Blood on the Line irc-8 Read online

  ‘So,’ he said, exposing his surviving teeth, ‘Inspector Colbeck has come to arrest Mr and Mrs Colbeck. It’s a real family affair.’

  ‘The joke was their undoing,’ Colbeck pointed out. ‘Had they called themselves something else, I might never have picked them out of the passenger list on the Arethusa.’

  ‘I suppose it’s a kind of compliment to you, Inspector.’

  ‘Well, they’ll get no compliments in return,’ said Leeming, sharply. ‘They’ll travel back to England under their real names.’

  ‘What about you, Sergeant?’

  ‘I’ll go with them,’ said Leeming.

  Riley grinned again. ‘Does that mean I can’t poach you to join the New York Police Department?’ he asked. ‘I can always pick out a tough man when I see one. You’d be an asset to us.’

  ‘He’s not for sale,’ said Colbeck, politely. ‘Victor has a wife and family back in England.’

  ‘That’s not unusual. When I first came here, I had a wife and family back in Ireland. Talking of which,’ Riley went on, ‘did you stop at Cork on your way?’

  ‘Yes, we did. We picked up several passengers.’

  ‘It’s my hometown. I emigrated here when I was in my twenties. It was three years before I could afford to bring Kathleen and the boys over here. We’ve never looked back since.’ He felt Leeming’s biceps. ‘You’ve got strength in those arms. We could use it.’

  Leeming declined the offer with a gesture. ‘I’m needed back in London.’

  ‘You know where I am, if you change your mind.’

  Having established how the extradition procedure worked, Colbeck asked for advice about accommodation. Riley not only suggested a hotel, he offered to provide transport to get to it. He also pressed them to ask for any more help they might need.

  ‘You’ll have time on your hands,’ he argued. ‘How would you like to spend it?’

  ‘I promised to show Victor the sights of New York,’ said Colbeck.

  ‘Come on patrol with my men and you’ll see some real sights. When he sees what policing is like on this side of the Atlantic, the sergeant might think twice about going back home.’

  ‘I don’t know about that, Captain Riley,’ said Leeming.

  ‘We’ve always got room for an experienced detective.’

  ‘So have we,’ said Colbeck, firmly.

  Riley laughed and massaged Colbeck’s shoulder. He took them out into the courtyard and beckoned to a cab driver. As their luggage was loaded onto the vehicle, the visitors thanked Riley for his help and told him that they would need his assistance when the Arethusa docked. Having no jurisdiction there, they had no right to arrest and hold the fugitives on American soil. They would have to wait until the extradition had been authorised before Oxley and Irene became solely their prisoners. Riley was happy to oblige.

  ‘I can guarantee our full cooperation,’ he said, chirpily. ‘It’s not often we have two killers trying to sneak into this country in order to evade justice in England. If it was left to me now, I’d execute the pair of them right here and save you the cost of their passages home.’

  ‘There are legal reasons why that can’t happen,’ said Colbeck.

  ‘That’s a great pity, so it is.’

  ‘We’ll just get them extradited and slip quietly away.’

  Riley guffawed. ‘Oh, you will, will you?’

  ‘What’s so funny?’ asked Leeming.

  ‘You’ll soon find out, my friend.’

  ‘I don’t understand, Captain.’

  Riley slapped him on the back. ‘Welcome to America!’

  * * *

  The first thing that Edward Tallis did when he arrived for work early that morning was to cross another day off the calendar on his wall. He estimated that his detectives would have arrived in New York by now but that it would take much longer for the Arethusa to complete its voyage. Counting the days to their arrest helped Tallis to bring retribution ever closer in his mind. He still regretted that he’d been unable to accompany Colbeck and Leeming but accepted that his place was directing operations at Scotland Yard.

  In fact, he had deserted his desk for two days when he took a train to Edinburgh for the funeral of Ian Peebles. There’d been a dignified sadness about the whole event. While suffering pangs of remorse during the actual ceremony, Tallis had found that the most trying moment was when he had to face the constable’s parents and explain to them the exact circumstances of their son’s death. On the journey back to London, he’d sat in a hurt silence and relived the horror of the shooting. It had been his blunder. Peebles’ parents had been too well mannered to say so but they knew the truth.

  Back in his office, the first thing he did was to open his cigar box. Before he could take one out, however, his guilt stirred. He snapped the lid back down and vowed that he would never smoke again until the killers were caught and brought back to England. Denial of his favourite pleasure would be a form of expiation. As he counted the days he’d ticked off, he saw how long it had been since he’d last enjoyed the solace of a cigar. Temptation flickered. With an effort, Tallis resisted it. Until the appropriate time, he pledged, he would no more lift the lid of the cigar box than he would open the drawer that contained his bottle of brandy. Both were a means of escape and he was entitled to neither. He had to wait for Colbeck and Leeming to release him from his vow.

  They timed it to perfection. On the last evening before their arrival in New York, they robbed the people they had carefully selected as their victims. Working independently, Oxley and Irene slipped into vacant cabins, picked unguarded pockets, stole unwitting reticules and generally helped themselves to items that were too much to resist. They returned to their own cabin to compare notes and to count their spoils. It had been a most satisfying haul.

  ‘The beauty of it is,’ said Oxley, holding up a gold watch, ‘that most of the people won’t realise things have gone until it’s too late.’

  ‘I’m glad that we spared Herschel and Libby.’

  ‘They’re our friends.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Irene, ‘but they’re also very wealthy.’

  ‘I never even considered them. They’ve been too helpful to us. Who knows? We might accept that invitation to visit them one day.’

  ‘Will we still be calling ourselves Mr and Mrs Colbeck?’

  ‘I’ve grown to like the name. It has a pleasing resonance.’

  Having sorted out the money and the items they’d stolen, they hid them cleverly in their respective valises. It was all part of the capital that would set them up in their new country.

  ‘Well,’ he said, ‘it’s been a long voyage but an interesting one.’

  ‘Yes – apart from the storm that lasted two days.’

  ‘Even that had its benefits, Irene. It gave us the chance to get to know Herschel and Libby much better.’ He smirked. ‘I don’t set as high a value on Herschel’s powers of observation as his wife does. According to Libby, he was sure that we’d just got married.’

  ‘That just proves how good a performance we gave.’

  ‘It doesn’t have to be a performance.’

  Her face lit up. ‘You mean that we will get married?’

  ‘Anything can happen in America.’

  ‘Oh, Jerry, what a wonderful idea!’ she exclaimed.

  ‘I had a feeling you might like it.’

  ‘Nothing could make me happier.’

  ‘Let’s get ourselves settled in first,’ he said, looking at the gold watch. ‘It’s time to dress for dinner.’

  ‘Herschel and Libby insisted that we sit with them.’

  ‘Then let’s not disappoint them, Irene.’

  After stowing the valises away, he crossed to the cupboard, pausing in thought when he’d opened the door. She looked up.

  ‘What’s the matter?’

  ‘I’m wondering if I should do it before or after the meal.’

  ‘Do what, Jerry?’

  ‘Complain to the captain that we’ve been robbed,’
he said. ‘There’s no better way to shift suspicion than to portray ourselves as victims.’ He made a decision. ‘Let’s leave it until afterwards,’ he went on. ‘Why spoil dinner by whingeing over a lost wallet? It would only upset Herschel and Libby. Yes, my mind is made up. I’ll tackle the captain later on.’

  It had not taken them long to realise why Matt Riley had burst out laughing at their expense. Colbeck’s wish to catch the fugitives and take them quietly back home was an impossible one. On the day when they booked into their hotel, the first of many reporters came to hassle them. Word had travelled fast, leaked to the press by a policeman in return for a bribe. The arrival of two killers on a British vessel was an unusual event and it aroused an immense amount of interest. The detectives were soon weary of repeating the details to a succession of reporters. When the Arethusa finally docked, it would do so in the glare of publicity. Colbeck and Leeming had been disturbed at the thought but there was nothing that they could do about the situation. Their presence in the city was helping to sell newspapers. Unsought celebrity had been foisted onto them.

  They had not wasted their time in New York. There was much to see and they had toured Manhattan in a cab. Leeming was amazed at the colourful prettiness of the houses and the comparative cleanliness of the streets. Areas of London that he’d patrolled in uniform had been filthy and noxious. There were doubtless run-down neighbourhoods in New York but they never visited any of them. What they saw were the wide avenues and bright, paved streets. Broadway had been a glorious sight, a winding thoroughfare down which coaches, cabs, carts, gigs, traps, phaetons and private carriages rumbled in abundance. Leeming had never seen so many liveried black coachmen. There was wealth in America and a desire to put it on display.

  Captain Riley had been as good as his word, letting them see the work of the police department at first hand. At Colbeck’s request, he also arranged for them to visit The Tombs, the city’s notorious prison. In the course of their work, they’d been inside all of London’s prisons and several in the provinces. Conditions there had been harsh but none could match the regime at The Tombs for severity. There was a pervading stink of despair on its four galleries. Leeming was glad to get out into the fresh air again but Colbeck had been intrigued.

  ‘I wanted to see if his description was accurate,’ he said.

  ‘Whose description would that be, sir?’

  ‘Charles Dickens came here once. He wrote about it.’

  ‘I could write about it in one word,’ said Leeming, ‘but it’s not a word that I’d repeat in mixed company.’

  Sightseeing and time spent with the police were only preludes to the main purpose of their visit. The day eventually came when the Arethusa reached its destination and sailed up the Hudson River with its passengers crowding the deck for their first glimpse of New York. The pilot boat was rowed out to shepherd the vessel to its berth. Colbeck and Leeming were part of the massed ranks on the pier. Captain Riley was with them but so was a much larger complement of uniformed policemen than the detectives had requested. Their visible presence caused Colbeck some disquiet.

  ‘We won’t want to warn them in advance,’ he said.

  ‘I’m not giving them any chance to escape,’ asserted Riley. ‘I’ve got some of my best men on duty today.’

  ‘It might be better if the sergeant and I go aboard first.’

  ‘Why is that, Inspector?’

  ‘They don’t know what we look like,’ explained Colbeck. ‘We can take them by surprise. Police uniforms would give the game away.’

  Riley was obstinate. ‘We’ll do it my way.’

  ‘They’re our prisoners,’ Leeming pointed out.

  ‘They’re your prisoners in our country.’

  The declaration was unanswerable. They were powerless. They had control neither over the police nor over the bevies of newspaper reporters who’d arrived early to secure vantage points on the pier. Having often rehearsed the boarding of the vessel in his mind, Colbeck accepted that it would simply not happen that way. Captain Riley would take the lead. Colbeck and Leeming would have to follow in his wake. As they watched the vessel gliding ever nearer the pier, they hoped that the two fugitives were not watching from the deck.

  As soon as they entered the mouth of the river, Oxley and Irene had joined the rest of the passengers on deck. Now that they were at last in the harbour, they were standing with Herschel and Libby Finn, waving to the cheering hordes below and enjoying their reception. There had been moments when Irene had wondered if they’d ever arrive but those anxieties had all vanished now. Here was the country in which she would spend the rest of her life with a man who would become her husband. She was overwhelmed with relief and wonder.

  Oxley shared her euphoria but it was short-lived. He, too, had been carried away at first by the sight of the welcoming multitude below. His eyesight was much keener than Irene’s, however. When he scanned the pier, he noticed the plethora of police uniforms. They were gathered around the point to which the ship was slowly moving. As the vessel got closer, he was able to see the faces of those below more clearly. They did not all belong to friends and well-wishers. Some of those waiting were not cheering at all. They were tense and watchful. Among them was a tall, striking, exquisitely tailored figure standing beside a police captain. Letting out a yelp, Oxley reacted as if he’d just seen a ghost.

  ‘We must go below,’ he said, grabbing Irene.

  ‘What’s the matter, Jerry?’ she asked.

  ‘You can’t miss all the fun,’ said Finn. ‘Stay and enjoy it.’

  ‘There’s something we left in our cabin,’ said Oxley, dragging Irene away. ‘You’ll have to excuse us for a moment.’

  Their friends were baffled by their sudden disappearance but it was Irene who’d been most surprised. As they picked a way through the people on deck, she kept asking him what had happened. He waited until they were below deck and out of earshot.

  ‘It’s him, Irene,’ he said.

  ‘Who are you talking about?’

  ‘It’s Inspector Colbeck. He’s down there on the pier.’

  ‘You must be imagining things, Jerry,’ she said with a laugh. ‘How could you recognise him when you don’t even know what he looks like? More to the point, how could he possibly be in New York when we left him behind in England?’

  ‘It’s him, I tell you,’ he said, irritably. ‘I just sense it, Irene, and you know how acute my senses are. If he came by means of a steamship, he could have overtaken the Arethusa with ease. It’s just the kind of thing Colbeck would do. Instead of giving up the chase, as I’d hoped, he’s come after us.’

  His panic was contagious. ‘What are we going to do?’

  ‘Let me think for a moment,’ he said, hand to his head. ‘I could be wrong. I pray to God that I am. If that’s the case, we have nothing to worry about. You must leave the ship with Herschel and Libby.’

  ‘What about you?’

  ‘I’ll take … other measures,’ he said.

  ‘Why can’t we leave together?’

  ‘We have more chance of eluding him if we’re apart. Don’t worry,’ he said, enfolding her in his arms. ‘If anything happens to you, I’ll come to your rescue.’

  ‘How?’ she asked, feverishly.

  ‘I don’t know but I’ll find a way somehow. I swear it.’

  She was perspiring now. ‘Are you sure that it’s Colbeck?’

  ‘Yes, I am. Go back on deck and find the others.’

  ‘What shall I tell Herschel and Libby?’

  ‘Tell them that I’m searching for something that’s gone astray. Tell them I’ll be back directly. Go on, Irene,’ he urged, pushing her away. ‘They’ll be wondering where we’ve got to.’

  ‘I don’t like leaving you on your own.’

  ‘You have to. Now find Herschel and Libby. Being with them is the best chance you have of dodging Colbeck.’

  She swallowed hard. ‘If you say so, Jerry.’

  With grave misgivings, she went ba
ck to the staircase that led to the upper deck. She could hear the sound of many feet shuffling across the deck. When she looked behind her, Oxley had vanished.

  The Arethusa was determined not to be rushed. After ploughing her way through the waves under full canvas for three thousand miles, she was bent on a leisurely arrival. She seemed to drift in slow motion towards the pier, unsure whether to stop there or to float gently back downriver. As her hull made contact with the pier, there was a resounding thud. It was followed by the sound of ropes crashing onto the stone. They were quickly tied in place to steady the vessel. Members of the crew lowered the gangplank and it was fixed in place. Before anyone could descend it, Captain Riley led the way up the gangplank and ordered everyone to stand aside so that he could step onto the deck. Colbeck and Leeming were at his heels with four uniformed policemen in attendance. Riley first spoke to the captain who was poised at the top of the gangplank to shake the hands of the departing passengers. There was a brief discussion. After listening to Riley’s explanation of why he and the detectives were there, the captain gave him permission to come aboard.

  Riley’s stentorian voice quelled the heavy murmur on deck.

  ‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ he shouted, ‘I’m sorry to delay you after a long voyage but there are two people with whom we need to speak as a matter of urgency.’ He stood on his toes to survey the assembled passengers. ‘We wish to speak to Mr and Mrs Colbeck. Could they please step forward?’

  ‘That’s you,’ said Libby, turning in amazement to Irene.

  ‘Keep your voice down,’ begged Irene.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘What’s going on?’ asked Finn.

  ‘He’s asking for Robert and Irene.’

  ‘What do the police want with them?’

  ‘It’s probably something to do with the theft from our cabin last night,’ said Irene, quivering in fear. ‘It’s nothing to worry about.’

  ‘How would the police onshore even know about that?’

  But Finn’s question hung unheard in the air because Irene had already lost her nerve and squirmed off through the melee. Her American friends were at once shocked and bewildered. They’d never seen Irene act so impulsively and kept asking each other what had prompted her abrupt retreat. It was only when Riley barked out his request a second time that they found their voices.