by Thomas, Will
“I would speak with Mr. Soft.”
The man changed in an instant. It was like the Arabian Nights when Ali Baba said Open sesame.
“Right this way, sirs. Do follow me. Watch your step.”
With his encouragement, Barker and I squeezed through the narrow door and followed him down a corridor. The fellow led us to a door and even knocked on it for us.
“Mr. Soft, you have a couple of visitors.”
“Thank you, Cinders,” a voice said, and the door opened slowly as the guard departed. A small, mouselike man stood there, blinking at us with nervous, oversized eyes. He had a swath of curling, near colorless hair and a small mustache after the manner of Swinburne, and I noticed one of his arms was withered, the hand folded in his pocket.
“Mr. … ah, Mr. Barker, isn’t it?” the man said in a high, reedy voice.
“You have a good memory, sir.”
“You are difficult to forget, sir. You have need of my property?”
“I do, indeed.”
“When will you require it?”
“Tomorrow evening, if it is free. I apologize for the short notice.”
Mr. Soft walked over to a writing desk and pulled out a memoranda book. He flipped pages for a moment and then spoke again.
“You are in luck, Mr. Barker. It is free. What are your requirements?”
“I should like to have a table and chairs to seat six or so with lamps enough to see.”
“To see or to read?”
“Merely to see, I think. Some food would be in order, as well.”
The man was writing down the information in the book with his good hand. “Very good, very good. Is that all?”
“That and complete deniability, of course.”
“Of course.”
“What is your rate these days?”
“With everything, I’d say twenty pounds would do.”
“Then we have an understanding. Half up front, as always?”
“You remembered,” the little man said. He was little, even to me, barely reaching five feet tall.
“Pay the man half, lad.”
Reluctantly, I pulled out Barker’s wallet and handed over ten pounds. As his assistant, I wanted to know exactly what sort of room he was paying for but was too polite to ask.
“Your young gentleman seems fair burning with curiosity,” he noted.
“I must admit,” Barker said, “that I’d like to see the property again myself.”
Mr. Soft pocketed the currency and opened his door. “I say, Cinders! Could you come in here for a moment? Gentlemen, this is Cinders Hardy.”
The slovenly guard returned. Soft and Hardy, I thought. They had to be joking.
“These gentlemen wish to see the property.”
“Right,” Mr. Hardy said blandly. Whatever it was he did, he must do it every day, for his work had obviously lost its mystery. “Come this way.”
Mr. Hardy led us down the narrow corridor and into another room. It was a dining room, with a table and four chairs around it, all rather the worse for wear. Surely this was not the most secure spot in London. Tatty perhaps, but not secure.
“If you gentlemen would be so good,” Mr. Soft said. With Hardy’s aid, we moved the table and chairs off the carpet, which, with practiced ease, the guard proceeded to roll up. There was a large trapdoor, large enough to accommodate the entire table. As I watched, Hardy seized the inset ring and lifted the trap. Below, all I could see was inky darkness and a ladder going down.
As I watched, the guard pulled a farthing from his pocket and flipped it into the hole. Eventually, I heard it strike stone. We were over some sort of chasm.
“What in the—?” I asked.
Mr. Hardy held a fat and none too clean finger to his lips, as if we were about to enter a holy place, then picked up a lantern, lit it, and gripped the handle with his teeth before beginning to descend.
“Your turn,” Mr. Soft urged me. “I don’t go down, I’m afraid. My affliction.”
Reluctantly I stepped onto the ladder. It seemed sturdy enough. In fact, it was bolted to the side. Slowly, I descended, with Hardy below me and the Guv above. There was a feeling of immense space and a damp, musty smell in the air. The rungs seemed to go on forever and my calves began to cramp before I finally put a foot on ground again. The ladder was bolted to the floor as well. Looking up, the opening was a mere square of light, remote in the heavens.
A table much like the one above was here, along with several chairs. Hardy lit two lamps on the table, which provided pools of illumination in the overall gloom.
“What is this place?” I asked, and heard my voice echo in the expanse.
“An abandoned railway tunnel,” Barker explained, stepping down onto terra firma. “It’s been cut off on both sides. Didn’t I say this is the most private place in London?”
“Why was it abandoned?” I asked.
“One railway company buys up another,” Mr. Hardy explained, “and makes new plans. The present one felt a line going into the East End was unprofitable and so here we are.”
“You own it?”
“Not really. Technically, it is in receivership. However, it was Mr. Soft who thought to burrow down to it and make use of the property and me what done the burrowing.”
“It was quite a feat,” Barker said. “Mr. Hardy is being modest. Each section of ladder had to be carried down and bolted to the one above it, while hanging upside down.”
Hardy attempted to conceal his pride. “The important thing is it got done.”
“And what sort of meetings do you have here?” I asked. Both men gave me a condescending look. I shouldn’t have asked. “Sorry.”
“Will this be suitable for your needs, sir?”
“Admirably, Mr. Hardy. It’s always an impressive sight. I think we’ll have privacy here. But what about you, aboveground?”
“I’ve got three stout bars to put behind the outer door. Her Majesty’s Horse Guards couldn’t bust their way in. There’s a private egress if you require one. You have any persons causing you annoyance, Mr. Barker?”
“Aye. Sicilians.”
“They won’t get in here, that’s a promise.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Barker said, and began climbing again.
I followed him up the ladder. It was better perhaps that I was surrounded by near perfect darkness. If I’d seen how high I was from the floor I might have frozen to the ladder in fear.
Finally, I reached the top rungs and Barker helped me out. I tried to act nonchalant, but my heart was hammering in my chest.
“What did you think of our little den?” Mr. Soft asked me.
It took a few seconds to realize he was serious. He was very proud of his “property,” and I’m sure he and Mr. Hardy lived rather well on the proceeds of their little enterprise. There must be various members of the underworld who required such a secret and impregnable room. I didn’t think Mr. Soft and Mr. Hardy were very particular about to whom they rented or for what purpose, as long as the money was paid, half up front, half afterward.
I’ve been down many a mine shaft in my time, though not as often as my brothers, who became miners, but I was not prepared for the cold, clammy feeling that came over me a minute or two after I’d resurfaced. Perhaps it was the exertion, or the change from open chamber to close, stuffy room, but I broke out in a sweat all over, and couldn’t help but jump when it rolled down my spine.
“It always does that the first time,” Mr. Soft reassured me.
“Tomorrow, then,” Barker said, bowing to the little man.
“We shall have everything at your disposal,” he said. “Mr. Hardy, do show these gentlemen to the door.”
A minute later we were in the dirty lane again, though this time I was aware we were standing over an immense chasm. Were we to experience a cataclysm such as the one that had occurred in mythological Atlantis, or more recently in Krakatoa, we would be dashed to our deaths a hundred feet below. One shiver of the e
arth’s crust and it would all be over for this little street in the East End, not that it would be much of a loss.
“Do you think the members of our little group shall be impressed?” Barker asked me.
“I don’t know about impressed,” I replied, “but I doubt they shall forget it.”
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24
OURS IS A SHORT AND NARROW ALLEY, OPENING into a rectangular courtyard where the telephone exchange is located. There are other enquiry agents’ offices in the street, as well as a branch of Cox and Company, where Barker does some of his banking. Save a narrow gate at the back of the court, which is generally locked, there is no way of escape. That means that should anyone choose to step in our front door, we would have to go out the back into our private yard and over the wall. Barker is no Soho Vic, however, and would stand and fight rather than escape. During a recent case, a fellow had entered our chambers wielding a saber. I wondered what would happen if someone came in with a loaded shotgun, like the one that killed Victor Gigliotti.
I thought this not because I was in one of my maudlin moods but because a man walked into our offices and I suddenly felt like a rat caught in a trap. It was the hokeypokey man we had seen on the street outside our residence. Were I a betting man, I would have put money that he was Marco Faldo. Jenkins invited him to wait and came to announce our visitor. Our clerk, who enjoyed proper form as much as Mac, carried a carte de visite on a salver. Did the man have the effrontery to present one that proclaimed “Marco Faldo, late of Palermo”? The Guv scooped it off the tray and scrutinized it. Then he tapped the card against his lower lip as if gathering his thoughts before instructing Jenkins to let the visitor in.
The Italian who had regaled us recently entered in a more somber mood than before. Up close, the lines in his forehead and around his eyes were more evident. His hair was thinner than I had first perceived, and it was possible he dyed it, for the line between the black and the gray of his temples was too severe. He was older than I had thought. Our visitor seemed tired and dispirited and sank down into the chair in front of Barker without a word, and without any display of firearms.
“Good afternoon, sir,” Barker said. “This is my assistant, Thomas Llewelyn. Thomas, this is Vincenzo Gigliotti.”
“Gigliotti!” I cried.
“At your service,” the man replied with quiet dignity.
“Would you care for a cigar, sir?” Barker offered.
He shook his head. “No, thank you. I don’t wish to intrude. I understand you are planning a confrontation with the Sicilians.”
“Have you come, sir,” Barker rumbled, “to claim vendetta against the people who killed your son?”
“I am sixty-eight years old, Mr. Barker, and have retired from the life of secret societies and murder. My son attempted to draw me back into it in order to stop these Sicilians, and look where it got him. His children have no father now, and Concetta is a widow.”
“Why were you selling Italian ices outside our home, Mr. Gigliotti?” Barker asked.
“My grandson Alonzo and I were watching you, for your protection. Victor asked me to keep an eye on you. He said you are a good detective, but your weakness is your personal safety. He did not want you to be killed before your plan was carried out.”
I thought of Philippa Ashleigh, who had said much the same thing about my employer. I had to admit, he had more scars on his body than any five men I knew combined. He trusted his ability to fight his way out of any situation.
“I had other men in the area if I needed them,” the old man continued, “even two watching overnight, should the Sicilians attempt to attack then.”
“I thank you for your concern, since I can no longer thank Victor. Was it you who stopped the intruder on my grounds?”
“Yes. We caught the fellow two streets away. That’s one less Sicilian to worry about. Your young man here seemed very comfortable with the dagger.”
“Maestro Gallenga trained him.”
The Italian gave a wan smile. “Ah, Gallenga, yes. He’s gone, you know. He got out of town quickly once the bullets began to fly.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“He and his wife left the city. He wished to spend his remaining years in peace. He never had much of a stomach for violence.”
I didn’t either, I had to admit, but I didn’t have that luxury in my line of work.
“What brings you to my office?” my employer asked.
Vincenzo Gigliotti moved forward in his chair and leaned an elbow on Barker’s desk. “I have come to find out what you will do, Mr. Barker. I do not thirst for revenge. That is for young men. Yet even now the Sicilians threaten my family’s livelihood. I wish to run my son’s business interests until such time as Alonzo is full grown and can assume his rightful position. I don’t want to see it driven into the ground by Sicilians. Also, I wish to see the killers of my son brought to justice.”
“Our wishes are the same, then,” Barker said. “I also want to see the Italians and Sicilians at peace again.”
“You go to war in order to make peace? You have an odd way of doing things, Mr. Barker.”
“If I crush the serpent’s head, Mr. Gigliotti, then I need not crush the whole snake. I need something from you that you will have a hard time giving me.”
“You have but to name it.”
“What I want from you, sir, is to stay out of it completely. I don’t want a single Italian on the dock tomorrow night.”
Gigliotti’s face grew red, and his eyes nearly bulged from their sockets.
“Do you trust me?” Barker went on. “Do you see that unless the Sicilians face a completely English force, it will only lead to more vendettas? The only way to stop the Mafia is to cut it off from the Italian community, to isolate it like a contagion, and to destroy the germ itself. Then the Sicilians can go back to their normal commerce and begin to make peace with the Italians.”
“Are you dictating terms, Mr. Barker?”
“At this time, with Victor’s organization in disarray, I could,” Barker admitted, “but I have no desire to. You may handle this entire situation yourself if you wish. I would gladly hand it over to you. But if you wish me to do it, I must have a free hand, and I will not make use of the Camorrans. I consider them to be a criminal organization and won’t associate this agency with them.”
Gigliotti sat tight-lipped for a moment, red to the scalp. It occurred to me that the old man was probably the head of the Camorran secret society in London now and that what Barker said was something of an insult. It also occurred to me that Hooligan’s men were as much criminals as the Italian fraternity, but they had passed through Barker’s sieve.
“Victor said your word is your bond. Will you kill this man who has murdered my son?”
“I will see him brought to justice,” Barker said. “Beyond that, I will not promise. I’m not an assassin.”
Gigliotti took a cigar out of the case and bit off the tip.
“You won’t kill him. Serafini is dead. There is never an assassin around when you need one.” He lit the cigar and puffed a plume of smoke with a sigh. “Very well, if it is the best you can offer. All I wanted was to have a few years of peace before I die. Now this!”
“Most regrettable, sir,” Barker agreed.
“My boy,” he muttered suddenly. “My wonderful boy.” It was as if his mask had slipped and we could see the grief behind it. He cleared his throat and mastered himself once again. “I must get back. I have to plan a funeral for my only son.” He stood and began to leave. Hesitating at the door, he turned and frowned at Barker.
“Find him,” he ordered.
“I will.”
I couldn’t help but think it was easier said than done.
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27
THE SUN WAS STARTING TO SET WHEN WE ARRIVED at South Ea
st India Dock. We stood on the dock, surrounded on two sides by warehouses and on the other two by the bristling masts of anchored ships. Narrow alleyways separated one warehouse from another, and cargo was stacked in crates or in odd shapes covered with canvas, dotting the terrain like small mountains. A mass of men, mostly young, milled about at the south end, getting to know each other by sight. I estimated there were close to a hundred of us.
“Are they ready?” Barker asked Tillett.
“Ready enough. They’re untested, of course, but they’re spoiling for a fight.”
“Have you seen any pistols?”
“No, but I’m not about to start searching them, especially not Hooligan’s men.”
“Point them out to me,” Barker said in a low voice, appraising the crowd.
“That big one there,” Tillett said, pointing out a tall, gangly man with his head shorn close like a convict. “And him,” he continued, indicating a young man with red hair and evil-looking features, who out of sheer fierceness had torn off the sleeves of his coat and shirt. “Those two,” he continued, pointing to a pair of sharp-featured persons, apparently siblings, “and him,” he finished, indicating a large African in a checked suit and cloth cap who stood apart with the hauteur of a panther.
“Is that all? Just the five?”
“No, there are more, but the rest are dispersed among mine. There are thirty or so.”
“How many in all?”
“A hundred fifteen, give or take half a dozen.”
Barker nodded. “Not bad. How are they getting along?”
“Well enough, except for your Frenchmen.”
“The Dummolard boys? What’s the problem?”
“They’ve chosen a crate over there as their base of operations and won’t take orders from me or anyone.”
“You’ve done good work. Let me handle our apache friends.”
Barker moved among the crowd, encouraging them as he went. This was a side of him I hadn’t seen before, his military side. I knew he’d seen action in China with Gordon during the Taiping Rebellion.
