The Silent Cry Page 0,42

well-dressed men, who came down here for a little sport, and took it too far. I'd like to find them."

"Would yer!" The cabby was hesitating, weighing the advantages and disadvantages of co-operation. "W'y? Them women belong toyer, do they?"

"I'm bein' paid for it," Monk said honestly. "It's worth it to someone to have it stopped."

"Oo? Some pimp? Look, I in't standin' 'ere all night answering damn silly questions for yer, less you pays, right?"

Monk fished in his pocket and brought out half a crown. He held it where the cabby could see it, but did not yet offer it.

"For Vida Hopgood, whose husband owns the shop where they work. She doesn't approve of rape. I take it you don't care?"

The cabby swore, his voice angry. "Oo the 'ell are you ter tell me I don' care, yer bleedin' toff from up west yerself? Them bastards come down 'ere an' took a woman, an' used 'er like dirt, then go ridin' back 'ome like they'd bin on a day's outin' in the city!" He spat with terse contempt.

Monk handed him the half-crown and he bit it automatically.

"So where did you pick them up, and where did you take them?" Monk asked.

"Pick 'em up Brick Lane," the cabby replied. "An' took 'em up ter Portman Square. "Nother time took 'em ter Eaton Square. Don't mean ter say that's where they lives. You in't got a cat in 'ell's chance o' finding 'em. And wot if yer do? "Oo dyer thinks gonna believe some poor bitch from Seven Dials agin' a toff from up west? They'll say she's sellin' 'erself, so wot's wrong if 'e's a bit rough? "E's bought and paid for it, in't 'e? They don't give decent women much of a chance wot's bin raped. Wot chance 'as an 'ore got?"

"Not much," Monk said miserably. "But there are other ways, if the law will do nothing."

"Yeah?" The cabby's voice lifted in a moment's hope. "Like wot? Top the bastard yerself? Yer'd only get strung up for it, in the end.

Rozzers'll never let murder of a gent go. They won't upset their selves too much over it if some 'ore from down 'ere gets bashed over the 'ead, an' dies of it. "Appens all the time. But let some gent get a shiv in 'is gut an' all 'ell'll get loose. There'll be rozzers up an' dahn every street. I tell yer, it in't worth it. We'll all pay, mark my words."

"I was thinking of something a little subtler," Monk replied with a tight, wolfish smile.

"Yeah? Like wot?" But the cabby was listening now, leaning sideways over his box, peering at Monk in the lamplight through the snow.

"Like making sure everyone knows about it," Monk replied. "Making it a news item, with details."

"They don't care!" The cabby's disappointment was palpable. "Is friends'll all think it's clever. Wot's one 'ore ter them?"

"His friends might not care," Monk replied savagely. "But his wife will! His parents-in-law will, especially his mother-in-law!"

The cabby blasphemed under his breath.

"And maybe his investors, or his society friends' wives, the mothers of the girls his sons hope to marry, or of the men his daughters do," Monk continued.

"Or'right! Or'right!" the cabby snapped. "I un' understand yer. Wot yer wanna know? I don' know 'oo they was. I wouldn't know 'em now if yer marched 'em in front o' me. But then I don' s'pose I'd know you temorrer, an' these geezers kep' their faces away. I jus' thought it were cos they fancied they were too good ter talk ter the likes o' me.

Jus' give orders..."

"What orders?" Monk said quickly.

"Drive 'em north an' drop 'em in Portman Square. They said they'd walk 'ome from there. Careful sods, eh? I din' think nothin' of it then.

They don't even 'ave ter live near Portman Square. Could've got another 'ansom from there ter were ver they lives. Could be any place."

"It's a start."

"Go on! Even the bleedin' rozzers couldn't find 'em from that!"

"Maybe, but they've been here a dozen times or more. There'll be a common factor somewhere, and if there is, I'll find it," Monk said in a low, bitter voice. "I'll ask all the other cabbies, people on the street, and there are plenty of those. Someone saw them, someone will know. They'll make a mistake. They will already have made one, maybe several."

The cabby shivered, and it was only partly the snow. He looked at Monk's face.

"Like a bleedin' wolf, you are. I'm ruddy glad you in't after me