A Despicable Crime

by Liza O'Connor

  To her surprise, not one of the boys complained.

  Once in the hall, he asked, “What’s wrong?”

  She huffed in exasperation. “I want to teach the officers of Scotland Yard how to detect forgeries, only Xavier says I cannot.”

  David considered the matter. “Well, locating a forger, should be easy, since they communicate trouble by a front desk with electrical wiring. Locating their stash of supplies to make forgeries should be in or near the room they work out of. A big magnet should locate the vault. All in all, this sounds like an easy arrest to me.”

  “Xavier says they’ll send hit men after me.”

  David frowned. “Isn’t that a possibility with every crime you solve? Honestly, without Tubs, you would have died long ago.”

  “You’re right, and Xavier knows this. Damn it! He’s planning to teach the officers himself.” She hurried downstairs, only to discover Xavier missing. She rushed to Tubs’ room and got an eyeful. She softly closed the door to his room and then pounded on it with urgency. Less than two minutes later, Tubs answered the door.

  “I’m sorry to disturb you after your late night, but Barns needs me to stop by and Xavier has disappeared.”

  Tubs asked for three minutes and closed the door.

  Vic leaned against the door, pleased with her cleverness. Whatever Xavier was planning, she would come out on top.

  Three minutes later Tubs wore his heavy jacket, which meant he was loaded with guns of various sizes. Once in the carriage, Casey headed off to Scotland Yard. Tubs requested to know what was up.

  “Well, Barns asked me to stop by, and I intend to teach some of his officers how to go after forgers.”

  “That sounds like a useful education,” Tubs admitted. “We might want to stop by Grangers and let him know he needs to shut down his forgeries at once.”

  “He should have stopped yesterday!”

  “He has jobs he is already committed to. A couple of the jobs are for members of Parliament.” Tubs explained. “He should be out within a week.”

  “Bloody Hell! We seem to have more criminals in Parliament than honest politicians!”

  “No one said the Parliament was made of good men. It’s just made of rich men. Some are reasonably good while others are worse than the Crime Lords. But take my word on this: it doesn’t matter if they are good or bad, as a member of Parliament they can make you disappear without trial or jury. So, while you cannot touch those fellows, it is a small percentage of the forgeries, and you could improve many of the poor people’s lives if they can keep their homes that they have owned for generations.”

  “What is happening to their homes?” Vic asked.

  “A fellow in a fine suit will arrive and declare a block of houses are his. He’ll explain to the officer that all the people are squatters and he’s decided to raze the entire block to build fine homes. The officer will accept his word and he’ll have them torn down at once. Even if some of the people can provide a valid document, the officer will tell them to get it verified. Most of the poor have no clue how to do that, so they give up and leave their homes. For those determined to save their homes and try to discover how to get their document verified, it will take two days to get it confirmed and by then their houses are razed anyway.”

  “That is outrageous!” Vic yelled.

  “It is. And if it’s winter, most of the homeless will die. That’s how I lost my home. Fortunately, Samuel Sojourn owned property that he rented out to his workers.”

  “No doubt he made a profit on that as well.”

  Tubs chuckled. “He did, but it saved me from freezing.”

  Vic leaned against his arm. “I’m very glad you didn’t freeze.” Vic stood up. “Come on. Let’s teach Scotland Yard how to stop forgeries.”

  Chapter 7

  When Vic arrived at Scotland Yard, she passed by the front desk officer without a by your leave. For once, the fellow didn’t try to call her back. However, when she reached Barn’s office on the top floor, he wasn’t there.

  Next, she went to Captain Meyers office. The door was locked and there was no one inside.

  “I don’t like this,” she whispered to Tubs.

  Having no choice, she returned down to the bottom floor and spoke to the desk officer. “Where is everybody?”

  When he didn’t answer, Vic yelled at him. The fellow continued to ignore her.

  “Let me try,” Tubs whispered. He walked to the desk and leaned over it, so he towered over the young man. “Where is Barns?”

  The fellow rapped a pencil but made no reply.

  Tubs grabbed the pencil and slammed it between the young man’s fore and middle finger with such ferocity that it embedded in the desk.

  “Answer me now, or you might lose a finger.”

  The young man gulped. “Everyone’s in the big room.”

  Vic rushed to the conference room, so Tubs hurried behind her. When they entered, Vic was stunned to hear Xavier discussing forgeries. She was about to yell at him, but that would just make her seem like a spoiled child, given how often Xavier had remained quiet and let her enjoy the lime light. So instead, she and Tubs sat down beside Barns. She leaned over and asked for some paper and a pencil, which he quickly provided.

  Barns wrote on the top of the page I’ll let you copy from my notes if you need to catch up.

  Vic smiled and nodded. Then she glared at Xavier as he proceeded to share all the details she had shared with him that morning. One hour later, he stopped. “Any questions?”

  Vic’s hand was up in a second. “You haven’t discussed methodologies to easily isolate the location of the safe they keep the documents being worked, nor the location of their rooms where they work on the forgeries.”

  Xavier turned and smiled at her. “Would you like to present that?”

  “If you don’t mind. Otherwise, we could lose very good officers during the search.” She held up a small box. “The quality forgers have run an electrical line beneath the floorboards to their forgery rooms.” She walked to the chalk board and drew a long hall, then the business area in front of the hallway.

  “Somewhere in this front area will be a desk and a reliable person that will signal those in the back the moment you enter their place of business. You will not hear or see their warning, for it will reside under a counter or desk. It will probably be a button, but it could also be a switch. In either case, it will connect to an electrical wire that has been laid beneath the boards and will run to the room where they create forgeries. While you cannot see the wire, in many cases they will have moved just one line of board to lay the wire, and the boards will tend to creak thereafter. But don’t rely on that.”

  Vic held up her black box. “This device can pick up the electrical current running beneath floor boards if the current is actively being used. That means, that when you locate the desk, counter, or closet that holds the warning signal, an officer will need to continue to push the device while another officer follows the current using this box.”

  Vic walked among the men, allowing them to look at the small black box.

  Xavier leaned against the wall, smiling with pride.

  Unable to stay angry at such genuine support, she smiled in return.

  “This will make the raid very easy,” one of the officers replied.

  “There is still danger. If you open the door that the box glows at, you will probably be shot in the chest.”

  “Do you have a way to prevent that?” an officer asked.

  “If you catch the fellow that warned the back room, you can tell him he’s going to be a shield. If he’s an underpaid employee, he might tell you the ‘never mind’ signal.”

  “They have a ‘never-mind’ signal?” Darby asked.

  She smiled at her favorite new officer. “Given how much trouble a false alarm can cause them, they seem to all use a ‘never mind’ signal. I imagine knees can accidently bump the button beneath the desk.”

  “Seems a waste of time...” another o
fficer grumbled.

  “These are quality forgeries. Some take up to five days to create. They do not wish to destroy their works in progress just because a long-legged employee accidentally kneed the button.”

  That had everyone chuckling. Vic let them have a moment then spoke. “So, let’s focus on the raid. You’ve scared the front desk person into hitting the proper code, by assuring him, he is the first one going through the door. You have left someone keeping the circuit open so with this box you can isolate their work space.”

  Vic reached in her pocket and pulled out a large magnet. “This is an electrically charged magnet. It’s far more powerful than natural magnets. Either in their work room or in a hidden room close by, there will be a large impenetrable safe. This magnet will help you find it.”

  “Can the magnet open the safe?” another officer asked.

  Vic laughed. “No, you will need to call in an expert who will either cut the door off or you can hire a craftsman who can open safes.”

  “Your best proof that these are forgeries will be the half-finished documents in the safe. Quality forgeries are nearly flawless. However, somewhere on the edges of the document, in the tiniest of print, the forgers will create a small marking that is their signature of sorts. Every quality forger will sign their work. They are very proud of the work they do, never mind that a single document can ruin hundreds of lives. Never mind good people can be tossed from their homes because a Will and Testament was created that appears the person has died, and it should now go to her grandson, when in fact she remains alive, starving on the street, or tossed in Bedlam where she will soon die.”

  Her words had silenced the room.

  “Quality forgeries are devastating acts of theft. And they have been the devil to stop in the past, but new inventions are finally making this a nut you can crack. And it needs to be cracked wide open.”

  She then smiled at Xavier. “The floor is once again yours.”

  Xavier softly laughed. “Just a couple of comments.” He turned to Barns. “Such a raid will go easier if the officers are in plain clothes. However, you will need to obtain permission to do so, and the ministers may not agree.

  “If you do enter the back room of a forger, he will probably have a gun in his desk. Generally, the quality forgers do not shoot people, but what we are attempting to do here will cause them to change their behaviors, so they can continue their profession.”

  Vic stood back up. “And do not choose Granger for your first raid. I’ve given him a week to finish the forgeries in his safe and be done with that business.”

  Both Barns and Xavier frowned at her.

  Barns sent his men out. The moment the men left, both Barns and Xavier yelled at her at once. Since Xavier was louder, she heard his complaint first.

  “Damn it, Victor! Why would you say that out loud? Do you honestly believe that in the large mass of men we had today that there are not several bad officers who will warn the forgers about Granger?”

  “Oh God, I’ve killed the poor man!” Vic declared.

  Barns slammed his fist on the wall. “You probably have gotten me fired as well. How am I to explain why I allow you, a civilian, to decide who we will and will not go after! And I assure you, someone in this group will have the ear of one of the ministers.”

  Devastated, Vic ran from the room and hurried to her carriage. The moment she got in, the carriage took off, without Tubs. Once again, she had gotten into a carriage without ensuring Casey was driving.

  Since she had most certainly killed Mr. Granger, it should serve her right if she ended up dead. Only she didn’t want to die. She had too much to live for. What she needed to do was repair the damage she had done to Granger.

  She leaned out the window to see who was driving her carriage. Thankfully, it was Casey. “Casey, take me to Granger.” She then lay down on the seat and cried.

  When the carriage stopped, Vic wiped her eyes and looked out, only to see the door to her kitchen. “Damn it, Casey. I asked you to take me to Granger.”

  “Well, If Tubs found him in time, Granger and his family should be inside.”

  Vic jumped out of the carriage and burst into the kitchen. She was so happy to see Granger, his wife and their son.

  “Thank God you are safe!” she exclaimed.

  “No thanks to you,” Granger snapped.

  “I am truly sorry, and I wish to make it up to you. You won’t be safe anywhere in London. Is there any place you would like to go? Paris, Spain, Scotland, America?”

  “I would love to return to Scotland, but my business is here.”

  “What if I bought your legitimate business from you. Then you can use that money to start a legitimate business in Scotland. The ladies there need dance cards as well.”

  “You would do that?”

  “It is the least I can do. I regret deeply what I said to the crowd of officers. I momentarily had forgotten that not all officers are good. And now I have put you at risk.”

  Just then Xavier entered from the dining room. “Well, this is the last place any hired assassin would search for you.” He then turned to Vic. “I’ve spread the word that you purposely spoke out about his so-called plans because you wanted his legitimate business.”

  He then focused on Granger. “I don’t believe they’ve hired a hitman, but you would be safer if you return to Scotland. So, I’ll buy your business here—”

  “No, this is my doing. I am buying his business,” Vic insisted.

  “Just as long as Granger gets paid, I am satisfied.” Xavier replied.

  “Tubs will ensure you safely get to Scotland tomorrow. Today, we’ll handle the business transaction.”

  Vic met Granger’s eyes. “I know I must seem to you to be unreliable, but I promise, I will keep all your staff employed, except those who might wish to go to your competitors.” She hoped he understood she was talking about his forgery staff.

  “That’ll just be three,” Granger replied.

  She hurried to Gregory’s room and called Mr. Ascot. Her man of business promised to come right over and ensure the documents were properly written.

  Two hours later, Mr. Granger had a check for forty thousand pounds and Victor was the new owner of a business that would forever remind her of her grievous error.

  While Mr. and Mrs. Granger seemed happy with the transaction, their son seemed less than happy.

  ***

  When Vic went to bed that night, Xavier remained cool and aloof. While they slept in the same bed, she had never felt more alone. She finally spoke, certain that sleep alluded him as well as her.

  “Do you think they’ll be safe in Scotland?”

  “Yes. You have dodged a bullet.”

  “No, the bullet has hit me hard. I fear I have lost your trust forever. I have certainly lost faith in myself, and I have caused harm to both you and Barns. But I will survive this if Mr. Granger and his family prosper and if you can find a way to forgive me.”

  Xavier sighed heavily and turned towards her, pulling her into his arms, resting her head upon his naked chest. But he said nothing, which meant he could not yet forgive her.

  In the morning she woke at six and dressed. Knowing breakfast would not be served until eight, she woke Casey and asked him if he would drive her to her new place of business.

  Casey was confused by her request but drove her all the same. When she arrived, she used the key that Mr. Granger had given her and entered the quiet building.

  The first thing she did was to remove the warning circuits. This required her to pull up boards and yank out the wires. Then she replaced the wood and nailed it securely. By the time she had finished, most of the employees had arrived.

  She introduced herself as the new owner. She expected a great uproar, but they didn’t seem terribly upset. They just went about their work.

  While the work was tedious, she caught on quickly. By the end of the day she was half-starved and terribly sad. Xavier had not stopped by to see how she was doing. W
hen Casey drove her back home that evening, she cried the whole way back. Instead of talking to Vivian or Charlotte, Vic stayed in David’s room playing with Danny.

  “Is something wrong?” David asked as she rocked Danny.

  “I don’t want to talk about it. It still hurts?”

  “Can I give you a hug?” he asked.

  “Yes, please. I truly need a hug.”

  David wrapped his arms around Danny and Vic. “Are you sure I can’t help you?”

  “You are helping me. I’ve so many people angry with me, it’s nice to still have one friend.”

  “Nonsense, you are the most beloved person I’ve ever met.”

  “Not anymore. Xavier can’t even stand to be in the same room with me.”

  Chapter 8

  When Vic went to bed, Xavier still hadn’t come home. He finally entered at five in the morning. Since she had to leave for work at five, she left the room while he was in the water closet and was at the door when Gregory demanded to know where she was going so early in the morning.

  “I have a job I have to go to,” she explained.

  “What job?”

  “I bought a business.”

  “What type of business?”

  “One that sells stamps and makes envelopes and paper.”

  Gregory place his hand on her forehead. “Are you sick?”

  “I’m sad, not sick.”

  “What are you sad about?”

  “I did something bad and now Xavier won’t even speak to me. I’ve lost his confidence in me and his love.”

  “I cannot believe that is possibly true.”

  “It is and he’s not to blame. This is all on me.”

  “What happened?” Gregory asked.

  “I can’t talk about it. And I have to get to work. I have the only key. I have yet to determine who is reliable enough to have a key.” Vic knocked on Casey’s door and then went to the carriage and climbed in.

  To her shock, Gregory joined her with a basket of scones.

  She devoured the scones in seconds.

  “When was the last time you ate?” Gregory demanded.