A Thief in the Night by Stephen Wade Read Free Book Online Page A

together, as the men listened. ‘He was lovely – very kind to me. I thought that I had found my future husband … we became very close. He was so charming, my William. But this last week he changed …’
    ‘Alice, was this because … I mean … are you, that is to say … are you enceinte my dear?’
    She looked up at her father sharply, ‘Papa, I am not pregnant!’
    ‘I am sorry to be the serious paterfamilias, but I dread to think …’ Perch was about to give a lecture on morality but Alice interrupted him. ‘Papa, you tried to prevent my career on the stage … all that talk about it being for fallen women! Really … I am a legitimate actress and have appeared in some classical roles … you could have encouraged me!’
    Perch proceeded to give his guests a talk on the lamentable fate of most young ladies who tried to make a living by treading the boards, but Lord George cut in and moved the focus back to the break-in.
    He asked them to follow him to the pile of papers spilled on the floor. ‘Alice, I understand that you are in charge of the financial papers … could you have a look at this and tell me what you think is missing please.’
    She crouched down and busied herself going through the bundles, which were all labelled and tied with string. Perch was still in a nervous state, and he sat back, his bulk in a rocking chair, but his heart was less agitated now that he knew there was to be no embarrassment landed on his good name.
    ‘Ah here … there is one paper missing, Lord Lenham-Cawde … a contract, relating to the services maintaining the hotel at Brighton, our hotel … the Calsworth.’
    ‘Miss Perch, what did your Lord Lenisham look like, may I ask?’
    ‘Oh he’s about thirty, fair hair … oh, he smoked those foreign cigarettes with the black paper … I thought his accent was northern … anyway, why bother describing him? I have a drawing.’
    Lacey gave a positive yelp of amazement. ‘My dear young lady, you can draw as well as act?’
    ‘My daughter is creative in every way, Professor … including in her use of truth and lies!’
    Ignoring the remark, Alice went into the library and returned with a sketchpad. George and Lacey studied the portrait and gasped at the same time.
    ‘It’s J.C. … to the life! Jimmy Canter!’
    Lord George grabbed Lacey by the arm. ‘There is no time to be lost … Harry, to your library immediately. We’re looking for a scoundrel of the first order. It may be J.C. himself and his damned brother!’
    They left Perch and Alice calling after them, Lord George apologising for the swift departure even as he strode out. Alice’s cab was still there, and the driver shouted out, asking when he was likely to be paid.
    ‘You will be remunerated when you have my friend at Edwardes Square, Kensington, and me at the Septimus Club, and we want to be there in no more than ten minutes!’
    With a curse of ‘Ruddy la-di-da …’ the driver cracked his whip and they were off.

    In the dark interior of the cab, Lord George briefed his friend. ‘Harry, you’re looking for frauds and conmen and, in particular, our old friends the Canters, yes?’
    ‘Yes, George … whoever he was, he wanted Perch’s signature.’
    ‘Indeed. Come to the Septimus as soon as you have found anything. I’ll be planning tomorrow’s watch. We shall be at the Bank of England, western office.’

    Harry Lacey’s London rooms in Edwardes Square were in complete contrast to his Cambridge study. The scholarly bachelor relished his London life, and his den in Kensington was his retreat, his bolthole when he needed to be out of the Cambridge stuffiness he needed but also only tolerated for so long and no more.
    He had a room for dining, a small back bedroom, a basement where his ageing housemaid did the cleaning and cooking, and then there was his library. It contained only works on the history of crime. Legal reports, press cuttings and pictures, all related to the London underworld and