The Last Days of Newgate - Andrew Pepper [112]
‘I remember.’ Blackwood’s hands were still trembling.
‘Am I right in thinking that no such robberies took place?’ Pyke asked. ‘That’s why you were so outraged at the disparaging remarks that your brother made about your business acumen.’ He glanced behind him, to see what was happening outside the carriage.
A thin smile passed across Blackwood’s lips. ‘And you walked happily into his trap.’
‘We were both used by your brother.’ Pyke met the man’s baleful stare and said, ‘Tell him I’ll be coming for him next.’
Townsend was attempting to haul Goddard’s bloodied corpse on to the back of the cart when Pyke joined him. The rear axle was already buckling under the weight of the trunk. In the distance, he could hear the sound of hoofs thundering against the square-set stones of the road.
‘We have to go.’ He shook Townsend’s arm. Townsend tried to push him away. Pyke saw that he was crying. ‘We have to leave him. There might be a horse patrol on its way.’
‘Leave him?’ Townsend stared through bloodshot eyes. ‘I’ve known him since he was a lad.’
Pyke pulled his arm, harder this time. ‘We can’t take him and the money.’
‘He’ll lead them straight back to me,’ Townsend shouted.
Pyke took his pistol and fired a shot into Goddard’s face. ‘Not if they can’t identify him.’
Townsend stared at him, uncomprehending. Pyke turned the pistol on him and said, ‘I’ll shoot you, too, unless you get up on the cart right now.’
The haul, when they counted it half an hour later, in an abandoned house, came to just under seven thousand pounds. Pyke said he would take a thousand of it, and Townsend could have the rest. He could keep it or give it to Goddard’s family or do what he wanted with it.
‘We agreed a three-way split. That works out as two thousand three hundred pounds each. I’ll give Goddard’s share to his wife.’
‘I promised you half of my split, if you told me where I might be able to locate the mother.’ Pyke’s expression hardened. ‘He was dead and the cavalry was coming. Even if we’d been able to balance him on the cart, do you think we would have been able to outrun them?’
Townsend shook his head, pushing some of the money away. ‘I don’t want your blood money.’
Pyke waited, hands on hips, for the moment to pass.
‘You can take the rest of my share and offer it as a reward for information about a man called Jimmy Swift.’ Pyke gave a brief description. ‘I also want you to get in touch with these radical types you were telling me about. I want to talk with anyone who might be interested in stirring up trouble on Edmonton’s estate.’
‘You forget I don’t work for you.’
‘But even now you hate Edmonton more than you hate me.’
The hotness of Townsend’s anger seemed to dissipate. Pyke picked up the disputed money and thrust it at Townsend. ‘Take it. Do what you want with it.’ He stared into the other man’s sullen face. ‘I didn’t kill Goddard. I’m sorry he’s dead. I’m sorry for his wife and his young girls. I’m sorry for leaving him behind. I didn’t think we had a choice. But, for me at least, this doesn’t end here. Maybe it does for you. If so, I accept. We’ll shake hands and go our separate ways.’ He shrugged. ‘But I need to know where the mother is.’
Townsend stared at Pyke for a moment, contemplating what he had said. ‘I was told she’s been locked up in an asylum in Portsmouth for the last fifteen years.’ He hesitated. ‘But if she wasn’t insane when she was placed there, I’m assured she is now.’
‘You’re suggesting she won’t be of use to me?’
‘I’m saying she won’t be in a position to furnish you with whatever information you’re looking for.’
Pyke picked up the satchel that contained his share of the money. ‘Who says I want information?’
‘Then why do you want to talk to her?’
‘I don’t want to talk to her,’ Pyke said, heading for the door.
‘Pyke?’
Something in Townsend’s voice made him turn around. ‘Yes?’
Townsend looked at him for a while and then sighed. ‘Do you need my help?’
‘This is highly irregular and most perturbing.’ Mr Ezra Kennett, who was not only the chief physician but also the administrator