Under the Dragon’s Tail
- Автор: Jennings Maureen
- Серия: The Murdoch Mysteries #2
- Год: 2008
- Язык: английский
- Год: McClelland & Stewart
- ISBN: 9781551992815
- Жанр: Исторические детективы
Электронная книга - «Under the Dragon’s Tail». Краткое содержание книги:
Women rich and poor come to her, desperate and in dire need of help – and discretion. Dolly Merishaw is a midwife and an abortionist in Victorian Toronto, but although she keeps quiet about her clients' condition, her contempt for them and her greed leaves every one of them resentful and angry. So it comes as no surprise to Detective William Murdoch when this malicious woman is murdered. What is a shock, though, is that a week later a young boy is found dead in Dolly's squalid kitchen. Now, Murdoch isn't sure if he's hunting one murderer – or two. From the Paperback edition.
They hung up. Crabtree was standing at the counter that divided the room. Murdoch was aware suddenly that the big man seemed to take every opportunity to remain standing. He walked over to him.
“Crabtree, a word in your ear.”
He whispered his question so none of the other constables could hear. Crabtree flushed but he nodded.
“Yes, sir. For almost two weeks.”
Murdoch asked him another question and again he nodded, shamefaced.
“Quite painful if the truth be told, sir.”
Murdoch passed on the druggist’s recommendation.
“You can get the stuff at–”
Suddenly the outer door slammed open. The young woman who burst in was dressed in startlingly garish and indecorous clothes. A couple of old men who had come to complain about each other stared open-mouthed, and the constables at the duty desk lit up with excitement. Annie Brogan was in her stage costume.
She saw Murdoch and came over to him.
“I need to talk to you. In private.” Her previously flirtatious manner had quite vanished and she seemed oblivious of the leering men.
“Of course. This way, please.” He paused. Annie looked quite exhausted. “Can I get you a cup of tea?” he added.
A strange expression crossed her face and Murdoch didn’t realize at first that she had forced back tears.
“Thank you. That’s kind. I could do with one.”
“I’ll bring it in, sir,” said Crabtree.
Murdoch ushered Annie through the passageway to his cubicle.
“You’ll have to not mind my clothes. I haven’t had a chance to change since I did my show.”
“What’s the matter?”
“I’ve been with my sister at the general hospital for the last eight hours.” She bit her lip. “I thought I’d lost her.”
They were interrupted by Crabtree with a mug of tea. She took it and managed a vestige of her old smile. She gulped some down.
“Ouch! It’s hot.” But she drank some more, greedily. Murdoch waited. She drained back the tea, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. She’d rubbed away most of the colouring from her eyelids and she seemed more vulnerable, younger even.
“I’ll get to the point. Last night, about one o’clock, somebody came into my house and drugged my sister, Mildred–”
“Drugged?”
“Chloroform. I didn’t get home until almost two.” She glanced away from him. “I was dining with a friend of mine. I keep late hours. Anyway when I came in, there was Millie half on the bed and half on the floor.” She paused, struggling for self-control. “She was so white and still, I thought she was dead. Thanks be to God, she’s not. I managed to get her sitting up and she started to come around.”
In fact, Annie had stuck her fingers down Millie’s throat until she vomited all over both of them.
“What happened?”
“She doesn’t know. All she remembers is hearing somebody come into the room – thought it was me and didn’t want to admit she was awake, nocky bint. Then this stinking cloth was over her face. It was chloroform for sure. She still reeked of it.”
“Any idea who did it?”
“Could I have another cuppa char, Mr. Murdoch? I’m parched.”
“I’ll get you one in a minute.” He knew she was stalling and he didn’t want to lose her. “Is your sister all right now?”
Annie looked away again. “Yes. Millie wasn’t forced or anything like that. She’ll live.”
“So who was it?” he repeated. “What did they want?”
“Who I don’t know. Why is probably to take something of mine.”
“What?”
She retreated, sipped the last of her tea, then came back to her resolve.
“A book. An album – this is the truth now and I don’t care if it gets me into trouble. It was me your man saw going into Dolly’s house the night she was stiffened – and I didn’t do it so get that out of your mind.”
“It wasn’t in.”
“Yes, well. You were right, I went there to get something for Millie. I knew Dolly from before, and she would give you stuff like that. For a price of course. A high price.”
“And did she?”
“Yes.” She hesitated, trying to step on the stones and not in the quicksand. She intended to tell Murdoch only what suited her. “I bought what I came for, but she took out this autograph album. It was pretty, blue leather and gold letters. When her back was turned I nicked it.”
“And somebody came to your house, almost killed your sister, and stole this book and nothing else?”
“Yes.”
“Why? Why would they go to the trouble of chloroforming a woman for an album, however gold the letters? You can go to a fancy goods store on King Street and buy a dozen. You can order them from Sears catalogue. This is a bit extreme wouldn’t you say?”
She shrugged. “People are mad as mice sometimes. I can’t explain what’s in the klep’s mind.”
“Annie, come on. This is horse plop, as you call it.”
Annie began to play with a thread on her skirt. In another situation she would have turned it into something coy but now she just looked like a child trying to find a way out of trouble.
“Miss Brogan! Annie! Look at me! I’m real sorry for what happened to your sister, but I can’t do anything about it unless you stop giving me the runaround. Besides, I happen to know what was special about that album.”
“You do, do you?”
“Dolly Shaw told her neighbour that it was her record book. She called it a record of the sins of the world.”
Annie scowled. “Did she now?”
“What was in it really?”
“I suppose you could call it that, I wouldn’t. There’s lots of girls get caught. And they’re the ones who pay, not the gassers.” Her voice was bitter. “Dolly Shaw never asked questions. She was a good midwife, mind you, but it was discretion you paid the muck for. And it’s true. She did write everything in her sodding album. Names and dates. I saw her.”
“When was that?”
“Doesn’t matter. A long time ago.”
“Did Dolly try to put the squeeze on you? Some dosh in exchange for silence?”
“You have to be pulling it. I’m already a Jezebel in the eyes of the world. Who’d care if there were more dilberries to be seen on my arse?”
“You are mentioned, though?”
“I didn’t say so.”
“Why’d you steal the book, then?”
“I had my reasons, but they don’t concern you.”
“They might.”
“I wasn’t planning to put the touch on the poor tits who fell into her clutches, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I wasn’t.”
Annie stared at him, trying to read his expression, then she said, “All right. What else do you want to know?”
“Who knew the album was in your possession?”
“I don’t know. My sister saw it but that’s all.”
“Was Dolly aware you’d nicked it?”
Annie laughed. “She wasn’t dead yet. She had to know, seeing she was clutching it to her bosom when we had our dustup. I snatched it out from her.”
“This is the truth now? You had a quarrel?”
“That’s it.”
“What about?”
“It’s not relevant.”
Murdoch let that go, trying to play the line gently.
“Somebody must have come soon after you left. Dolly might have told them you had the book.”
“Hey, do I hear right? What you just said could be construed as a belief in my innocence.”
“That’s my assumption at the moment.”
She grinned again. “When you come to the Derby and said she was dead, I thought I was the one as killed her. She fell down, you see, when I grabbed the book. She was drunk to her top knot. I could hear her moaning when I left so I was pretty certain she was still quick, but you gave me a heart-stopper for a minute. It was a great relief to me that the old sod was suffocated, God forgive me.”