Lost and Gone Forever Read Online Free Page A

fast as his horse could move. The couple in black stepped into the alley and walked slowly along, looking all round them at the stalls of stinking fish and yesterday’s vegetables. The man held his elbow out to the woman, who slipped her arm in his. A pickpocket circled and came up behind them but the man in black casually swung his bag, without looking, and the pickpocket went down in a heap. They walked on as if they hadn’t noticed him.
    The alley wandered on, and they followed it through the fog, their boot heels clacking on broken stones, awnings above them dripping on the woman’s umbrella, held above them both. They did not speak, nor did they look at each other, but they stopped together when they reached a small home with no garden and a stinking garbage pile against the front bricks. One shutter was painted with the notice: LOGINGS FOR TRAFFELERS .
    The man led the way to the front door and, without knocking, opened it for his companion. She nodded to him as she passed over the threshold. Inside, the place was small and damp and reeked of old sweat and gin. A tiny old woman came rushing from some back room to greet them.
    “Yer in luck,” she said. Her voice was thick, both with liquor and a Cockney dialect. “I’ve two beds left.”
    “We’ll take a room to ourselves,” the man said.
    “Oh, you’d be wantin’ a posher place ’n this, then. We goes by the mattress here, and you’ll be furnishin’ yourselves when it comes to linens.”
    “A room,” the man said again. His companion did not speak, nor did she look at the landlady. She stared straight ahead and worried her thumb along the handle of her umbrella.
    “That’d come dear, sir,” the old woman said. “I can’t be givin’ out a whole room to just two people, can I?”
    Now that the matter had come down to money, the man seemed to relax. He smiled for the first time, and when he did, the landlady shivered.
    “We’ll give you forty a week for the room. Two weeks in advance. And we’ll take our meals elsewhere.”
    “Forty? A week?” The old woman leaned toward him and shook her head. “I hate to say it, I do, but you can get a better place ’n this for forty a week, sir.”
    “Yes.”
    “Well then, I’ll take yer money. What name would you like on the register?”
    “None. If we wanted a name on the register, we’d stay somewhere that didn’t smell of rat piss.”
    “Gotta put sumpin’ down for the inspectors.”
    “Very well, put down Parker.”
    “Mr and Mrs, then?”
    “If it suits you.”
    “Gimme an hour or so to clear out a room.”
    “Clear the mattresses off the beds, too, or the floor if there are no beds.”
    “We got proper beds here, like.”
    “Good. Send a boy round for new mattresses. Clean mattresses. We’ll pay for those, too.”
    “New mattresses?”
    “And linens. New. Never used. Have them on the beds when we return.”
    “New mattresses, new linens. That’ll cost, sir.”
    The man smiled again, and the old woman backed away from him. He reached into his pocket and drew out three coins. He took the landlady’s hand, turned it over, and laid the coins on her palm. “I trust that will suffice.”
    The old woman drew in a sharp breath through her nose and nodded. The man nodded in return.
    “Never seen a lady wear a man’s clothings before.” The old lady jerked her thumb in the woman’s direction. “Don’t she talk?”
    “Oh, you wouldn’t want her to talk,” the man said. “I’m the polite one.” He took his companion’s arm, and the two of them left the house without another word or a backward look. The man pulled the door quietly shut behind them.
    When she was sure they were gone, the old woman clutched her wrist where the man had touched her. It felt icy cold.

5
    N evil Hammersmith stood in the middle of his flat and looked round, expecting to see a thick layer of dust and cobwebs coating the familiar mantel, the table under the window, the single wooden chair, and the hot