Antidote To Murder (17 page)

“Yes, I do, unless you convince me otherwise. I think you distracted the admiral and then poisoned him to allow your accomplice to steal the contents of his briefcase. Perhaps you didn’t mean to poison him, perhaps you didn’t know quite how lethal the strychnine was—”

“He took the tablets himself!” she screamed, tugging at her chain like a wild beast. “After smoking the pipe!”

“Why would someone deliberately poison himself with strychnine? It’s a ghastly way to die, agonising.”

“
Ach
, I don’t know, I don’t know.”

Pike paused and regarded her coolly. “You can’t be very impressed with your accomplice, leaving you to take the blame for all this.”

“What are you talking about? I have no accomplice.” Her eyes welled with tears and her face took on such an overwhelming look of misery that his softer side almost believed her.

But she was a performer, he reminded himself. “I’ll give you some time to think this over,” he said. “Take her to the cells at the Yard,” he said to the sergeant.

Chapter Twenty

T
he sisters removed their veils as soon as they were clear of the mob of agitators and walked through the faded grandeur of Bloomsbury to Museum Station where they caught the underground train to Aldgate. As far as Dody knew, Florence had not visited the East End since her terrifying pursuit by a deranged killer the previous year. They linked arms, Florence thrusting her rolled parasol before them like a lance, and stuck to the longer, safer route towards the High Street, avoiding the gloomy maze of winding streets to the left and right, though they might have got them to their destination quicker.

Two hundred years earlier, Huguenot refugees had established the area as a centre for silk manufacturing, but during the previous century the domestic industry had suffered such decline that it was now almost nonexistent. The fine terraced houses and mansions belonging to the master weavers had deteriorated into smoky slums and penny lodging houses, and the precinct was now a rookery of crime and depravity.

They passed the dripping water pump at the junction of Fenchurch and Leadenhall Streets, where people queued with buckets. Approaching the High Street, they glimpsed the tall white steeple of Christ Church rising above the slums of Commercial Road—the detached finger of God, heedless to what went on below. The parks were closed at night and sleeping in the streets was illegal, so the homeless had no choice but to walk all night and sleep in the parks by day. In her mind’s eye Dody saw the street women, many of whom she treated at the Clinic, dozing beneath yew trees or stretched out upon the benches of “Itchy Park,” their children swarming around or playing knucklebones with grave pebbles.

Florence relaxed her grip on her parasol when they approached the comparative safety of the High Street. A street stall outside Borislav’s shop attracted her attention, and she began rummaging through piles of secondhand clothing.

“We’re organising a fancy dress ball to raise funds for the movement; I might find something suitable in here,” she said.

Dody was relieved at Florence’s distraction, though the sallow-faced vendor didn’t seem too impressed at having her stock of practical clothing labelled “fancy dress.” Reluctant to let her sister know just how unwell she was feeling, Dody wanted time alone in the chemist’s. The meat juice didn’t seem to be working and she needed something stronger.

To her surprise, she discovered the
CLOSED
sign hanging on the shop’s front door. She cupped her eyes to the glass. Looking beyond the garish bottles of coloured water, she caught some movement and recognised Borislav’s nephew, Joseph, sweeping the shop floor.

Dody banged on the window and waved to get his attention. Joseph propped up his broom and opened the door a cautious crack. When he saw who it was, he flung it wide and ushered her in. Something crunched beneath her feet. She looked down to see the floor awash with sticky substances, scattered powders, and broken glass.

“My goodness, what’s happened here?” she asked. “It looks as though an elephant’s been let loose in the place.”

Joseph scowled, and slammed the head of the broom onto the ground. “We were robbed, that’s what. After taking what they wanted from the back room, they decided to leave a calling card.” He pointed to the debris then started pushing it towards another pile already waiting at the wall for disposal. “Could be worse, I suppose. At least the old man wasn’t hurt too badly.”

“Mr. Borislav?” Dody had assumed the break-in had been at night when the shop was unattended. She looked towards the counter with concern.

“He’s all right, Dr. McCleland; he’s in the back room making an inventory of what was stolen.”

She found Borislav sitting on a high stool at his workbench, adding the final touch to a list of supplies. An angry bruise was evident on the chemist’s forehead as soon as he looked up.

She rushed to his side. “That looks nasty; let me put something on it.”

Borislav gave a dismissive wave. “Don’t fuss, Dorothy. Joseph has done enough of that for both of you.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing that has not happened before, only this is the first time I’ve caught them at it. It’s the drugs, you see; they always want the drugs. A couple of roughs came into my shop this morning just before I opened up, when the streets were still quiet. They forced me into the dispensing room, where I gave them what they wanted. Regardless, they still left me with a bump on the head and a smashed-up shop.”

“You called the police?”

“Yes, and they asked me to write a list of what was taken.”

Dody glanced over his shoulder at the list: morphine and raw opiates, strychnine, arsenic, medicinal brandy, as well as various ingredients and suspension agents used in the manufacture of tablets. She waited for more commentary from Borislav, but none came. Whoever stole these drugs must know what to do with them. Many of the items were raw and useless on their own without some kind of mixing or manufacture.

She considered this for a moment. “Could these have been used for the manufacture of lead tablets?”

“I don’t even stock lead,” he said impatiently, pointing to his list. “As you see, lead is not on my list.”

“But some of the ingredients, such as the suspensions, could be used in the tablets’ manufacture.”

Borislav sighed and said wearily, “No mention was made of lead by the police or by me, Dorothy.”

Dody realised what he was thinking, that she was attempting to use his misfortune to somehow reverse her own. In his opinion, the two events were barely related. Or were they? Perhaps, but this was not the time for an interrogation.

With no further probing from Dody, he said, “I got a good look at the men, though, and gave the police their description. One was short and swarthy, the other tall with a long unkempt beard. They warned me not to go to the police.”

Dody smiled. “Which only strengthened your resolve.” This was so like Borislav. “Please, let me look at your injury.”

“If you insist.” He huffed, but closed his eyes and allowed Dody to tip back his head. In the middle of the discoloured lump she spied a small streak of grazed skin.

“What did they use?”

“A wooden spar of some kind.”

“You were lucky.” Her gaze automatically dropped to his forearms. “Any defensive injuries? Please, roll up your sleeves.”

“My arms are fine. It happened so quickly,” Borislav said. “One held my arms behind my back as the other struck, giving me no time to ward off the blow at all.”

“Thank heavens they only struck you once.”

The chemist nodded and rubbed a hand across his tired face. “But look, Dorothy, I have a lot to do here, and I’m sure you did not pop in to hear my troubles or pass the time of day. Do you require something for the Clinic?”

“No, I will pay for this myself. Are you able to mix me up a powder of citrate of potash and bicarbonate of soda? I’m happy to do it myself if you tell me where you keep the ingredients.”

“Someone has a stomach complaint?”

“Yes.” Dody did not wish to elaborate.

“Leave it to me.” He stood, reeling slightly. Hearing voices from the shop floor, he glanced in the mirror angled towards the front door. “It seems that Joseph is being distracted by yet another young lady,” he said with some irritation.

“That will be Florence, my sister. Why don’t you come out and meet her?”

He touched his head. “No, if you don’t mind, I’m not feeling particularly sociable today. Pop back in half an hour and collect your medicine, eh?”

* * *

T
he sisters recommenced their journey down the High Street. When they came to the fishmonger’s, they held hands and counted like schoolgirls—“One . . . two . . . three!”—and dashed through a swarm of flies hovering around the gutbuckets waiting for collection by the cats’-meat man.

There were few motor vehicles puttering about the East End. They crossed the side street, dodging horse-drawn vehicles and handcarts and entered the Clinic from the High Street side, pushing their way through a queue of destitute women. A visit to the doctor was an unaffordable luxury for the unemployed, and Dody felt a surge of pride that she and a handful of female doctors had at least made medical care possible for some.

The sisters blocked their ears to the profanity-laced protests at their queue jumping and arrived at the tall admissions desk.

Daphne Hamilton looked with surprise at the two well-dressed women below her.

“I’d like you to put this up on the notice board, please, Daphne, but make sure you also inform potential attendees verbally.” Dody handed the nurse a notice she had drawn up during the sleepless hours of the early morning, informing the patients at the Clinic that she would be available for Friday evening consultations as usual. Also, that Tuesday evening lectures on health and hygiene were pending.

Florence raised an eyebrow to Daphne. When she received nothing but a shrug in return, she folded her arms as if to say she expected this kind of plan from her sister, but surely not her friend as well. Dody felt tempted to leave her there while she attended to the rest of the day’s business, but she was not that cruel. She knew too well her sister’s squeamishness to a profession that dealt with squalor, poverty, and hideous disease.

They bade Daphne good day and continued their journey to the Kents’ decrepit tenement.

Dody recognised one of the Kents’ elder children, John, a boy of about twelve with a pale, feral face, wearing a bargeman’s cap. She’d first met him when she had been called to the tenement to view the body of his brother, Billy. The boy lolled idly against a wall watching some smaller girls playing with a skipping rope and chanting a rhyme:

Jack the Ripper’s dead

And lying in his bed

He cut his throat with Sunlight Soap

Jack the Ripper’s dead.

“Good afternoon, John, how’s the family?” Dody asked.

The boy neither changed position nor doffed his cap. “You’re the doc ’oo was called when Billy died, ain’t ya?”

“I am: Dr. McCleland. I believe your baby sister has been discharged from hospital,” she said.

The boy grunted.

“Did you hear what he said, Dody?” Florence asked loudly, one hand cupping her ear. “Because I did not.”

John thrust a grubby hand towards Dody. “Why should I talk to ’er? Me dad might swing ’cos of ’er.”

“Suspected infanticide,” Dody murmured to Florence, deducing from John’s response that the case had been heard and the findings doubtless unfavourable for the family. “Are either of your parents home, John?”

“Dad’s taken off. Ma’s upstairs, but yer won’t get nuffink outta her.”

Upstairs they found Mrs. Kent slumped over the kitchen table next to an empty gin bottle. A child of about two, obviously soiled, sat on the floor gorging itself from a jar of jellied eels. Florence put her hand to her mouth, unable to hide her horror.

Dody touched her sister on the arm and whispered, “Do you feel sick?” Florence stoically shook her head. “Good girl.” Dody swallowed down a rush of nausea herself. “I’d like to have a look at Molly, Mrs. Kent.”

“’Elp yerself.” The woman nodded towards the bureau.

Dody found the baby sleeping soundly in the open bottom drawer. Her temperature was normal and she appeared clean and well fed.

Dody pointed to the gin bottle. Mrs. Kent could not meet her eye, but she did attempt to pull her frazzled greying hair into some kind of order.

“John got paid yesterday, love,” she said by way of explanation. She picked the toddler off the floor, laid her on the bed, and began to clean her up with a wet rag from a bucket. The child whined and squawked, desperate to return to her eels.

“Have you still money left to buy milk for the baby?” Dody asked her.

“John takes care o’ that.”

“And your husband?” Dody asked, raising her voice against the crescendo of wails. “Where is he?”

“Done a bunk straight after the inquest, before the rozzers could get ’im—doubt as we’ll see ’im again. Tosser.”

No wonder John looked so miserable. He was probably now the family’s sole wage earner.

“God in heaven.” Florence, until now unexposed to the machinations of poverty Dody had come to know so well, sank pale and speechless onto the edge of the bed, as far from the odiferous toddler as possible. Her summer dress of blue and white looked as clean and fresh against the filthy mattress as a water lily on a stagnant pond.

“I have to find out where your husband got the tablets that killed your child Billy,” Dody said. “You have nothing to lose now that Mr. Kent has vanished. He might never reappear to face the charges.”

Mrs. Kent licked her dry, cracked lips and looked Dody up and down.

Dody asked, “You want me to pay you for the information?”

The woman nodded, lowered the child gently to the floor, and handed her back the jar of eels. Silence at last.

Dody delved into her purse. All she had left was a gold sovereign and the sixpence they needed for the train home.

Mrs. Kent snatched the sovereign from her hand and bit it with her teeth. “’E got the pills from a bloke in a pub.”

Dody’s heart sped. “That’s what you said before. I gathered then that you wanted to tell me more.”

“What I said, a bloke in a pub.”

“Did this man have a name?”

“’Ow should I know?”

“What did he look like?”

“An ugly bugger, according to Bert, but I never seen ’im.”

“Which pub?”

“One hereabouts, I ’spect; Bert wouldna gone far.”

“But
which
pub?”

“Gawd knows.”

Dody caught Florence’s eye. This was a useless exercise. “Time to go,” she mouthed.

“Don’t spend that sovereign all at once,” Florence said to Mrs. Kent as they headed for the door. “Save it for winter to buy boots for your children.”

“Wouldn’t fink of nuffink else, love,” Mrs. Kent said with a gap-toothed smile.

The sisters left the tenement and returned to the street. The girls were still playing with their skipping rope and chanting their morbid rhyme. John, though, was no longer leaning against the wall half asleep, but talking with a small man, thin as a rail and wearing a greasy cloth cap.