Belle - Lesley Pearse [48]
‘Maybe not, but we can tell the police that’s where he lives. They could check it out.’
Noah looked at young Jimmy’s excited, hopeful face and wished he could assure him that the police would act to find Belle. But Noah’s experience in calling at Bow Street had not been encouraging, in fact he’d encountered total disinterest in the girl’s disappearance. The truth of the matter was that the police didn’t see a whore’s daughter as being of any importance.
But that wasn’t all. When Noah insisted Belle had been taken by the man dubbed the Falcon, the police sergeant pretended that name meant nothing to him. He wasn’t a convincing liar, for he couldn’t meet Noah’s eyes, and he became quite belligerent in the way men did when covering up something. As almost every adult in Seven Dials had heard of the Falcon, even if they’d never met him, it was inconceivable that a policeman wouldn’t know something about him.
Under the circumstances, to go back to the police station with evidence of where the man had a house was likely to be self-defeating. If this sergeant was in Kent’s pay, as Noah suspected, he would tip the man off, and that could result in Jimmy and his uncle being targeted by hired thugs.
‘I think we need to talk to your uncle first and get him on our side,’ Noah said, giving himself time to think this through. ‘But we won’t tell him you broke into those offices. We’d better say it was me.’
‘Could you come to the pub today?’ Jimmy begged.
‘Not now,’ Noah said, then nodded at Mrs Dumas who was coming in with a fresh pot of tea and toast for them. ‘I could come around six if Garth could speak to me then.’
‘I’ll make sure he does,’ Jimmy said. He grabbed a slice of toast and buttered it while Mrs Dumas poured his tea. He didn’t give the tea a chance to cool down, but drank it eagerly, then got up to go, the toast in his hand. ‘I’ve got to get back. But what if he’s already killed her, Noah?’
The stricken expression on the boy’s face made Noah’s heart swell with sympathy.
‘I still think he would’ve killed her in a back alley here if that was his intention,’ he replied with as much conviction as he could muster. ‘You did well to get this letter, Jimmy, it was very brave of you.’
Noah continued to eat his breakfast after Jimmy had gone, but he had little enthusiasm for it. He was speaking the truth when he said he didn’t think Belle had been killed, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell the lad what he suspected was going to happen to her. Nor could he spell out why the police weren’t going to help to find Kent and punish him both for killing Millie and this abduction.
Sometime before Noah had met Millie, he received information about several serious crimes where the person arrested was suddenly released from custody and all charges dropped. There was some compelling evidence that police officers had been bribed, and witnesses to the crime threatened. Noah had written what Ernie Greensleeve said was a superb article on the subject, but when he took it to Mr Wilson, the editor, he said he couldn’t print it because it was too inflammatory.
Noah argued that the general public had a right to know there was corruption in the police force, but the editor responded by reminding him there were plenty of other eager young journalists only too happy to take his place. Noah had to back down then. He knew that if he attempted to sell the story to one of the more sensational papers, he would never write for the Herald again.
Later that same morning Noah was sent out to interview a fruit wholesaler in Covent Garden. It was a rather amusing story, for a tarantula had crawled out of some bananas and on to one of the employees, a portly middle-aged man. It was spotted sitting on his shoulder by another woman employee who nearly fainted with shock. Once the poor man realized what was sitting on him, he was stricken with terror, but a young boy of only eleven who helped with odd jobs stepped forward fearlessly