Belle - Lesley Pearse [230]
Pearl’s was a brothel a couple of streets away. Mog had mentioned it a day or two ago because it was rumoured to be owned by Kent.
‘Maybe the police raided it to find him?’ Belle suggested.
‘If it was that, surely they’d have taken all the girls down to the station,’ Mog said, and frowned anxiously.
It was frustrating hearing the voices growing louder and louder, but not knowing what was happening. Mog went over to the door several times to listen but couldn’t make head or tail of what was being said. Then they heard the bell ring to warn everyone to drink up as it was closing time, and gradually the noise abated as everyone began to leave.
Finally Garth came through. His face was grim.
‘What happened?’ Mog said, going over to him and putting her arms around his waist.
‘The police raided Pearl’s,’ he said. ‘Kent was in there, but he had a gun and shot one of the policemen and legged it out the back window. The whole of Seven Dials is in an uproar. The girls came here to tell me because of Belle.’
Chapter Thirty-seven
Belle tossed and turned all night, very aware of Mog in the bed beside her, and that Jimmy and Garth were taking it in turns to stand guard downstairs.
Jimmy had pointed out before they went to bed that having shot a policeman there would be little point in Kent trying to kill Belle too, for he’d hang regardless of whether she was a witness to his crimes or not. Garth said that Kent would be much more concerned with getting out of the country, and both men were being logical. But Belle felt logic didn’t come into it with men like Kent or Pascal.
They had looked out of the bedroom window before they turned in and seen two policemen patrolling Monmouth Street. Mog had said there would be more all over Seven Dials and pointed out how quiet it was everywhere, none of the usual drunks and whores wandering around.
Belle must have dropped off to sleep eventually for she woke with a start at someone knocking on the door downstairs, and she saw it was daylight.
Mog leapt out of bed like a scalded cat, pulling a shawl around her shoulders. ‘Stay here,’ she ordered Belle. ‘I’ll just go out on to the stairs and see if Jimmy or Garth is answering the door.’
Belle looked at the clock and saw it was six-thirty. Knowing she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep anyway, she got up and dressed.
Mog came back into the room. ‘It’s Noah,’ she said. ‘Jimmy has let him in.’
Belle hurried downstairs to find Jimmy fully dressed in the kitchen with Noah, and Garth wearing only his trousers and vest, yawning sleepily.
‘Noah’s been at the police station getting the latest news,’ Jimmy said.
Belle put the kettle on. Sometimes she thought she was turning into Mog, because she always did that in a crisis.
‘Sorry to call so early, but I thought you’d want to know. Sly was arrested yesterday afternoon,’ Noah said. ‘I suspect he sang his heart out because it’s the only way the police would’ve known Kent was due to go to Pearl’s last night to collect the takings. Why they didn’t catch him before he went in is anyone’s guess, damn fools. Anyway, they charged into Pearl’s like the cavalry. To be fair to them, I don’t suppose they’d expected him to be armed with a gun. Kent was in an upstairs room he apparently uses as an office. He heard the noise, tried to climb out the window, and as the constable went in, he shot him.’
‘Is he dead?’
‘As a door nail,’ Noah said glumly. ‘A young man with three small children too. You can imagine the confusion in there, by all accounts the place is like a rabbit warren with narrow passages and small rooms. What with all the girls screaming, men trying to get back into their clothes and get out before the police questioned them, it must have been mayhem. Kent succeeded in getting away through the window and on to the roof, and from there it seems he went