Barker 05 - Black Hand Read Online Free

Barker 05 - Black Hand
Book: Barker 05 - Black Hand Read Online Free
Author: Will Thomas
Pages:
Go to
been successful; but something in the English character instinctively cringes at new ideas. It wasn’t likely that we would be getting such a modern convenience any time before the next century.
    When I arrived at the hospital in Agar Street, I explained in words and gestures that one would reserve for a simpletonthat a man was bleeding to death a few streets away, but they made me feel as if I were imposing on their time, as if I myself had stabbed someone merely in order to upset their schedules. As I waited, pulling my hair, an orderly attempted to convince various doctors to step down the road and see to the dying man, but they could not be bothered. I finally hit upon the realization that if I spoke as loudly and forcibly as possible, I would either attract someone to help or get myself chucked out. I surrendered my dignity in hope of saving Etienne’s life, not that he would appreciate it. Finally, the orderly came out with a hand cart, followed by a physician just putting on his topper. I’d have felt better if the barrow was not in every way the twin of the one I’d seen bearing Giorgio Serafini’s corpse off to the Poplar Morgue.
    There was a logistical problem as soon as we arrived. The cart would not fit through the door. I went inside while the orderly stood at the curb watchfully, as if the whole of Whitehall had come there that day with the express purpose of stealing his cart.
    Etienne was awake, or nearly. His eyes opened and closed now and then. He gestured, ever so slightly, and the physician bent down to listen, then shook his head dismissively.
    “Stabbed twice, and the man wants a cigarette,” the doctor said, disapprovingly. He probed the wound, producing a faint curse from the Frenchman.
    “There is no way to know immediately how deep the wounds are or how much damage has been done to the organs. If the smallest scrap of cloth has gone into the wound, it shall quickly fester. We must get him to the hospital immediately. May we use the rug to transport him to the cart?”
    “Of course,” Barker said, though I knew he must have spent a good deal for it. Together the five of us lifted Etienne by the ends of the carpet and carried him down to the cart, while our cook cursed in his native tongue.
    I walk the streets of London every day, arguably the most civilized spot on earth, especially in Whitehall where all is marble, but just put an injured friend in a hand litter and try wheeling him a few blocks and one shall see that the streets are not as smooth as one might think. They rise and fall like waves, and there are cracks and broken paving stones even in the seat of government. We left Jenkins to mind the office and mop the floor, and led the grim procession all the way to Agar Street.
    Private enquiry agents or no, there was a point beyond which we could not pass. Dummolard was wheeled through a set of doors, and when we tried to enter, the orderly at the desk cleared his throat, as if issuing a warning. At loose ends, we found a couple of chairs in the hall and fell into them.
    “Do you think this is related to Sir Alan and the Serafinis?” I asked the Guv.
    Barker nodded grimly. “Etienne has complained about the Sicilian coffee shops opening up in Soho near his restaurant,” he stated, turning his bowler in his hands. “The Sicilians hate the French, of course.”
    “The French? Why?”
    “Sicily was ruled by the Bourbons for decades. The Mafia was formed to combat them. The word Mafia is an acronym for ‘Kill the French is Italy’s cry.’ Something was brewing, and I should have realized it before now.”
    Barker spends his evenings in his garret aerie, poring over newspapers and pasting articles into oversized notebooks.Then he broods and prays over them, sometimes late into the night. He tracked civilization’s progress, or, rather, its descent, through the chronicling of its events. Many times I’d seen him solve a case based upon a seemingly unrelated event in The Times
Go to

Readers choose

Liz Gavin

Cornelia Read

Tami Hoag

Laina Villeneuve

Jennifer L. Jennings;John Simon

Sherry Turkle

Helen Brenna

Debra Anastasia