Day of the Predator - Alex Scarrow [10]
‘This is it,’ Maddy finally said, pointing to a narrow side street. ‘There … Minna Street.’
They crossed the wide thoroughfare, dodging a tram clanging its way through the bustle of pedestrian traffic and sidestepping several more steaming hillocks of horse manure. They stood in the mouth of the narrow road, only two carts wide and relatively quiet.
‘And that’s the building we want,’ she said, pointing to a formal-looking frontage of brick and granite. ‘Union Commercial Savings Company,’ she added. ‘According to Foster’s “how to” manual, this is the bank’s only premises. After the earthquake, the fire destroys this building and everything inside it. The company was no more. As if it never existed.’ She looked at him. ‘You see? Perfect.’
‘And all our Baby Bobs are in some sort of safe down in its basement?’
‘That’s what Foster says.’
Liam frowned. ‘So, I’m being dumb again … but if there’s a whole load of those little foetus things down there in a safe somewhere, what’s keeping them alive? Would they not die and sort of go off? Is there a refrigerating device down there?’
‘You’ll see.’
CHAPTER 6
1906, San Francisco
Maddy strode down Minna Street towards the bank. ‘Come on.’
Liam was struggling to keep up with her. ‘So, who put them in this bank? And when did they do it?’
She reached the front step of the Union Commercial Savings Company and stopped. ‘OK, Liam, just a second …’ She pulled her glasses and a scrap of paper covered with scribbled notes in her handwriting out of her handbag.
‘Oh Jay-zus … you brought notes back with you? Isn’t that not allowed? You know? Contamination of time an’ all?’
Maddy looked around the quiet street guiltily. ‘I know, I know … but there was way too much to remember. I was worried I’d forget something.’
‘Foster would throw a fit if he knew you’d brought notes back here,’ said Liam.
‘Well, he won’t, will he?’ she muttered impatiently. ‘Because he bailed out and left us to cope on our own.’
Liam shrugged at that.
She put her glasses on. ‘OK, so, my name is Miss Emily Lassiter. You’re my brother.’
‘Do I get a name too?’
She sighed. ‘Yes … uhh … here it is, Leonard Lassiter. All right?’
He nodded.
She scanned the notes further, digesting the information for a few moments before tucking them back in her bag and removing her glasses. ‘All right, I think I’ve got it all.’ She looked at him. ‘You don’t have to say anything, OK? Just go along with whatever I say.’
‘Will do.’
She took a deep breath, then pushed the double door to the bank inwards. They stepped on to a tiled floor that echoed their footsteps around a hall, dark with oak panels. Ahead of them were half a dozen ornate mahogany desks, each with softly glowing green ceramic desk lamps. Behind each one sat a bank teller, all but one busy dealing in hushed, respectful tones with customers.
Maddy led the way towards the unoccupied teller, a young man with hair slicked down in a rigid centre parting and a carefully clipped and waxed moustache.
‘Uhh … ’scuse me?’ she said.
The young man looked up at her and smiled charmingly. ‘Good morning, ma’am. How can I help you?
‘I’d like to speak with a Mr … uh … Mr Leighton. He works here, I think.’
‘Oh, I’m certain he works here, ma’am,’ said the young man. He tapped a wooden name-holder on the desk. ‘I’m Harold Leighton, you see? Please, will you take a seat?’
Maddy smiled and slumped down in the seat a little too casually then did her best to quickly recover her lady-like demeanour. ‘Much … uh … much obliged,’ she said as demurely as she could manage.
‘Now, ma’am, how could I assist you?’
She took a breath, hoping she was going to get this right and not sound half as nervous as she felt. ‘My family has a safe deposit box with your bank and I wish to make a withdrawal.’
‘Certainly, ma’am. The account is in the name of?’
‘Joshua Waldstein Lassiter.’
Harold Leighton’s eyebrows raised.
Her heart skipped. ‘Oh … is there a problem?’
‘Not a problem as such, ma’am. It’s just … I still have the paperwork here on my desk.’
Maddy shook her head. ‘Paperwork?’
‘The paperwork