Anne Perry's Christmas Vigil

by Anne Perry

  “I didn’t kill anyone,” she said, still between her teeth, but more slowly, as if she was now afraid.

  “But you know who did, because you led them to it, didn’t you?”

  She shook her head and made short, jerky movements of denial with her hands.

  “I couldn’t help it! I have to do what he tells me, or … or he won’t give me any more cocaine, and I’ll die.” Something in her hectic eyes brought back to Squeaky’s memory the first brothel he had ever been in. He had been almost six, taken there by his mother, told to start work on cleaning up behind the customers, sweeping, washing, always being polite to people. “They put the bread on your plate,” she had told him. “Don’t you ever forget that, boy.”

  There had been a young girl there then, for her first time. He could recall the smell of sweat and blood and fear, no matter how hard he tried to forget it. And he had tried. He had filled his mind with a thousand other things: his own pleasures in women, some of whom he had even liked, victories won over men he hated, good food, good wine, warmth, the touch of silk. But he could still smell that fear sometimes, alone in the middle of the night.

  “Then you’ll lead us to him now,” Henry said to Sadie, his voice breaking the spell in Squeaky’s head and forcing him back to the present.

  “He won’t help you. Leave him alone.”

  Crow moved slightly. Squeaky saw the distress in his face, which was composed of embarrassment, revulsion, and an anger within himself that he could do nothing to control.

  “I don’t believe it’s got anything to do with Shadwell,” Crow said deliberately. “You killed Rosa and Niccolo. I don’t know how. Maybe you killed Niccolo first. You could have held him in your arms, and put a knife in his back, then cut his throat. You lured Rosa there, and when she was stunned at what she saw, you used the knife again. Perhaps she bent over Niccolo’s body, maybe weeping. It wouldn’t be hard for you to come at her from behind. One single slice from one ear—”

  “I didn’t!” Sadie cried, lunging forward as if to scratch at his face, everything in her changing from the pleading to the attack.

  Squeaky grabbed her, pinning her arms to her sides. She struggled, and she had the strength of desperation. He kicked her hard and her legs collapsed under her, pitching her forward.

  Henry was startled and profoundly disconcerted. He bent forward to help her up. “I think you had better take me to Shadwell,” he said clearly. “See what he has to say about it.”

  She surrendered with startling suddenness, as if all her strength had bled away.

  Squeaky knew better than to trust her this time. He stood well back, watching, ready to move quickly if she changed her mind.

  “I’ll take you,” she said, and turned and led them out of the hall, then along one passage after another, and down several flights of steps. It was damp and bitingly cold. The air smelled stale, and there was something on the walls that could have been mold.

  Then Sadie seemed to change her mind. Almost doubling back on herself, she climbed a long, narrow flight of stairs upward.

  “Where the devil are we going?” Squeaky demanded as they came outside into the night and followed her across a lantern-lit, freezing yard. The wind groaned in the eaves of the high buildings crowding around the small space. There were icicles hanging from broken gutters, and a rat scrabbled its way, burrowing among the discarded refuse for food.

  Sadie avoided a wide door that looked as if it might have led to a tavern, and instead went to a narrow, poky opening between one stone wall and another. She turned sideways to get through the opening, and for a moment Squeaky was afraid she had escaped them.

  He pushed his way through ahead of Henry and Crow. He felt in his pocket for his knife in case he should need it as soon as he emerged.

  But there was only Sadie waiting for him. As soon as she saw him she started to walk away, knowing he would follow her. He looked at the pale gleam of her skin above her dress and wondered how she didn’t perish with the cold. Then an uglier thought occurred to him: Perhaps, in all senses that mattered, she was in a way dead already. He had seen a despair in her eyes that made that easy to believe.

  Were they fools to follow her into this deeper hell than the wild self-indulgence they had already seen? How could he persuade Henry Rathbone not to go with her, when they seemed so close to finding Shadwell, and perhaps enough of the truth to convince Lucien to come back into the warm, breathing world and pay whatever it would cost him to go home again?

  Squeaky was disgusted with himself that he liked Henry so much. What use was liking someone? It only ever got you into trouble. And if he imagined that they would like him in return, then he was stupider than the most idiotic drunkard in the halls and taverns they had just left. When this was over, Henry Rathbone would go back to his safe, clean house on Primrose Hill, and Squeaky would go back to keeping the books for Hester in the clinic on Portpool Lane. It would be surprising if they ever met again. Squeaky would have sacrificed his own internal comfort for nothing at all.

  At the far end of the alley Sadie led them into another open patch where there was a narrow, scarred door. She pulled a key from around her neck and opened the lock, closing it behind them again when they were inside.

  Here a wider stair led down into a labyrinth. They heard laughter, the drip and gurgle of water, and voices that echoed along the tunnels through which she walked as surely as if the way were marked before her.

  Squeaky tried at first to keep track of where they were going—left or right, up or down—but after a quarter of an hour he knew he was lost. He was not even sure how far below the surface they were. He began to feel steadily worse about the whole thing. What had happened to the sense that usually warned him of danger? Except that he knew perfectly well what had happened to it: He had let it slip away from him because he was a fool, wanting to be liked.

  He caught up with Sadie and grasped her arm.

  She stopped abruptly.

  “Where are we?” he demanded. “You’ve taken us round in circles! Where’s Shadwell, then?” He held her hard, deliberately pinching the flesh of her arm.

  She did not pull away, as if she barely felt it. “Not far,” she answered. “I’ll show you where he is, then I’ll …”

  There was the noise of a door slamming not far from them, and then soft laughter.

  Squeaky froze. He swore vehemently under his breath, then looked across at Crow a yard away from him. Even in the half-light he could see the fear in his face. Beyond him, Henry was little more than a shadow.

  Sadie turned to Crow. “He knows we’re here,” she whispered. “I thought I would trick him coming this way, but he still knows. We’ve got to get out. Come back another time.”

  “What does he do down here?” Squeaky demanded.

  “We’re not that far down,” Sadie replied. She was shivering. “Tell me where you want to go and I’ll take you there. You can come back for Shadwell any time.” She took the key off the chain around her neck and passed it to him. Her sea-blue eyes were almost luminous in the gleam. “Where do you want to get out?”

  Crow named an alley. It was quarter of a mile from the room where they had left Lucien and Bessie, but a tortuous and half-hidden route.

  Sadie nodded. “Follow me.” There was urgency in her voice now, and an edge of fear that had not been there before. “It isn’t very far.”

  They obeyed. Squeaky glanced at Crow and knew that he would be trying to remember it as well.

  She had not lied to them. It was perhaps twenty minutes later when they stood outside in the alley. The wind had dropped, and the fog was thick, so that it lay in a blanket over the roofs and trailed long, white fingers of blindness in the streets.

  They parted from Sadie, and she was lost to their sight within moments. Crow crept forward, leading the way. He knew it well enough, even in this sightless condition.

  Lucien and Bessie were waiting for them. Lucien was sitting up now and had a little color in his face
.

  “D’yer find ’im?” Bessie asked eagerly. She sat on the floor close to Lucien. There were several pieces of bread on an old newspaper, and the stove was still just alight. She gave them each a portion of bread, taking the smallest for herself. There was cheese also, but she gave all of it to Lucien. Squeaky wondered how many women she had seen do that for those they cared for, saying nothing of it, pretending they had already eaten their share.

  “We know where he is,” Henry told her.

  Squeaky was less sure, but he chose not to argue.

  Henry recounted to Lucien their finding of Sadie, and her story that she had had no part in killing either Rosa or Niccolo.

  Squeaky watched Lucien’s face, judging whether he knew all this: if it were lies, or the truth.

  “Oh, just tell my father you couldn’t find me,” Lucien said to Henry. “For the person he wants you to find, that’s true enough. You won’t be lying.”

  “Yes ’e would,” Bessie spoke suddenly. “ ’Cause you’re lyin’.” She looked at Henry. “Did ’is Pa say as ’e ’ad ter be a certain kind o’ person, or did ’e just say ’is son?”

  “He just said his son,” Henry replied. He looked again at Lucien. “I did not imagine it would be easy for you. You do not simply walk away from people such as these. And before you leave, you have to prove that you did not kill Niccolo, or Rosa. You have to prove it to the people who cared for them, and you have to prove it to us. If you don’t, it is going to haunt you for the rest of your life, quite possibly in the very unpleasant form of someone coming after you. Surely you are not foolish enough to imagine that going back to your home would put you beyond their reach?”

  “No,” Lucien agreed. “There is no such place of safety. There is always somebody who can be bought, whether for simple money, or from hunger of one sort or another—or out of fear.”

  Bessie was looking at him, chewing her lower lip, waiting to see what he would do.

  “They don’t know where you are,” Squeaky put in. “We’ll go and find him tomorrow.”

  Lucien hitched himself up on his elbow.

  “Not you,” Squeaky told him sharply. “You’re not well enough. You’ll just get in the way.”

  “But …”

  “You’ll stay here with Bessie. We haven’t got time to be looking out for you. Do as you’re told, unless you want me to set that wound of yours back a few days?”

  Lucien met his eyes steadily for several seconds, then lowered his gaze and lay back again.

  Bessie kept looking at Squeaky, trying to work out in her mind what he meant, and if he would really have hurt Lucien again. Squeaky turned away. He did not want to know what answer she reached.

  A few hours later Henry, Crow, and Squeaky set out again, this time to find Shadwell without Sadie’s help—or presence to warn him. Bessie and Lucien were both asleep, and they did not disturb them. There was really no need.

  It was a short journey back through the streets to where Sadie had left them, counted in paces through the all-enveloping fog. They returned the way they had come, and used the key to the door that led downward toward where she had said Shadow Man would be.

  “What are you going to say to him, if he’s there?” Crow asked.

  Squeaky looked at Henry expectantly.

  “A devil’s deal,” Henry answered quietly. “But one that will prove to Ash, and his friends, that Lucien did not kill Rosa.”

  “Or Niccolo?” Crow asked. “Doesn’t it matter about him?”

  “No, not much,” Henry said, moving forward carefully on the slick stones. “I think we might find that Niccolo is still alive.”

  “There was a lot of blood for one person,” Crow said unhappily. “If the second body wasn’t Niccolo, who was it?”

  “If I’m right, I’ll explain. For now we haven’t time for a lot of talking.” Henry led the way down the steps and along the stone corridor.

  Squeaky looked at Crow and saw the anxiety in his face. They both hesitated.

  Squeaky swore. “Come on! If we don’t go with him, the damn fool will go alone. Anything could happen to him. Why do I always meet up with such idiots?” He hurried and nearly missed his step on the uneven surface. Crow strode behind him. There was no sound but the scraping of their boots on the stone and the steady dripping of water.

  The words “a devil’s deal” kept going around in Squeaky’s head. What had Henry Rathbone meant? He wanted to ask now, but it took all his concentration to keep up with Henry and Crow in these miserable winding passages.

  Then suddenly he recognized a stairway up to their left, and in front of them a door with a brass handle.

  “We’re in the wrong place!” he said simply, catching Henry by the arm. “This is the room of that fearful little creature in the velvet coat.”

  “I know,” Henry answered. “The man who knows exactly what happened to Rosa, I believe.”

  “He killed her? Why? What did she …”

  “No. He didn’t kill her, but I think he knows who did.”

  “Why didn’t he tell us?” With every new turn of events Squeaky was beginning to feel worse and worse about this whole idea of coming back.

  “Because he wants to take revenge himself on the man who did,” Henry answered quietly.

  “Why?” Squeaky asked. “What’s Rosa to him?”

  “Doctor Crow?” Henry prompted.

  “I think she’s his daughter,” Crow answered gently.

  “What? How d’you know that?” Squeaky was aghast.

  “Do you remember Lucien saying that Rosa had unusual eyes?” Crow asked. “One hazel and one green?”

  “Yes. What about it?”

  “I asked someone else and they said the same thing …”

  “So what does that matter?” Squeaky was growing impatient. “Are you saying that it wasn’t Rosa who was dead, then? So who was it?”

  “Yes, I think it was Rosa,” Crow replied.

  “The color of your eyes is something that doesn’t change with age, except perhaps to fade a bit,” Henry interrupted. “If you think back, you’ll remember that Ash had odd eyes too. What do you think the chances are that they are closely related to each other?”

  Squeaky let out his breath in a long sigh. “Yeah. I never saw that. So what’s your devil’s deal?”

  Henry took a long, slow breath. “A Christian burial for Rosa, if Ash will admit that the second body was Niccolo, and that he killed him in revenge for his murdering Rosa.”

  “Are you sure he did?” Squeaky asked.

  “No, I just think so. It makes sense. Who else would?” Henry asked. “Perhaps he didn’t mean to, just lost his temper. Apparently he was violent. Maybe he was wild on withdrawal from cocaine. No one had seen him since her death.”

  “You mean you believe Lucien that he didn’t do it,” Squeaky concluded, not sure if he was pleased, frightened, disgusted, or maybe all three. He had not felt so confused in years, maybe not ever. He could not afford all this … feeling.

  “Do you know of some reason I should not?” Henry said.

  Squeaky swore vehemently and from the heart. “ ’Cause it’s bloody stupid! It’s dangerous,” he hissed. He wanted to shout at Henry, but he could not afford to make such a noise right outside Ash’s rooms. “You can’t go around just believing anything anyone wants to tell you! You could get taken—”

  “I said ‘reason,’ ” Henry corrected him gently. “Not fear.”

  “Fear’s a reason!” Squeaky was exasperated. “It’s one of the best reasons I know. It’s kept me alive, with my skin whole, for fifty bleedin’ years!”

  “And has it made you happy, Squeaky?”

  “Yes!” He waved his hand in a gesture of denial. “No! Well—I’m alive, and you don’t get very happy dead! What a question to ask!”

  “You don’t have to come and see Ash if you’d rather not,” Henry told him.

  That was the final insult. “You trying to say you don’t want me?” Squeaky dem
anded. This hurt, badly.

  “Not at all.” Henry smiled and took Squeaky’s arm. He turned to Crow. “Come, Dr. Crow, let us see if the poor man will accept our deal.”

  Our deal? Ours? Squeaky was about to protest, then realized he really wanted to be included. He banged on the door and then threw it open.

  The room inside was empty. Squeaky was crushed with disappointment.

  “We’ll wait,” Henry decided. “At least for a while.” He sat down on the filthy floor.

  They had not long to sit. When Ash returned he was still wearing the absurd lavender coat. His face seemed even more gaunt, the white painted skin stretched over the bones of his skull. He used the stick to prod the ground, as if he were not certain that it was firm enough to hold his weight.

  “Well!” he said with interest. “And what do you want this time? You found Lucien. And Sadie.” He said her name slowly, as if it hurt him.

  “Indeed,” Henry replied. “But we did not find Rosa or Niccolo. I think you could help us with that.”

  Squeaky looked at the terrible face, which was like a chalk mask. Crow was right; one of his eyes was hazel, the other quite definitely green. Perhaps Henry was right too that Rosa was this man’s daughter. It made a sort of tragic sense.

  Ash stood motionless as a garish figurine.

  “In order to give them a Christian burial,” Henry went on. “Or Rosa, at least. Perhaps Niccolo doesn’t deserve one. They don’t do that for men they hang.”

  Ash smiled. It was sad and horrible. “He wasn’t hanged. Not strong enough to lift him, you see.” He raised his hands, but stiffly, as if they would not go higher than his shoulders.

  “How did you kill him?” Henry inquired as if it were no more than a matter of courteous interest.

  Ash tapped his stick with his other hand. “Dagger in here,” he replied. “Very useful. Had a proper sword once. Haven’t the balance to hold it anymore now. Dagger will do. He didn’t even see me. Just killed my beautiful Rosa. I put the blade through his heart. I was surprised how much he bled.”

  “He probably took a little while to die,” Crow observed. “People don’t bleed much after they’re dead.”