Pandora(93)

Tibb closes his eyes. ‘Poor bastards. But I’d be surprised if Hezekiah did it. He hasn’t got the guts for something like that.’

‘You’d be surprised what lengths people will go to given the right motivation.’

Tibb says nothing to this. Edward takes a breath.

‘Mr Tibb, you know things. Things I need to know. It is my understanding that Hezekiah is involved in contraband trade. Matthew Coombe hinted as much. He was going to tell me. That’s why I went to see him.’ Again Tibb says nothing. Edward ploughs on. ‘There is a chance he is involved in far worse. Aside from the death of the Coombes, of which I am convinced he is responsible, it seems Hezekiah is also responsible for the deaths of his brother and sister-in-law.’

Still Tibb says nothing. Edward begins to lose patience.

‘Please, sir. A lady’s life is at stake. You remember her, don’t you? The girl on the cart?’

‘The niece.’

‘Yes. The niece. Her name is Dora.’

Tibb touches his lip with his tongue. ‘Her life, you say?’

‘You heard me.’ A pause. ‘Please, sir. Help me. Help her.’

The man sighs deeply, runs a dirty hand over his face, stares down at his lap. After a moment he says, ‘You have to understand, I truly know very little. I never asked questions. I was paid not to.’

Finally. He is getting somewhere.

‘Just tell me what you do know,’ Edward says, as smoothly as he can.

Tibb removes his cap again, begins to twist it in his hands.

‘I met Hezekiah about sixteen years ago. The shop wasn’t his then, as I understand it, but he’d begun to trade in his own right. Whether his brother knew or not, I don’t know.’

Edward smiles grimly. He suspects Elijah knew all too well.

‘One summer he approached me. I remember it was summer, because Hezekiah commented that the stench would be the perfect cover. No one would bother to search a laystall, he said, for unregistered shipments. He said he would pay me ten pounds a year to make space for a boat and send messengers whenever one made port. I was to ask no questions, and I never did. Ten pounds is a lot of money for a man like me.’

Edward nods. It is a lot. Far more than his regular pay would give him.

Tibb clears his throat.

‘But sixteen years is a long time. You recognise patterns. You hear things. He had contacts in other countries, I know that. Every month there would be a shipment. Some large, some small, but regular, all in crates so I never saw what was in them. The Coombes came on board about seven years ago. I haven’t a clue where Hezekiah found them, he just told me I was to accommodate them and their boat whenever he requested, and he’d pay me an extra five pounds a year for the inconvenience.

‘Every six months he would have letters arrive from Greece. Then, last year, he received a letter from Italy. Palermo. I remember at the time because he’d never had one from there before. Letters usually came from Naples, if they came from Italy at all. I also hadn’t seen Matthew for a number of weeks. Then, in December, he turns up. Babbled about a shipwreck, how he’d barely escaped with his life. But soon after he was off again, Sam and Charlie with him. And Hezekiah …’ Tibb shakes his head. ‘I’d never seen him like it before. Came down to the dock near every day the week before they came back. He wanted that shipment. Was desperate for it, which I thought odd since he had instructed them to come the long way round.’

‘The long way?’

Tibb nods. Twists the cap. ‘It would have been faster by road after they reached the mainland from Samson. But they came the whole way by sea, a crate in tow. Matthew made some great fuss about it being cursed.’

Edward blinks. This is new.

‘Cursed?’

Tibb waves the cap. ‘I took no notice, of course. You should see some of the people who arrive at the docks after a sea voyage. Many haven’t seen land for months. It’s no wonder their wits are gone. But Hezekiah was furious. They took it away. I didn’t see either of them again until the day we delivered to the Latimer place.’ Tibb frowns. ‘I did wonder why Matthew wasn’t with us when Hezekiah employed us to collect it again. I just assumed he’d sent him off somewhere else.’

Edward is quiet, thinks a moment on all he has heard.

‘Is there anything else, Mr Tibb?’

‘Nothing I can recall,’ the man replies. ‘Like I said, I know very little. I turned a blind eye to most things, was paid well to do so. I hope I have been of some help.’

But Edward is nodding, stepping down from the stool. He holds out his hand for Tibb to shake. Hesitant, the man takes it in his own.

‘You have been a great help. Thank you, Mr Tibb. You’ve told me all I need to know.’

As he turns to leave, Edward pauses, his conscience pulling him back.

‘They’re still there. The Coombe brothers. I …’

Tibb notes the look on Edward’s face, gives a grim nod.

‘I’ll see to them.’

Mute, he chucks his chin in thanks. And as Edward makes his escape, the image of Matthew Coombe’s blood-soaked body follows him all the way up from Puddle Dock Hill like a plague.





CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT





She does not know where she is at first. The room is silent, dappled dark by curtains that do not quite block out the daylight. Dora shifts under the covers, her body sinking into the unfamiliar bed. She spreads her hands out on the coverlet. Velvet. Periwinkle blue. She looks about her, at the framed pictures on the walls: all Oriental, all scenic, a collection of mountains, forests, lakes, pretty floral scenes. She stares for a long moment at one depicting three white butterflies, little black dots on their wings, fluttering over tufts of ornamental grass. Then a bird trills its midday song and she remembers it all.