Churchyard and Hawke Page 18

  While he was talking Tom Churchyard had entered the interview room quietly and stood just inside the doorway. Now, speaking for the first time, he said, ‘That’s right, Mary. Superintendent Hawke and me were with Jimmy when he died.’

  Fighting back her tears, Mary Banks looked from Tom to Harvey and in a strained voice said, ‘You wouldn’t lie to me . . . not you, Harvey? This isn’t a cruel trick to get me to tell you something you want to know?’

  Harvey shook his head, sorrowfully, ‘No one is lying to you, Mary, I wish I could say we were. We know Jimmy was involved with Alfie in the burglary, but he didn’t deserve to die for it. Certainly not in the way he did, alone and hurt and lost in surroundings that would have been terrifying for a Hoxton boy. Alfie shouldn’t have done that . . . not to a young lad who was a blood relative.’

  Fighting hard to keep control of herself, Mary said, ‘Did he . . . did Jimmy say anything before he died? ‘

  This time it was Amos who replied, ‘It was as much as he could do to say anything, but just before he died he managed to whisper to me that I was to tell Enid he was sorry. Enid was a scullery-maid in the house where Jimmy worked for a while, the house that he and Alfie burgled.’

  Almost in control of herself now, Mary said, ‘Jimmy told me about Enid. I think ‘e liked ‘er a lot. I’d like to meet ‘er while I’m ‘ere. I’d like to see Jimmy too.’

  The three policemen exchanged glances and once again it was Amos who spoke, ‘Enid is dead too, Mary. She was murdered on the night of the robbery . . . we believe by Alfie.’

  The expression of mistrust returned to Mary’s face once more and she said, ‘Why would Alfie want to kill a young scullery-maid? Jimmy said she was a bit simple, but was one of the kindest people you could wish to meet.’

  ‘That’s a question we were hoping Jimmy would be able to help us with,’ Amos said, ‘It could have been because she’d seen something she wasn’t supposed to see - and we know someone from inside the big house helped Jimmy and Alfie with the burglary. In fact, whoever it is probably planned the whole thing. If Enid found out about it they might have felt it necessary to silence her.’

  Mary shook her head vigorously, ‘Jimmy wouldn’t have ‘ad anything to do with that, ‘e might ‘ave got in trouble with the law once or twice, but ‘e wouldn’t ‘ave ‘armed no girl - ‘e wouldn’t ‘arm anyone, Jimmy wasn’t like that.’

  ‘That’s what I told Superintendent Hawke,’ Harvey agreed ‘but the same couldn’t be said for Alfie. He’s a bad one, Mary, for all that he’s your brother-in-law.’

  ‘Don’t I know it? I told Jimmy so more than once, but he wouldn’t listen to me. Alfie was an uncle, ‘is dad’s brother, and Jimmy looked up to him . . . but can I see Jimmy now?’

  Once again it was left to Amos to reply to her, ‘I’m sorry, Mary, Jimmy has already been buried. He was given a proper funeral a couple of days ago and is in the Bodmin graveyard. I’ll let Harvey take you there when you’ve finished your tea and had something to eat. You’ve had a long journey and it’s ended very unhappily for you.’

  Walking towards the church with Harvey, Mary Banks asked, ‘Was that superintendent telling the truth about what happened to my Jimmy, or was ‘e just trying to get me to say something against Alfie?’

  ‘He told you as much as we know about what happened, Mary. Amos Hawke is a straightforward bloke. I’ve known him for many years. He was my captain when we served in the Marines together in the Crimean war and he got me this job in the police here. We both feel sorry for Jimmy. He did wrong and he’d have been punished for it had he lived, but he didn’t deserve to be left to die, the way he was.’

  After a thoughtful silence, Mary said, ‘Tell me exactly what ‘appened, there’s a few things I need to get sorted out in me ‘ead.’

  Harvey told Mary Banks everything, from the forged reference which had gained Jimmy employment at Laneglos, the abortive plan to cause mayhem at the Cornwall summer ball and the subsequent arrest of all the Hoxton gang with the exception of Jimmy and Alfie. He concluded by telling her of the burglary at Laneglos, the finding of the wrecked wagonette and the hidden stolen property and the finding of Jimmy by the local children.

  ‘What makes you think Jimmy was badly ‘urt when Alfie rode off and left ‘im? Couldn’t ‘is injuries ‘ave been caused by falling in the river?’

  ‘According to the doctor who carried out the . . . who examined him after he’d died, he’d had the broken collarbone long before he got the other injuries. It would have caused him a lot of pain and probably made him delirious. It might even have been the reason why he fell into the river, especially as it must have happened sometime in the night.’

  Mary Banks tried hard to control her emotions as she conjured up a picture of her son wandering alone in the woods in the darkness, suffering from a broken collarbone, but her face contorted as a tear escaped from her tightly closed eyelids. It was followed by another and a third.

  Seeing them, Harvey said, ‘Im sorry, Mary . . . but you wanted to know the truth about what happened.’

  Mary nodded vigorously and speaking between clenched teeth, she said, ‘I’m glad you told me, ‘arvey, it means I’ve been right to detest Alfie so much for so long. It was ‘im who was the cause of my old man - Jimmy’s dad - being transported all those years ago - and now ‘e’s taken Jimmy from me and probably robbed another mother of ‘er daughter, ‘e should have been given the drop years ago.’

  ‘Alfie might meet the hangman yet, especially now we know he’s in London again. We thought he must have left the country.’

  ‘He probably ‘as by now,’ Mary spoke unaware of the effect her words would have on Harvey. ‘Alfie was saying "goodbye" to ‘is ma yesterday, just before I left London. Then ‘e went off to catch a ship to Australia.’

  ‘What was the name of the ship, Mary, do you know?’

  ‘Alfie did say but all I can remember is that it’s James . . . something or another. It’s a Scottish name.’

  ‘Where is it sailing from . . . and when?’

  Mary shrugged, ‘It’ll be from one of the London docks, but I don’t know when it was due to leave.’

  They had arrived at the Bodmin graveyard now. Hurriedly showing Mary the mound of newly dug earth beneath which lay the body of her son, Harvey said he would leave her alone for a few minutes before returning for her.

  Leaving the graveyard, he ran all the way to the police headquarters to tell Amos what Mary had revealed.

  CHAPTER 31

  An urgent telegraph from Amos to Scotland Yard received a prompt reply with the news that a sailing ship named James Macintyre had sailed from London on the night tide carrying emigrants bound for Adelaide in South Australia.

  It would appear that Mary Banks’s information had come too late to enable Amos to arrest the man he believed held the key to the two most serious crimes to have taken place in Cornwall since the formation of the county’s constabulary - and Amos was furious!

  Pacing the floor of his office he was castigating the Metropolitan Police to an equally frustrated Tom Churchyard.

  ‘I sent details of Alfie Banks to Scotland Yard and stressed that he was wanted urgently here in Cornwall for questioning about murder and burglary. Why did no one pick him up when he returned to Hoxton? Surely the Division would have got news of his return? You would have known had you still been in London, especially after all the information we have given them about what has been going on here.’

  ‘They should have known.’ Tom agreed, ‘but we know who is in charge of "K" Division and Dyson wouldn’t have put himself out to help us.’

  Ceasing his pacing, Amos said, ‘You are right, of course, Tom. We should both have been aware of that when I sent the original details to London, but it’s frustrating, to say the very least. Send another telegraph right away requesting details of the ship’s planned movements, the ports it will be calling at and the approximate date of its arrival in Adelaide. We’ll try to have Alfie picked up
there and returned to us. The problem is going to be that the voyage will take so long that the Australian police will have forgotten all about it by the time it arrives. Even if they do remember he’ll probably be using a different name and nobody there will be able to identify him. I am furious about the whole business but I suppose we must accept what has happened and try to solve both the murder and the robbery without his help. I will need to tell the Chief Constable what is happening.’

  An hour later Amos was in Chief Constable Gilbert’s office telling him all that had happened that morning when there came a heavy hammering on the door. Before the Chief Constable had time to respond, the door was flung open and an excited Tom Churchyard appeared in the doorway.

  Addressing Amos, he said, ‘I sent a telegraph message to London, sir, asking if they had any information about the James Macintyre’s ports of call on the way to Australia. They have come straight back to say the ship is due to put into Falmouth - today! It’s expected to sail again at dawn tomorrow. If we hurry we might be able to get down there and arrest him . . . .’

  Following Tom’s dramatic news, there was great activity at the Bodmin police headquarters. The information about the emigrant ship had come from the London river police, who were an extremely efficient organisation that had been operating for far longer than the Metropolitan Police itself.

  Amos’s message requesting details of the ship’s movements had been passed to them and, although the vessel had already left their jurisdiction they immediately contacted the ship’s owners, who informed them that the James Macintyre was scheduled to call at Falmouth to embark Cornish miners who were emigrating to Australia seeking a more secure future than was to be found in Cornish mining. While in the port the ship would also take on board foodstuffs which were cheaper here than in the metropolis.

  Amos swiftly learned that if they hurried, it would be possible to reach the railway station at Bodmin Road in time to catch a train that would carry them westwards as far as Truro. While they were on their way instructions would be telegraphed from the Bodmin police station to have a carriage and four Truro based policemen waiting to accompany them on to Falmouth and hopefully succeed in the arrest of Alfie Banks.

  Amos took Tom and Harvey with him in order to make a positive identification of the wanted Hoxton criminal as it was almost certain he would have assumed a new identity.

  The three policemen reached the Bodmin Road railway station only minutes before the train and were grateful to climb on board and relax on the hour-long journey to Truro.

  An inspector was waiting in the Truro station yard for them, excited at the prospect of assisting in the capture of the man who was currently the most wanted criminal in the short history of the Cornwall constabulary.

  As the hired carriage bowled along the twisting, undulating and wood-fringed road that led to the busy port of Falmouth, Amos was pleased to discover that the inspector was a keen young policeman who had only recently transferred on promotion, from the longer established Bristol City constabulary. He was eager to prove his worth to the most senior superintendent in his new force.

  The inspector had sent a constable ahead of them to locate the Australian bound vessel and seek the aid of the Falmouth revenue men. Awaiting them on the outskirts of the town this constable was able to inform Amos that the James Macintyre was anchored in the Carrick Roads, a large, deepwater natural harbour that had brought past prosperity to the South coast Cornish town.

  ‘There have been a great many boats going out to the ship carrying stores.’ the constable reported, ‘and I have seen about fifty or so emigrating miners going out to it too, but I was talking to one of the ship’s officers who was checking stores on the jetty. Claiming I had a friend on board, I asked if he might be allowed to come ashore and see me before the ship left. The officer told me the captain would not allow either passengers or crew to leave the ship before it sailed, so if Banks is on board he’ll be kept there and we’ll find him.’

  It was what Amos wanted to hear, but he was aware that Alfie Banks was a very resourceful man - and he was not yet a prisoner.

  Taking stock of all that was going on around the ship, he said, ‘Have the boats taking stores out to the Janies Macintyre detained and kept here as they return, I don’t want any more of them going out to the ship until our search is over.’

  It was another thirty minutes before the last of the port’s boats pulled away from the side of the emigrant ship and Amos and his men set off to board the vessel. They were accompanied by a party of revenue men. Familiar with ship searches they would be aware of likely hiding places that the policemen might miss.

  When Amos climbed the ladder to the deck of the James Macintyre he was confronted by the vessel’s furious captain who demanded to know what was happening.

  ‘Who are you . . . and why has the victualling of my ship been halted?’ The furious mariner demanded. ‘Do you realize I am setting off on a three-month voyage and every ounce of food that I has been ordered is vital to the well-being of my passengers and crew?’

  ‘You’ll get your victuals, Captain, and I and my men will delay you no longer than is absolutely necessary, but I have received information that one of your passengers is a wanted man. As soon as he is found and arrested the boats will be allowed to come out to you again.’

  Unappeased, the angry sailor said, ‘I am in charge of this ship, sir and the passengers are my responsibility. Who is it you are seeking - and what is he supposed to have done that is serious enough to cause such unforgivable inconvenience to me, my ship and a couple of hundred passengers?’

  ‘His name is Alfie Banks - although he is unlikely to have booked a passage under that name. He is known to have carried out an audacious burglary against one of the most important homes in Cornwall, during the course of which a man died. He is also wanted for questioning about the murder of a young girl who was a servant at the house.’

  Only slightly less belligerently, the captain asked, ‘How long is this search of yours likely to take?’

  ‘With your co-operation not too long, I hope, although I doubt he will make his arrest easy for us.’

  ‘I am not happy about the disruption you are causing on my ship, sir, and will be submitting a complaint through the ship’s owners, but if it is likely to speed things up you may look through my passenger list and I will make men available to conduct you around the ship . . . but I trust you will waste as little of my time as is possible. All the signs are of bad weather coming in from the east. I want to stay ahead of it if at all possible.’

  ‘We’ll take up no more of your time than is necessary, Captain, but Banks is a desperate man and well aware of the fate that awaits him if he’s taken. I don’t intend allowing him an opportunity to evade capture yet again.’

  ‘If you hadn’t given him the opportunity in the first place you wouldn’t be here disrupting my ship’s routine today . . . but just get on with your job, so that I might get on with mine.’

  With this the captain turned on his heel and stalked off to his cabin, leaving his first mate to assist Amos with the search of the emigrant ship.

  The first search was carried out in the hold which had been fitted out to accommodate the majority of the emigrating men. Many had only just boarded the ship and the hold was in chaos.

  It took a while to check the identity of every man in the hold but Harvey and Tom confirmed that Alfie Banks was not among their number.

  Leaving two constable to ensure nobody either entered or left the hold until they had completed their search, Amos and the others moved on to the accommodation provided for emigrants travelling as families, or married couples, but here again they drew a blank.

  A full hour later the captain was pacing the deck of his ship, muttering darkly about the incompetence of the Cornwall constabulary, his anger fuelled by a liberal helping of the fine cognac he kept in a locked cupboard in his cabin, the fumes of which assailed Amos when he reported on the lack of success of his search.<
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  ‘We have searched everywhere except the hold for unaccompanied women - and they are refusing to allow us in there. It seems one who is on her way to join her husband tis giving birth and they say it’s no place for a man, whether he’s a policeman or a criminal.’

  ‘A woman giving birth on my ship?!’ The captain’s complexion took on an even deeper hue as he found another subject for his anger. ‘The mate has orders not to allow any heavily pregnant women to take passage on the James Macintyre. If they give birth on the voyage the brat invariably dies. That not only brings bad luck, but it casts a pall of gloom on passengers‘ and crew for the remainder of the voyage. I’d as soon cast mother and baby over the side before it’s born. If there’s a woman giving birth I want her off my ship . . . now! You come with me, mister . . . and bring some of your constables with you. You’re paid to deal with trouble . . . my duty is to get this ship to Australia without it. You can take the woman and her brat ashore with you.’

  A canvas-hooded hatchway sheltered a makeshift companionway leading down to the women’s quarters in the ship’s forward hold and here a small crowd of women blocked the path of the captain, Amos and the policemen.

  ‘Get out of the way!’ The captain commanded, ‘Your quarters need to be searched.’

  ‘It’s no place for any man down there.’ said a woman in an accent that Amos immediately recognized as originating from the East End of London. ‘Someone’s giving birth and it ain’t a pretty sight.’

  ‘Then she can take her unpretty sight somewhere else.’ declared the captain, ‘She’s not having it on board my ship - and if you don’t get out my way you’ll go ashore with her.’

  The women were in no doubt that the ship’s captain meant what he said and, albeit reluctantly, complied with his order.

  It was gloomy in the hold, but light from the sheltered hatchway was sufficient for Amos to see the rows of tiered beds filling the space, allowing only a narrow walkway between them.