Chapter 43
Dressed in broken-down shoes, a ragged, misshapen coat of brown homespun, and cut-down trousers held up by a rope cinch, the big-eyed, dark-haired, hollow-cheeked boy looked to be perhaps eight or ten. He said he was twelve.
“M’ name’s Joseph,” he said, his thin, bony hands wrapped around one of the hot meat pasties Sebastian had bought for him. He took a large mouthful of the pasty, chewed quickly, then swallowed. “Joseph Tigger. But folks mostly just calls me Jigger.”
They were in the burned-out ruins of an old house off Tothill Street in Westminster, where Calhoun had found the boy.
Jigger was seated on the house’s crumbling steps, with two more paper-wrapped pasties and a steaming mug of hot coffee resting on the worn stones beside him.
“How long have you been living on the streets, Jigger?” said Sebastian, watching him take another bite.
The boy’s throat worked as he swallowed. “Nearly a year, sir; ever since me da died of the ague last winter.”
“You’ve been here in Westminster ever since?”
The boy nodded. “All ’cept this last September, when me an’ some other lads went down t’ Kent t’ help with the hop harvest.” A slow smile spread across his dirty, pinched face.
“It was hard work—real hard work. But it was still ever so grand. That’s what heaven must be like, don’t ye think?
Lots o’ trees and grass, and blue skies, and air so clean ye can suck in as big a breath as ye want and still not fall to coughin’ like you’d do here in London with all the smoke.
” His face fell again. “But the harvest only lasts a few weeks, ye know. Once it was over, they didn’t want us hangin’ around no more.
Drove us off, they did, so all I could do was come back up here, to London. ”
Jigger looked away, his eyes blinking rapidly as if he were fighting back tears, and Sebastian felt his heart ache for the lad.
Calhoun said gently, “Tell his lordship about what happened that night a few weeks ago, when you were sleeping on the bridge.”
“Yes, sir.” A bleak, frightened look crept over the boy’s features.
“After I come back from Kent, I’d taken t’ sleepin’ in one of the alcoves of the bridge when it weren’t raining.
One o’ the gaslights had broke, ye see, so if I curled up real small in the shadows, the watch wouldn’t see me and make me move along the way they usually do.
It can get right nippy out there over the water, but the air is so clean and fresh, it reminded me a bit o’ bein’ in Kent. ”
Jigger’s gaze dropped to his pasty, and he bit his lip.
“Tell us what happened that night,” said Sebastian. “You don’t need to be afraid; we won’t let anyone hurt you.”
The boy shoved the last of the pasty into his mouth, swallowed, then nodded and said in a rush, “I was asleep, ye see? Reckon it musta been maybe one or two o’clock in the mornin’ when I hear this gentry cove come out onto the bridge, draggin’ some doxy with him. Woke me up.”
“He was coming from the Westminster side of the bridge?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you recognize him?”
“No, sir.”
“What about the woman? Did you recognize her?”
“No, sir. Ain’t never seen her before or since.
She weren’t one o’ the strumpets ye normally see workin’ around there.
And I can tell ye, she weren’t happy about him takin’ her out onto the bridge, neither.
Said the watch was gonna tip ’em fer sure.
But the swell cove, he just laughs and says, ‘That’s part of the fun. ’ ”
The boy reached for his second pasty and took a big bite.
Sebastian said, “Was she working with a swaddler?” A swaddler was a thief who typically operated in cooperation with a prostitute and wasn’t overly averse to murdering his victims.
The boy swallowed and shook his head again. “Don’t think so; no, sir. Leastways, I didn’t see one, and she didn’t act like she was expectin’ one t’ come along.”
“So what did happen?”
“Well, that swell cove, he takes her standin’ up right there in the alcove next t’ mine, directly under the gaslight for all the world t’ see.
Don’t know why the watch didn’t come after ’em, ’less maybe he was drunk or asleep.
Truth be told, I think the swell cove was kinda disappointed the watch didn’t come.
But then, jist as ’e’s really goin’ at it—if ye know what I mean? —these three other coves come along.”
“Three?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you recognize any of them?”
“Not exactly. I mean, I’d noticed ’em hangin’ around near the end of the bridge earlier, but I’d never seen any of ’em before then, if that’s what yer askin’.
I think maybe they was followin’ the swell cove, because they showed up right after him, but then they jist sorta waited around in the shadows.
At first, I reckoned they must be his friends because one of ’em says his name.
But he says it low and kinda nasty, if ye know what I mean?
I don’t think the swell cove even heard him at first, on account of what the cove was doin’ with the girl.
” The boy looked away, a tide of embarrassment staining his thin cheeks.
He shoved the last of the second pasty in his mouth, chewed, and swallowed.
“So then, all three of ’em says the swell cove’s name, louder.
And that time, he hears ’em. Whips around real quick-like to face ’em while workin’ at buttonin’ up his flap, and he’s madder than the blazes at ’em, callin’ ’em all sorts o’ names. ”
“What did the girl do?”
“She musta thought he was workin’ with them three, tryin’ to cheat her, because she starts screaming at him and at them, sayin’ as she wants her money and she wants it now, and not t’ be thinkin’ she’s gonna fall fer any of their tricks.
That’s when one ’em—one of them three, I mean—says somethin’ to her.
He says it so low I can’t hear it. But the girl, she gets this scared look on her face and takes t’ backin’ away.
And as soon as she gets a little ways away from ’em, she turns around and runs. ”
“And where were you while all this was happening?”
“I was still in me alcove. It was dark where I was, like I said, on account of that gas lamp being out. So I jist stayed real low and as quiet as could be. None of ’em ever knew I was there.”
Sebastian studied the boy’s strained, frightened face. “What happened after the girl left?”
Jigger swiped the ragged cuff of his sleeve across his nose and mouth.
“One o’ the three, he says to the swell cove, ‘Ye just tiffed yer last nell, Gilbert.’ And the swell cove, he laughs and says, ‘Not hardly.’ He goes to brush past them, and then…
and then…” The boy broke off, his breath now coming hard and fast.
“And then?” prompted Sebastian.
Jigger swallowed. When he spoke again, his voice was little more than a broken whisper. “And then one o’ them three stabbed him.”
“You saw it?”
Jigger nodded. “At first, I wasn’t real sure what’d happened.
I mean, I saw one of ’em lunge at the swell cove, and the swell cove, he staggers, swearin’.
Then he takes off running back toward the Westminster side o’ the bridge, with them other three chasin’ after him.
That’s when I realized he was hurt—he was holdin’ his hand to his side, and I could see the blood oozin’ out between his fingers.
He was kinda limpin’ along, draggin’ his left leg and not movin’ very fast, so one o’ them other three was able t’ get in front of him real easy-like while another one, he comes up alongside him, so they’ve got him surrounded—penned up against the side of the bridge, if ye know what I mean?
That’s when he climbs up on the parapet.
I don’t know what he thought he was gonna do because he could hardly stand up and was weavin’ all over the place.
And then he lost his balance and pitched right off the side of the bridge, into the river.
” The boy paused. “He screamed as he fell. It was the most awful sound I think I ever heard.”
Jigger was silent for a moment, his gaze on the hands he now held twisted together in his lap, the last pasty lying forgotten at his side.
“That’s when I heard the watchman’s shout.
Don’t know where he’d been all that time, but he started out onto the bridge at a run, whirlin’ his rattle over his head.
Them three—the ones that’d done for the swell cove—they took off back the way they’d come, toward Westminster.
Me, I crouched down in the shadows as small as I could.
Like to have wet m’self, I did; I was that scared.
I couldn’t even look; jist squeezed me eyes shut, wishin’ and hopin’ as hard as I could that the watchman wouldn’t see me. ”
“Did he?”
The boy shook his head. “No, sir. He was too busy chasin’ after them three. So as soon as he was past me, I slipped out me alcove and high-tailed it t’ the south bank. I ain’t been near that bridge since. Had to go all the way down to Blackfriars to get back over here.”
“Did the watchman see the ‘swell cove’ fall in the river?”
“I don’t think so, no, sir. He was hollerin’ about how no one was supposed to be climbin’ on the parapets, but he didn’t look down toward the river, which I reckon he’d have done, don’t you think, if he’d seen the cove go over?”
“One would think so,” said Sebastian. “Tell me about the three men who came up together. How were they dressed?”
Jigger shrugged. “They weren’t turned out as fine as the first swell, but I wouldn’t say they was shabby, neither.”
“Tall? Thin? Short? Stout?”
“Not tall,” said the boy without hesitation. “Not tall, at all. And built real slight, too. Tell the truth, I thought at first maybe they was boys. Their voices was kinda high, too, like maybe they weren’t finished changing yet. They almost sounded like girls.”
Sebastian was aware of a strange roaring in his ears as much of what he’d assumed up to that point suddenly shifted, realigning itself into an entirely new pattern. “You say at first you thought they were striplings. Did something happen to change your mind?”
Jigger shook his head. “Not exactly, sir. It was just that…well, the more I watched ’em and listened to ’em, they didn’t seem all that young anymore. If ye know what I mean?”
“Yes,” said Sebastian. “I think I do.”