Convicted Innocent(19)

The fellow frowned and scratched the crown of his balding head thoughtfully.

“Dark, serious chap? Few times,” one of the others chimed in.

“‘E do some’ing wrong?” another asked, the glint in his eyes suggesting all too plainly how delightful he found that thought.

“When did you see him coming or going?” Horace latched on to the second fellow’s helpful comment.

“Early. We were settin’ up the firs’ time ‘e left. Chap stopped just there—” the second worker pointed to a spot on the pavement a few paces from Horace’s position “—an’ spoke wif some young miss—”

“—smashin’ ginger ‘air,” the third fellow chimed in again, “an’ she ‘ad really nice—oof!”

The second fellow elbowed the one who’d interrupted him and continued.

“She were quite pretty an’ we all stopped to look at ‘er, same as the copper. Then they went different ways.”

“And after that?” the inspector prompted. He had an inkling of the woman’s identity—Sergeant Todd’s acquaintance, Ms. Penelope Marvelle – and he’d track her down if necessary.

“Later – maybe mid-morning like – your p’liceman was goin’ up them steps when some other bobby come runnin’ up, said some’ing urgent-like, an’ then they both ‘urried off together. Didn’t see ‘im no more after. Not yesterday, nor today,” he finished.

“Which way did they go?”

This sort of conversation repeated several times over the next hour as Horace dogged his sergeant’s footsteps from the day before. Though the sometimes vague answers led the inspector along a meandering route, he was confident he was moving in the right direction. After all, Sergeant Todd truly did stand out in a crowd, and he was fairly well known in the neighborhood.

One of the last people the inspector spoke with provided the most interesting tale.

“Last mornin’…” started the wizened old fellow (he’d introduced himself as Burberry), and then his voice trailed off in recollection.

Horace’s tracking had taken him down a narrowing, crooked series of side streets and alleys. He’d noticed Mr. Burberry and stopped him as he stumped by because the man had the sure-footed, habituated absentmindedness of someone crossing his customary turf.

There were very few about otherwise.

“Don’t know if’n I saw your bloke, but there were’n quite a rumpus I ‘appened upon.”

“Describe it for me, please.”

“Seems as like some chap attacked a bobby, an’ several others come to ‘is aid. I was makin’ me way ‘ome, an’ saw ‘em.”

Horace waited expectantly during Burberry’s lengthy pause.

“What were I sayin’?” He began again, licking his lips. “Ah yes. Saw a group o’ you chaps standin’ ‘round another – ‘e was on the ground, senseless, like – an’ they had some chap pinned against that wall there—” Burberry pointed, “—an’ I stopped for a tad to watch.”

“Did you notice any faces?” The detective asked, though a look at Burberry’s rheumy eyes and he doubted the old fellow could pick out much with any clarity.

As expected, the old fellow shook his head. “Didn’ see ‘ny fightin’ neither, but the men were huffin’ and puffin’ as like they’d been in quite a rumpus just afore. One o’ them suggested I go about me business. So in, I did.”