by Alex Grecian
“Are you assisting a doctor, then?”
“Like I said, sir, no doctors come round here mostly ever. Ain’t noways to bring these’uns back to life.”
Kingsley brushed past Frank Mayhew and walked down the row of corpses. The tables, three dozen of them, were short, each barely more than a meter long. The young children in that room fit the tables well, but the adults lay with the tops of their heads butted against the walls and their legs dangling off the tables into the corridor. As he walked, Kingsley was unable to avoid brushing against them, setting the legs in motion. He looked back at the rectangle of light that led to the street outside, dead feet swaying back and forth in front of it as if on the verge of escape. Rigor had passed in most of the bodies. They had been lying there long enough for their muscles to become pliable once more.
“This is monstrous,” he said.
“Well, aye, sir. No argument from us there.”
“If you agree, why do you allow these conditions?”
“Due respect, we don’t allow nothin’, sir. Ain’t our place. We does the job as told.”
Kingsley pointed at the one called Henry, who cowered at the back of the room. “You. Are you in charge here?”
“He don’t talk much no more,” Frank said.
“Well, who’s in charge here, then?”
“Nobody.”
“What do you mean, nobody?”
“Well, somebody, I s’pose, but they ain’t come round here in as long as Henry and me’s been here, which is goin’ on a couple months now.”
“Then how did you come to be here?”
“Got choosed out the workhouse.”
“Why were you chosen? What was your experience? Were you a doctor’s aide? An apprentice or student of some sort?”
“’At’s a whole lotta ways of askin’ the same thing, sir. I don’t mean no disrespect, but you’re gettin’ worked up past where you oughta. It ain’t good in here, ’at’s for sure, but Henry and me’s doin’ what we’s told. We ain’t lookin’ for no trouble, and we don’t noways wanna go back to the workhouse.”
Kingsley took in a deep breath of pipe smoke and coughed. He held up a hand until the coughing spell had passed, then nodded.
“I didn’t mean to besmirch your work or your reputation. But I want to speak to someone in charge, and this all seems a cruel joke.”
“No joke, sir. And it’s like I said, there ain’t nobody in charge round here ’cept me and my brother. We’s just doin’ our best to get along, ’at’s all.”
“Yes, you said as much. Let me ask again: What did you do that you were chosen for this job?”
“Well, we dug ditches for a time, and afore that we helped on that retaining wall was built down the river.”
“Dug ditches.”
“Dug us a few graves, too. Might be called experienced with the dead. Might be why we was choosed.”
“Good Lord,” Kingsley said. He glanced back at the doorway and sighed. “Well, in the absence of anyone more qualified, perhaps you can help me. I’m looking for a woman.”
Frank released another kerchief-rattling guffaw. He waited for the cloth to settle back over his face before he spoke.
“No offense meant, sir, but we don’t want no part a that.”
Kingsley finally lost his composure. He pushed past Frank and stalked deeper into the morgue. The darkness was broken only by that double row of pale grey legs swinging gently back and forth. A neglected market with the dead laid out on display. Kingsley felt disoriented already. A hand grabbed him by the arm and swung him around.
“You can’t be in here, sir.”
Frank’s face was expressionless, backlit by the open door. Without a thought, Kingsley swung at the ditchdigger and missed. Frank took a step back, and Kingsley grabbed him by the collar and dragged him forward. Frank was the larger man, but Kingsley was determined.
“Beg pardon, sir,” Frank said.
“My wife is here. Somewhere in this hellhole. Show me where.”
Arms reached around Kingsley from behind and lifted him into the air. Startled, he let go of Frank Mayhew’s shirt. The ditchdigger rocked back on his heels and the arms released Kingsley. He turned and saw Henry retreating again to the back of the room.
“Sir, all due respect,” Frank said, “you’re a right gentleman and all, but I ain’t s’posed to let you in here. An’ my brother don’t let nobody touch me ’cept hisself.”
“I’m a doctor, you halfwit.”
“Oh, well, ’at’s different then, ain’t it?”
Kingsley straightened his shirt and tie. He ran a hand over his hair, but it was always unruly and his hand did nothing to tame it.
“Catherine Kingsley,” he said. “That’s my wife’s name. There must be some record of her having been brought in?”
He said it as a question, not at all convinced that anything that resembled record keeping went on in this place.
“Henry’s got charge of the papers and such.”
Frank motioned to his brother and Henry came forward with a wad of greasy papers in his fist. Kingsley took them from him and went back to the door to look them over in the sunlight. He realized that he was clenching his pipe so tight that his teeth hurt. He squatted, his back against the jamb, and rubbed his jaw and took another puff, then smoothed the papers out against his knee. There was no organization visible in the notes, no standardized form, just a haphazard recording of whatever had been relayed when the bodies were brought in. Half of the reports were missing the deceased’s names. He shuffled through them quickly and saw nothing about his wife. He stood and turned and thrust the handful of paperwork back at Henry, who took it wordlessly.
Kingsley left both brothers standing at the door and plunged back into the gloom, the bubble of smoke around his head keeping pace.
Kingsley found his wife after some searching. Catherine was on a table halfway down the aisle on the right-hand side. She was nude, lying on her back atop a dirty blanket, her legs dangling like the rest of them. Her eyes were open and unblinking, staring up into the dark. He wondered where she had gone and what she was looking at.
He took her hand and stood there. The pipe fell from his lips and he didn’t notice.
After a time, the silent brother, Henry, appeared at his side and moved the edge of the blanket over her, covering Catherine, giving her back some modesty. He reached out and closed her eyes and then was gone again, swallowed by the shadows. Kingsley hardly noticed.
When Henry returned, he was holding a sprig of ivy, plucked from the wall. He laid it on Catherine’s chest. He nodded at the doctor and backed away. That small gesture was enough to break Kingsley, and his grief poured from him in great choking waves.
When it had passed, he leaned in and kissed his wife on the lips for the last time.
He picked up his pipe, stood, and turned around.
“My name is Bernard Kingsley. I am a surgeon with University College Hospital in the West End. I will send people later today to help you pack up this operation, and you will move it all, every corpse in your care, to my facilities.”
Frank looked alarmed. “All of it?”
“Just the bodies. You may keep these ridiculous tables and this horrible reeking shack.”
“But the bluebottles send boys round here with the bodies. This place’ll fill back up in no time at all.”
“I will notify the police that they may deal with me from now on. This is not the way a civilized society cares for their dead. This is the way of animals and savages.” He shook his head. “No, not even savages. Even they practice ritual and ceremony in order to show respect. This is ruin. This is horror.”
He walked past Frank. Henry was standing in the doorway with his back to them, his face in the sun. Kingsley put a hand on the bigger man’s arm.
“Thank you for your kindness toward my wife.”
Henry looked at him, but said nothing. He turned his head and looked back at the sky. He rocked gently back and forth,
as if listening to music only he could hear. Kingsley couldn’t tell if his words had even registered with the former ditchdigger.
“But, mister, what will me an’ my brother do now?” Frank said.
Kingsley didn’t turn around, didn’t address the man directly.
“Go back to the workhouse,” he said. “Go find occupations better suited to your skills.”
“We can’t go back again, sir. Henry won’t last there. Ain’t much left of ’im now.”
Kingsley stepped off the curb and, still keeping his back to that house of death, he let some warmth enter his voice.
“Then find something to do outside in the fresh air and sun. Your brother shouldn’t be cooped up in a place like this, anyway. Nobody should be. Not even the dead.”
He used the sole of his shoe to tap the tobacco out of his pipe, put it back in his pocket, and walked away down the street. He didn’t look back.
75
He woke from his reverie and looked at his handiwork. A lattice of stitches ran pell-mell over the surface of the little girl’s body, linking her arms and legs and head like a hideous human quilt. He raised his head and regarded his laboratory. It was clean and open and the bodies were stretched out full-length on long tables, with adequate drainage. The sunlight through the windows at ceiling level was filtered through bubbling green gasogenes, lending everything a sickly glow, but Kingsley liked that. It meant that work was going on.
And now he remembered where and when he had met the homeless man, the dancing man who had found the shears thrown from a killer’s carriage. He’d somehow known the name, but his connection to the man had been lost until now.
“Henry Mayhew,” he said.
His voice echoed.
Kingsley looked down at the little girl’s body. In a dress with a high collar, nobody would ever see the black stitches that kept her from falling apart at the seams. She was at least presentable.
He put down the forceps and the thread and rubbed the back of his neck with his bloody hand.
There were two more bodies that needed to be sewn together, but Kingsley knew that he had to find Henry Mayhew again before the police returned him to the workhouse or, worse, the asylum.
He owed the former ditchdigger something, and he was ashamed that it had taken him this long to remember and to act.
He rinsed the blood off his hands in the basin on the counter, grabbed his jacket, and left the room. The people on the tables could wait. They had all the time in the world.
76
H e had gone out the previous night while the boy slept, but he dared not risk it again. He could lock the boy up again, but he didn’t want to. He felt they’d made real progress in their relationship since Fenn’s escape attempt. To imprison him again, even for the hour or two it would take him to run his errand, might cause the boy to resent him again.
But he had offered to take his catalogues to the police. If he failed to deliver on his promise, Sergeant Kett-or worse, Inspector Day-might begin to wonder about him.
Cinderhouse left Fenn at the dining table with a bowl of soup and went from room to room in the tidy house, gathering what he could find. Most of his catalogues were at the shop, but there were a few that he’d brought home for one reason or another. They were all horribly out of date, but the police wouldn’t know that. In all he found eight catalogues. That ought to do.
He checked on the boy, made sure he was still eating, and stepped out the front door, locking it behind him.
His hansom was out front, the coachman bundled up top, snoozing. Cinderhouse wondered at the fact that the man could sleep while sitting up, but supposed that it came with long practice. The horse whinnied at Cinderhouse as he approached, and he stroked its muzzle.
“Somewhere to go, Mr Cinderhouse?”
He jumped at the sound of the coachman’s voice.
“Thought you were asleep up there,” he said.
“Was. But nobody gets close to my horse without me knowin’ it, even you, sir, no disrespect.”
“Not at all. Quite admirable, really. We must take care of our own, mustn’t we?”
“Exactly right, sir.”
“I’ve an errand for you.”
Cinderhouse held up the small stack of catalogues. The coachman jumped down and took them from him.
“There’s a detective at Scotland Yard who’s expecting me to deliver these. Inspector Day’s his name. Would you bring them round to him and apologize for me? Please tell him I had a family matter come up or I’d have brought them myself, but assure him that I’ll pay a visit to the Yard just as soon as I’m able. That I’m anxious to finally meet him. Within the next day or two.”
“Easy as can be, sir. Inspector Day, you say?”
“That’s right.”
“Anywhere else today, sir?”
“I don’t think so. I may need to go to the shop a bit later, but unless it rains I could do with a bit of a walk. Why don’t you take the rest of the day off?”
“Thank you, sir. I’ll take these straight round to the police, then. If it begins to look like rain, I’ll head back here and fetch you.”
“Only if it rains.”
“Very good, sir.”
The coachman leapt to his perch and cracked the reins. The horse snorted and jerked forward. Cinderhouse wondered at the fact that he trusted the man. The coachman had been present, even helped, during the commission of uncounted crimes, and yet there was no question in the tailor’s mind that he was loyal. He was paid handsomely for his dedication. Cinderhouse imagined that the world would be an easier place to navigate if everyone’s principles were for sale.
He let himself back into the house where Fenn was still eating soup in the dining room.
With a bit of luck, Inspector Day would be satisfied with the catalogues and wouldn’t call on the tailor today. By tomorrow things might be different. By tomorrow Fenn might be more settled into his new life with his new father, and Cinderhouse might even be able to bring the boy with him to call on the police. The tailor smiled at Fenn and was pleased to see the boy smile back at him. Despite all their recent troubles, things were beginning to come out right at last.
77
He ain’t gonna last in there.”
“The dancing man, you mean?”
“I mean my brother. Henry’s his name.”
“Of course. I apologize. Your brother has spent a great deal of time here, or rather in the street outside of here. We didn’t know his name until quite recently.”
Frank Mayhew waved the apology away. He was a lean man, tall but shrunken, slumped in the straight-backed wooden chair next to Walter Day’s desk. He had the appearance of a once larger and perhaps more intimidating man, but there was little evidence left of that past life. His hair was plastered to his forehead with old sweat, he had not shaved in at least a week, and grime caked the creases of his neck and forehead. His eyes were bloodshot and rheumy, tears welling up at the corners. His hands trembled as he took a filthy handkerchief from his shirt pocket and dabbed at his blood-encrusted nostrils.
Frank Mayhew was clearly not long for the world.
Inspector Day locked eyes with Constable Hammersmith, who nodded back at him. Hammersmith stood and motioned for Blacker to follow. Blacker raised an eyebrow but allowed himself to be led to the far end of the Murder Squad room.
Day cleared his throat. “As I said, I meant no disrespect toward your brother.”
Mayhew folded a clump of dried blood into the handkerchief and slipped the cloth back into his pocket. He wiped his face with a filthy paw and sighed.
“I know he’s a strange one, sir. But he’s a good kid. I been lookin’ after ’im a long time now, since our mama died on us, and I’m here to tell ya he’s got a sweet heart, a big heart, goes along with that big body a his.”
“I will admit to being fond of him. Despite his best efforts to alienate me and everyone else.”
“He don’t mean to do that. He loves people. Wants to make
’em happy. Just don’t like to be touched or pushed around none.”
“He’s made that clear on at least one occasion.”
“Sure he has.”
“Frank, I’m afraid I don’t know why you’re here. Your brother has been taken to the workhouse, where qualified people will care for him and help him reenter society as a productive citizen. It’s entirely out of my hands.”
Mayhew leveled his gaze at Day, and for a moment, his eyes cleared. Behind the blood and tears, there was the angry twinkle of wit.
“You believe a word yer sayin’?”
“About the workhouse?”
“Aye. ’Bout that.”
Day hesitated, then shook his head. “No. No, of course I don’t.”
“Then let’s you an’ me be honest, each with t’other. Henry stays in that workhouse, he ain’t comin’ back out alive. They treat ’em rough in there, and he ain’t equipped noways to deal with those folk. Nor with the work they’d be puttin’ him to.”
“I don’t disagree with you, but as I said, it’s out of my hands. I have no jurisdiction over the workhouse. Whatever meager authority I have is strictly tied to the investigation of crime and not at all to the welfare of … well, not to social inequities, at any rate.”
“That don’t mean nothin’ to me. A policeman goes in there and takes him out, nobody’s gonna stop ’im. ’Specially a policeman’s got no uniform, in a posh suit like you got.”
“There’s nothing posh about-”
“I’m sayin’ you could help Henry if you put your mind to doin’ it.”
“But why?” Day was impatient now. He sat on the edge of his desk and leaned forward, breathing through his mouth. Frank Mayhew smelled like death. “Why should I do that, Mr Mayhew? Your brother…”
He broke off, unsure of how to point out the obvious without insulting the dancing man’s brother. Frank looked away, at the piles of paperwork on Day’s desk, all the unsolved cases.
“I know it. I understand about my brother. I know he don’t contribute much of nothin’ and he don’t know how to relate to folk and he don’t make much sense when he do try to relate. But that don’t make him a bad person. He deserves better’n he’s got.”
