Split Infinity

by Tony Rattigan

  ‘Well, it’s not exactly the sort of thing I imagine they teach in “Evil Henchman” school.’

  ‘Don’t be silly. Remember I said he used to act as Quist’s butler whenever they came to my mother’s house. He’s quite an accomplished cook, actually. Don’t worry, he’ll be fine.’

  ‘Okay, if you say so.’

  ‘So what do you plan to do now?’ asked Adele.

  ‘Well I want to start going through Quist’s books. I’ll have to turn them over to the police eventually of course, but I want to read through them first and note down any information that may be useful to me, before I do that.’

  ‘I can help you if you like?’

  ‘Thanks, that would be great. Where did we leave them?’

  ‘We put the bag in the front room, your office isn’t it?’

  ‘Fine, let’s get started.’

  They went into the office and Cobb emptied the bag on the desk. He scooped all the money back into the bag and they settled down in chairs facing each other across the desk.

  First they sorted out the scrolls of paper, which on examination appeared to be plans and patents for various inventions, like the Strong Light Generator and the device for extracting Magick from a witch. Cobb knew that if he handed these over to the police they would just end up in a filing cabinet somewhere, never to be seen again. He decided that wasn’t going to happen. He would see that they were put in the hands of someone who would know how to get them to the right people, so that they could be put to good use, someone like Thornton.

  They started on the books, A4 sized ledgers, going through them taking notes. They stopped to take a break when Won Lungh brought them some food. He’d also brought a bottle of wine but Adele noticed that Cobb only took a glass as they ate their meal and then left the rest.

  Won Lungh came back later as it grew dark, lit the oil lamps and stoked up the fire. Then he and the cat, which was following him around, bid them good night and withdrew. They worked on for several more hours and then they retired to bed, going their separate ways at the top of the stairs.

  ***

  Next morning after breakfast, Cobb excused himself, saying he had to go and see Thornton, so he could let him know he was well and thank him for his help. Adele offered to keep working on Quist’s ledgers.

  Cobb went to Thornton’s bookshop. Naturally he was delighted to see Cobb and demanded he tell him everything that had happened since they last spoke. Cobb told him everything from the time he had boarded the train at Paddingworth station, to the present. All about Harlequin, The Heart of Infinity, going back with Quist to the beginning of time, the creation of the Multiverse, how he had died and Adele had brought him back from the other side. He even told him how he and Adele had gotten close to each other.

  ‘Well that’s excellent news, Cobb. I’m sure even Esme would be pleased about that,’ said Thornton.

  ‘Ah well … actually … she gave me her blessing. When I died, I went … somewhere, I don’t know where but Esme was there waiting for me, on the other side.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘It’s true,’ said Cobb. ‘Esme was waiting for me. She seems to be happy there. And she told me that I could return to Earth if I wished and make a new start with Adele. She wanted me to get on with my life, that’s the only reason I came back. Her last words to me were to give you her love.’

  Thornton shed a few tears at the mention of his lost daughter and Cobb’s heart went out to him. He poured Thornton a drink to give him time to recover his composure but Thornton was made of strong stuff and it wasn’t long before he had recovered enough to converse normally again.

  Cobb told him about the designs he had found at Quist’s and gave them over to him, asking that he place them in the right hands. Thornton promised faithfully that he would. Then Cobb thanked him for his help, providing the airship and locating Quist, without which no one in the world would have survived. He promised that they would talk again and soon but right now it was crucial that he finish going through Quist’s books and then give them to the police, before Quist’s men found out he was dead and began to go into hiding.

  When Cobb returned home he found Adele in the office, still poring over the books and taking notes. He sat down and helped her.

  There were several sets of ledgers with different coloured covers. They contained an amazing wealth of information about Quist’s operations. The book that Cobb was reading had a green cover and listed various safe houses where his men could safely hide away and stash stolen goods. He was copying these addresses into his notebook when Adele spoke. ‘I think you should look at this one, Cobb. I don’t recognise any of these people but you might. Take this book and I’ll carry on with the one that you’re working on.’

  Cobb handed over his book and Adele gave him the one she had been reading, one with a red cover. He flicked through it quickly, stopping at random pages and soon realised that it was a roll call of names of people who had either received bribes from Quist or who were on his payroll, receiving regular payments in exchange for “services rendered”.

  After the initial scan he began going through it page by page. He recognised many of the people listed in the book, either by name or by their position. Suddenly he stopped; there was a name he knew well, very well. He quickly checked the pages following, yes; there it was again and again. This meant trouble.

  ‘I have to go out again and see someone. Do you mind if I leave you to carry on by yourself?’ asked Cobb.

  ‘Is it because of what you’ve found in that book?’

  ‘Yes I’m afraid so. And don’t mention this book to Won Lungh, will you?’

  ‘You go ahead and don’t worry about Won Lungh; his loyalty is to me now. All I want from you in return, is your promise not to turn him in to the police.’

  ‘Okay. I’ll be honest, I’m not too happy about him being here but at least I know that as long as he is around, you’ll be safe.’

  ***

  Cobb arrived next day at Caledonia Yard for his appointment with the police commissioner, Sir Arthur Wilberforce KBE, head of Caledonia Yard, Albion’s top policeman.

  Cobb had gone to Caledonia Yard after he had left Adele. He had requested an appointment with the police commissioner saying he had important information regarding Marcus Quist. That had got their attention and word came down from the police commissioner’s office requesting Cobb to attend a meeting with the commissioner at 3 o’ clock the following day. Then he returned home and spent the rest of the day and the following morning with Adele, going over Quist’s books to make sure he had copied all the information they contained, before handing them over to the police. You never knew when it might come in handy, in his line of work.

  Cobb checked in with the desk sergeant and was taken up to Sir Arthur’s office. The police constable that acted as his PA asked Cobb to take a seat while he let the commissioner know that he had arrived. The constable came back a moment later and ushered Cobb into the office.

  Sir Arthur came around from behind his desk to greet Cobb. ‘Cobb, good to see you again, how are you?’ he said warmly, extending his hand.

  Cobb shook it, ‘I’m fine Sir Arthur, thanks for seeing me.’

  ‘Take a chair, now how can I help you? I understand you have some significant information about Marcus Quist?’

  Cobb settled in the chair, putting down the bag he was carrying, ‘Yes that’s right. The first thing I have to tell you is that Quist is dead.’

  ‘How? When? What happened?’

  ‘That I’m afraid, I cannot tell you. You’ll just have to trust me on this one, you won’t be bothered by him again.’

  Sir Arthur leaned forward and clasped his hands together on his desk. ‘Well, this is most unusual, however I do remember that when you were one of us, you were one of my more reliable officers and I could always trust your word. So I think I’m going to have to believe you on this one and accept that Quist really is dead.’ He paused for a moment, ‘You … didn’t have a
hand in it did you? I know you always had it in for him.’

  ‘No but I was there when he died, that’s how I know it for a fact.’

  ‘And you can’t tell me anything about how he died?

  ‘I’m sorry, I can’t.’

  ‘So where does that leave us? I suppose I could always have you charged with withholding evidence,’ said Sir Arthur with a smile.

  ‘Yes, you could. But if you did that then I would deny any knowledge of Quist’s death, after all you only have my word that he is dead. And then I wouldn’t give you the rest of the information I have about Quist, of which, the contents of this bag is just a sample,’ he said holding up the carpetbag.

  ‘What’s in there?’ asked Sir Arthur.

  Cobb opened the bag and took out Quist’s books. ‘Here I have some of Quist’s records. Accounts of his operations, safe houses, employees, bribes, payoffs and so on. With this and the rest that I have stored in a safe place, there’s enough information to smash his organisation once and for all.’

  ‘Where on earth did you get those?’

  Cobb told Sir Arthur about Quist’s mansion in Green-Witch but not how or why he had come to be there. ‘Send a search team down there and you should turn up some interesting stuff.’

  Sir Arthur looked at the books, looked at Cobb and said, ‘Okay Cobb, if those are what you say they are, then you’re quite safe from arrest, I promise you. Besides, between you and me and off the record … as long as Quist’s dead, I don’t really care how he died or who did it, you understand me?’

  ‘Yes, I understand,’ said Cobb. He handed over one of the books, the green one that listed Quist’s safe houses and ongoing operations, which Sir Arthur flicked through eagerly. ‘This is excellent work, Cobb.’

  ‘It’s not all good news, Sir Arthur,’ said Cobb handing over the red book, the one that contained the names of all the people that Quist had bribed or paid off over the years. The commissioner took the book hesitantly and opened it. He flicked randomly through the pages.

  ‘Good Gods!’ he exclaimed. ‘Magistrates, judges, politicians … I’ve had lunch with lots of these men. Some of them are even members of my club!’

  ‘Turn to page 47,’ said Cobb.

  Sir Arthur did so. ‘Oh,’ he said.

  ‘Yes, I’m afraid so.’

  ‘Does anyone else know about this?’

  ‘No, I brought it straight to you.’

  Sir Arthur leaned back in his chair and steepled his hands in front of his mouth.

  Cobb placed the rest of the books on Sir Arthur’s desk. ‘Maybe I should be leaving now. Let you sort things out.’

  ‘No, stick around. You’ve earned the right to be here.’

  Sir Arthur got up, went to the door and opened it. ‘Constable, go and find me two sergeants, immediately.’ Then he went back to his desk and flicked through the rest of the red book, tutting occasionally. Cobb wandered over to the window and looked out at the view.

  The constable soon returned with two police sergeants. Sir Arthur waved them all into the office and shut the door, He briefed the two sergeants and the constable on what he had just discovered, what was going to happen next and what he wanted them to do. ‘Now go and find Inspector Ffolkes and Sgt. Benton, bring them to my office, now! Then wait outside until I call you.’ The three policemen filed out of the office, closing the door behind them.

  Then Sir Arthur and Cobb went back to the desk and looked at the red book again. Cobb pointed out a few more pertinent entries and they discussed the situation gravely, while they waited.

  There was a knock on the door and the constable showed Inspector Ffolkes and Sgt. Benton into the room then left closing the door behind him. The two sergeants waited outside. Benton seemed pleased to see Cobb but Ffolkes saw him and said, ‘What’s a civilian doing here?’ He said civilian as if it was a dirty word.

  ‘Mr. Cobb is here at my invitation. He has been responsible for bringing some important information to my attention regarding Marcus Quist’s organisation,’ replied the Sir Arthur. ‘Now then, to business. I have some excellent news,’ he said cheerfully. ‘Thanks to Mr. Cobb, we have got our hands on Quist’s records. With the information contained within these books we can wrap up Quist’s operations.’ He waved the books in the air. ‘Please gentlemen, take a seat. I want to give you a few moments to familiarise yourselves with the contents of these books and then we’ll discuss how we can best put them to use.’

  Ffolkes and Benton sat in front of Sir Arthur’s desk and he handed them a book each. Cobb noticed that he gave the green book to Ffolkes and the red book to Benton.

  Cobb took a seat on a sofa at the side of Sir Arthur’s spacious office from where he could watch them reading the books. Sir Arthur sat behind his desk and lit a cigar, waiting patiently for them to finish. Cobb watched Sgt Benton. He spotted the moment when Benton got to page 47, he froze for a moment then glanced at the commissioner, but he was too old a hand to give the game away and he carried on flicking through the book.

  Shortly they got to the ends of their respective books and looked at Sir Arthur expectantly. ‘This is very valuable information, Commissioner,’ said Ffolkes. ‘How do you want to proceed with this?’

  ‘Well, you should have all the facts before we decide. Swap books with Sgt. Benton and have a read of that, there’s a good chap,’ said the Sir Arthur amiably.

  They did as he requested. This time Cobb and Sir Arthur watched them closely.

  It was easy to see the moment that Ffolkes got to page 47, the page that had his name on it as being on Quist’s payroll, the blood drained from his face and one hand gripped the arm of the chair until his knuckles went white. He flicked through a few more pages and saw his name, over and over again. He looked up at Sir Arthur who had produced a revolver from his desk drawer and was pointing it in his direction.

  ‘This isn’t true! It’s … it’s a forgery! It’s got to be … a forgery!’ stuttered Ffolkes.

  ‘Sorry, it isn’t,’ said Sir Arthur. ‘We’ve had calligraphy experts compare it with Quist’s handwriting, it’s genuine, all right. Besides, since Quist is dead, all his men are either fleeing the country or turning King’s Evidence. They’ve told us it’s true,’ he lied smoothly. ‘I’m afraid, to use common parlance, “We’ve got you bang to rights”, Ffolkes.’

  ‘Quist is dead?’ gasped Ffolkes.

  ‘Yes,’ replied Sir Arthur. ‘So you can forget any thoughts of him using his influence to protect you. His house of cards is collapsing around your ears. You’re on your own.’

  ‘All right, I’ll turn King’s Evidence,’ said Ffolkes. By offering to turn King’s Evidence Ffolkes was hoping to have any proceedings against him or subsequent sentence reduced in exchange for telling the police everything he knew about Quist’s gang and operations.

  ‘Somehow, I thought you’d say that,’ said Cobb. ‘No backbone.’

  Ffolkes turned on Cobb, ‘This is all your doing, isn’t it?’

  ‘No, actually it’s yours. If you hadn’t taken the bribes in the first place, you wouldn’t be in this position now.’

  ‘This isn’t the end of it you know, Cobb. You’ll be hearing from me again.’

  ‘I can’t wait.’

  ‘All right, that’s enough from both of you!’ said Sir Arthur, not wanting a brawl to break out in his office. ‘Sgt. Benton, call the two sergeants in from the outer office would you?’

  Benton went to the door and let them in.

  ‘Handcuff Ffolkes and take him to a holding cell. No one and I mean no one is to speak to him except myself or Sgt. Benton, is that clear?’.

  The two policemen nodded their understanding.

  ‘If he gets … argumentative please feel free to use your truncheons,’ instructed Sir Arthur.

  As they grabbed Ffolkes and lifted his arms to cuff him, Cobb stepped forward and gently removed the incriminating book from his hands. As they led him out of the room, Ffolkes glared at Cobb. Cobb smiled in return,
waved to him and said, ‘That’s all, Ffolkes.’

  After they had left Cobb smiled, patted the red book and allowed himself a quiet little gloat. He knew it was petty but he figured, what the hell, he’d earned it.

  When Ffolkes had gone, Sir Arthur turned to Sgt Benton. ‘As of right now you’re Inspector Benton. I want you to take charge of your team and begin work on breaking Quist’s organisation. Cobb will give you all the information that he has, that should give you a head start. I want you and only you, to interrogate Ffolkes. Until we have all the information, we don’t know how many of our men were in Quist’s pocket.’

  ‘Thank you Commissioner. I’ll … er … I’ll get right on it,’ said Benton in a bit of a daze, things were happening too fast for him.

  Then Sir Arthur shook Cobb’s hand and thanked him for coming forward with the information about Quist and especially about Ffolkes. Cobb told him the truth; it had been his pleasure to help.

  And it was the truth; Cobb had been after Quist for years but had never been able to get a conviction. Now Quist was gone, his organisation was about to crumble and the man that Cobb most disliked on the force, turned out to be crooked and was going down for it and all these things were thanks to Cobb. It was all working out perfectly. Cobb had a sneaking suspicion that this could be a “Thank You” from the Gods for saving the Multiverse.

  (Or maybe it was just a case of “what goes around, comes around”. You can never tell really, can you?)

  ‘Come on George,’ said Cobb to Benton, ‘I’ll walk you down to your office.’

  They made their way through the maze of corridors that made up Caledonia Yard until they arrived at Cobb’s old squad room.

  Cobb and Benton walked into Inspector Benton’s office. ‘Cup of tea?’ asked Benton.

  ‘Yes, thanks,’ replied Cobb, ‘and congratulations on your promotion.’

  Benton walked over to the fireplace and swung out the iron bar that was over the coal fire, from which hung a kettle. ‘Thanks, although I’ve a feeling that I’ve got you to thank for that.’ Using a cloth, he picked up the kettle and poured the hot water into a teapot, to which he added a couple of teaspoons of tea.

  Cobb replied, ‘Well, I may have suggested it to the commissioner as we discussed what to do about Ffolkes. In my opinion, you should have got the inspector’s job after I left, not Ffolkes.’