“Duty,” the policeman said with a large sniff. He already had a cold.
“Ain’t right, is it? Come on inside for five minutes. What’s going to happen in that time? Come to that, what good’s it doing the poor bugger what croaked here to have you watching the place now? You’ll learn more inside. We’ll help.”
The man held out, but not very convincingly and not for very long. He was soon whisked inside the pub with his solicitous companions. Drayman didn’t much care if they slid a knife between his ribs while he was in there, though it might be better if they didn’t, considering Johnny was meant to be the murderer around here. There were other ways to keep a man inside a public house against his better judgment.
Drayman let a man walk past him and out of sight. Then he darted to the waste ground next to the pub and quickly doused both lanterns.
*
Solomon, having abandonedhis hackney, approached the Crown and Anchor on foot. He almost didn’t see it, for the sky and the air were murky and only the faintest of lights emanated from the public house’s windows. He had rather hoped for the presence of a policeman on watch, whom he intended to speak to on his way inside, but he must have been taken off duty. Still, Solomon doubted the police had given up on the case. From Omand’s visit to David earlier today, they were still very much looking for Drayman.
And if Constance had succeeded, there were already several stout plainclothes policemen waiting inside. Like the night at the gaming club where he had first seen Constance…
Mind on the task, Grey,he chided himself, for he needed to be sharp now and aware of every inch of his surroundings. Twenty policemen couldn’t save him if he let Drayman creep up too close behind him…
Instinct caused him to give the patch of waste ground a wide berth—rightly so, for surely a patch of the darkness was blacker than the rest, just in against the wall of the building?
A man-shaped figure loomed forward. “Johnny.”
Damnation. This was not how he had planned it.
Solomon stopped and gazed at the man, who seemed to be dressed in similar fashion to himself. “Drayman.”
“Don’t stand over there bawling my name to all and sundry.”
“Let’s go inside, then. Bloody freezing out here.”
“That your thin African blood complaining again?” Drayman mocked.
“Yes.” Solomon walked on toward the door.
“There’s a rozzer in there,” Drayman remarked. “It’s now or never, Johnny. Want the watch? Or not?”
The best laid plans of mice and men… There was nothing for it but to swerve toward the waste ground, though Solomon moved slowly, trying to keep to David’s more relaxed posture while his senses reached out, searching for the trap. His skin prickled. He could smell tobacco and humanity—but how many men?
Drayman was confident enough to have come alone. It was how he’d faced Chase and killed him. Johnny, though younger and fitter, was probably not known as a violent man.
Solomon halted several feet away. “Show me.”
“Can I trust you, Johnny?”
“I keep my word. I just need to be out of this country. You can understand that. Show me.”
In the darkness, Solomon could make out the other man’s movement, fishing in his rustling pocket. Slowly, he drew out something that actually glittered. A watch on the end of a chain.
“It’s engraved,” Drayman said, holding it out to him. “But you can melt it down.”
Throw it,Solomon wanted to command, but he didn’t, because he needed to be close enough to Drayman to catch him. Where the devil were Constance’s policemen?
As he took a wary step forward, the back of his neck tingled. Someone was behind him. He stepped aside, trying to avoidthe trap for as long as possible. In the distance, some kind of riot seemed to be going on, because he could hear muffled shouts of song and galloping hooves. Hardly the saviors he was looking for. Rather, a distraction for the police that could ruin everything.
“Nervous, Johnny?” Drayman said. “You was always highly strung, as the captain put it.” He spat on the ground.
“I was ill. Talked a lot of rubbish, so they tell me.”
“Seems you still talk too much. Do you want this or don’t you?”
It was why he was here. But some witness, preferably a policeman, had to see Drayman giving him the watch.
