AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She looked at the woman’s face again and saw the haunted misery in it. She was in such pain she could hardly bear it, and she knew there was no escape.
There was no escape for Hester or Crow either.
‘Mr Roberts,’ Crow turned to the man. ‘I have no interest in trying to prosecute you for whatever you may have done with your children. Their lives now are what matter . . . which you are accountable for! Tell me to whom you sold them, for how much, and what they told you they were going to do with them.’
Mrs Roberts did not even look at her husband. Guilt for the silence was consuming her also, even though she might have said nothing so as to protect him, and therefore the remaining infants.
Slowly and painfully Roberts described the man who had approached him and offered to buy the children, feed and care for all of them, so they could be companions for an elderly lady in hospital, who had no children or grandchildren of her own.
‘And you believed him?’ Crow raised his black eyebrows.
Roberts avoided his wife’s eye and totally disregarded Hester.
‘’Course I did. ’E were a gentleman. Said they’d be fed the best food, regular, and sleep in proper beds. I can’t give ’em that!’
There was no point in arguing. The truth was only too bitterly obvious. Was it a crime? Perhaps. Who would do differently, given such a choice?
Crow stood up slowly. He seemed to be considering saying something more, then changed his mind. He looked beyond Roberts and spoke to his wife.
‘What are their names?’
‘Charlie, Maggie and Mike,’ she replied, staring at him with desperation in her eyes.
‘They’re all right, for now,’ he said. ‘We’ll try to see that they stay that way.’
They went outside into the darkening evening. Neither of them spoke, but Crow touched his hand to Hester’s shoulder for a moment.
Scuff moved into step behind them.
At the same time that Hester, Scuff and Crow were walking along the High Street in the Isle of Dogs, Monk and Orme were rowing easily, smoothly over the water towards the Customs and Excise office in the Pool of London. The evening air was soft, filled with the sounds and smells of incoming tide, salt and tar, river mud, fish.
Around them the hulls of ocean-going ships loomed up in the sunset haze, sails furled and lashed to the spars.
‘Dawn is the only other time as good as this,’ Orme said with a slow smile. ‘Good as it is at home, quiet; long, flat marshes with birds flying over, thousands of them, black against the sky. Sometimes you can hear the creak of their wings, you know?’
‘Yes, I do,’ Monk agreed. ‘It’s a good sound.’
‘I’ll still miss these,’ Orme said ruefully, gazing at the huge hulls resting almost motionless on the flat tide. ‘They’ve been round the world, and back. And my dreams with them.’
‘You can always come up here if you want to,’ Monk reminded him.
‘I’ll think about it,’ Orme replied. ‘That’s what Devon used to say. Seems like a long time ago, doesn’t it?’
Monk thought back. He could see Devon’s face vividly that last time they met, before Devon took the step down the river with all that terrible death in the hold, and set fire to it, sacrificing himself so they would all be safe.
He had left a request that Monk should replace him in command. Orme had honoured that, and supported Monk through all his early, stumbling leadership trials. Now Orme deserved to step down with honour, and the gratitude of the River Police, and sit by the riverside with his daughter and his new grandchild.
‘I’ll miss you,’ Monk said.
‘For a while,’ Orme agreed with some satisfaction. ‘Hooper’s a good man. But he won’t watch for you the way I did. He’ll push you. Maybe you’re ready for that, now.’
‘I’d better be,’ Monk agreed, but with a sudden chill of loneliness. He could not tell Orme how much he would miss him; it would not be fair to cast that shadow over his retirement.
He dragged the oar a little and Orme lengthened his stroke to pull the boat up to the steps. Monk stepped ashore and looped the rope around the bollard. Orme followed after him.
The plan was already made. They needed only McNab’s co-operation to keep the raid secret from the rest of the Customs and Excise. There was no need for them to confer again.
They walked up the path, across the road and into the Customs office. Monk stated their names and ranks.
