy allowed himself a slow smile. ‘At least the gloves are off now, and we needn’t walk around each other like two prize fighters who can’t be bothered to exchange blows. I’ll return with my authority, and a couple of members of my vicar’s bible class to escort you off the premises.’

  ‘Let me know when, and I’ll arrange for tea and cakes,’ was the last riposte Percy heard as he stormed down the staircase and out into Leman Street.

  Jack smiled politely at Mary as he entered the bar area unaccompanied, ordered a beer and stood and watched as the pianist arranged Mary’s music on the hanger in front of him. It was another musical evening at the Home Front Club, and the room was moderately full already with off-duty soldiers in all their dress uniform finery and police officers in dinner jackets. It was also Jack’s third visit to the Club as a member, and the previous ones had been uneventful.

  Mary began with the haunting Irish folk ballad ‘She Moved Through the Fair’, and while the audience was listening with rapt attention Jack was conscious of a man of roughly his own age leaning alongside him at the bar, drinking what looked like a large whisky. Mary finished her first song, then invited the assembled company to join her in a rousing version of ‘The Black Velvet Band’. As the noise grew, the young man leaned closer to Jack in order to be heard by him, but no-one else.

  ‘Well, yer bin lookin’ fer me, an’ now yer’ve found me. I’m Michael Black.’

  ‘How did you know I was looking for you?’ Jack replied as casually as he could.

  ‘Yer don’t need ter know that, but ’ave yer seen Lizzie lately? Since that time yer was around our place, that is?’

  ‘I’m telling you nothing until you tell me how you knew I visited her,’ Jack insisted, and Black made a backward jerk of the head to indicate the noisy company behind them that was engrossed in loud and largely tuneless song.

  ‘They told me — them what’s runnin’ this show what yer’ve joined. Yer was followed, like I was every time I tried ter get ’ome ter tell Lizzie what I were still alive.’

  ‘I saw Lizzie only this week,’ Jack reassured him. ‘She and the kids are fine, and they’re getting money from you every week that Lizzie thinks you’re sending to her.’

  ‘Which I am, in a way,’ Mickey smiled. ‘Me wages fer what I does fer this lot, though I’d much rather be at ’ome. But they tells me that I’ll be done fer if I tries ter see Lizzie again afore this job’s over.’

  ‘What job?’ Jack asked hopefully, but Mickey had obviously been well warned about ‘loose lips’.

  ‘I can’t be seen ter tell yer owt, but yer’ll soon learn fer yerself, like Bernie Padley did.’

  ‘Here’s here?’

  Mickey nodded. ‘Joined last week, but ’e’s pissed off that ’e can’t visit ’is old mam in Shoreditch. Still, they reckon that she’s bein’ well cared for an’ all, just like Lizzie.’

  ‘So how did you come to be in this lot?’ Jack asked as he gestured to the barman for their drinks to be refreshed.

  ‘I were a fool, that’s ’ow,’ Mickey replied as he nodded in thanks for the new drinks order. ‘I aluss ’ad a bit’ve a problem wiv me gamblin’, then one night I found meself playin’ against this army bloke what seemed to ’ave kings and queens up ’is arse, an’ afore I knows it, I’m thirty quid down an’ scared shitless ’cos I couldn’t pay. But the soldier give me a week ter pay, then when I turned up after me week were up, expectin’ ter finish up wiv a bayonet in me guts, lo and be’old the bloke told me that ’e’d cancel me debt an’ gimme fifty quid if I’d disappear from me work down at Whitechapel. Needless ter say I agreed, an’ the next thing I know’d I were bein’ took ter this doss’ouse in Gerrard Street an’ told that I weren’t allowed ter go ’ome ’til I’d done anuvver job.’

  ‘What sort of job?’

  ‘Don’t know yet, does I? An’ like I said, I wouldn’t be allowed ter tell yer, even if I knew. All I knows is that we spends most days down in Waterloo Barracks, on the parade ground there, bein’ made ter walk an’ run up an’ down like we was in the army or summat. Borin’, but we gets ter come in ’ere of an evenin’ an’ enjoy the facilities.’

  ‘How many of the people in here this evening are in the same position as you?’

  ‘Not all of ’em,’ Mickey replied as he cast his eye over the company, ‘since some of ’em’s obviously army. But there’s a few former coppers like me — that bloke what’s walkin’ up ter the pianner fer a start — used ter be a sergeant up in Mayfair, or so ’e told me. ’E sez ’e’s bin told that we’re gettin’ ready ter fight off an invasion from Russia, but then ’e talks nonsense most o’ the time.’

  Jack looked towards where Mickey was indicating and recognised the master of ceremonies who was preparing to regale the company with more of his Gilbert and Sullivan favourites, just as Mickey placed an urgent hand on his arm.

  ‘By the sound o’ things, you ain’t spendin’ yer days down at the barracks, that right? I’ve never seen yer there.’

  ‘That’s right,’ Jack confirmed, ‘although that day may not be far away.’

  ‘If yer still free ter walk around durin’ the day,’ Mickey enquired tentatively, ‘could yer see yer way clear ter poppin’ round ter Lizzie, an’ makin’ sure her an’ the children are alright?’

  ‘Of course,’ Jack agreed, far from certain whether it was a promise he could keep and hoping that Mickey wasn’t about to enquire if they were still living in their old room in Wapping. ‘And now I have to be going, before I’m recruited into your new army.’

  ‘You’ve nothing to reproach yourself about,’ Percy assured him as they sat on either
side of the fire, awaiting the supper that neither of them felt hungry for. ‘We might have known that your membership of that club came with a price tag, and that they’d proudly show you off as their latest recruit to those in there already who must be beginning to doubt their wisdom in agreeing to dishonour the uniform in return for reward. Michael Black clearly failed to report for duty outside Bartrams, allowing them to install Edward Ainsworth in his place, in return for the cancellation of a heavy gambling debt, and we can only assume that Bernard Padley was escaping from something even worse if he was prepared to lose a consignment of rifles from a store in circumstances that would clearly point to his involvement.’

  ‘What’s puzzling me,’ Jack replied, ‘is why I’m not already a virtual prisoner, like the others. There’s been no approach to me to act dishonestly, or to join the squad doing daily exercise at the barracks, so what’s the price of my membership, and when will I be advised?’

  ‘We can only hope that it won’t be yet,’ Percy replied thoughtfully. ‘In fact, what I imagine they’ll want from you, in due course, are the exact manpower deployment details for Day One in the West End. The longer you can string that out the better.’

  ‘But how will they know when I’ve finished?’

  ‘You may be approached in the Club for that information. Either that, or it’s time I got more cosy with Assistant Commissioner Doyle. It looks as if we’re both about to cross the line into the other side’s camp. As I recall, that’s what Melville and the Home Secretary wanted us to do, but I’ll need to speak to him first.’

  ‘How do you normally contact him?’

  ‘I don’t — he contacts me. But this time we’ll have to take the initiative.’

  ‘How?’

  Percy thought for a few moments as he ‘reamed’ the inside of his now empty pipe in order to clean out the residue of ash, which he tipped into the open fire before sitting back in his chair and thinking out loud. ‘As far as I know, his office isn’t part of the Yard, but is somewhere inside the Home Office outbuildings on the north side of St James’s Park. But you can be sure that “they” will have it well watched, and Melville wouldn’t thank either of us for being spotted going in there. Somehow we have to get a message to him, and we obviously can’t trust the network in here.’