The Last Days of Newgate - Andrew Pepper [86]
‘You want more, I’ll get it for you,’ he spat. ‘But can I please have the pistol?’
‘Here.’ Megan handed it to him. ‘But hear me, mister, I want whatever’s on that table.’
One shot. That was all he had. One shot for ten or fifteen men in the cellar; another fifty or so upstairs in the taproom.
Pyke was alongside Arnold when he removed the pistol from his shirt and jabbed the end of the barrel into the man’s left temple. For a moment, no one moved. No one even breathed. Pyke used the opportunity to position himself behind Arnold, to use him as a shield, all the while keeping the pistol aimed at his head. Arnold ordered the men in the cellar to remain calm. From behind him, Pyke explained what was going to happen; explained that if anyone tried to prevent him and Arnold from walking up the stairs and leaving via the rear door, or tried to warn people in the upstairs room, then he would pull the trigger and take his chances. As he spoke, and with one hand holding the pistol to Arnold’s head, he gathered up the pile of coins and banknotes from the table with the other hand. The stares of those gathered in the room left Pyke in no doubt what they had planned for him.
Halfway up the staircase, Arnold said, ‘Don’t be thinkin’ you’ll walk away from this, Pyke.’
It was only once they were outside, moving quickly through the back yard and along a narrow passageway that ran between two rows of terraced houses, that Pyke realised what Arnold had said.
Ahead of them, at the end of the alley, Megan and the dog were waiting for him, but instead of joining them Pyke forced open a nearby back gate and pushed Arnold roughly through it and into the yard of a derelict house.
It was a cool, starless night. The ground under their feet was soggy and riddled with puddles. In the near distance, Pyke heard the angry shouts of men spilling out of the tavern. One said, ‘Let’s kill ’im.’ Another said, ‘No fuckin’ mercy.’
Pyke prodded the pistol into Arnold’s throat. ‘How did you know my name?’ In the darkness, he could see the whites of the man’s eyes. ‘Speak.’
‘After you escaped from prison, I received a letter from Tilling. The man warned me that you might try to contact me. I didn’t think anything of it. Then when you mentioned Tilling’s name, I suppose I knew. I should a’ dealt with ye then but I wanted to have some fun. I figured - wrongly, it turns out - you weren’t a threat.’
Pyke digested this news and wondered what it indicated. That Tilling wanted to conceal a trail of complicity that led back to him?
‘You know the Magennis family of Loughgall? Yes or no?’ Pyke jabbed the pistol into Arnold’s Adam’s apple.
‘Andrew Magennis is the Grand Secretary for County Armagh.’
‘A few years ago, he contacted you, asked if you could put in a good word for his son, Davy. You arranged for someone to visit Loughgall in person, to enlist Davy in the Royal Irish Constabulary.’
‘If you say so.’ Arnold’s voice sounded as though it had been flattened with hammers.
‘You went to see Tilling. Later, Tilling paid Davy Magennis a visit and recruited him into the new force.’
‘You’d have to ask Tilling about that.’
At the far end of the alleyway, Pyke heard voices, a scuffle of footsteps. He had less time than he needed.
‘There were three murders earlier this year in London. A man, a woman and a baby. I found the bodies. Magennis killed them. One of the victims was Magennis’s brother. I saw the cut to his throat. It was so deep the man’s head had practically been severed from his body. Magennis throttled the baby with his bare hands, with his bare fucking hands, and then dumped it into a metal piss-pot.’ Pyke took a breath and tried to calm himself.
Arnold waited for a moment. ‘You have a powerful way wi’ words.’ In the street, his brogue was stronger.
‘Magennis is hiding somewhere in Ulster.’
‘What’s that got to do wi’ me?’
‘I think you know where he might be.’ Pyke raised the pistol and aimed it at Arnold’s forehead.
On the other side of the gate, two men hurried past. He heard one of them say, farther along