“I’ll give Claire a giant ruby as a homecoming gift.”
“Shouldn’t we receive the gift? We’re the ones coming home,” Xavier challenged.
“No. The person returning from vacation brings back gifts to those stuck in dreary old England.”
“Truly? I’ve never heard of this custom.”
“I may have just made it up, but trust me, Claire won’t complain if she gets a giant ruby.”
“And where do you plan to get this ruby?”
“Tubs knows a man who makes them, mostly for rich people who are in dire straits but wish to keep up their pretense of wealth. Tubs says…”
“When did you talk to Tubs about this?”
“When I was laid up in bed and you were off chasing women. I wanted to know how he happened to have a large ruby ring that fit Sara perfectly and he told me about his friend, who had insisted he take the ring for luck.”
Xavier gently pressed a finger to her lips. “Can you jump ahead to your plan?”
“Claire will wear it when she goes on her Sunday drive with David. Meyers says that is the one common thread in all the robberies. The ladies showed off their treasures while driving about in open carriages.”
“And then Meyers will stake out the house?” Xavier asked with a pained expression
“No, it sometimes takes them a month to hit the place. We’ll wait until they steal the ruby, then if I’m right, they’ll cut it down into smaller stones, only this stone will be embedded with small particles of radioactive material, so Meyers can go to the various jewelry stores with my new clicker box that David made per Claire’s memory of the box you confiscated and find out which one has radioactive jewelry.” She smiled with pride. “And all the credit goes to Meyers. We’ll have nothing to do with it.”
Xavier challenged her with his sassy right eyebrow. “I suspect Stone will want credit as well.”
Her eyes narrowed. “That depends of the quality of his apology,” she said and stormed into their office.
Evidently, Inspector Stone had been forced to make a very public apology. Tubs, Davy, their driver, and an older, well-dressed version of Barnacle, the street urchin, watched as Stone apologized to Jacko and L’il Pete. She turned and whispered in Xavier’s ear. “Did he insult “L’il Pete as well?”
Xavier shrugged and place his finger to his lips in the most polite “shut up and listen” gesture he’d ever managed.
“While none of this excuses what I did, or lessens the pain I caused, I am grievously sorry and assure you it will never happen again. While criminals generally do not change their stripes, Xavier and Vic took you in because you are not, nor ever were, a common criminal. When you decided to change and work for the side of justice and good, you committed to this change completely, and speaking for Scotland Yard, we are lucky to have you.” He glanced over at his audience of Tubs and Davy, both former criminals as well. “All of you.”
L’il Pete looked up at his father. “He sounds sorry to me.”
Jacko ruffled the boy’s out-of-control, curly black hair. “Think we should accept his apology and give him another chance?”
Nodding, L’il Pete revealed his double dimple grin.
“Then so be it.” Jacko held out his hand to Stone. “You are forgiven. None of us have been at our best with half the team missing, but they are back now, and we can start afresh.”
“Here, here,” Xavier said.
“Thank you,” Stone said to Jacko. “Would you by chance be available to inspect one of the houses burglarized?”
“It’ll be a waste of time,” Vic warned. “The maids will have cleaned away any evidence. However, Meyers has a great plan.” She then nodded for him to proceed.
Stone frowned when the captain revealed his plan. “This only works if they are cutting the gems. We don’t know if that is the case.”
Vic glanced at Meyers, then at Jacko, then back at Meyers.
He smiled once he realized what she was silently saying. “True, but once the theft occurs, Jacko will have a crime scene untouched by servants.”
“That’s true. Gregory will lock the room off. He loves to help Scotland Yard put the world to right,” Vic added.
“What if Jacko were to stay at your house and catch the thief in action?” Stone asked.
“No!” Vic, Jacko, and L’il Pete yelled in unison.
“If Alice were here, she’d say no as well,” Jacko added.
L’il Pete nodded, his eyes rounded with intense seriousness. “My pa and me are a team, and there is no way we will ever step foot in that house again.” He looked at Vic and grimaced. “Sorry, Vic.”
“I understand,” she assured him.
“My new mum don’t like Miss Claire neither,” the boy added.
“They don’t need to know that,” Jacko whispered.
“Oh…forget what I said,” Pete instructed Inspector Stone.
He nodded and smiled. “Then we’ll do it Vic’s way.”
“This is Captain Meyers’ plan,” Vic snapped.
Stone raised an eyebrow in challenge, but said nothing. Vic found it most annoying. Did he and Xavier attend the same eyebrow expression school?
“So Meyers, how soon can we begin?” Stone asked, no doubt certain his captain wouldn’t have a clue.
“Well, first we’ll need to get Vic’s sister to provide some radioactive material. I haven’t spoken to her yet, so I’m not certain how long that will take, but probably a few days. Then, I’ll need Tubs to take it to a jeweler to add to his mixture to make a fake jewel that looks authentic even to the eye of experts.”
Stone stared at Tubs with concern. “That can be done?”
Tubs nodded.
“Who is this jeweler?” Stone demanded.
Tubs shook his head and said nothing.
“And how long will it take?” Xavier asked, moving matters along.
Meyers smiled, clearly proud he knew the answer. “About a month, right Tubs?”
He nodded once.
“A month!” Stone said. “We need to solve this at once!”
Meyers nodded. “We’ll keep trying of course, but this is pretty much a sure bet, so it will be nice to have as our backup.”
“So how long until this backup becomes a sure thing?”
“Three months from now we should minimally have the jeweler involved and Jacko should have a clean crime scene to study. And the burglar could strike again, giving Jacko a chance to examine a crime scene before that.”
“Let’s hope we are both around to fulfill your plan,” Stone stated and stormed from the office. Meyers rushed out behind him.
The moment they were gone, L’il Pete declared himself off work. “Can I play with Cannon now?”
“Just watch your fingers, he bites,” Vic warned.
Tubs nodded. “If he starts growling, give him space.”
L’il Pete snorted. “I can handle Cannon. I’ve got two little brothers, you know.” With a definite swagger, he climbed the steps to hunt down the feral child.
Jacko watched him leave, his face full of love and pride.
Vic’s pleasure at seeing matters righted was marred by the sensation of someone glaring at her. She glanced up at Xavier, but he seemed pleased with the world. Then she checked out Davy. No, he seemed fine. Finally, she noticed the fancy pants beside him. Barnacle was giving her the evil eye.
“So Barnacle, I hear you handle Claire,” Vic said with just an edge of contempt in her voice. It was very hard to like someone who hated her with a passion, especially when she’d never done anything to him.
His eyes narrowed. “My name is Barnabas.”
“Ew…la…la,” Vic retorted and raised her own eyebrows in a challenge for him to say anything else.
“Enough,” Xavier warned. “Barnabas, come with me into my office.” When Vic tried to follow, he shook his head. “I’d rather speak to him alone.”
By the intensity of his glare, she knew she wasn’t getting into the room, so s
he saved face and retorted. “I have a great deal of important things to do.”
“Good. Get to them,” he replied then closed and locked the door on her.
She had a great desire to kick the damn door down, or better yet…
“Tubs, if I asked, would you kick this door down?”
“If you were in danger, I would. But just to scare a boy who is sick with jealousy, no. However, I do hope Mr. Thorn is sending him far away from here. That boy is no good.”
Patting her giant’s tree size arm, Vic asked, “Have I mentioned how much I like you?”
Tubs smiled, then frowned. “Not sure you should say that anymore. I’m a married man now.”
Vic chuckled. “That you are. Have I mentioned how much I like your wife?”
Jacko chuckled.
That drew Vic’s annoyance to him. “And you! Why did you bring back that street urchin? L’il Pete is a thousand times better than him.”
“Because I needed David Brown’s cleverness. The man is a walking compendium of knowledge.”
That was true. David had been her roommate at Oxford and he always had a penchant for learning and sharing odd facts. When Claire had finally given up her servant lover, Vic introduced her to David and they fell instantly in love and married soon after.
Vic had hoped this would improve Claire’s disposition, but honestly, her sister became more difficult with every year that passed.
“Let me guess. David would only help you if Claire got to play in the sand pile too.”
Jacko nodded. “After all the stunts she pulled, trying to steal L’il Pete from me, claiming my documents forged, that Pete was her biological son—“
“What?” Vic yelped.
“There were other claims, much worse,” he snapped, anger causing his jaw to tighten, which oddly made him even more handsome than he normally was. “Her lies might have worked, but Gregory refused to corroborate her claims of my perpetrating indecent behavior with Pete while he stayed at her house.”
Was there nothing that Claire would not do to get her way?
“Well, you’re a better man than I. If she had done that to me, hell would have frozen over before I let her back in my sand pile.”
“As I said, I needed David,” he grumbled.
“So what else has happened?” she asked.
“Ben’s gone,” Davy added.
“What? Why? Where?” Vic demanded, upset she’d failed to yet notice that their happy, good-natured secretary wasn’t in the room.
Jacko ran his hand through his long hair. “Barnacle and he didn’t get along.”
“So you fired Ben? What the bloody hell were you thinking?”
“I didn’t fire him, he quit.”
“Because of Barnacle,” she said, certain that was the reason.
“He didn’t say…he just failed to show up one day.”
A giant lump of trouble landed in her stomach. “When?”
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Jacko stated.
“Well, I’m not! Ben would never just stop showing up. What day did he go missing?”
“A week ago, I guess,” Jacko said with a shrug.
She stormed towards the stupid pirate. “A week? Ben’s been missing for a week and you’ve done nothing?”
Davy spoke up. “I’ve driven about, trying to find him. No luck there. I spoke to his landlady. She was going to sell his belongings since the rent was a day past, so I paid her a pound and brought it all here.”
“Let me see it,” Vic demanded and glared at Jacko for failing Ben.
“It’s in my room,” Davy said.
When she stormed upstairs, the first thing she heard were Pete and Cannon playing in the kitchen. She poked her head in to ensure no knives were involved. They had a ball and Sara watched over them, so she hurried to Davy’s door and smacked into it when it wouldn’t open.
She turned and stared at their grumpy driver. “Since when do you lock your door?”
“Since I caught Barnacle in my room,” he grumbled.
“Did you mention that to Jacko?” she asked.
Davy huffed. “Nobody’s been in a mood to listen to me. It’s just ‘take me here, why isn’t the carriage ready, pick up the pace.’” He unlocked the door and went to the closet, pulling out a wooden box, half full. “Next time you and Xavier leave, you need to take me with you. And close this office. Jacko just made of mess of things.”
“Besides hiring Barnacle and Claire, what else has gone wrong?” Vic asked.
Davy sat on his bed. “I wouldn’t even know where to begin. I’m serious. Next time you have to take me too. And Ben…if he’s still alive.”
He had just spoken her worst fear. Ben would never just stop showing up. Never. She had saved him from Dragon’s Cloud. And while he had a mother somewhere off in the country, the woman had married the sheriff who had sent Ben’s father to prison where the poor fellow died soon after, all for shooting a damn pigeon. She could not imagine Ben returning to his mother.
She slowly went through the items in the box: a man’s hairbrush, five Sherlock Holmes short stories, cut from a magazine and bound into a self-made book, hair gel, shoe polish and a stained cloth.
“He didn’t go visit his mother in the country or the hairbrush and gel would have gone with him.”
Opening one of the Sherlock Holmes book, she flipped through it. The margins were filled with tiny print commenting on Holmes’s deductive techniques. “He wants to be a detective.”
The discovery stabbed her to the core. She’d assumed Xavier had conscripted Ben to protect her while she went in disguise to determine who had killed L’il Pete’s mom, but looking at these observations, she now wondered if Ben hadn’t requested the assignment.
Other than assuring her Ben had not quit, the box offered no other clues. But a lack of clues never deterred her. “When did you find Barnacle in your room?”
“A week ago.”
“Before or after you brought home this box?”
Davy thumped his head. “The same day I brought it home. He asked me what was in the box, and I said Ben’s stuff.” Davy shook his head. “That’s why he was in my room.”
Vic nodded. “He feared there was something in this box that would point to him.”
“I should have made the connection,” he muttered. “Maybe then Jacko would have done something.”
“No, it’s better you waited. Jacko would have simply asked Barnacle why he was in your room and then warned him not to do it again.”
She reached over and gripped Davy’s hand. “Barnacle thinks he’s safe. No one mentioned Ben in his presence. If ever there will be a day for the cretin to return to the crime scene and gloat over his success, it will be today when he leaves Xavier’s office.”
Tubs spoke from the door. “He just left. Shall I follow him?”
Chapter 11
With a yelp, Vic flew from Davy’s room, down the stairs, past Xavier, and out the back door. Tubs and Davy followed. She turned left. Seeing Xavier had also joined the pack, she pointed right. “We are tracking Barnacle. Davy, fill him as you two go right.”
“Tubs, with me,” she added and ran full speed down the alley. When they reached the end, she crouched low to the ground and waited as she stared down the side street to St. George Street.
“Come on, Barnacle…” she chanted.
She pulled back the moment she saw him briskly moving up the street. “He’s ours,” she said with excitement as she headed down the side road that ran parallel to St George Street. While she couldn’t hear footfalls or breathing from her giant friend, her sense of safety assured her Tubs was with her.
“I’ll check this time,” Tubs offered and stood on a stone by the corner, making him nearly eight feet tall. “He’s remaining straight.”
A new voice spoke behind them. “Since I gave him a sizable amount of money, he should be going to the Bank of England to deposit it,” Xavier said. “Davy is readying the carriage and should be by any moment.
We can get in front of Barnacle and track his progress. He’s spending a great deal of time watching his backside. He won’t expect us to be in front of him.”
“Did Davy get you up to speed?” Vic asked.
“I hope you have more than what he explained. However, I want Ben returned, so we will go wherever your intuition leads, evidence, or the lack thereof, be damned.”
Vic flashed him a look of pure love, then returned to spying on Barnacle. A whistle sounded behind them.
“Ah, our ride is here,” Xavier said.
They hurried down the alley and jumped in as Davy drove as fast as he dared on the narrow side road.
“Evidence please,” Xavier said, as if asking for tea.
“Ben went missing a week ago, but Jacko made the stupid assumption he’d quit without notice because Ben and Barnacle didn’t get along.”
Xavier sighed. “Unfortunately, Jacko doesn’t know Ben, so he made a wrong assumption. And why do you believe Barnacle is involved?”
“Because Davy, who does know Ben, went looking for him. When he inquired with the landlady of Ben’s room, she said he’d disappeared and since his rent was past due, she’d be selling his personal items. Davy paid her a pound and took the box home.”
“That was well done of him,” Xavier said.
Vic nodded in agreement. “Barnacle questioned him about the box, learning it was Ben’s. Later that day, Davy caught Barnacle snooping in his room where he had stored the box.”
Xavier sighed. “Certainly, sufficient to warrant following him. But what do you expect to achieve?”
“Neither of us made mention of Ben’s absence today. I am hoping that gives Barnacle the confidence to return to the scene of the crime.”
His met her eyes. “Then you believe Ben is dead?”
“I hope not. Perhaps he’s being held captive. If so, Barnacle will go to him and gloat how we didn’t even know he was missing.”
He looked at Tubs. “What do you think?”
“I’ve seen boys like Barnacle in the docks. They advance in the ranks by killing off those in their way. Ben’s probably dead, but Vic’s in his sights now. If he don’t hang for killing Ben, then I’ll stop him before Vic can be harmed.”
“In our conversation, I attempted to heighten his value and diminish Vic’s—“
Pack of Trouble (The Adventures of Xavier & Vic Book 5) Page 10
