Belle - Lesley Pearse [28]
‘Look, Miss Davis, I’m not a detective,’ he explained, his voice trembling with emotion. ‘I was fond of Millie and I’d like to see her killer swing for it. I’d like to help find Belle too, but I haven’t any idea of how to go about it.’
‘I’m sure you could find out,’ Mog said, pleading with her eyes.
Noah sighed. ‘I suppose I could start by talking to people around Seven Dials – some of them might know something. Maybe I can find someone at the newspaper too that knows the right policeman in Bow Street to tap for information.’
‘Mrs Cooper wouldn’t expect you to do it for nothing,’ Mog hastened to tell him, guessing that like most young men his money was spent as fast as he earned it. Right from the first time he came to Annie’s she knew he was a good man. She liked his rosy cheeks, the way his fair hair didn’t want to lie down flat, however much oil he put on it. He wasn’t handsome – his squat nose reminded her of a Pekinese dog, and his ears stuck out – but there was honesty in his face, and she liked the fact that he was sweet on Millie, rather than just lusting after her.
When she found he had put his real address in the house book, that confirmed what she’d sensed about him, that he was an honest man. And to find he lived in such a respectable house was further evidence that he was all she believed.
‘It goes without saying that the Falcon, or Mr Kent as we knew him, is very dangerous. We think too that he’s probably got many people in his pay, so you’ll have to be careful what you say.’
‘Have you got any idea where he might have taken Belle?’ Noah asked. ‘I mean, has he got a house or business address you know of? Any relatives, lady friends?’
‘We don’t ask such questions,’ Mog said reprovingly, as if he should know that. ‘Belle said he was asking Millie to go away with him to Kent, so he must have a place there. I dare say that’s why he used the name Kent as an alias too. But Annie is afraid he’s going to sell her. You know what we mean?’
Noah blushed, his already ruddy cheeks turning fiery. ‘A fifteen-year-old?’ he said in horror.
‘It happens to girls even younger,’ Mog said, wincing with distaste. ‘It’s difficult to believe men can take pleasure in a child. If I had my way they’d be hung up by their feet and a bit chopped off them every day, starting with the offending part.’
Noah half smiled. He believed Mog was capable of inflicting that punishment on the man who had taken Belle. It was clear from the way she spoke of her that she loved her dearly. She had also cared deeply for Millie and that endeared her to him too. ‘But why would he do that? She’d still be able to inform on him.’
‘Most girls sold that way never recover their wits,’ Mog said and her eyes filled with tears. ‘They do what’s expected of them and escape from reality with drink or laudanum. Others become hard, just as ruthless as those that sold them, and they often go on to become equally evil. Either way they are lost souls.’
Noah gulped hard, not liking the images Mog had created for him. ‘I’ll try to get some information for you,’ he said. ‘Now, just tell me about Belle’s friends. I don’t for one moment think she’s off with any of them, but she may have told them something she didn’t tell you about this man Kent.’
Mog shrugged. ‘She don’t have no real friends. When she left school well over a year ago we kept her home. But we never let her mix with our girls because we didn’t want her tainted. As for the neighbours’ children, they’re either ragamuffins, or their folks wouldn’t let them mix with our Belle.’
‘Surely there must be someone?’ Noah said. It sounded such a sad and lonely life for a young girl.
Mog put her head on one side as if she were thinking hard. ‘There is a lad called Jimmy who lives at the Ram’s Head with his uncle, name of Garth Franklin,’ she said. ‘She ain’t known him long, in fact she only met him the morning of the day Millie was killed. I remember because