Four Days in October

Chapter Five: Day Four (Tuesday)

'All reasons why I'm sure she'll volunteer immediately,' George replied. 'In any case, I hear more than Lucy's steps outside; I think we have a party to visit us,' and he rose to his feet just as Raymond opened the door and ushered in Lucy, Edward Davies and Riley. 

'Morning, guv'nor,' said Riley, grinning at his own impertinence, 'we've come to see whether you've any work for us this morning.' 

Mirabelle rose and hurried to greet Lucy with a hug. 'Where did you go yesterday?' exclaimed the latter, 'and why didn't you take us with you?' 

'We went to Rhyl chasing Russian Czarists,' answered Mirabelle, 'and it was too far to drive the taxi!' 

'Well, we're coming today, whatever you're doing,' Lucy replied. 

'Don't you have any work to do at Alma's?' asked Mirabelle, leading Lucy to the settee, and sitting down beside her to talk. 

'She's giving me a day off - she's out distributing leaflets for the Liberal Party.' Lucy's face was bright with excitement. 'So what adventures do we have today?' 

'We have a very dangerous mission,' answered George, walking out from behind his desk and standing over Lucy. 

'How exciting! Tell me all about it!' 

George gestured to everyone to be seated, and then said, 'Leon will explain,' and sat down once again at his desk. 

Leon launched into an explanation of the note that Sergei, 'A Czarist and a trafficker in human misery,' had left Mirabelle, 'presumably in an attempt to lure her into a trap. Mirabelle shouldn't go - the gang will know what she looks like. But someone should go; a woman who can act the part of Mirabelle, who's brave and can keep her head in a crisis.' 

'I'll go,' said Lucy at once - as they had all known she would. 

'If you go, we're going to keep an eye on you,' said Edward at once, and Riley nodded. 

'The plan is that we all go,' said Leon, 'but that one person acts as the bait, while the rest of us surround the place and then move in to arrest the criminals.' 

'We must inform the police,' said George. 'Raymond, will you get Meadows on the phone, please?' 

Inspector Meadows had had a difficult few days. A few weeks of night shifts had been followed by day shifts, but due to the case of Maria of Gratz he had not been able to have a break between the two shift patterns. His team - including the policewomen Busby and Pearce - had suffered in the same way. They were all now showing the symptoms of exhaustion: impatience, difficulty in making decisions and short tempers, and were hoping for a rest day after the General Election tomorrow. 

Nevertheless, Meadows came out to 233 Curzon Street with his team, including several faces who were now very familiar to Mirabelle. She always said that she had difficulties remembering names, but she remembered Taylor, who had been on the Bridges & Westbury job, and Stanley - the sergeant who had led the police team on Sunday afternoon - and of course she went down to greet WPCs Busby and Pearce as they arrived. The police came into house via the back door from the mews, and the men sat in the kitchen drinking tea, regaling the servants with exciting real-life stories of crime, while Busby and Pearce came upstairs to say 'Good morning,' to Maria. 'As she's a dangerous criminal on bail, we have to check on her every day; by rights she should come into the station, but of course she can't, so we're coming out to her,' Pearce explained to Mirabelle and Lucy. 

'What news do you have for me today?' asked Maria, in her tired, frail voice; but Mirabelle noticed that her eyes were bright; she was obviously feeling better this morning.