Moriarty by John Gardner Read Free Book Online Page B

don’t get lost and away from Moriarty and his mob, I’ll hunt you down like the hound of heaven and next time I’ll let my lads hold you under forever. And don’t go near the Professor. The Professor’s had his day. Finished!”
    And at that moment there was a freak change in the weather. Though it was almost freezing outside, an enormous double lightning flash lit the sky, sending a few seconds of clear light in through the dormer windows.
    In the flood of light, Carbonardo clearly saw Idle Jack Idell standing a little in front of a knot of people, and to his right Daniel thought he could see Sal Hodges, hemmed in by two burly rampsmen. Sal, he would have sworn, looked sore afraid.
    There followed a massive thunderclap that sent a further shiver of fear through Carbonardo, and the floor seemed to move under him.
    I N P OPLAR, DOWN near the West India Docks, in The Sheet Anchor public house they heard the clap of thunder but did not see the lightning flash, for the pub fronted onto a narrow alley off West India Dock Road that blocked out the light and made the landlord, Ebb Kimber, keep gaslights on in his house almost round the clock, for his receipts from the bar were never good enough to cover the expense of putting the electric in.
    The thunder came just as they arrived, walking into the saloon bar: Albert Spear, Lee Chow, and foxy little Ember, all three of them smart, dressed in well-cut suits with greatcoats—men about town.
    â€œWas that thunder?” Ember asked.
    â€œYea. Queer weather.” Spear sucked his teeth. “Strange. Fog and ice when we got in, now there’s a bloody thunderstorm.”
    â€œThe weather’s changing. Said so in
Reynolds’ News
.”
    â€œWell, they’d know, wouldn’t they,
Reynolds’ News
?” Spear gave Ember what was known as an old-fashioned look and repeated “
Reynolds’ News
” with a curl to his lip.
    â€œOnce I saw pouring rain one side of street and hot sunlight on other side.”
    â€œWhere was that, then, Lee Chow?”
    â€œWas in Nanjing.”
    â€œBlimey,” Ember smirked, “I thought the nearest you been to China was Wapping.”
    â€œAh, in my young days I spent many year in China.”
    They came fully into the room, acknowledging an elderly man, sitting on his own by the fire reading the
Evening Standard
, and the two younger men at the bar with a woman who looked flighty with a smudge too much rouge on her cheeks, a ratty feather boa round her neck, and a cackling laugh that could wake the dead if the wind was in the right direction.
    Divesting themselves of their greatcoats, the three men pulled chairs up against the wall behind a pair of round, marble-topped tables and Spear went over, rapped on the bar, and ordered three pints of porter.
    No money changed hands, and the landlord greeted him warmly, calling him Mr. Spear, very correct, treating him with respect. Then the door opened and a tall man peeped in, as if checking on who had come into the saloon bar. On seeing Spear his wary eyes lit up.
    â€œMr. Spear,” he said. “How nice to see you. Unexpected, like.”
    â€œWill Brooking,” Spear acknowledged. “Still lurking round here, then. Good lad.”
    â€œDoing the job you give me, Bert. What? Six, seven years ago?” and the newcomer thrust out a hand like the head of a battle-axe. He had a craggy face, watchful eyes, and carried himself like an army man.
    â€œSee him before,” Lee Chow announced, taking a long swallow of his drink.
    Spear rarely smiled, but he did now. “One of mine. Prizefighter he was—a boy of the Holy Ground. Used to go round the country fairs, with the travelling people. Keeping an eye out here, in the pub. Good to see him still doing his job.”
    â€œBet he hasn’t been paid in a while.” Ember had an annoying, somewhat whining voice that went with his ratty, foxy face.
    Ranged along