Avery & Blake 02 - The Infidel Stain Read Online Free Page A

you might tell us about the task you have for us,’ I continued.
    Lord Allington turned to his female companion, who had thus far barely shifted her attention from him. ‘The subject is, I fear, not one suitable for ladies’ ears.’
    ‘Come, Allington, there is no real reason for me to depart,’ she said.
    ‘My dear,’ he said, warningly.
    ‘But, Allington—’
    He raised his hand and she fell silent. ‘Mr Threlfall,’ he said to Brown Cape, ‘would you see my sister back to the coach?’
    The lady sighed loudly and gave us a mutinous look. ‘The footman will escort me,’ she said stiffly, lifting her skirts and rustling noisily from the room, the silent footman gliding behind her.
    ‘Gentlemen.’ The Viscount unmeshed his fingers and pressed them on to the table, staring into its unpolished surface. ‘I have a dark and ugly task to ask of you. I do not know if it may be resolved, but I think it must be attempted and I believe that the act of doing so will cast light into the dark places where it is most truly needed. The matter concerns an unsolved murder – two, indeed.’
    I felt a thrill of shock, and also of excitement.
    ‘One took place three weeks ago, in the back streets below Drury Lane – a hive of degeneracy but also of great poverty and wretchedness. It was not some drunken brawl or cheap revenge played out upon the street. The victim was the poorest sort of printer, of chapbooks and the like, and he was attacked in his own shop.’
    ‘Printers, even poor ones, are hardly the most wretched in London,’ said Blake sullenly, for the first time. Looking up, Lord Allington became instantly once more mesmerized by his appearance.
    ‘Your Lordship,’ I said, ‘I see you are surprised by Mr Blake’s attire. I should perhaps explain that he is accoutred thus so as to pass easily through the lowest and poorest parts of the city – just such places as you describe. In India this skill saved my life. Indeed, I would go so far as to describe him as a very “master of disguise”.’
    Lord Allington nodded and looked patently relieved. Blake glared at me but said nothing. I had judged once again that his natural antipathy to complicated explanations would make him loath to contradict me, and so – for the moment – it proved.
    ‘Please, Your Lordship, pray continue,’ I prompted.
    ‘I know nothing personally of the victim, but we have been able to obtain copies of a police report as well as several descriptions of the body from those who found it. Mr Threlfall has the papers. As I said, the man was a printer and his name was—’
    ‘Wedderburn, my Lord,’ Mr Threlfall supplied smoothly.
    ‘Yes,’ said Viscount Allington. ‘His premises were in Holywell Street, a poor and dishonest neighbourhood, as you will know. The circumstances of the murder were strange and bloody, there were no witnesses, but the manner in which his body was discovered has impressed itself most dreadfully upon everyone who saw it.’
    Mr Threlfall retrieved from his leather bag a portfolio and handed it to his master. His Lordship studied it for a few moments, shut his eyes as if in distaste, then handed it back to Threlfall, opening his blue eyes wide. He spoke in a low, urgent voice.
    ‘The matter was almost immediately abandoned by the police for lack of evidence. But the body was found in an exceptional and horrible state. It was very particularly draped – spreadeagled, indeed – across the printing press, as if the assailant had taken very particular pains to place it there. Its face and neck had been cut, carved even, so that it was hardly recognizable. It was covered in blood – in monstrous quantities, and on the hands this had been mixed with ink. The stomach had been … well, the only way to describe it is sliced open, like some butchered creature. Moreover, this abomination was committed as the man’s family slept quietly upstairs.’
    He paused for a moment, and exhaled as if to rid himself of the