The Vice Society Read Online Free

constable says he found the man at three o’clock, and the victim’s watch, which was smashed in the fall, registered at five to three. We may ascribe Mrs Colliver’s confusion to being woken in the early hours.’
    ‘Perhaps. It is interesting that the watch was not stolen. Even a broken one will fetch a price.’
    ‘The constable, as I have said, found the victim insensible and bleeding from the head. At this stage, the victim was said by the constable to smell strongly of drink, though Mrs Colliver insists neither gentleman drank alcohol or had it taken to the room.’
    ‘What of the other gentleman – the one sharing the room?’
    ‘As the constable was seeing to the victim, another witness appeared on the scene: one Ned Coffin, a drunken mariner. Both he and PC Cribb saw the other gentleman, the roommate, come out of the building in an agitated state and say: “O my G—, my friend has fallen out of the window! I must go and tell his friends,” whereupon he rushed to a carriage that was stationary a little further down the street and fled in it towards St Clement Danes.’
    ‘Was this roommate at the inquest?’
    No, sir. Nor did he return with any friends of the victim. I have had a man watching the coffee house since PC Cribb reported the case, and the inquest has been adjourned until further intelligence can be gathered about his identity or whereabouts.’
    ‘Do we have a description?’
    ‘No particularly good one. Mrs Colliver could think of little else to say but that he seemed a well-dressed man of good humour. Witnesses at the coffee house said the two spoke in quieted tones. Constable Cribb saw little due to the darkness and, presumably in the case of Mr Coffin, extreme intoxication.’
    ‘Was this Coffin at the inquest?’
    ‘No. I suspect he was in a deep state of slumber. I am attempting to locate him.’
    ‘And do you still maintain that this is an unremarkable case? It seems to me that there is much that remains perplexing. Or have you solved the case already?’
    ‘Sir, I have spent many years on these streets—’
    ‘Without the preamble, if you please.’
    ‘Well then, I will speak frankly. Perhaps the man was a sodomite and this good-humoured fellow was engaged with him in these unnatural practices. Naturally, neither would want to be identified as such by the police, even if it meant one of them was mortally wounded.’
    ‘You do not shock me, Inspector. But you do disappoint me. My knowledge does not extend to sodomitical tastes, but I suggest that some manner of undress is conventional. The victim was fully clothed. And I feel sure such practices do not generally involve defenestration.’
    ‘A simple transaction, sir. One fellow demands his payment, perhaps threatening the other with violence. With the door barred, our victim takes the only other escape route rather than be exposed. On being found, he naturally lies. The other fellow flees.’
    ‘Supposition, Inspector.’
    ‘The most likely explanation, I believe.’
    ‘Have you made a thorough search of the room as Sergeant Williamson was wont to do?’
    ‘I have a constable stationed there in case the young man should return.’
    ‘But you have not searched it. Have you interviewed the family of the victim and the witnesses?’
    ‘Sir, I hardly think—’
    ‘Quite. That is precisely my point. If you have ambitions of taking the vacant post of Superintendent Wilberforce – so lamentably taken from us – I expect to see better work than this. I expect the Detective Force to be a torch exposing crime wherever it lurks, not brushing mysteries into the gutter like so much dung to clog the cleansing passage of water. I sincerely regret that Sergeant Williamson has left us.’
    ‘He was not ... he was no longer suited to his duties. I am sure he is quite content in his new position at the Mendicity Society, where he does not have to contend with the violence and danger of our job in the Detective Force.’
    ‘Perhaps.